About Realistic Acceleration

[Villem]

Would it be possible to implement a bit switch, that turns on a penalty for trains when running on tracks that are on snowtiles, i.e they would accelerate more slowly on hills?

[hertogjan]

It is possible by reducing the TE (tractive effort) ratios of the train engines. That is, the amount of force exerted on the rails can be reduced by an equal percentage for all train engines. You need to be careful, however, that you don't reduce the TE ratio too much; otherwise, your trains will get stuck on hills.

[Villem]

I mean on snowy hills only, not every single hill...
Not to mention im not gona go touch peoples grf's just to be able to simulate a situtation where the rails are a little slippery and the train has harder time to accelerate..

[hertogjan]

Yes, I understood that. For each tile, you can determine how high it is, and this whether it is a snowy tile or not. If it is a snow tile, then reduce the maximum traction/brake force.

[Patchman]

Sure it could be done. But are the extra calculations worth it? The code would have to check the current tile for every powered vehicle every engine tick. But how much difference will it make in the end?

[michael blunck]

Not that much, IMO.

If at all, it would be more worthwhile to check for neighbouring tree tiles to simulate those typical DB problems in autumn.

regards
Michael

[Villem]

As i said, it would be a switch(if just possible), so people who want it could use it..
a heavy 5300 ton ore train going up a snowy hill at 5km/h is A LOT slower than 40km/h, so its going to make a dent in the profit, thats the diffrence it makes.

This would also encourage the use of multiple engines on heavy freight trains in snowy mountains.

[SuperTycoon]

I agree, anything for the sake of realism, and at the end of the day its only a switch, people can turn it off if they want

[Patchman]

Well, as with any switch, you need to make me (or another developer) want to implement it.

So far I'm not too impressed...

(And, if it's a switch, that switch will then have to be checked by every powered vehicle on every engine tick. So it'll still slow down the game even if it's off.)

[Villem]

Okay lets assume theres a circumstance like this:

Player has a coal mine right at the root of a mountain, while the power station is right ontop of the mountain. The Player has a train with 5300 tonnes of coal being pulled by only 2 engines, he can haul all that coal and make 150,000$ per run.

Now, if this would be to implemented the train would need lets say 4 engines to pull, and now it would only make 75,000$ profit.

So instead of going almost in a straight line up the mountain, the player has to zig-zag up it to make himself to be able to pull it with only 2 engines without the train slowing to a crawl. Or to go straight up the mountain and have to pull the train with 4 engines, making less profit, while the one that zig-zags, makes more profit.

[Prof. Frink]

It's pretty much like that now with freighttrains 5.

[Villem]

Except it applies for all hills, not just the snowy ones.
and i dont want 5 times more heavier freight train on flat land either.