Station ratings! How they work, a partial table!

[Steven Lalewicz]

Hi everybody,

I'm sure you remember my post asking about station ratings. I had
problems getting really high ratings. Sometimes I'd managed 80 for a
short time then things would sink below 70. I tried lots of things, add
a second train, repeatedly buy new engines (there is a reason why this
does not work, see below), add lorry stations and anything else which
came to mind.

Well I had some inspiration. I used the scenario editor to create a
large area of flat land, add a row of towns, power stations and coal
mines, then played my scenario and was determined to figure out if there
is a magic formula behind the station ratings.

One useful technique I discovered for drawing up the table below was to
run two trains from a coal mine to a station. One old one and one new
one (on full load). One can visibly see the station ratings do weird
things when the two trains enter and leave the station. For example,
when the old train pulled into the station, the ratings would actually
drop, you would think more trains would mean higher ratings.

I've done quite a bit of web surfing round lots of TT sites and I've not
seen explicitly what I've thrown together (inspired by hints I've read
however).

We know station ratings depend on age of train. This is so true. Here is
a partial table I was able to draw up after about 20 years of game play
for the temperate climate.

Numbers are max station rating when train sitting at full load (when
only train in station or multiple trains of same age).

year
Train 1st 2nd 3rd xth
Kirby Steam 67
Chancy Steam 69
Ginzu Steam 84 78 74 71
SN '8P' Steam 85 80 72
UU '37' Diesel 85 72
Floss Diesel 87 82 78 74
SN '30' Electic 87 82 78 74

Things to note.

Trains with higher design year achieve higher ratings. I always used to
buy trains based on the reliability. If you need higher ratings for a
station, concider buying the highest design date train (should have
added this to the table, next revision perhaps), numbers not effected
by train reliablity (profits might be though).

The max rating goes down for all trains on 1st Jan, even if you bought
your engine in Dec! You can watch the station ratings go down to the
next level while trains are sitting in the station loading, come new
year.

Age of carriages are important too. I used to think it was cool I never
needed to buy new carriages. If you buy a new engine and keep the old
carriages the max rating will be as of > 3 years. Replace the carriages
and watch these ratings increase. I discovered this when I replaced a
steam engine with a brand new diesel engine and nothing happened to the
max ratings. I think this is the number one reason for all my station
rating problems.

A train with a lower max rating will bring down the station rating even
when another train with a higher one is in the station. The rating
either averages out or goes down to the level for the lower train. This
too explains a lot of weirdness I see, when I add a new train to a line
and does nothing.

Now I've been able (in my scenario, yet to try it in real life),
consistently get 80+ for several years, and know how to get it again if
I need to.

I tried planting trees too, but could not see any visible effect to the
ratings.

If the mine produces more coal than the trains can take away, then the
station ratings fall. They fall too if the station is left empty too
long (but you all knew that one anyway).

I've not tried to see if a similar pattern exists for other
vehicles/planes or ships, but I assume one probably does exist.

I'm feeling inspired enough to go away and complete this table for all
trains (and other climates too). Will people be interested in a complete
table (I have as yet an unused web site, I may place the table
there).

Regards,
Steve.


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Josef Drexler <jdrex...@julian.uwo.canada> a écrit dans le message :
MPG.12728afb33ea58d7989...@news1.on.sympatico.ca...

In article <7uaagk$ha...@nnrp1.deja.com>, Steven Lalewicz says...

[snip]
I could probably find out the actual formula how the station ratings are
calculated, as far as I can tell it depends on only three things:
- Engine speed
- Age of last carriage
- Frequency of visits

--
Josef Drexler | http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/

I noticed that the minimum rating is 15% (when there is no service at all).
Lower ratings may only be caused by vehicule crash.
Can someone confirm this?

--
Rémi Denis-Courmont
(reply adress is...
well you should know what

[Steven Lalewicz]

Josef Drexler wrote:

In article <7uaagk$ha...@nnrp1.deja.com>, Steven Lalewicz says...

[snip]
                        year
Train           1st 2nd 3rd xth
Kirby   Steam                67
Chancy  Steam                69
Ginzu   Steam    84  78  74  71
SN '8P' Steam    85  80      72
UU '37' Diesel   85          72
Floss   Diesel   87  82  78  74
SN '30' Electic  87  82  78  74

Things to note.

Trains with higher design year achieve higher ratings.

Just a few notes from what I know looking at the program code.

