Denver & Rio Grande train AI (A freight train AI)

[Dustin]

Your screenshot also shows 17 consumer didn't hook up it's depot with track. That happens from time to time and I have no idea what causes it.

It looks like {22}, when removing a producer route, it removes one tile too many near the consumer station.

Yes, but I was pretty sure my fix was good. I haven't caught it in the act of not making those tiles or removing them, so I can't say where the bug is.

[1009]

Your screenshot also shows 17 consumer didn't hook up it's depot with track. That happens from time to time and I have no idea what causes it.

It looks like {22}, when removing a producer route, it removes one tile too many near the consumer station.

Yes, but I was pretty sure my fix was good. I haven't caught it in the act of not making those tiles or removing them, so I can't say where the bug is.

Does the route include a tile on the station area too? That way it'll destroy it.

[Dustin]

Does the route include a tile on the station area too? That way it'll destroy it.

It has too or the route would fall one short. When the route is done being built and stored in memory route.RemoveList(stationTiles) is run. I tested that and it worked in all my tests.

Passing lanes may be at fault. But I don't think that is what happened here. Bottom line, I have a lot of hypothesis, but nothing definite.

[1009]

Does the route include a tile on the station area too? That way it'll destroy it.

It has too or the route would fall one short. When the route is done being built and stored in memory route.RemoveList(stationTiles) is run. I tested that and it worked in all my tests.

Passing lanes may be at fault. But I don't think that is what happened here. Bottom line, I have a lot of hypothesis, but nothing definite.

Solution: equip the station with four crossings on every side. That's all it'll ever need, right? Want me to show you a sample or?

[Dustin]

Does the route include a tile on the station area too? That way it'll destroy it.

It has too or the route would fall one short. When the route is done being built and stored in memory route.RemoveList(stationTiles) is run. I tested that and it worked in all my tests.

Passing lanes may be at fault. But I don't think that is what happened here. Bottom line, I have a lot of hypothesis, but nothing definite.

Solution: equip the station with four crossings on every side. That's all it'll ever need, right? Want me to show you a sample or?

Yeah, and example would be nice. I am considering moving the depots away from the stations and making the stations back into RORO.

[1009]

Stations like these.

DandRG_station_suggestion.png (47.52 KiB) Viewed 6845 times

Roro would be cool, but I think you should consider placing depots at producer stations and leaving the consumers as they are now instead -- disadvantage of Roro is that it only has one entrance. Unless you'd make something like...

DandRG_roro_suggestion.png (57.53 KiB) Viewed 6846 times

[Brumi]

In another thread you mentioned that with super fiscal restraint D&RG tries to build a new route if it has 100% of the maximal loan available. Today I checked what happens if set set the maximal loan to 100k and start your AI with the maximal fiscal restraint. Building the HQ takes away a little amount of money, so that 100% is not available from the start. I was glad to see that even under these circumstances your AI tried to build something. Then I ran into another bug:

{031}
Here the AI thought that the consumer station already exists, but it had not been built because it didn't have enough money.

money issue.png (129.65 KiB) Viewed 827 times

There is another issue in the picture, the AI spends quite a lot on terraforming during pathfinding. With such a tight budget it will eventually go bankrupt.

[Dustin]

In another thread you mentioned that with super fiscal restraint D&RG tries to build a new route if it has 100% of the maximal loan available. Today I checked what happens if set set the maximal loan to 100k and start your AI with the maximal fiscal restraint. Building the HQ takes away a little amount of money, so that 100% is not available from the start. I was glad to see that even under these circumstances your AI tried to build something. Then I ran into another bug:

{031}
Here the AI thought that the consumer station already exists, but it had not been built because it didn't have enough money.

money issue.png

There is another issue in the picture, the AI spends quite a lot on terraforming during pathfinding. With such a tight budget it will eventually go bankrupt.

Interesting. It should probably stop thinking of unbuilt stations as existing.

