Summary of desired updates

[Ildefonse]

As far as I have read through the topics here in the last few days, these are some of the most wanted features/updates in Locomotion. If you have additions, feel free to list them. My goal is to collect all suggestions in this post.

If you want to DISCUSS additions, please make a new post and keep this thread clean.

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*) Stations should not begin collecting cargo/passengers until there is a service for that cargo running at that station. No need for your rating to drop when you are not even offering a particular service.
*) Vehicles on a closed route with more than 1 vehicle, should modify their speeds such that the distance between vehicles is optimal. This particularily holds for passenger services, where for example trams, sometimes tend to pile up and drive too close behind each other, making tram 1 take all the profit.
*) Trains should keep on waiting at red signals and not turn around ever, or the waiting time should be increased, perhaps according to a train's speed. This causes many delays now when slow train turn around.
*) When a vehicles orders are copied, they should also inherit whether or not the vehicle is local or express.
*) Houses in cities should not be automatically destructed per default when laying tracks/roads. Popup with confirmation may prevent accidental demolishing of buildings.
*) T-fork train tracks with double signals at both ends should also work properly with pre-signalling.
*) There should really be something to improve reliability of vehicles. A maintenance station where trains can pass *through* (so with an entrance and exit like regular stations) would be nice. Allow this maintenance station to be included into the orders. Perhaps with the option "after X amount of cycles, go to maintenance station". The train would have to wait there for a little while then while being maintained.
*) Make the initial reliability of vehicles visible when buying them
*) If the above is not possible, give us the ability to turn off breakdowns.
*) Give us the ability to "replace all" vehicles, or a one-click-button to replace a vehicle.
*) Re-use of unaffected wagons in the train crash instead of removing the whole train
*) Bridges other than stonebridge for sloped tracks
*) Construction of a long straight track (including vertical and horizontal) with "build this" button kept pushed, instead of repeating clicks. Also a shortcut key for "build this".
*) Manual control over signals for the people who like to use it. Sometimes signals still mess up. Giving a train or a signal specific orders related to the behaviour of other signals could fix this. I realize this could be a complex request.
*) Have some passengers remain seated instead of all get out at the next station. More realism, more fun too, I think.
*) We are missing an express passenger carriage for the 30's and 40's. Having 90mph locos a good twenty five years before any vehicle can be moved at greater than 60mph is odd in the extreme, and not in any way realistic.
*) The ability to perform hostile take overs for AI companies, and perhaps, in multiplayer mode even players. (To be optionally selectable at start of game).
*) Instead of only scenarios, make a true random map generator which is fully customizable like in the scenario editor and has no "goals", just sandbox mode till infinity.
*) More realistic turning and movement of aircraft. They tend to abruptly move left-right-left-right while they should only go straight.
*) A better underground view with the option to only show train tracks.
*) Some of us want the little track-side fences back in place
*) Multiplayer support for up to 4 or even 8 players? Plus more stable/faster multiplayer games.
*) One more zoom in level for high resolutions. Everything gets reallly small when playing at 1280x1024.
*) Make water flow in holes lower than the surrounding water level. These holes should obviously flood.
*) Give us the old bulldozer for tracks & roads back please.
*) Have some sort of hover query tool that tells you what a certain square will accept/produce. In TTDX you could just hover with a station, now you actually have to build track first.
*) Ease up on the shutting down of industries. I've had one ski resort close down after the bus with passengers I just made arrived for the first time. This is totally inadequate, especially early in the game when you invest a lot of money in routes.
*) Please bring back the way of building signals as it was in TTDX. So one click for two-way, then cycle through the options of one-way signalling. That's much easier as the fiddling with pixels to set up one-way signals now. And removing signals should be reworked as well.
*) It should not be possible to remove trees and buildings that are hidden just by right clicking.
*) It should be possible to remove specific pieces of track in complex junction where it's hard to clik in the right place, and even then you don't know what you clicked on cause the "next" piece is shown in the build window.
*) Sometimes when the train doesn't fill up the whole station and add one more wagon, it fills up the station nicely but it's actually one pixel too long so it blocks a signal that's right in front and blocks trains going in to the station. It's impossible to see if a train is going to use up he whole station or be too long. Transport Tycoon was better with this where one wagon was half a square.

