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No, instead, they should remove the 20 minute limit. Especially for cargo. I use full load quite successfully all the time.
Full load works for trains as long as the train doesn’t need to wait long for a full load. So in the time it takes to drop off a load and return, there should be almost enough cargo waiting to fill it up again. If there’s more cargo, put an extra wagon on. If there’s far too little, take a wagon or two off. Usually, I’ll send the train off without a full load and see how much cargo is waiting when it returns. Then you can make the capacity of the train a little bit more than what is waiting.
I think if the time scale of the game was lowered, even to 5min per game day instead of 2 seconds, it would allow for the provision of taking time once every 6months to put a train in for servicing as it wouldn’t hurt the passengers or cargo as much. That would also allow for day/night as well, but would require a lot of scaling for money and passengers etc. A depot, or maintenance yard could be put into the route as a “only if necessary” way point, that would be ignored if the vehicle didn’t need servicing at that time. Servicing could take a whole game day to complete, so you would need enough vehicles in the line to cope with servicing.
I’ve always thought that it would be great to have the trains decouple their wagons so that they could turn around on turntables and even go for servicing without all of their wagons attached (Even for turning around at a station, the current method is extremely unrealistic). Maybe a “spare” loco could pick up the wagons while the other went for servicing and became the new “spare”. But that’s another idea altogether and would require a lot of new features including track configurations and turntables.
But, being able to run the train in reverse would allow for zig-zag tracks up hills… 😉
But, my original comment was more about road vehicles or trams anyway; trains are fairly easy to replace because you tend to have a lot less of them, but the idea could work for them anyway.
I wasn’t talking about a super professional video either, I’ve made videos before and to get a watchable video, you need to edit it which is where all the time is spent (also, I could just be terrible at making videos 😛 ). Even a simple video takes a long time to edit and produce, and would take a day out of their schedule, at least. But, I would happily settle for a weekly update in text if they didn’t have time for a video (a video would be better, though).
Yeah, I like that idea. I was also thinking that it would be awesome to implement carriage decoupling so that the train could move to a turntable, turn around and then recouple on the other end of the carriages. I don’t like it how trains can change direction on the spot.
This way, you could leave the carriages at the station to be filled with cargo etc, and have the train arrive with empty carriages, uncouple them and then pick up the full carriages and head back. Passenger trains might work differently, but the train would be able to move backwards so you could implement zig-zag tracks to get up steep hills as well.
As far as capacity goes, I think it’s just as many trains/vehicles that can fit on your screen, since there doesn’t seem to be a scroll feature on depots for some reason.
Well, auto replace worked well in Open TTD. But, that game required routine maintenance of vehicles, so you would have to include a trip to the depot regularly or have the route pass very close to a depot. If the age of the vehicle was up, it would replace itself when it went in for routine maintenance. Personally, I think doing that has better immersion than simply deducting money every month from your vehicles; it still involves the running costs, but in a more realistic way.
Also, routine maintenance prevented the vehicles from breaking down and blocking traffic which added more to the realism; ie: the older and more infrequently the vehicle was maintained, the more frequently it would break down.
And, @gGeorg: Although a video diary would be a nice touch, making a 20 minute video can take up to a week to produce, so it would be quite unpractical and would take them away from actually working on the game itself. The fact that the devs actually appear on these forums shows that they do read these comments, which is more than what other developers do. I think that is an encouraging sign by itself and, from reading their comments, I know that they have already mentioned that they’re focusing on performance at the moment which would arguably be the most important issue for the game right now. The other “nice” features will have to wait for the performance issues to be solved first; all of which will take time.
In the meantime, I’ve got several other games on the go with similar problems. Between them, updates occur quite regularly so I can switch between them as they are released. You’ll go crazy if you only have one game that you’re hanging out for. 😀
I posted a few suggestions in another post, not realising that this one existed, sorry. Any mods feel free to delete that one as I’ll post the unmentioned ideas in here. Some of these are already suggested; I’m just adding further detail to them.
1. Drivers/operators should be visible on all vehicles. It looks a bit silly to see a stage coach or early train, for example, without people driving it. This could be a randomly skinned person operating the vehicle; they don’t even need to be animated, just sitting/standing there will do. Or new people skins who are wearing different uniforms for specific vehicle types could be made.
2. Option to set which side cars/buses/trucks/trams drive on. I live in one of the relatively few countries in the world that drive on the left, I would love to be able to see this in game.
3. Build tram lines like rail by placing a single track that can be placed on or off roads and can incorporate switches/junctions/crossovers. Snapping could be used to fix the track in a particular lane of the road or directly in the centre of the road for narrow roads. One length of track could be bi-directional if it was placed in the centre of the road which would still allow road vehicles to drive around them on either side. Tram signals could also be incorporated to cater for this.
4. An option to place gates at level crossings which are dependent on year, and have road traffic actually stop for trains at all types of crossing. Gates in the early years would be manned, while automatic boom-gates could be introduced later on. An option to upgrade existing gates could be made as well. They could be placed similar to how signals are placed and closed/lowered at a specific time before the train actually crosses. For non-gated crossings, road traffic could stop at the crossing if it could be detected that a collision or near miss would occur with the train.
5. Have the ability to adjust the start point of a placed track/road. It’s good to be able to adjust the end point, but sometimes the start isn’t always in the best place either. It would be good to have one of those adjustment nodes for the start point too, with the height adjuster too. The grade setting could be shown as relative to the other end.
6. Ability to use the N and M controls for building rail bridges/tunnels. Obviously, this will be limited by grade more than what roads are, but even a small change would make a big difference.
7. Build level crossings by dragging road over rail.
8. Horse and cart traffic for civilians in the early years.
9. Adjust the height of stations. Obviously, if a road is already there this would be limited a bit, but if you want to build a station first and then connect the road, it’s very useful to be able to adjust the height as needed.
10. Overtaking. Faster vehicles should be able to overtake slower vehicles if safe. Especially on multiple lane roads and all country roads. Probably not on single lane streets.
11. Auto replace old vehicles, providing that the player has enough money and provided that the vehicle’s route passes near a relevant depot.
12. Semi-Auto upgrade vehicles, providing that the player has enough money. Each vehicle type can be upgraded (or not) depending on the player’s choice.
13. Game length could be customised before starting a new game. Ie: Scaled from short game (1-2 game days per second), medium (current scale), long (1 game day per 30 seconds) and marathon (1 game day per 2-5 mins). The marathon setting could easily support day/night.
14. On the topic of seasons, have a setting for game startup for northern or southern hemisphere to determine which months have what season (this should be really easy if seasons are implemented). Even a separate season type for tropical areas, since they only have wet/dry seasons.
15. Towns should grow faster or at least have an option to choose how fast towns grow for those who like the current setting. Eventually having towns merge into each other to form a sprawling metropolis.
16. The busier industries should have town like buildings spawn near them and become villages with the potential to become larger towns.
17. Ploppable pedestrian overpasses. Placed similar to how bus stops are, and vary in size depending on road.
18. Be able to build catenaries for tram lines once electric trams are introduced.
19. Zoom to mouse cursor position, not centre of screen.
20. Rack and pinion rail type for mountainous areas.
21. Have an option to build the narrow or wide version of a road.
22. Wider rivers. This would help with water transport implementation. Also, the height of bridges would tell you if a ship/boat could pass underneath. If not, an opening bridge type could be selected.
23. Ability to choose which platform a line stops at. Currently I have two lines going to the same large tram stop, but they both use the same platform while the other is completely unused. They constantly get in the way of each other.
