[WIP] Container Mod For Locomotion

[rdrdrdrd]

how the hell did you get it to do that

[Joputivo]

... Tomorrow I´ll not work so I´m ready to test everything ...

[Plastikman]

how the hell did you get it to do that

you get to guess...

[Owen-Alexander]

i would also like to test it

[noofnoof]

my guess is airport. but that is soooo far out.

[robo]

I couldn't download the last version, but I could play an early betaversion. Here's my personal opinion:
I like it simple and I would like to see a simple warehouse industry accepting/producing goods 1:1 (I don't like the goods to destination) and containing most of the graphics you see for example on screenshot 58, (one or two warehouses, containers, cargo lifter and small crane).
The advantage is, I don't need to prebuild anything (although there can be some fun in prebuilding a containerport) and can begin a game very early and build a container port/warehouse later in the game whereever I want.
As you normally can't deliver goods to destination to towns, you would need to prebuild accepting warehouses (indestructible citybuildings) or intermodal stations in all towns in the editor, which may be okay for modern games, but there are less headaches with a simple version as I described it.

[Joputivo]

I agree with Robo, but these industrial buildings must be posible to build in-game like the GrainElevator or GrainWorks

[The Tram man]

I am thinking..

I should fill the gap and remove the tower from station.

I guess i was expectiong some people to build sample on scenario editor with the building blocks nad post ideas..


Anywho. those who want to test the plop station let me know.

I'll do it.

[robo]

Just a quick thought: I believe it could already make a difference if we would have only one "goods to destination" (call them containerized goods, if you want) instead of two (destination a and b). This way you would only need two industries to convert goods into containerized goods and back from containerized goods to normal goods to accept them in towns. At least if goods are converted to containerized goods or back at different locations this could help to avoid the problem of a loop between two intermodal stations. (but I didn't test it out )
This would mean, if you want to build up a long route with several intermodal stations, these intermodal stations often need to consist of two warehouse industries in one place, one to unload, another to load and a yard tractor, short train or whatever interacting between them.

[Plastikman]

@robo

The original mod was based on a mod for the TEH map.

It was Southern Pacific's Bakersfield Transfer station to ATSF Barstow. it was goods with a purpose.

It sort of grew. We tried it with just goods. we found a few things in beta.

The map became saturated with goods. so much it was like a never ending money cheat.

also people never took the goods across the map. They took them to the closest town (as did PC AI).

Some people just made a loop and had the train leave the station and come right back into it and deliver the goods for cash.

that being out the window..


The idea was to have a product to take long distances on route maps. as in real life. container trains tend to go pretty long distances on unit trains. They usually don't go small hops on the locals. those are usually transfered to truck at the intermodal yard and driven to destination.. ahh yes the point of a truck.. so we have trucks to facilitate that.

as far as turning the containerized goods back into goods. thats quite possible. I even asked that earlier. I could easily make a 3rd Warehouse that will accept A OR B and make goods from either one. the one draw back to that is game economy. you'll get paid 3 times the amount for 1 load of goods from the factory. Goods > intermodal yard, intermodal yard > itntermodal yard, then intermodal yard > town.

I guess one thing I expected was only 2 yards per map, 3-4 tops with the A's close to each other and B's in close proximity. Not one in every town.


The easy version of the mod is so that the map builder does not have to make the yards. he/she just plops the industry buildings and leaves it. the player then drops the eye candy station at an appropriate year.

I did have the intention of making an earlier version of the mod with crates and boxcars and such.. and at the correct year you just save the game exit and install the container mod and the graphics change. I am going to probably skip that. maybe not. Im not sure yet.

my guess is airport. but that is soooo far out.

Since you have the beta, you should know

I couldn't download the last version, but I could play an early betaversion..

check you mailbox

[Plastikman]

for those with the mod. here is the yard tractor with it's ass clipped.

i didn't clip enough, I just did not feel like messing with clipping the fuel tanks.

