Overview
HogNet is a fork of AAAHogEx. The original AAAHogEx is designed to maximise profit — it builds point-to-point routes between towns and industries that earn the most money. HogNet changes the core objective: the AI tries to connect towns into a single large network, using a hub-and-spoke strategy. For industries, the AI tries to reuse infrastructure as much as possible, using a spine-and-branch strategy.
Pax and Mail Network Building
Hub and Spoke
The AI identifies the largest towns as major hubs to connect with high throughput connections. Smaller towns around each hub are then connected to the hubs. In this way, smaller towns can get connected to the larger network while still being profitable.
No isolated route clusters
In AAAHogEx, the AI may build profitable routes in completely separate parts of the map, resulting in disconnected islands of service. HogNet rejects any passenger or mail route that would form an isolated island — at least one endpoint of a new route must have a connection to the existing network. The whole map converges toward one unified transport system.
Feeder bus and truck routes within towns
When the AI builds a second station inside a town that already has a station, it now creates a short feeder service connecting the two stops within the town. This allows cargo and passengers to move between stations in the same town before being forwarded on longer-distance routes.
Freight Cargo Handling
Spine and Branch
The AI starts with a strong rail connection between a producing industry and an accepting industry, then expands from that line by adding new branches to nearby compatible producers. Instead of creating many isolated point-to-point freight lines, freight service grows outward from shared rail infrastructure, including a shared main line. Though once branches are exhausted, a new spine will be built.
Road feeders collect nearby cargo
If smaller or nearby industries can provide cargo accepted by the active freight destination, the AI can add road feeder routes into the freight rail station. These feeders help pull more cargo into the rail network without requiring every industry to get its own long-distance railway immediately.
Other Changes
Vehicle Buy/Sell Logic
Vehicle buy/selling logic had to be refactored to take into account transiting passengers from other nodes in the network.
Network Topology (Pax network on top, Freight network below)
- Network Topology resize.jpg (118.04 KiB) Viewed 566 times
- Profitability resize.jpg (103.85 KiB) Viewed 566 times
Install "AAAHogNet" via in-game content manager (Bananas)
Github repo: https://github.com/kakakul/AAAHogEx/tree/HogNet
Disclaimer: Portions of this codebase were generated or assisted by artificial intelligence tools (specifically Claude and GPT Codex).
