RulerofRails wrote:Got a chance to try out the test files. They are looking great! Wish we could separate the double track so passing ships avoid each other properly. If the network was pre-laid with great care as single track spaced wide enough, might it be possible by using some waypoints to avoid this except at the Ports?
Yep, could do that, and I had thought of it. This is just a basic proof of concept map though, and I specifically wanted to show some of the limitations in places. Bridges are another problem. On most maps the bridges will be far too low for the ships to actually go under them.
Another glitch seems to be when you want to build a bridge that crosses an existing sea lane. This apparently reminds the game engine that track shouldn't be on oceans, and it will chop a section out of the sea lane when you try to drag the bridge across to the other side. It also won't actually complete the bridge until there is sufficient clear space through the sea lane. I can see this being a nuisance in practice. A possible workaround is to leave isolated land cells where people are likely to want bridges.
This helped me remember the Gwizz Port that is a station but looks like a port. "Dusted it off" and loaded it up to find that it has the catchment area of a small station, must be built on land, and doesn't transfer demand to water like a real port does. It's just a bca and bty file so maybe that can be tweaked to be more useful if you want, I don't know.
I'd want large station catchment, so I was thinking of starting with a large station and just throwing dock .3dp's at it to make it look like a dock.
Don't know what you are planning, and noticed you didn't put any regular ports on the map. There are benefits and drawbacks to everything, but the current setup with a station on a water cell isn't getting the true price of anything on the land. As you know there is an exploitable difference between the land and sea prices. I have reported this as a bug to at least one map maker via PM when I found that the map's design made it easy to plant a station on a water cell (for example collecting Rubber at a water price of $0 and then reselling it for full price on the land, this can be looped so you are transferring back and forth between the catchments of really close stations for a real cheat). I am sure there is an acceptable solution for this.
Wasn't actually aware of that as I hadn't checked that far. Good point. An easy way around it would be to sit the station on land, but paint those cells to look like the rest of the ocean. That should look good enough and should work.
A potential idea that would negate the poor coverage of the current ship stations: have an out of town rail-to-sea exchange possibly with a Port for ships and Station for trains on the same cell. This way in 1.06 a train could be run to the port to keep it stocked with the type of goods you wanted to export (would need a more complex demand structure in 1.05 maybe using a warehouse also). Another idea would be to place cities right at the waters edge. Don't know what goals you are planning, but would be happy to try to come up with some robust ideas if that would help. What is the main focus for the challenge of the shipping going to be? I don't think it can be profit unless most of the resources are on one side and they must be transported before any money can be made. But, I think this is going to look and play best if a player can't buy 20-50+ ships, instead having some specific goals that require transport while using a good method to actually require production with those resources (such as industry-only company/ies that can be tested for total profits) so that haulage cheats can't be used really easily.
I don't think the poor coverage is much of a problem, as long as the catchments of the dock station and the city station overlap. Anything within the city station's catchment is available to load at the station, and if the dock's catchment overlaps that station then transfers should be reasonable, AFAICT. I have been thinking about best placements though, and how to arrange them. It's going to need some head scratching and testing to get the best results.
The initial idea for the main focus in this scenario was going to be the cross-Channel express trade, which was a major earner for Southern. That requires generating passengers who want to cross the Channel, something this map doesn't currently do very well. OTOH, once all the cities are in place, instead of just the few it has now, pax traffic should increase significantly. Needs more testing. And yes, I was thinking of including goals, rather than just profit.
That led to the WW2 aspects, where obvious goals would be the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, and the convoys from the US, along with weapons/etc haulage from ports and troops haulage to ports. Again, getting the map to generate what you want where you want it could be difficult, but haulage goals could be used to require shipping some things at a loss if necessary.
I don't want to impose with too many suggestions etc. on your project, but the more detailed complexities available on the smaller maps do get my interest up here for sure.
Suggestions are great. This is still just a rough concept all round. It was something that occurred to me, then I had to try it. I can see a variety of possible applications, and I'm sure others will think of more applications. For example, if the guys in the southern US want those big river barges they use added to a map, say to something like the AoS V map where you have deep river valleys and plenty of river width, along with custom docks, then it could be done.
BTW, the Schools class is looking great!
Thanks. And yeah I better get back to finishing that.