It is better then it was tho.. the gimped speed is to you don't take it on the highway. it was meant for just driving in circles in your container yard (now you have to put a trailer on it) as eye candy..

Maybe ill re-release the old version with a new name that cant hold a trailer.

As those with the "plop station" have leaned there is one that cant be driven with an industrial container yard sound on it.



*Edit* Here was a real fast Chop. I am concidering something like this

2 bay.png (122.13 KiB) Viewed 2946 times

And maybe just a Strip thats 1 tile wide by 4- 8 tiles long of the center loading strip. another option might be a 2x8 strip with a loading diarama on each side to place in the middle of a station/yard

[Plastikman]

Possible 1 strip idea?

this one is 1 x16, it can get a serious chop to 1x8 or whatever we want

I should also mention that You can not make a large station by combining more then 1 of the Plop-Able items. Each one becomes its own station, even if they touch. that's not fixable as far as I can tell.

[Seelenquell]

omg that looks like one hellofamod.. will the blue lines of the cranes disappear?

[Plastikman]

will the blue lines of the cranes disappear?

cranes are not done. they need new bases also. i just don't like the "asphalt".

we are testing functionality. then going back and cleaning up graphics.

[mmarvelstrain]

I really like how that is looking, but if you made it could you please include some containers in the "plop-able" yard

[LocoMark]

A "plop-able" yard would be good, but please, this mod already looks awesome. Keep up the good work Plastikman and I'm looking forward to the mod. So far, good work.

[Harbon 1]

I'd be happy to test it.

me too

[Plastikman]

Hey guys..

This is a PM from Robo. I also received almost the same PM from a few others. I felt this should be answered for everyone to see..

Hi Plastikman, one thing you should change: warehouses are not fundable.

Yes,

That was intentional. When this mod was first created. it was for the TEH map. It was goods to Bakersfield, goods to Barstow. the idea behind this mod was long distance. We wanted a reason for you to cross the entire map.

If the goal was "take 10k goods to Barstow" and you could plop a Barstow goods receiving station in Bakersfield, it would sort of ruin the map.

I continued with that idea after this became a separate mod. It is intended for route maps not so much "random quick maps"

there are enough "dumb go anywhere cargoes" to move, it might be nice to have a change.

*******************

In general, you do not put a trailer/container on a train for a short run. You would truck it if that was the case. In general, intermodal stuff goes a long distance.
Think of the ATSF "Super-C" daily LA to Chicago Express Intermodal train.

*******************

That being said. One thing I have been toying with. When you install the mod, it will ask what you want to name the goods per an older request.

It will have 2 blank lines in the install. What ever you put in the boxes is what the stations and the goods will be named.

If I put in "Chimpanzee" and "Whoflungpoo" You will get a building called "Chimpanzee Warehouse" that makes goods called "Goods to Whofllungpoo" and vice-versa.

The dat files will always be named the same. It will be the same file with a different internal description.

This might cause some issues on player released maps. We will have to make some sort of work around for that.
It will play fine. It just might look not as the map maker intended. Like a warehouse named Chimpanzee in Barstow.

The possibilities could be:
1 you give the names you want used on the installer.
2 You are allowed to redistribute the warehouses goods?
3 we make an answer file ini that the installer can read?
4 i don't make the changeable mod.

Again, This is an idea. not so much a certain plan.

[robo]

In general you can plan a few things ahead for a map, like a large port for imaginary import/export like LA, but you don't always know how a game turns out and develop new ideas while playing.
Some towns can grow very big, other stay rather small, you may run out of space in some places, you can't add more trains on a route because it's already overcrowded, ..., so if you can fund secondary industries and warehouses later in the game, it's more flexible. At least, this is my playing style, but people are playing differently.

[Plastikman]

One thing that should probably be changed is the name for the warehouse. Maybe more along the lines of transfer terminal, or transfer station.

warehouse or transfer warehouse is not quite right for this mod.