Would you believe the "terraform and go bankrupt" is actually a feature/AI cheat? In a way it is because it will flatten some spots around some stations, go bankrupt and start over with the initial loan and some primo places to put stations. So subsequent AI's are less likely to go bankrupt.

[Dustin]

D4 seems pretty stable and I haven't gotten any new crash reports for a while. I was going to upload to Bananas today, but i get a very generic error when I try to upload from IE8.

Unhandled Exception
An unhandled exception was thrown by the application.

[SirkoZ]

Did you try with fireferret?

[Dustin]

Did you try with fireferret?

Nope, I didn't have time that day. I have 18 weeks of work assigned to me at work and 11 weeks to deliver. So I am a little busy these days.

[SirkoZ]

Oh my. Well - I was just saying because The Exploder is still totally incompatible with widely accepted standards (according to acid3 tests) hence my suggestion.

[Dustin]

Oh my. Well - I was just saying because The Exploder is still totally incompatible with widely accepted standards (according to acid3 tests) hence my suggestion.

The server should still probably tell me something other than "unhandled exeption". The form on that page is pretty basic, I doubt anything in IE is causing it to barf. Probably something wrong with my .Tar file (made with 7zip).

[Zuu]

All tar-files I have made are made with 7zip.

As long as you include the directory and not just all the files it should be okay.

[Brumi]

Hi Dustin,
Let me give you another bug report, the kink remover is in trouble on rough terrain:

kink remover failed.png (104.62 KiB) Viewed 6146 times

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing your AI on Bananas.

[Dustin]

Hi Dustin,
Let me give you another bug report, the kink remover is in trouble on rough terrain:

kink remover failed.png

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing your AI on Bananas.

Nice.
Known issue. The dekinker only works on level tiles. I don't think I am going to get any work done on this AI until at least the new year. I will try again to get it on Bananas soon though.

Bananas worked today. I downloaded and started the AI. So V1 is shipped! Yay!

[fanioz]

Bananas worked today. I downloaded and started the AI. So V1 is shipped! Yay!

Well done dustin:D

[Menno]

I tried a game with Denver & Rio Grande v1 among other AI's.
It performed quite reasonable. However, many times the single-lane pieces clog up lines, causing trains turning around. It apparently tries to use the fastest engine available, however its crazy tracklaying makes it impossible for any train to achieve a speed higher than 120-150 km/h on any track. If you enhance the tracklaying its useful to buy the fasted engine, otherwise it might be smarter to buy the strongest or cheapest which can reach 150 km/h.
Difficulty settings were slightly easier than medium, startdate 1977, max initial loan 200,000 GBP.
See attached save game.
OpenTTD 0.7.3
NewGRFs: OpenGFX, better vehicles names, Av8 1.501 (I read it works well, probably better, with the North American set but as I had other AI's running I didn't want to risk problems because of strange newgrfs)

(I will post comparable posts in the other AI's topics)

[Dustin]

I tried a game with Denver & Rio Grande v1 among other AI's.
It performed quite reasonable. However, many times the single-lane pieces clog up lines, causing trains turning around. It apparently tries to use the fastest engine available, however its crazy tracklaying makes it impossible for any train to achieve a speed higher than 120-150 km/h on any track. If you enhance the tracklaying its useful to buy the fasted engine, otherwise it might be smarter to buy the strongest or cheapest which can reach 150 km/h.
Difficulty settings were slightly easier than medium, startdate 1977, max initial loan 200,000 GBP.
See attached save game.
OpenTTD 0.7.3
NewGRFs: OpenGFX, better vehicles names, Av8 1.501 (I read it works well, probably better, with the North American set but as I had other AI's running I didn't want to risk problems because of strange newgrfs)

(I will post comparable posts in the other AI's topics)

This is a very good report. Thank you very much for the feedback.

[Morloth]

Hi Dustin,

I was running a game with Denver & Rio Grande in it and I came across the following construction:

Station not connected

Hope you'll be able to fix it!