Various thoughts (growing list, the post with a former long title)
Posted: 14 Oct 2018 15:49
Been playing with Pelya's Android port of JGR's patch version for the last couple of weeks and noted a few thoughts on the game.
Cargo without destination.
Can a check be made on "any station cargo" before loading (like cargo with destination) to avoid it loading onto a train with the same destination as it came from?
Seeing how cargo has a "from" label I think that should be possible and it'll avoid the train hauling first produced cargo back and forth until another train picks it up.
Cargo route including industries/cities.
One more thing I thought of that would also solve the request to split cargo at stations, extend the cargo route with the actual sender and recipient. Instead of from and to station it would be to and from industry/city. Accepts already exist on these objects so that wouldn't make a difference.
Time.
The wall clock and departure board are useful to have but since real time doesn't sync with the TTD clock it makes no sense looking at the times. Instead of real time, why not use time based on the ticks? Instead of 60 seconds, minutes, use 74 "TTD seconds and minutes" and make an option to set the number of "TTD hours" in a day?
For example, I run with a daylength factor of 125 and would divide the virtual 9250 ticks in one day into 25 "hours", with 74 "minutes" each lasting 5 ticks. The clock would run from 00:00 to 24:73 and things like dispatch and waiting time would line up with each day.
Alternative would be to reset the current clock at midnight and deal with a day lasting only 19 real hours for instance.
Speaking of daylength, at factor 125 a tile becomes roughly 18 km long according to a simple test of a train running a syraight line betwern two stations. Although I think this is much better, I'd like to see daylength stretched even more so as to get a tile size of 1 km or 500m. This would make country heightmaps way better.
I only read a bit on how a higher factor breaks save files and wonder in what way. It also made me think of approaching this issue from the other side, what if the global date and time variables were fed real time?
Apart from the game running real slow, would it still function as it is?
City area border.
One more I almost forgot, An option to zoning which displays the city area border. Sometimes an industry is named after one city but it's listed in the directory under another. It'll also make it easier to determine if and where an industry can be plunked down.
Wait time at waypoints.
The only way as far as I can tell now to park a train is use either a depot, station, or possibly a programmable signal.
I'd like to set waiting time at waypoints as well to have a big yard of trains because in a depot you can't see them, at a station they'll stand loading/unloading, and after a while at a signal they'll complain about not finding a path.
edit 1: added zoning suggestion.
edit 2: cargo sender/recipient.
edit 3: waypoint wait time.
Cargo without destination.
Can a check be made on "any station cargo" before loading (like cargo with destination) to avoid it loading onto a train with the same destination as it came from?
Seeing how cargo has a "from" label I think that should be possible and it'll avoid the train hauling first produced cargo back and forth until another train picks it up.
Cargo route including industries/cities.
One more thing I thought of that would also solve the request to split cargo at stations, extend the cargo route with the actual sender and recipient. Instead of from and to station it would be to and from industry/city. Accepts already exist on these objects so that wouldn't make a difference.
Time.
The wall clock and departure board are useful to have but since real time doesn't sync with the TTD clock it makes no sense looking at the times. Instead of real time, why not use time based on the ticks? Instead of 60 seconds, minutes, use 74 "TTD seconds and minutes" and make an option to set the number of "TTD hours" in a day?
For example, I run with a daylength factor of 125 and would divide the virtual 9250 ticks in one day into 25 "hours", with 74 "minutes" each lasting 5 ticks. The clock would run from 00:00 to 24:73 and things like dispatch and waiting time would line up with each day.
Alternative would be to reset the current clock at midnight and deal with a day lasting only 19 real hours for instance.
Speaking of daylength, at factor 125 a tile becomes roughly 18 km long according to a simple test of a train running a syraight line betwern two stations. Although I think this is much better, I'd like to see daylength stretched even more so as to get a tile size of 1 km or 500m. This would make country heightmaps way better.
I only read a bit on how a higher factor breaks save files and wonder in what way. It also made me think of approaching this issue from the other side, what if the global date and time variables were fed real time?
Apart from the game running real slow, would it still function as it is?
City area border.
One more I almost forgot, An option to zoning which displays the city area border. Sometimes an industry is named after one city but it's listed in the directory under another. It'll also make it easier to determine if and where an industry can be plunked down.
Wait time at waypoints.
The only way as far as I can tell now to park a train is use either a depot, station, or possibly a programmable signal.
I'd like to set waiting time at waypoints as well to have a big yard of trains because in a depot you can't see them, at a station they'll stand loading/unloading, and after a while at a signal they'll complain about not finding a path.
edit 1: added zoning suggestion.
edit 2: cargo sender/recipient.
edit 3: waypoint wait time.