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[spaceman-spiff]

Changing names of towns
Adding a delete button to stations
Planting of trees, allow more tiles at once or fill tile with 4 trees at once

[Herman]

Two additions:
1) I really really really miss the old bulldozer to clear railway tracks .

2) I also miss the possibillity to lay more track at once. Every piece of railway is a click. In TTDLX you could lay a whole track at once.

-Herman-

[Steve]

From reading that list, DO NOT CHANGE:

*) Stations should not begin collecting cargo/passengers until there is a service for that cargo running at that station
*) Vehicles on a loop route with more than 1 vehicle, should modify their speeds such that the distance between vehicles is optimal. This particularily holds for passenger services. (Mainly cos i have no idea what you mean)
*) Trains should keep on waiting at red signals and not turn around ever. This can cause many delays. - It should just be lengthened, Turning around can fix jams.
*) Houses in cities should not be automatically destructed per default when laying tracks/roads. Popup with confirmation may prevent accidental demolishing of buildings. - I actually like the one click action. Make it so it doesn't work when they are hidden instead.
*) Manual control over signals for the people who like to use it. - Eh?
*) Have some passengers remain seated instead of all get out at the next station. - Thats just hard to code. And may not be worth it.
*) The ability to perform hostile take overs for AI companies, and perhaps, in multiplayer mode even players. (To be optionally selectable at start of game). - I never really liked that feature anyway. I'm surpised everyone wants it. It is only used to change the other persons tracks.

[Kyaputen Harokku]

From reading that list, DO NOT CHANGE:

*) Have some passengers remain seated instead of all get out at the next station. - Thats just hard to code. And may not be worth it.

No, not actually hard. Just calculate how many passengers fit into your train. Then use a linked list for each train, in every list item is stored how many passengers and where they want to go. When stopping at the station, only the list item which has this station as a goal is removed from the list and so the number of passengers decreases.

That means:
- Train is capable of carrying 200 passengers
- Train stops at City 1
- At City 1, there are 40 passengers wanting to go to City 2 and 70 passengers for City 3.
- Instead of just storing how many passengers wait at City 1 to get into the train, make a list:
[Goal: City 2][Number: 40] <-> [Goal: City 3][Number: 70]
and attach it to the train. Calculate 40+70=110, so still 90 seats are free.
- Train goes to City 2
- Train stops
- the 40 passengers heading for City 2 get out: the appropriate list item is deleted. List now:
[Goal: City 3][Number: 70]
Free seats: 130
- Let's say, 50 passengers for City 3 get in and 80 for City 1
- update the list element with "City 3" as goal and insert a new element with "City 1" as goal. New list:
[Goal: City 3][Number: 120] <-> [Goal: City 1][Number: 80]
Free seats: 0
- Train goes to City 3
- Stop at City 3: Only unload the passengers for City 3
List:
[Goal: City 1][Number: 80]
Free seats: 120

and so on

This is not too hard to code (At least, it is not that hard in C/C++)

[Ildefonse]

Let me clarify some points Steve

*) Stations should not begin collecting cargo/passengers until there is a service for that cargo running at that station.

--> Why wouldnt you want this? It is nonsense to have your rating drop to 5% because you simply didnt have the time yet to build a train, or because you wanted to make a station to transport a particular cargo later.

*) Vehicles on a loop route with more than 1 vehicle, should modify their speeds such that the distance between vehicles is optimal. This particularily holds for passenger services.