It is not actually the design year, but the maximum speed that counts.
And anything above 255 mph doesn't give a bonus anymore, so that Maglevs
don't help much in this respect.
 

Hi Josef,

Looking at the code, well that does give you a distinct advantage over my
experiments.

Well thanks. While doing more experiments last night I noticed a hic cup in my
table

Manley-Morel DMU (D) 1956 82 77 73 69

which is the same as for

Chaney Jubilee   (S)          1934 82 77 73 69  (70mph).

Which threw a wobbly for my year design theory.

I'll check the speed of the Manley-Morel, tonight but I guess then it probably
70mph!

I'd only just reached Magvel

X2001 (E) 96 91 87 83  (mono rail)
LEV1  (E) 96 91  ?? ??  (mag lev)    Not discovered by checking it out, but I
guess ?? ?? = 87 83

so I was wondering how the rest of the trains could be different.

 
The max rating goes down for all trains on 1st Jan, even if you bought
your engine in Dec! You can watch the station ratings go down to the
next level while trains are sitting in the station loading, come new
year.

This part is caused by the age of the last carriage for every type of
cargo.  It takes the current year minus the "year built" to determine the
rating, so this of course changes when the year changes.  This
degradation does not depend on the engine.

You just have to buy a new last carriage (one for every type of cargo) to
get this back to max.
 

Wow! Thanks, can't see how I would have ever discovered that. I guess I did
notice an effect on the age of the carriages when I bought a new engine and
the ratings did not change. I never thought of keeping the old engine and
seeing what would happen if I just bought new carriages, cause I assumed the
'year built' was for the engine.

 
I'm feeling inspired enough to go away and complete this table for all
trains (and other climates too). Will people be interested in a complete
table (I have as yet an unused web site, I may place the table
there).

I could probably find out the actual formula how the station ratings are
calculated, as far as I can tell it depends on only three things:
- Engine speed
- Age of last carriage
- Frequency of visits

My table is only for max ratings. I noticed if a trains sits in the station
for ages and ages because the produce is low, the ratings don't fall. They
only start falling when cargo is produced faster than the train takes it away.
So obviously to maintain a high rating, frequent visits are needed. I noticed
the ratings go up or down 1 point for every 2-4 days.

Regards,
Steve.

 
--
   Josef Drexler                 |    http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/
---------------------------------+---------------------------------------
 Please help Conserve Gravity    | To email me, please change the country
 Boycott multistory buildings.   | code to .ca - Death to Spammers!

 
 

[Steven Lalewicz]

Anthony Houghton wrote:

Steven Lalewicz <s...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:7uaagk$ha0$1@nnrp1.deja.com...

sniped throughout

We know station ratings depend on age of train. This is so true.
Here is
a partial table I was able to draw up after about 20 years of game
play
for the temperate climate.

Numbers are max station rating when train sitting at full load (when
only train in station or multiple trains of same age).

                        year
Train           1st 2nd 3rd xth
Kirby   Steam                67
Chancy  Steam                69
Ginzu   Steam    84  78  74  71
SN '8P' Steam    85  80      72
UU '37' Diesel   85          72
Floss   Diesel   87  82  78  74
SN '30' Electic  87  82  78  74

I'm not totally convinced by this. As time goes on, so the amount of
cargo and passengers to be transported increases, on the whole.
Therefore, in order to transport the same proportion of the cargo or
passangers from a given station you either need longer of faster
trains.
 

Hi Ant,

This is a table of max ratings (the theoretical highest one can achieve).

You are right, as time goes on, it gets harder to transport goods away at
the same speed they are produced and ratings drop. I have one oil field at
the moment with mono rail trains, 5 carriages long each transporting loads
of stuff (making an absolute load of money), the oil field is producing
about 43,000 worth of oil and I can't get it out fast enough and my
station ratings are pretty low.

 
Over time, you have to upgrade the technology just to stand still (as
anybody who owns a computer knows only too well). I am not convinced
that upgrading the technology, as such, improves your ratings, it's
just the greater efficiency with which you can remove things from your
station that counts.


Age of carriages are important too.

Interesting obsevation, if and when I get back to playing TT, I'll
take a look at that.
 

Josef has something more to say on that (see his post in the thread).

 

I tried planting trees too, but could not see any visible effect to
the
ratings.

No, it only affects your standing with the town councils, not the
station ratings AFAIA
 

Thanks, wonder why I keep reading to plant trees near stations!

