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Posted: 21 Nov 2006 01:03
by m4rek
we've determined the first part of the second question, not all of it

Posted: 21 Nov 2006 06:44
by aarona
Question 2: No
Why? Because it gives misleading information. The easiest thing to do would just have engine power, and *tractive effort*. The tractive effort gives you information about fuel consumption and how hilly your route is will then determine how much is actually used. (Which is why you might choose a more powerful engine for a hilly route, but has a lower top speed)

Side note: Perhaps average fuel consumption can be displayed on a vehicle by vehicle basis.

Physics Lesson
Here's a little bit of physics for ya regarding fuel...(could be a good lesson for anyone doing basic high school physics)

Energy = Integral (from start to finish) of F.dx
Now F . dx (vector product) can be separated into x and y components (x being x and z, y being height for this purpose)

F.dx = F_x * d_x + F_y * d_y

Now F = F_(tractive effort) - F_(friction) - F_(wind resistance)

F_friction = mu * m * g
mu = friction coefficient of track
m = mass of vehicle (kg)
g = grav constant (10 m/s/s for convienience)

But of course this isn't complete, we need to now separate it into x and y components.

F_x = sin(theta) * mu * m * g
F_y = cos(theta) * mu * m * g

theta = angle of ground, (zero degrees is flat)

But this is only for energy! For fuel...

Fuel = Energy / Efficiency

Now efficiency is going to depend on a number of factors, such as speed, and quality of the engine. (Also gears but that a bit too much)

I've left out wind resistance too...but that is proportional to v^3. (With mu constant, this is more important for high speed)

Posted: 21 Nov 2006 17:04
by m4rek
i believe a vehicle will have an average running cost per year, which is shown in the buy screen of the vehicle. this will be same for all vehicles of the same make and model.

once the vehicle starts running its route, that average is taken along with the actual running cost (actual runing cost changes depending on what the vehicle does and can change without notice) to give its own average running cost. this is now displayed in the vehicles own details window (this is unique to each vehicle in service). it is updated every year by adding each year passing to the averages calculation if ya know what i mean...

the details should also include factory standard average running cost, actual running cost so far this year and actual running cost last year

Posted: 22 Nov 2006 15:30
by Hyronymus
Question 1: The following default fuel types are used in Transport Empire
  • - solid fuels
    - liquid fuels
    - external power
Question 2: For the first stable release of Transport Empire there will be no average fuel indicator.


The new DD entry is:

Vehicles

Vehicles form a class that contains four types: rail vehicles, road vehicles, ships and aircraft. One or more models visually represent each type. The game knows how the type and model behave by checking the type and model properties shown in Appendix B - Vehicle type and vehicle model properties.

Powered vehicles require fuel to drive. There are a three fuel types in Transport Empire:
  • - solid fuel
    - liquid fuel
    - external power
Fuel prices vary during the game.

Topic locked.