--> I mean, this: Imagine a circular tram track through 3 cities. It would be a fairly long line, and say, we want to have 6 trams running on the track. What *always* happens in my games (and i mean always), is that no matter how nicely I start my trams to be a fixed amount of time behind another tram, they always tend to catch up with each other. This happens by breakdowns or by waiting for signals, I presume. So in the end, I have 1 tram with almost no trams for a long time *before* it, collecting all the passengers, and 2 or 3 trams *behind* it getting nothing and making losses

*) Trains should keep on waiting at red signals and not turn around ever. This can cause many delays. - It should just be lengthened, Turning around can fix jams.

--> Okay fair enough. It should be a function of the trains speed perhaps.

*) Houses in cities should not be automatically destructed per default when laying tracks/roads. Popup with confirmation may prevent accidental demolishing of buildings. - I actually like the one click action. Make it so it doesn't work when they are hidden instead.

--> Perhaps put in the option menu, make it a choice you can toggle.

*) Manual control over signals for the people who like to use it.

--> What i mean is, sometimes the signals still fail to work properly. If it is possible codewise, I would like to give trains specific orders for when or when not to pass particular signals, linked to other signals status. But this may be too complex.

*) Have some passengers remain seated instead of all get out at the next station.

--> What he said above

*) The ability to perform hostile take overs for AI companies, and perhaps, in multiplayer mode even players. (To be optionally selectable at start of game).

--> It would give you a nice feeling of winning, when you could finally buy over that last AI competitor. Or it would provide for interesting multiplayer experiences, with the option of being bought up hanging above your head.


Hope that clarifies.

[mlw_1550]

*) There should really be something to improve reliability of vehicles. A maintenance station where trains can pass *through* (so with an entrance and exit) would be nice.

I think that a maintenance station is not the most appropriate solution, just because the trains won't stop. I mean, it's impossible to do maintenance with the train running...

So, my two cents about this are:
Either bring back the depots, the easier workaround, or spend a monthly amount, according with the number of vehicles, to be spent on the maintenance. It would be nice if you could choose how much to spent, of course, the more money you spent on maintenance, the more reliable the vehicles would be.
What do you think about this?

[Crazy Squirrel]

2 more that are so simple it hurts:

1) Be able to see the reliability of vehicles before buying
2) Have some sort of hover query tool that tells you what a certain square will accept/produce - In TT you could just hover with a station, now you actually have to build track etc..

[Villem]

1)Reduce the inflation rate, its going to fast!
2)Add a option to remove inflation in scenario editor
3)Fix Locomotion shutting down Industries that are served Regurarly, on many occasions i served a forest and lumber mill or grape farm and the vinery, and suddenly the producing industry shuts down, even if its serviced. Only Industries that aren't serviced should shut down, just like in TTD.

[Steve]

Akala's 1 and 2: I like the inflation, i haven't noticed it's too fast though.
3) That should only apply to secondary industries. A coal mine could easily run out of coal when your servicing it. It's more likely when you are servicing A LOT anyway.

[Uwe]

Please bring back the way of building signals as it was in TTDX. So one click for two-way, then cycle through the options of one-way signalling. That's much easier as the fiddling with pixels to set up one-way signals now. And removing signals should be reworked as well.

Another thing about signalling: Since we already have three-aspect signalling with kind of a route-algorithm, this could be tweaked to allow more than one train per block, as long as their routes don't intersect. That would fix a lot of problems with delays at junctions where you don't have the space to build crossover-tracks.

[Lundis]

*) About this: "A better underground view with the option to only show train tracks."
It should not be possible to remove trees and buildings that are hidden just by right clicking.

*) It should be possible to remove specific pieces of track in complex junction where it's hard to clik in the right place, and even then you don't know what you clicked on cause the "next" piece is shown in the build window.

*) Sometimes when the train doesn't fill up the whole station and add one more wagon, it fills up the station nicely but it's actually one pixel too long so it blocks a signal that's right in front and blocks trains going in to the station. It's impossible to see if a train is going to use up he whole station or be too long. Transport Tycoon was better with this where one wagon was half a square.