 
I've not tried to see if a similar pattern exists for other
vehicles/planes or ships, but I assume one probably does exist.

Yes, I think they are all the same
--
Ant

Regards,
Steve.

[Ankit Desai]

When you crash, the ratings goes to 0% but immediately begins to rise
but I don't know up to what level if there is no service. I will try
it and let you all know.

- Ankit

On Sun, 17 Oct 1999 12:35:15 +0200, "Rémi Denis-Courmont"
<rde...@pop.to-be-cleared.multimania.com> wrote:

Josef Drexler <jdrex...@julian.uwo.canada> a écrit dans le message :
MPG.12728afb33ea58d7989...@news1.on.sympatico.ca...
In article <7uaagk$ha...@nnrp1.deja.com>, Steven Lalewicz says...

[snip]
I could probably find out the actual formula how the station ratings are
calculated, as far as I can tell it depends on only three things:
- Engine speed
- Age of last carriage
- Frequency of visits

--
Josef Drexler | http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/

I noticed that the minimum rating is 15% (when there is no service at all).
Lower ratings may only be caused by vehicule crash.
Can someone confirm this?

[Steven Lalewicz]

Steven Lalewicz wrote:

Hi everybody,
 

Hurrah, I've discovered one of my IP carries this NG after all. I have a
feeling it may miss some posts, but looks like Deja.com is missing even
more!!!!!!

<snip>

 

Numbers are max station rating when train sitting at full load (when
only train in station or multiple trains of same age).

                       year
Train           1st 2nd 3rd xth
Kirby   Steam                67
Chancy  Steam                69
Ginzu   Steam    84  78  74  71
SN '8P' Steam    85  80      72
UU '37' Diesel   85          72
Floss   Diesel   87  82  78  74
SN '30' Electic  87  82  78  74
 

I've filled in a few more blanks, I'll publish a complete table at some
point. Will need to modify to take into account some of the things I've
learnt in this thread thanks to others.

The entire reason why I'm so interested in this is so I can complete against
the AI effectively. By accident I let a competitor into my simple scenario
(when I loaded my scenario fresh, it picked up the custom settings I'd done
for something else ). So I started to see if this table was true for the
AI too and discover if it cheats or not. Well I could not believe
it...........

This is for us for the first four trains:

                Max Station Ratings

        Train        Year Designed 1st 2nd 3rd nth
 Kirby Paul Tank     1933          80  74  71  67
 Chaney Jubilee      1934          82  77  73  69
 Ginzu 'A4'          1935          84  78  74  71
 SH '8P'             1955          85  80  76  72

It is pretty hard to see what the max ratings are for the AI cause their
routes are pretty lousy, don't do mandatory servicing so more often than not
there is just loads of cargo in the station and the train is never really
there long enough to see how high it can go.

So this is it so far....

               Max Station Ratings (for competitor)

        Train        Year Designed 1st 2nd 3rd nth
 Kirby Paul Tank     1933          ?   ?   ?   ?
 Chaney Jubilee      1934          97  ?   ?   81
 Ginzu 'A4'          1935          ?   ?   ?   83
 SH '8P'             1955          ?   88  ?   84

Well one can instantly see, how the AI manages to beat us at the ratings
war.

It seems to follow some of the observations I made earlier like an older
train will bring down the ratings of the station in the presence of a newer
train.

Regards,
Steve.

[Steven Lalewicz]

Christie Lewis wrote:

snip

I think this research is excellent. Keep it up.
 

Thanks. I know in some respect I'm going over old ground. Like we all
know stations need frequent services to keep ratings up, if the cargo is
produced faster than trains take it away, then they go down and so on.

However I like formulas (or in this case tables) to see how things work
exactly. So I hope I'm presenting something new and interesting for
discussion.

Regards,
Steve.

 
--

/--< Signature >--------------------------------------------\
| Sender : Christie Lewis                                   |
| ICQ : 52536504                                            |
\--------------------------------------------------< EOF >--/

 
 

[Christie Lewis]

I think your mailer is stuck in HTML mode...
And it might be contagios too!

--

/--< Signature >--------------------------------------------\
| Sender : Christie Lewis |
| ICQ : 52536504 |
\--------------------------------------------------< EOF >--/

Steven Lalewicz <s...@mfltd.co.uk> wrote in message
news:380C43A4.2BB66BDA@mfltd.co.uk...

