Feeder service keeps station rating high

[AlphaCentauriBear]

Hello, fellow OTTD programmers.

I have a question about station rating.
Let's say I need to transport cargo relatively long distance by train. Station rating will be low due to rare pickups. However, I can setup a short feeder service by trucks just picking cargo at source and dropping it to next station nearby. This will raise source station rating to highest value thus proportionally increasing profit. I consider this an exploit. Is there a way to prevent this?

[Auge]

Hello

Let's say I need to transport cargo relatively long distance by train. Station rating will be low due to rare pickups. However, I can setup a short feeder service by trucks just picking cargo at source and dropping it to next station nearby. This will raise source station rating to highest value thus proportionally increasing profit. I consider this an exploit. Is there a way to prevent this?

1. IMHO it's a simple game mechanic, a way to increase station rating, but it's not an exploit.
2. To prevent it, do not do it.

Tschö, Auge

[jfs]

If you mean doing transfer orders, where the cargo is dropped off to be picked up by something else, no, the game actually has protection about the simple exploit. If you pick up cargo from station A and drop it off to transfer on station B, but the service on station B is not good enough and the cargo piles up, the cargo remembers it originated on station A, and the transfer cargo on station B will lower the rating on station A.

[skc]

Station rating is affected by the max. speed of vehicles servicing it.
So using trucks to frequently pick up from a station serving an industry to dump it a few tiles further way at a train station won't actually help much - it might actually make things worse.
You're better off reducing the carrying capacity of the train so that about 70%~75% of the industry's output fills the train. That will ensure you get at least one departure each month, and that WILL keep your rating higher.