Trains don't find depots

[neverlost]

Hi! I have this problem that the trains don't seem to find any depots nearby even if there are clearly depots on their route. I try to click the depot button but it says they can't find any depots.

In addition, the AI gives some kind of error messages at times, like there was no suitable AI or something like that.

And there is also one more problem: some of the trains break down in nearly _every_ tile, so it takes them forever to get to their destination. My settings for 'breaking down' were normal, so I had to lower them in order to prevent this from happening.

Huge thanks go to anyone who helps me out

[Vitus]

Hello and welcome to forums.

I'm assuming that you play OpenTTD, in that case, the relevant forum is OpenTTD problems; this one is for problems with original TTD.

Anyways, if trains cannot visit a depot to perform service, their reliability goes down and they tend to break down a lot. And if trains cannot find depot even after issuing direct order to visit depot, the problem is most likely with depot placement. Savegame would be really helpful here.

And about the AI error. Latest versions of OpenTTD don't have default AI included. If you wish to play with AI, you'll have to download them (try "Check online content" in main menu).

[neverlost]

Sorry, I apparently messed up the categories - but you got it right, this post was about OpenTTD. I attach the save game - the depot problems has happened several times with several trains. Would greatly appreciate it if you could check it out and see if there's something terribly wrong with my depots

[Vitus]

There's no problem with depots per se, these should work well. The problem is most likely in path signals. I'm not really sure whether this is intended or not, but the reserved path cannot be modified when searching for depot (only by train reversing it seems, be it manual or automatic).

There are at least three possibilities how to overcome this:
a) Build the depot at the end of the station (behind the last tile of platform)
b) Use block signals
c) Force train to visit the depot (either by track layout or with orders)

[Benny]

The AI problem is obvious. It even sais "you can download several AIs from the 'Online Content' system. You can find the Online Content System in your main menu.

The problem with the depots is also pretty obvious if you're familiar with path based signals (PBS). Let me explain with some pictures.

Here's what I guess your problem is:

problem.png (191.04 KiB) Viewed 4478 times

This happens because the train already has reserved the whole path up to the station (red line), making it unable to change that route. If you get the error again, just turn the train around around once and hit the 'send to depot'-button again.

Though, the best solution would be to make a 'send to depot' order the trains' orders to make them reserve a path to the depot themselves.