Questions about payout when using transfer stations.

[Pinstar]

I know that the time a cargo spends in transit will slowly decrease the payout. I also know that this timer doesn't count the time cargo sits on the station platform.

How does it handle transfers? Where it gets picked up, but then later delivered to a station's platform, only to be delivered again later. Does it count the cumulative travel time between the transfer link and main delivery? Does it count the time it sits in the intermediate station? Or does it only factor the final delivery time?

Bonus question: How do transfers interact with subsidizes? If I transfer passengers from station A to station B, and I have a subsidy to passengers going from B to C will those transferred passengers get the x3 payout boost too?

[jfs]

The only real payout is when the cargo is delivered to the final destination, that payout is based on the straight line from pickup to delivery, regardless of the distance traveled. The time taken is calculated as time spent on board vehicles, while time spent waiting at stations does not count.

Intermediate "transfer" drop-offs count a percentage of the cargo value as if it had been delivered to that station towards the vehicle's yearly income, but do not actually contribute to your bank balance. Further transfers subtract the previous "transfer value" from the delivery value for the vehicle profit figure. The same happens for the final delivery, it subtracts the previous transfer value from the profit of the delivering vehicle.


This means that if you have three stations, A-B-C, so B is between A and C, and one vehicle transferring from A to C, and another delivering from C to B, then the distance for the actual payout only counts A to B, but the first vehicle gets credited the transfer percentage for a delivery from A to C towards its yearly profit. Depending on the distances and speeds involved, the second vehicle delivering from C to B may get a loss subtracted from its yearly profit figure because the actual delivery value for the cargo was less than the assumed value in the transfer.
This can also hit some situations like flying passengers a long distance very fast, and then taking a long time for final delivery via bus, the buses may get a negative credit because they delayed the final delivery too much.