Josef Drexler wrote:

In article <7uaagk$ha...@nnrp1.deja.com>, Steven Lalewicz says...

[snip]
year
Train 1st 2nd 3rd xth
Kirby Steam 67
Chancy Steam 69
Ginzu Steam 84 78 74 71
SN '8P' Steam 85 80 72
UU '37' Diesel 85 72
Floss Diesel 87 82 78 74
SN '30' Electic 87 82 78 74

Things to note.

Trains with higher design year achieve higher ratings.

Just a few notes from what I know looking at the program code.

It is not actually the design year, but the maximum speed that counts.
And anything above 255 mph doesn't give a bonus anymore, so that Maglevs
don't help much in this respect.


Hi Josef,

Looking at the code, well that does give you a distinct advantage over my
experiments.

Well thanks. While doing more experiments last night I noticed a hic cup
in my
table

Manley-Morel DMU (D) 1956 82 77 73 69

which is the same as for

Chaney Jubilee (S) 1934 82 77 73 69 (70mph).

Which threw a wobbly for my year design theory.

I'll check the speed of the Manley-Morel, tonight but I guess then it
probably
70mph!

I'd only just reached Magvel

X2001 (E) 96 91 87 83 (mono rail)
LEV1 (E) 96 91 ?? ?? (mag lev) Not discovered by checking it out, but I
guess ?? ?? = 87 83

so I was wondering how the rest of the trains could be different.


The max rating goes down for all trains on 1st Jan, even if you bought
your engine in Dec! You can watch the station ratings go down to the
next level while trains are sitting in the station loading, come new
year.

This part is caused by the age of the last carriage for every type of
cargo. It takes the current year minus the "year built" to determine the
rating, so this of course changes when the year changes. This
degradation does not depend on the engine.

You just have to buy a new last carriage (one for every type of cargo)
to
get this back to max.


Wow! Thanks, can't see how I would have ever discovered that. I guess I
did
notice an effect on the age of the carriages when I bought a new engine
and
the ratings did not change. I never thought of keeping the old engine and
seeing what would happen if I just bought new carriages, cause I assumed
the
'year built' was for the engine.


I'm feeling inspired enough to go away and complete this table for all
trains (and other climates too). Will people be interested in a
complete
table (I have as yet an unused web site, I may place the table
there).

I could probably find out the actual formula how the station ratings are
calculated, as far as I can tell it depends on only three things:
- Engine speed
- Age of last carriage
- Frequency of visits

My table is only for max ratings. I noticed if a trains sits in the
station
for ages and ages because the produce is low, the ratings don't fall. They
only start falling when cargo is produced faster than the train takes it
away.
So obviously to maintain a high rating, frequent visits are needed. I
noticed
the ratings go up or down 1 point for every 2-4 days.

Regards,
Steve.


--
Josef Drexler | http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/

---------------------------------+---------------------------------------
Please help Conserve Gravity | To email me, please change the country
Boycott multistory buildings. | code to .ca - Death to Spammers!

[Edward Bernard]

Christie Lewis <christiele...@worldmailer.com> wrote in message
news:7uii41$2mi$6@news4.svr.pol.co.uk...

I think your mailer is stuck in HTML mode...
And it might be contagios too!

I don't think it is. In the options of OE, you can set your mail font. Most
leave it as the norm to avoid flaming, but others change it. Maybe they want
to be flamed. But if you look carefully, when you reply to his message, you
post doesn't have the source, preview, and edit buttons along the bottom, so
it's not in HTML.

Eddie

[Steven Lalewicz]

Christie Lewis wrote in message <7uii41$2m...@news4.svr.pol.co.uk>...

I think your mailer is stuck in HTML mode...
And it might be contagios too!

Hi Christie (and all),

My appologize. I explicitly turned of the posting in html cause I know that
is a bad move. What I think has happened instead is my news reader has set

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=x-user-defined , when your news reader
sees
charset-x-user-defined it picks a different font.

I'll fiddle with the options and see if I can cure it. (I think it started
to do that when I tried to change the font to a non-proportional one).

Regards,
Steve.

[Ellis Feaster]

Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote in message <7ufht9$u3...@news5.isdnet.net>...

I noticed that the minimum rating is 15% (when there is no service at all).
Lower ratings may only be caused by vehicule crash.
Can someone confirm this?

--

I have seen a rating as low as and "Appauling" 9, but that was on a severly
underserved station.


