Transport Tycoon Forums

Iron Horse 2.39.0 now on Bananas.

Adds narrow gauge log cars.

Iron Horse 2.40.0 now on Bananas.

2.40.0 Release

Changes

• the following wagon types will now show randomly selected colour variations (paint fading etc) when purchased
  • Carbon Black Hoppers
  • Cement Wagons
  • Chemical Covered Hoppers
  • China Clay Hoppers
  • Covered Hoppers
  • Cryo Tankers
  • Farm Products Hoppers
  • Mineral Covered Hoppers
  • Pressure Tankers
  • Product Tankers
  • Tankers

Fixes

• parameters for wagon base colour 1 and 2 were ignored if wagon colour randomisation was turned off (via parameter)

Docs

• improved 'Get started' page https://grf.farm/iron-horse/2.40.0/html ... arted.html
  • added hints, tips etc
  • removed outdated items
• improved 'Code reference' page https://grf.farm/iron-horse/2.40.0/html ... rence.html
  • added compiling instructions
• improved navigation
  • removed 'Translate...' link as translation no longer uses the web translator
  • added 'Changelog' link
  • moved 'Code reference" link to be less prominent

First of all, again thanks a lot. I don't think that I would play OpenTTD as often as I do withoit your mods.

one QA-remark: Is this (the blue color (company color) on the right of the cars) looking as intended? and one proposal:
The express versions of the cars (last version, 201 km/h) have only 26t of load capacity - this is quite small, to small to make them usefull; perhaps increase them to around 40t?

Oakman wrote: ↑13 Mar 2022 19:17 one QA-remark: Is this (the blue color (company color) on the right of the cars) looking as intended?

No! Thanks, I'd missed that Should be company colour, it's a bug

Express cars have reduced capacity just to balance against high speed

andythenorth wrote: ↑13 Mar 2022 22:01 Express cars have reduced capacity just to balance against high speed

To be honest express cars looks completely useless for me.
A large difference in the volume of cargo transported is absolutely not compensated by a higher speed in terms of revenue from transportation.
It seems to me that the volume of express cars should be as large as the volume of regular cars, because express cars need much more powerful (and expensive) locomotives. Or at least the difference in volume should not be so significant, lets say 20 percent or so

Michpi wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022 06:48 A large difference in the volume of cargo transported is absolutely not compensated by a higher speed in terms of revenue from transportation.

This confuses that the game is about money

The game is about many things, but not money.

The game is somewhat about tile length and network flow.

Express vans can run in flow with fast passenger trains, but require more tiles in stations / loops / crossings.

andythenorth wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022 07:34 The game is somewhat about tile length and network flow.
Express vans can run in flow with fast passenger trains, but require more tiles in stations / loops / crossings.

Well, playing FIRS (simple economies) I often feel like 7tiles cargo trains is not enough and build 10tiles trains.
Express vans can transport half as much as usual cars, so if I want to transport the same volume of cargoes, I need 14-20 tiles fast trains. It's a little too much for me.

Found the cause of the ore car company colour bug

It arises from the grf parameter options for wagon colours. There's a bug with those, and in 'fixing' it I added a new different bug. Do we agree grf parameters are bad yet?

Michpi wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022 07:57 Express vans can transport half as much as usual cars, so if I want to transport the same volume of cargoes, I need 14-20 tiles fast trains. It's a little too much for me.

I'll think about it some more. There's absolutely no consistency in mail versus freight capacities for original TTD vehicles, so there's no inspiration to use there.

All my recent grfs do use 2:1 mail:freight, but maybe it should be 1.5:1 or something.

andythenorth wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022 09:25 I'll think about it some more. There's absolutely no consistency in mail versus freight capacities for original TTD vehicles, so there's no inspiration to use there.

All my recent grfs do use 2:1 mail:freight, but maybe it should be 1.5:1 or something.

Thanks.
To be clear, I wasn't talking about the mail cargo. I was referring to other possible express cargoes such as product, milk, goods, etc

Michpi wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022 09:56 To be clear, I wasn't talking about the mail cargo. I was referring to other possible express cargoes such as product, milk, goods, etc

Yup, understood, all clear

So it's the ratio when those vehicles are refitted that's under question.

E.g. an express van, mail van, express container wagon might have capacity for 52 mail bags, but when refitted to food or milk it will have 26t.

But the slower standard freight wagons for the same era would have 52t capacity for food or milk.

If the ratio was 1.5 it would be 35t food or milk on the expresss van. If it was 1.33 it would be 39t.

I can't remember why it was 2:1, there was a rationale, but it is lost in time

My approach was as follows: The total "transport capablility" of a car can be expressed as Max. Speed x Cargo capacity; in case of the latest cars this is 140 km/h * 52 t = 7280 for the slow version and 201 km/h * 26 = 5226 for the fast version. I think they should be rougly the same so I would prefer something like 36 t for the fast version.

Oakman wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022 12:42 I think they should be rougly the same so I would prefer something like 36 t for the fast version.

Yes this makes sense, it would level out the choice economically, and let the player choose whatever there preference is.

The idea of levelling out choices has strong precedent in Iron Horse.

It's slightly complicated because train speeds vary by each generation, so it may not be an exact speed/capacity calculation.

An additional factor: I mostly use these for mail, or FIRS supplies.

For FIRS supplies, I want 80t in a 2 tile train of express wagons, which is possible by 2020, but not in 1900

I would suggest the ratio 1.25

Or without any ratios at all.
Just to have one dedicated type of wagon exclusively for mail and several other types of wagons for others express cargo, with "hardcoded" volume. If it can and worth be implemented, of course

Perhaps a thought to consider - higher-speed freight carriages tend to have higher running costs due to requiring much more sophisticated braking systems to be able stop a faster train in the same space. This often correlates with a certain reduction in cargo volume to keep the braking performance high enough. A 50% difference might be a bit much, though.

That's a neat-looking set, keep up the good work!

Iron Horse 2.41.0 now on Bananas.

Docs: https://grf.farm/iron-horse/2.41.0/html ... arted.html

2.41.0 Release

Changes

• Sliding Roof Vans will now show randomly selected colour variations (paint fading etc) when purchased
• Brake Vans now show appropriate sprite for current era when in depot and not attached to an engine

Fix

• parameters for wagon base colour 1 and 2 were ignored if wagon colour randomisation was turned off (via parameter)
  • second fix of this one, previous fix was flawed and didn't solve the issue
  • previous fix introduced another bug with Ore Dump Wagons not using company colour

Docs

• further improved 'Get started' page

Iron Horse 2.42.0 now on Bananas


2.42.0 Release

Changes

• added wagons
  • Merchandise Open Wagons
  • Merchandise Vans
  • Farm Products Vans
• removed Fruit & Vegetables Vans
• adjusted default refits for Farm Products Hoppers
• improved appearance of Open Wagons

Sorry to bother you once more, this one is taken from version 2.42 (4341121f-Iron_Horse_2_Trains-2.42.0.tar) Again, best regards and many thanks for your incredible work!

Oakman wrote: ↑20 Mar 2022 08:16 Sorry to bother you once more, this one is taken from version 2.42 (4341121f-Iron_Horse_2_Trains-2.42.0.tar)

Oof

Can you try with a new game? And if it's still there, can you post a screenshot of Iron Horse grf parameter settings? Cheers.

The blue should be getting recoloured to match player wagon colour choice. Works for me locally, and in the docs: https://grf.farm/iron-horse/2.42.0/html ... ony_gen_3A

Sorry for the later answer, started a new game and tried to collect everything in one screenshot: