Fuel Patch Proposal

[wallyweb]

Caveat: I'm not at all proficient at OpenTTD coding/patching. A developer would be required.
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Goal: Gameplay enhancement
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Fuel Requirement for vehicles (RVs, Trains; Ships; Airplanes)
Exceptions: Catenary powered vehicles (Trams and some trains)
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1. Vehicles already have a decaying reliability that should be reset with an occasional visit to a depot.
2. Add a fuel consumption property that reduces (decays?) over time/distance (tiles) traveled.
3. Fuel capacity property set via Action 0
4. Fuel type property set via Action 0
5. Fuel consumption rate property set via Action 0
6. Refueling available from depots or stations.
7. Stations are already able to store cargoes.
8. Gameplay: Player ensures sufficient inventories of appropriate fuel types at stations (can this be done with depots too?)
9. Player would have to schedule timely station/depot visits for refueling.
10. Empty fuel tank/battery sends vehicle to nearest station/depot.
11. Feature can be enabled via the Settings GUI.

Addendum: Existing vehicle sets would not be affected unless the set's maintainer does a revision.

[nihues]

That remains me RailRoad Tycoon, and if could do that will be awesome.
Catenary could be a requirement of at least one power station in use... and could be a counter for cars/wagons like BSPI to limit use based on the power station use. But that would be complicated I think. (and now I`m thinking of coal and oil use too.... and things get complicated )

Another thing I was thinking is a way to make maintenance a bit more useful and reduce the impact on a good railway. I was thinking of reducing the breakdown chance more (to something like 2-5 during train lifespan so it wont clog a big railway every now and then if it`s all fine...) IF there are maintenance at least every 6 month (or whatever defaults). IF no maintenance in that time, double the running cost (could even double every 6 months late) and get the breakdown chance to normal levels (higher like 1-3 every year) or even higher every 6 month late.

That way if there are good use of depots/maintenance = fine happy trains almost no breakdown, normal running costs
If a little bad use of depots/maintenance = some breakdown change and higher running costs overall
If no depots = lots of breakdowns and basically impossible to profit.

That of course as a new option and could be disabled if don`t want that way.

[odisseus]

That's a great idea, but it adds a whole new dimension to the game, which is both good and bad. It would probably require a lot of changes to the core of the game, and some players may actually dislike the increased complexity.

Anyway, your suggestion raises some questions about the game economy. These aren't impossible to solve, but the developers would have to make a decision about each one.

1. In order to stock the stations and depots with fuel, the player has to transport said fuel from the industries that produce it, but the supply vehicles need to be supplied with fuel as well. This presents a chicken and egg problem.
2. The number of vehicles a player can use at any given time will be limited by the amount of fuel he is able to procure from the producers. This isn't bad in itself, but this is a significant limitation that had to be pointed out. If a player doesn't keep up his station rating at the fuel producers, he might end up stranded with empty fuel stocks and no way to replenish them.
3. In the current game economy, the player's company does not own the cargo it transports. With the need to spend fuel, the player will have to purchase some of the cargo. How much should it cost and what factors should affect the price?
4. Can a player deliver fuel to stations and depots of another company? What if the owner of the depot doesn't want to receive fuel at that location or cannot pay for it?

[LaChupacabra]

It would probably require a lot of changes to the core of the game, and some players may actually dislike the increased complexity.

As an option, this additional fuel economy function would only have advantages. If someone didn't like it, they just wouldn't use it. This could also be a function implemented by NewGRF. For me, it would be an interesting alternative to breakdowns.

8. Gameplay: Player ensures sufficient inventories of appropriate fuel types at stations (can this be done with depots too?)

Supplying fuel to each station or depot would be very burdensome. I would see it a bit differently. It would also solve the chicken and egg problem. Three variants:

• Stations and workshops have certain fuel resources that renew themselves.
  • renewal of station resources causes increased maintenance costs
  • supplying stations by the player:
  • significantly reduces maintenance costs
  • protects stations against resource depletion

• Supplying the stations with fuel and the overhead contact line with electricity is global
  • Fuels:
    • supply of oil to the refinery supplies all stations and workshops
    • player doesn't have to deal with the distribution of fuels
    • state of resources is global - all stations draw from one reservoir
    • initial resource status is quite high and is being recovered (prevents deadlock)
    • the level of fuel resources can affect oil transportation rates and vehicle maintenance costs
    • resource status and consumption can be shown in a graph - the graph would also show the current values
  • Electricity:
    • supplying coal to power plants increases global electricity production
    • cities also consume electricity
    • the initial production of electricity is twice the demand
    • supply levels can affect coal transportation rates and vehicle maintenance costs
    • supply level and power consumption can also be shown in the graph

• A combination of both of the above solutions - if they seem too simple enough
  • Fuels:
    • supply of oil to the refinery supplies one tank common to all stations - the resource meter is common for all stations
    • player can obtain up to 50% of the fuel produced from the refinery and deliver it to any place
    • player can deliver fuel to a petrol station / fuel depot, which will additionally supply all stations and depots within a certain radius or assigned to the same city (additional resource meter); he will be paid for delivering fuel, but all companies will be able to benefit from it.
  • Electricity:
    • supplying coal to the power plant evenly supplies all cities and the entire network on the map
    • player can obtain up to 50% of the electricity produced from the power plant and deliver it to any place
    • player can supply electricity to the transformer station; there are two types of transformer stations: urban - provides electricity to the city, and industrial - provides electricity to the nearest company or the nearest depot, and therefore for the entire network of the player to whom the depot belongs.

10. Empty fuel tank/battery sends vehicle to nearest station/depot.

With the way pathfinder works now, this would be extremely irritating for trains. These would lose their way every now and then, or would enormously lengthen the way to the current destination. For this to work like you wrote, pathfinder need to be fix first.
Another solution could be to limit the speed and display information in the vehicle direction bar that the vehicle is running on reserve. Similarly, it could work for electric vehicles, where there would be information about the voltage drop in the network and the vehicle would have limited power (only when driving above 50% of the maximum speed, so that it doesn't get stuck during climbing uphill)

General note: Fuel consumption shouldn't be too high, otherwise stocking the stations will become the only goal in the game.