Ellis B

[Stephen Down]

"Rémi Denis-Courmont" wrote:

I noticed that the minimum rating is 15% (when there is no service at
all). Lower ratings may only be caused by vehicle crash. Can someone
confirm this?

Generally I've found that freight will drop to 11% but passengers and
mail will stop at 19% with no service. Although occasionally it does go
down below 10% even without a crash.


--
email address spam-trapped:
see if yooo can spot it

[Boudewijn Dijkstra]

Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote in message <7ufht9$u3...@news5.isdnet.net>...
I noticed that the minimum rating is 15% (when there is no service at
all).
Lower ratings may only be caused by vehicule crash.
Can someone confirm this?

When I want to connect two industries and I first place the stations, the
ratings would sometimes drop to 11% if I'm building real long.

[EnsCheckov]

Generally I've found that freight will drop to 11% but passengers and
mail will stop at 19% with no service. Although occasionally it does go
down below 10% even without a crash.

I got an airport/ railroad station to go to 0% after a plane crashed and I
hadn't loaded or unloaded anything there for awhile.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Ellis Feaster <!efeast...@ix.netcom.com> a écrit dans le message :
4hlR3.191$ss3.18...@typhoon.nyroc.rr.com...

Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote in message <7ufht9$u3...@news5.isdnet.net>...
I noticed that the minimum rating is 15% (when there is no service at
all).
Lower ratings may only be caused by vehicule crash.
Can someone confirm this?

--

I have seen a rating as low as and "Appauling" 9, but that was on a
severly
underserved station.

Perhaps, the lowest possible rate (when the station is not deserved at all)

depends on the goods type.
When a crash happen, the rate suddently drop, but sometimes, they seem to
stay over 0 percent.

--
Rémi Denis-Courmont
(remove nb from address)

Ellis B

[Pete Humble]

Quoth "Boudewijn Dijkstra" <newsgr...@bdijkstra.tmfweb.nl> in
alt.games.microprose.transport-tyc:

When I want to connect two industries and I first place the stations, the
ratings would sometimes drop to 11% if I'm building real long.

I always try and get a train into the collecting station as soon as

possible, even though the line and destination station haven't been built
yet.
--
___ __o Pete Humble, JRI Europe, Ltd
_ \<,_ Email: peet AT dircon DOT co DOT uk
(_)/ (_) Any resemblance between the views expressed here
============= and those of my employers is pure coincidence.

[Christie (Location 2)]

One for Josef here...

How do crashed vehicles fit into the equation?

Christie (L2)

[Patchman]

In article <7va3cn$f0...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk>, Christie (Location 2)
says...

One for Josef here...

How do crashed vehicles fit into the equation?

A crash sets all ratings in that area to zero, but then they'll slowly
recover to the value they had before the crash, at a rate of one percent
each (TTD) day or so.

--
Josef Drexler | http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/
---------------------------------+---------------------------------------
Please help Conserve Gravity | To email me, please change the country
Don't do push ups | code to .ca - Death to Spammers!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Pete Humble <spamf...@peet.at.dircon.dot.co.dot.uk> a écrit dans le message
: 38190c46.128779...@news.dircon.co.uk...

Quoth "Boudewijn Dijkstra" <newsgr...@bdijkstra.tmfweb.nl> in
alt.games.microprose.transport-tyc:


When I want to connect two industries and I first place the stations, the
ratings would sometimes drop to 11% if I'm building real long.

I always try and get a train into the collecting station as soon as
possible, even though the line and destination station haven't been built
yet.

This is not enough if you take a very long time to build your entire line,
that is to say if your train is full of cargo before your stations are
properly linked.

--
Rémi Denis-Courmont
(remove numbers from reply address)

--
___ __o Pete Humble, JRI Europe, Ltd
_ \<,_ Email: peet AT dircon DOT co DOT uk
(_)/ (_) Any resemblance between the views expressed here
============= and those of my employers is pure coincidence.

[Anthony Houghton]

Boudewijn Dijkstra <newsgr...@bdijkstra.tmfweb.nl> wrote in message
news:7v7uia$p8m$1@azure.nl.gxn.net...

When I want to connect two industries and I first place the
stations, the
ratings would sometimes drop to 11% if I'm building real long.

Yes I always try to leave building the station that is collecting the
cargo until after I've finished building the track. It's worth buying
the land (or cheaper, building some temporary track) to reserve the
spot were you want the station to be, then when you put a service on
it will get off to a flying start.
--
Ant