Repaintable Vehicles

[Raichase]

See, this is something I have been mulling over all the way through my current game.

Firstly, the thing that sets the DBXL Set out above any others currently out there, is the sheer massive volume of liveries one can use. It's just so prototypical, and expansive, that it's hard NOT to have a nice looking railyard full of rolling stock.

That said...

As each "period" goes through the game, I often wonder how to repaint my fleet. It's easy when I'm getting rid of a class of loco (eg replacing all remaining steam with diesel or electric), but it's very hard to repaint current stock.

An example, perhaps.

The DBXL set is tough. Lets not beat around the bush, those electrics are EXPENIVE. So, when I have a BR140, in the year 2000, in perfectly acceptable condition, with another 15 years left in it, I have two choices to bring it out of it's "bottle green" (I fear the correction of Michael if I got that wrong ) livery, I have to either replace it (simple matter for the BR140, but for some of the later engines, it's rather expensive to be doing this every 10-20 years), or just let it expire in 2010 still in bottle-green.

What would be nice, is to have an option to "repaint" the locomotive, without actually renewing it's lifespan. 'Cause, lets face it, when I'm looking at a network of all-red locomotives, I'm not going to remember that all those BR140's are needing to be replaced, especially not if the games big enough.

I'll be flat out honest, I don't know if it's something already possible (I know we can have liveries of engines/rolling stock changing automatically at dates, but thats horrible, to see everything repainted all at once, whilst on the move...), or if it would be easy to implement, I just thought I would throw it out there, in the hopes that a patch dev would read it and say "hey, Raichase makes a good point, I wouldn't mind seeing that", and throwing it in.

Certainly not a game-altering feature like some of the stuff we have had recently, but it's just an idea I had while playing my favorite set....

Thanks everyone for taking the time!

Rai

[michael blunck]

[manually repainting of liveries]

> As each "period" goes through the game, I often wonder how to repaint my fleet.

Hehe.

> when I have a BR140, in the year 2000, in perfectly acceptable condition, with another 15 years left in it, I have two choices to bring it out of it's "bottle green" (I fear the correction of Michael if I got that wrong )

Nono. That´s more than correct.

> livery, I have to either replace it (simple matter for the BR140, but for some of the later engines, it's rather expensive to be doing this every 10-20 years), or just let it expire in 2010 still in bottle-green.

Well, you know I´d assure you that it´d be totally realistic to have that engine in green even in 2006. The basic reason for livery handling in the DBXL reflects indeed that somewhat weird behaviour of the real life DB a company being notorious for their multi-coloured consists.

OTOH, many people are fed up with all "traffic red" in later years, so why don´t keep some engines in older liveries if they´re still in good shape?

> What would be nice, is to have an option to "repaint" the locomotive, without actually renewing it's lifespan. [...]

Yes. AFAIR, that has been discussed already. Unfortunately, I don´t see any patch feature which could be used for this purpose because engines without any freight capacity cannot be refitted (and thus manually livery changed).

> I know we can have liveries of engines/rolling stock changing automatically at dates, but thats horrible, to see everything repainted all at once, whilst on the move...[...]

I could make it in such a way that engines are repainted when they´re first serviced after a livery change had occured. But then it would be impossible to keep old liveries. And even if adjustable by an additional parameter you´d always have only one behaviour in game ...

> while playing my favorite set....

Hehe, there will be even more liveries in the next set.

regards
Michael

[Raichase]

[manually repainting of liveries]
> when I have a BR140, in the year 2000, in perfectly acceptable condition, with another 15 years left in it, I have two choices to bring it out of it's "bottle green" (I fear the correction of Michael if I got that wrong )

Nono. That´s more than correct.

Oh yes, of that I am sure. However, of my fleet of BR140's and 150's (some 20 odd locomotives), I would say 90% are still in bottle green, 9% are in Cream/Ocean Blue, and 1% are in Traffic Red. If that 1% at all.

> livery, I have to either replace it (simple matter for the BR140, but for some of the later engines, it's rather expensive to be doing this every 10-20 years), or just let it expire in 2010 still in bottle-green.

Well, you know I´d assure you that it´d be totally realistic to have that engine in green even in 2006. The basic reason for livery handling in the DBXL reflects indeed that somewhat weird behaviour of the real life DB a company being notorious for their multi-coloured consists.

Oh yes, don't worry about that. I just found a BR110 crawling around in Rhinegold livery still . Or how about the locomotive (BR144 iirc) hauling around a "pike" coach in the late 80's .

OTOH, many people are fed up with all "traffic red" in later years, so why don´t keep some engines in older liveries if they´re still in good shape?

Well, I quite like the bottle green, but this applies to all phases. As mentioned above, I have few to none in the cream/ocean blue livery either, as they were all only 10-20 years old when that phase passed through. I quite like that livery.

But then it would be impossible to keep old liveries. And even if adjustable by an additional parameter you´d always have only one behaviour in game ...

Yes, thats what worries me. I hate any and all automatic repainting of anything - I like my mixed consists, and I actually have little rules I use when replacing locomotives or rolling stock to ensure that my network remains as diverse as possible. I just send a BR111 out of storage in S-Bahn livery to enter inter-city service, as I just plain couldn't afford a new train. It's a good standin until I can buy that ICE-3 I'm hankering after. Meanwhile, I've got a whole fleet of BR140's and 150's and 110's nearing their use-by date.

Urgh, gunna be a tight couple of years ahead...

> while playing my favorite set....

Hehe, there will be even more liveries in the next set.

Looking forward to it .