A Newb question about RV Overtaking from an Oldie

[Chocolate-TPot]

Although I have been playing Openttd for many years now, I have recently started a game making use of the Multiple Newgrf Features. This was to improve gameplay with RV's. However I now find out that most of the NewGRF RV's are apparently classed as articulated vehicles. This is a bit of a problem, as apparently Articulated Road Vehicles are not able to overtake one and other causing traffic jams. This only came to light as I was wondering why my one way roads were next to pointless as they never improved traffic flow!
Is this a bug or a feature yet to be implemented? Or is there a work around that I have not found yet. Like I said I am not new to the gaMe, but I am anticipating it is classed as a newb question. In the past I always have managed to figure stuff out or find answers using search/Google. However nothing I have seen points to a solution or if one can anticipate a fix or even if it is not fixable, only answers like "Search is your friend", which is not always such a friendly answer
Obviously one of the reasons I moved onto playing TTDPatch then OpenTTD was to resolve frustrating niggles with the excellent original. However the problem I had then, seems to have still not been resolved, namely that OpenTTD is dominated by Railways, somewhat to the detriment of other transport solutions. Or am I alone in wishing to be able to a decent RV service to compliment my trains within cities and lower output industries?
Although any answers would be appreciated, I must give many thanks to all the volunteers that have put together this fantastic game, run the forums, the GRF coders, etc. You have all provided me countless hours of entertainment from my 20 quid or whatever it was all those years ago to buy the originals for Dos and then Windows

[ChillCore]

Hello Chocolate-TPot,

apparently Articulated Road Vehicles are not able to overtake one and other causing traffic jams. This only came to light as I was wondering why my one way roads were next to pointless as they never improved traffic flow!
Is this a bug or a feature yet to be implemented?

Articulated vehicles overtaking is a missing feature that was not implemented because of an unsolved bug.
IIRC it has been tested but the trailers were not following the cab.
I do not know if someone is working on implementing this or if it is even possible.

Vehicles using both lanes when on one-way roads is also not implemented ... they only use the second lane to overtake just like on two way roads.

Obviously one of the reasons I moved onto playing TTDPatch then OpenTTD was to resolve frustrating niggles with the excellent original. However the problem I had then, seems to have still not been resolved, namely that OpenTTD is dominated by Railways, somewhat to the detriment of other transport solutions. Or am I alone in wishing to be able to a decent RV service to compliment my trains within cities and lower output industries?

Most people focus on trains as there you have the signals and junctions to care about.
If you want the focus on RVs in your game then use more RVs and less trains. There is no correct way to play (read: OpenTTD is played in as many ways as there are players).


"Search is your friend" is about teaching the hungry man how to fish ...

[romazoon]

Or am I alone in wishing to be able to a decent RV service to compliment my trains within cities and lower output industries?

It s true at the present moment compared to railways the road stuff are not very flexible and in fact you pointed out allready what s really missing to the road transport : overtaking and the ability to use two differente lane going same direction, obviously diagonal could be added but if i understood well will surely never see the day.

But flexibility with the road transport is a matter of understanding how the pathfinding works, we are allready able to make differents loading bays and order trucks to specially choose one over the other., road side stop or terminus bus station, you can set a truck station as a roro train station, etc...
Also if by any chance your using Chill's patchpack, or simply cargodist, you will find a totally different approach how to handle the cargo and there intermodal service totally make sense (and profit)

[Lord Aro]

Hello Chocolate-TPot,

apparently Articulated Road Vehicles are not able to overtake one and other causing traffic jams. This only came to light as I was wondering why my one way roads were next to pointless as they never improved traffic flow!
Is this a bug or a feature yet to be implemented?

Articulated vehicles overtaking is a missing feature that was not implemented because of an unsolved bug.
IIRC it has been tested but the trailers were not following the cab.
I do not know if someone is working on implementing this or if it is even possible.

Vehicles using both lanes when on one-way roads is also not implemented ... they only use the second lane to overtake just like on two way roads.

i have had a look at this, however i could not find an easy solution - (simplified) either the cab gets separated, or the overtaking procedure looks really bad

[donchatryit]

That is strange. Is it to do with the code of OpenTTD vehicle handling itself or is it a newGRF error?

[Supercheese]

I believe the very popular Long Vehicles (v4) Newgrf features... well, long vehicles, obviously, but they are not articulated. While this does introduce graphical oddities (with build-on-slopes, tunnels, and whatnot), it also means that they should be able to overtake each other and such.

[Chocolate-TPot]

Thanks for the responses guys, and not shooting me down in a ball of flames

So to summarise (and help out those using search ), the issue is a core design bug/flaw that is not easily fixable with articulated RV's. As such one should be looking at implementing GRF's that are not articulated? Also maybe one should be looking more closely at creating discrete pathways, although personally I do like the idea of reusing my roads and tracks as much as possible (as happens in real life). Also I love being able to leave breakdowns on and that now (at last), it doesn't destroy my beautiful rail networks, but is merely an inconvenience. If I may be so bold, as the rejection of overtaking for articulated vehicles was one of beauty over function, surely a solution would be to just have it in as an option. Even if it has to be toggled in the console, it might be worth considering for V1.2. As ChillCore pointed out there are as many different ways to play as there are players.

Obviously if one had such an inclination, one could try to code oneself or even patch. However sadly I am not so inclined, and to be a little selfish, I am sure there are quite a few of us that would rather just play the game, warts and all. To reiterate the point, I am really very appreciative of the time spent on this project by everyone. As a thought, would it even be possible in future to create a system of plug-ins to modify game behaviour, beyond simple NewGRF's (even if early versions are ugly). It seems that most of the mechanisms are in place to provide such a structure. With the history, it feels rather befitting to the whole OpenTTD project if this were to happen.

After all I believe that this community is all about extending the choice and gaming experience of a product that is now more than 15 years old (which surely in computer terms is antique!).

Once again, thanks everyone for the game, the comments and the answers

[andythenorth]

What RV sets are you using?