*) We want the next track and previous track buttons back from Roller Coaster Tycoon.

Edit: This one is a big COOL one.
*) In RCT you could download and lay down pre-built coasters, it would be nice with something similar in locomotion. Downloading and laying down advanced stations and junctions saving you lots of time. Or even 20 squares of double track with signals. Make your own or download from the pro's.
I actually expected this to be included since it was using the RT game engine.

[Ildefonse]

Ive added most of the above suggestions to the main list.

[Villem]

Akala's 1 and 2: I like the inflation, i haven't noticed it's too fast though.
3) That should only apply to secondary industries. A coal mine could easily run out of coal when your servicing it. It's more likely when you are servicing A LOT anyway.

You can run out of coal and iron, but not out of wood or grapes for example, or grain or livestock for that matter. I seen Coal, Oil, Iron Mines/Wells get closed A LOT less even if their not serviced than grape farms or farms that are serviced getting closed, heck even secondary industries close A LOT less than the producing industries from what i seen.

[Steve]

Perhaps the soil has gone bad, or the weather made a bad yield and they ran out of money. Primary industrys can be unpredictable.

[anticasper]

I recently was trying to select train track underground but wasn't able to because there was an industry above me and so I got the industry list all the time.

I finaly got it by building track towards the point where I wanted to select the track.

[DJ-Mike]

I would really appreciate being able to tell which way a tram is going to go before you place it, or perhaps before you hit the "Go" flag - once it starts moving the wrong way it becomes annoying waiting for it to slow down to a stop so you can change it round again.

DJM.

[maartena]

You can run out of coal and iron, but not out of wood or grapes for example, or grain or livestock for that matter. I seen Coal, Oil, Iron Mines/Wells get closed A LOT less even if their not serviced than grape farms or farms that are serviced getting closed, heck even secondary industries close A LOT less than the producing industries from what i seen.

Wildfires/forestfires and tree diseases could effectively shut down a managed forest and/or wineries for many years.

In Europe they have had Mad Cow disease, Chicken Diseases, Pig diseases, causing the slaughter of MANY animals, and that caused a large number of farms to go out of business completely because there was no demand for English Beef or Dutch Pork or Belgian Chicken.... We are talking 10 years later now, and the industry has still not recovered from that.

As far as coal goes, there has been no significant growth in the coal industry from the 1950 and on. The "coal crash" in the 80ties cause millions of miners world wide to lose their jobs. But in the real life there was a replacement energy source: Nuclear Power for powerplants, Natural Gas for both powerplants and heating in homes, and even for steel production - as where in the game of course there is not.

Whats bugging me more then supplying industries going under, is that the accepting industry goes under. I had a paper mill with three managed forests delivering lumber to it, and it went under after many years of successfull service. 1 supplying industry means you close down that specific track, and/or reroute it to a new supplying industry that comes up. If a managed forest would have gone bankrupt in my situation, 1 track closes down and life goes on. If the paper mill goes under, my entire network (including the paper train that services the printing works) is doomed. When it happened I chose to BUILD a new paper mill and spend the 2.4 million on it.

[Steve]

I think the industry's going down is an interesting feature. It may be annoying, but that's life.

DJ-Mike, the tram goes on the side of the road that the road vehicles would. Unless you manually change it.

[jasons957]

Something that has always bothered me about the RCT series and is the same in Loco is building some tricky, tight, mountainous section by trial and error, bulldozing half of it when I'm off by a square or when I end up running into something. The same thing happened when I built rollercoasters. I propose having some mode (through a simple button) where you can plan out your track, working it, fixing mistakes, and getting it just right. It would show you your cost as you 'built'. Once you were done, you could click on build and it would place your design and charge you. This is basically how it works in the real world. RCT addressed this somewhat with being able to prebuild a coaster, but I never used it as the landscape is often an important factor. For the simpler geography, this is not needed, but for the realistic stuff, USA & GB, i would sure enjoy it.