Late Game Frustration: Replacing Old Vehicles

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 31 total)
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  • #9020
    jfjohnny5
    Participant

    This post is a bit of a complaint, but comes with an idea for a solution…

    There really needs to be an easier way to replace old vehicles. Something that doesn’t require so many clicks. Once you have a big fleet – especially a lot of buses in a lot of towns – it feels like every 2 minutes you have to spend 3 minutes replacing them.

    IDEA: For one thing, I don’t need the picture-in-picture popup every time. It just kills my framerate. A test popup would be fine. Next to the popup it would be great to have a “Replace with” button that just opened up the list of that type of vehicle. Then once you chose the replacement, the old one would find the closest depot, sell itself, buy the replacement, and assign it to the same line. That would be sooooo much more convenient.

    #9027
    hert
    Participant

    All that needs to be done is a replacement button on the line window. This way you can tell what line gets replaced with what vehicle.

    #9037
    jfjohnny5
    Participant

    @hert That would work too. Honestly, anything would be an improvement.

    #9052
    Maj_Solo
    Participant

    This all is very badly implemented. As you say too many clicks.

    It should work like this that you

    1) specify the frequency on the line. Or set the frequency to automatic. Setting it to automatic the game will then use whatever frequency value is necessary to serve all “users” of that line and how much cargo they produce at the moment.

    2) the game will buy as many vehicles as needed to reach the 1) frequency set.

    3) the desired configuration of vehicles. The vehicles can be trains so you specify the locomotive and the train cars. If you change the specification the game will bring all vehicles into depot sell buy reconfigure as necessary.

    4) the game already at least show a separate budget for each line. Now the game could actually have a separate budget for each line. And buy and replace vehicles when the line has some surplus money. This is so the automatic update of vehicles do not zap all the money you have. Which might stop your work building new lines elsewhere.

    —-

    As you say there is too much mouse clicking. And this does not scale. As you expand sooner or later the player will feel he can not keep up and that he is doing work he shouldn’t need to do.

    Next question is …. do the developers play their own games?

    Why do they not discover that their design is bad?

     

    #9053
    Maj_Solo
    Participant

    To cope with a bunch of vehicles coming in we would like to be able to build big train scheds with like 8 … 12 … stalls.

    #9056
    Ray
    Participant

    I agree with the “replace” button. But I think it makes more sense on the “vehicle” and not on the whole line. Not all cars must have the same age on your lines. The button should also be in the “vehicule list” next to the “age” text. So you can go through this list and simply click the “replace” button if one vehicule is too old.

    #9079
    Maj_Solo
    Participant

    as I said the game should replace old vehicles automatically when that line has surplus money.

    There should also be a way to send money from the central budget and boost the lines own budget.

    I don’t feel smart when I repetitively sit and click on each vehicle. Things that the game should do automatically.

    If I am the CEO or chief engineer / designer I do not take my car and drive down and point at the trains the service people should upgrade. If so I would never have time to do the strategic stuff of planing where the next lines should go or if I am going to shut a line down.

     

    #9082
    theuros
    Participant

    replacing old vehicles doesn’t bother me.. for train I simply first buy  a new one and put it on same line and after that recall old train to depot …

    for buses and trams ..   usually all buses on same line have same age … so first I buy exact number of new buses … recall entire line to depot  and set same line to new vehicles …

    doesn’t take to much work…  but i’m a casual player who enjoy the life in game .. (play on easy)

    #9086
    Ray
    Participant

    An automatical replacement is critical IMO. What if I want another train? What if I want to save my money for other things. So maybe I want to wait with the replacement another year. Or…I may want to replace another vehicule earlier (before the lifetime is over). So I’d rather prefer the “manual” version with a button. Or, to satisfy both “groups”…an option “enable automatic replacement yes/no” 😉

    #9092
    stubblychin
    Participant

    I’ve found the quickest and least painful way to replace a line’s vehicles as follows:

    1. Bring up line window and identify the line you wish to replace.

    2. Pause the game

    3. Bring up the depot window and buy the replacement vehicles you need.

    4. In the line window click “Send all to depot and sell button”

    5. Back on the depot window, click set line all, and set to the line you just emptied.

    6. Unpause game.

    It takes a little while for everything to smooth out again, but anything more complicated than this will drive you mad.  They do need a button on each vehicle for “send to depot and sell”.  Anything too automatic might be cheating.

    #9116
    Maj_Solo
    Participant

    @stubblychin

    yes that is my strateggy now also, no need to wait for the recalled vehicles to arrive all just recall and spawn just as many you recalled. They come out in a bunch packed together and will take them some time to spread out.

    And automatic system that has a primary variable called frequency would buy them one at the time to create perfect spacing on the line.

    A frquency / time table system would also not let passenger vehicles leave a stop until it is time and would try avoid having them bunch up.

     

    #9128
    epic void
    Participant

    Usually you do not want as many of the new vehicles as you had before… They are more powerful and efficient – a simple replace-with is not sufficient.

    #9134
    Maj_Solo
    Participant

    @epic void

    That is why I proposed an automatic system setting the frequency value to one that will fullfill the needs of the producers of goods on that line according to how much goods is produced.

    An automatic system that purchases vehicles would then have to look at the capacity of the vehicles to figure out how many to buy.

    Making an automatic vihicle buy system is not rocket science. Modifying the GUI and painting all new buttons may take a whole day. Writing new automatic purchase system probably only take 2 hours.

    Yes I am 50 years old and a systems programmer system admin and network admin , I can see how few lines of code is required.

    GUI programming and painting and stuff will take more time then just adding the logic to the game.

     

    #9140
    jfjohnny5
    Participant

    I’ll amend my original idea to say there should be two buttons that are on every vehicle window (and maybe even popup with the “old equipment” notifications):

    Replace and Sell

    Replace: Would give you the same interface for buying that type of vehicle from the appropriate depot. Just click the vehicle you want and the old one drives to a depot to sell itself, then the replacement is bought and applied to that line. That’s only 2 clicks – 1 to click the button, 1 to choose the replacement.

    Sell: Drive the vehicle to the nearest depot and sells it. Same functionality as the button that already exists for the line as a whole. Why the same button isn’t available “per vehicle” is beyond me.

    That would make it much easier to replace vehicles, and gives the player more control than a fully automated solution, yet is no where near as tedious. And if you don’t want to replace them all (as has been pointed out), you can easily choose which to replace and which to sell.

    #9141
    reijnemans
    Participant

    That is why I proposed an automatic system setting the frequency value to one that will fullfill the needs of the producers of goods on that line according to how much goods is produced.

    An automatic system that purchases vehicles would then have to look at the capacity of the vehicles to figure out how many to buy.

    Making an automatic vihicle buy system is not rocket science. Modifying the GUI and painting all new buttons may take a whole day. Writing new automatic purchase system probably only take 2 hours.

    Yes I am 50 years old and a systems programmer system admin and network admin , I can see how few lines of code is required.

    Ahhhh, you’re lazy… as all good programmers, are you? 😉

    specify the frequency on the line. Or set the frequency to automatic. Setting it to automatic the game will then use whatever frequency value is necessary to serve all “users” of that line and how much cargo they produce at the moment.

    I disagree with the automatic feature, this actually mean that you only want to build. (Because you’ll never lose money with this feature). There is a mod to change all costs.

    I think it’s challenging to watch over the cost/profit you have.

    I do agree with the replace button for replacing vehicles.

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