Station spread restriction.

[bigos]

I have an idea how to make stations longer (I like long trains) but forbid players to using this advantage to "cheat" and join few station on large area to take cargo from few industries. For now if you set maximum station spread to 12 or more. everyone is using this not with its purpose. I was thinking about adding second variable for spread station restrictions. So it will not be like now 12x12 but 12x4 or 12x6 or what ever player want. So player can set maximum long (how many tracks train station will have) and maximum wide ( how many platforms station will have). About other station (like airports) the maximum spread will be taken wide variable. Ports and bus stations will be restricted same as airports. So long station will only affect train station (as it should in my opinion).
I have looked in code and I think its doable (even by me) but will be nicer if someone more advanced in ottd code will help to make patch like this.
Waiting for your opinions (and support ). I'm curious what do you think about it?

[Gremnon]

I'm in two minds about it, myself.

On the plus, it's another layer of flexibility, you're not limited to a square.
On the down-side, it's another option that some users who just want the game to work, would probably overlook.

Between that kind of thinking, and the trunk updates, it's why I chose to leave my old town grids patch - it wasn't bad, and it allowed for all kinds of possibilities, but most people probably wouldn't use it much.

[bigos]

Of course not all players use everything in game. But better if game have few different options then none. I want to make such patch so I will be able to allow build long station on my server without aware that someone for example will use it to boost his cargo payment(and cheat...).

[DPWally]

That's a good idea. I've been playing on a server where it would be really nice to have longer trains, but larger stations with larger catchment area would be bad for the game.

So an alternate way of looking at this which might be easier to code, or might not, would be to separate station size limit and catchment area limit. Depending on how those limits are set, a player could add station tiles that do not extend the catchment area. There'd have to be a visible mark on those tiles to reduce odd effects (in the extreme case, a station that completely covers its catchment area).

(I keep typing "catchment", I hope that's a real word.)

[lawton27]

This is more of a quick fix, but if you want long trains without changing the station spread, would it be out of the question to build something like this, it works just like an ordinary long station would just with a smaller catchment area.

[bigos]

No its not working same... time to load that train will take ages.

[sootynz]

This would be a good idea especially in a multi-player game to limit the station spread of an airfield / very long train station combination that some players use to over come the effects of the town noise restriction by having a train station at right angles to the airfield going back into the middle of town.