Inefficiency with double truck stops

[MrDowntempo]

I hadn't played in a while, but with the new update and OptenTTD showing up on steam, I figured it'd be a great time to start a new map! I generated a map which luckily put a farm and factory very near each other, so I decided to start with a cheaper road network to build up some bank before beginning with trains (which I usually use). I built 2 truck stops and a straight line of road, and then added a couple of grain trucks. Everything is going great. Then I added a couple of livestock trailers, but when setting orders, I found out, that the larger truck I chose isn't compatible with regular truck stops and needs inline ones. Firstly, I think that should be made clear when you're buying them, but no big deal, I can tack on an inline truck stop to each of my existing truck stops and the new trucks won't complain. I cloned the new truck a few times and sent them off. But then I noticed something. The grain trucks that didn't need the inline truck stop, started using the inline truck stop instead of driving through towards the back where the regular truck stop is. And this held up the livestock trucks behind it. If the grain truck drove through, they could both be loading at once! I propose some logic be added to allow trucks that don't need to use the inline truck stop to drive through and use the smaller truck stop when available.

[Arnoud]

The original game ttd had only the terminus road stops, they were prone to jams and unsuitable for longer vehicles and so they were superseded by the drive through road stops in Opendttd.

The terminus stops are now only usefull in very rare situations, in allmost all cases it is better to build drive through stops only.
Your problem can be easily solved by building 2 stops not directly adjacent like in below screenshot.

[Michpi]

To me, your road layout looks completely wrong.
Your trucks must pass through the inline stop to get to the regular stop.
But why would they do that if they have already achieved their destination?
You can try to place regular stop before inline stop, beside the road.

But I strongly recommend that you use separate stops for different cargos.

Stops.jpg (44.73 KiB) Viewed 3124 times

[MrDowntempo]

To me, your road layout looks completely wrong.
Your trucks must pass through the inline stop to get to the regular stop.
But why would they do that if they have already achieved their destination?

To allow more than one truck to load at once.

You can try to place regular stop before inline stop, beside the road.

But I strongly recommend that you use separate stops for different cargos.
Stops.jpg

I didn't feel the need for multiple stop, I just wanted a simple one stop to one stop setup. But that's all irrelevant to the point of this post. I'm not asking for suggestions on how to play better or differently, I'm pointing out a way in which the game could work better, if a player combines an inline and terminus stop into one.

[MrDowntempo]

The original game ttd had only the terminus road stops, they were prone to jams and unsuitable for longer vehicles and so they were superseded by the drive through road stops in Opendttd.

I know, I started on Transport Tycoon even before deluxe. I guess that's why I tend to default to terminus stations, since inlines always felt like something added on later. But I also like the look of terminus stations at the end of a road better than a dead end road with an inline station on it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The terminus stops are now only usefull in very rare situations, in allmost all cases it is better to build drive through stops only.
Your problem can be easily solved by building 2 stops not directly adjacent like in below screenshot.

As long as terminus stations are in the game, I believe the game should handle them correctly. The 'solution' shouldn't be to just never use them.

[kamnet]

The game is handling them correctly. The road vehicle will always stop at the station tile that is closest and if it can fit. If you want those grain trucks to only go to the terminus station, then you need to make that station closer.

[Eddi]

I'm pointing out a way in which the game could work better

the thing is, it's almost impossible to make your station setup "work" that wouldn't break someone else's station setup

[odisseus]

The road vehicle will always stop at the station tile that is closest and if it can fit.

That's not entirely true. If there is a continuous row of through stations, the vehicle will stop at the farthest platform in the row that it can reach. This allows any vehicles that arrive later to take the closer platforms.

However, once the vehicle stops at a platform, it stays at the same platform until it has finished loading or unloading. This means that if you have a vehicle waiting for a full load in the middle of a through station, the platforms ahead of it won't be used by other vehicles. In the worst case, this can bring the entire station into deadlock.

Half of the station is inaccessible.

truck-through.png (35.97 KiB) Viewed 2937 times

This brings us to the important advantage of the bay stations. Each bay can be accessed independently of other bays, no matter which ones are taken. To achieve the best results, the bays should be placed at roughly the same distance from the station entrance.

The loading trucks don't block each other.

truck-bays.png (39.82 KiB) Viewed 2937 times

[Pyoro]

RVs just don't get as much love as trains in OTTD (or basically any other transport manager; at least to my knowledge). That can lead to some weird situations. As it currently is you can make it work but if it's the best that can be ...
It's telling to me though that for example Transport Fever doesn't have a better solution either.

The way I see it you'd need traffic lights that'd allow you to do manage traffic around stations as with trains (to keep jams from traffic intersections and such). Also things like vehicles using both lanes in one-way streets and other restrictions, maybe.

[LaChupacabra]

The way I see it you'd need traffic lights that'd allow you to do manage traffic around stations as with trains (to keep jams from traffic intersections and such). Also things like vehicles using both lanes in one-way streets and other restrictions, maybe.

Signaling would not improve anything, although it would certainly be interesting.

I was thinking, since pathfinder always sends a vehicle at the end of a long stop, maybe for short vehicles it could consider such a stop as the end?

It is not a problem for me, maybe I built something like that a few times, because it looks interesting, but I really expected the behavior where the vehicle stops in the bay at the end.