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Messages - dannyman

2
Pak128.Britain / Re: Release of Pak128.Britain 1.07
Nice Work!

On the previous version I found that running ships for goods in 1930 was way too cheap, and trucks still hard to break even.  Since building canals was comparable in expense to building rail lines, but the vehicle purchase and running costs of ships were way cheaper, I started running canals instead.

-danny
3
Simutrans Help Center / Re: industry chain question
Also, is there a valid path on your tracks?  There could be a signal issue somewhere or a gap in the tracks (especially at bridges) that is hard to spot but will bring your entire chain to a halt . . .
5
Randomness Lounge / Re: Ultracapacitor Buses in China
I wonder if they could/do run on overhead lines in places, and can charge on the go.  That would give more flexibility in routing, and reduced infrastructure requirements.
8
Pak128.Britain / Re: Balancing discussion (was "Speed bonuses")
Hello,

I'm in the 1940s here.  My observations are:

- In-city, most bus lines lose money.  I'm used to making money in other paks.

- In-city, trams are highly profitable.

- Lorries for goods (in-town or one town over) were losing money for me in the 1930s.  My cold goods transport from the slaughterhouse straight to the butcher in a nearby town is making money in the 1940s.

- Freight trains are moderately profitable, p****enger routes are very profitable.

- I haven't tried mail, because when I got started in 1930 the local transports were a very expensive van or a guy on a bicycle.  It looks like the situation has improved and I really should take a crack. :)

Sincerely,
-daniel
9
Pak128.Britain / Re: Lorries
Quote from: The Hood – on
I was going to release one at the weekend, but then I thought to wait until 103.0 is released.  In any case the lorries (along with everything else) are not balanced well, and that really needs fixing.  Is there general demand for an unbalanced release?

YES!

Or, at the very least, keep tossing things into SVN.

If you make unbalanced stuff available you suddenly have a pool of potential balancers. ;)

I haven't tried your new lorries yet, but I imagine it might be fun to balance them, maybe shooting for a baseline of operating cost = 40% of non-bonus cargo revenue on year of introduction . . . (I figure most freight is going to run at least 50% empty.)

I'd be happy to consult the conventional wisdom on balancing methodology, do a bit of grunt work, and submit diffs for your pak files . . .

-d
12
Pak128.Britain / patch for earlier freight stations
Hello,

I tried running an earlier game, but after building a line I found I couldn't build a freight station, so I dug in and built this patch:

Code: [Select]
Index: stations/goods-rail-stations.dat
===================================================================
--- stations/goods-rail-stations.dat	(revision 208)
+++ stations/goods-rail-stations.dat	(working copy)
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 BackImage[1][0][0][0][0][0]=goods-siding.0.1
 icon=> goods-siding.0.3
 cursor=goods-siding.0.2
+intro_year=1825
 ------------------------------------------------
 Obj=building
 Name=GoodsSidingCrane
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@
 level=3
 enables_ware=1
 retire_year=1940
+intro_year=1825
 
 BackImage[0][0][0][0][0][0]=goods-shed-old.0.2
 BackImage[1][0][0][0][0][0]=goods-shed-old.0.0
@@ -81,6 +83,7 @@
 level=2
 enables_ware=1
 retire_year=1930
+intro_year=1825
 
 BackImage[0][0][0][0][0][0]=bulk-loading-old.1.2
 BackImage[1][0][0][0][0][0]=bulk-loading-old.1.3

When is that next SVN commit, Hood? :)

-d
13
Pak128.Britain / Re: Pak128.Britain Screenshots
Actually, I had had a thought some ways back . . . it looks like the pak can put vehicles in different tabs somewhat arbitrarily.  Might it be reasonable / feasible to break vehicles out by manufacturer?  So, the LNER tab would have the LNER trainsets . . . you could still mix and match but it'd be akin to saying "LNER?  What can you sell me today!?"  (Maybe keep the freight stock in one tab, though as they're hard enough to hunt down.)

I use the teaks for higher-capacity trains. :)
16
Simutrans Help Center / Re: Simutrans in the dark?
You might try to find a file somewhere called settings.xml.  On Linux it's be in ~/simutrans/settings.xml, but if you're on Windows . . . ask the sniffing dog?  Anyway, if that file is hanging around, delete it, and see if that helps?

-d
17
Simutrans Help Center / Re: Simutrans in the dark?
Quote from: dave – on
Accidently i pressed the questionmark that's next to the 0 (i use a spanish keyboard).
The screen then became darker...i pressed again and it became night (see picture)
Unfortunately i haven't been able to figure out how to reverse this. I cannot adjust the brightness with - or with the mouse in the screen options menu. I reinstalled the game, but still..completely dark.

Dave,

Perhaps this is a bug?  Anyway, if the key right of the 0 makes the screen darker, try shift+key 2 right of the 0 key to make it lighter.  That's how it works on the US keyboard, anyway.

-d
18
Simutrans Help Center / Re: Simutrans in the dark?
Press ? and the help browser comes up.
Fourth item: Keyboard Help

In my pak128.Britain game it says:
+ - Brightness: +
- - Brightness: -

Looks like the same deal with pak64.

-danny
20
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: Way usage and maintenance
Quote from: The Hood – on
Also, you can think of the current implementation of a vehicle's per-tile operating cost as including a contribution to the maintenance of the way on which it runs.  Certainly this is the case in the UK railways at present, where the operators pay the infrastructure company per train-mile they run (the fee also depends on which type of train too, so heavy, fast trains which damage tracks more are charged more per mile they run).  So yes, you can consider the way maintenance cost per train as part of the train's operating costs rather than the track's maintenance cost...

Perhaps the per-mile cost of rolling stock could be different based on load.  (This doesn't seem worthwhile to me, but I figure point it out for the sake of beating this horse to death.)
21
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: Way usage and maintenance
Well, probably there's a high set fee for having the track there (basic maintenance) and then additional cost in proportion to traffic.  Weight would mean a lot for roads with trucks.  For rail I think high-speed p****enger service bears a lot more maintenance than freight.  (P****enger traffic wants a far smoother ride.)

This might be something the Experimental branch is interested in.  I know they're looking at weight and also comfort ratings for p****enger traffic.  It'd be neat if you could lower your maintenance costs at the expense of comfort. :D

As-is: the lower-grade track can only bear a fraction of the traffic, because at lower speed only so many convoys can p**** in a given time period.  I think the present implementation is "good enough" . . . I also like the present strategic emphasis on building ways that can serve multiple routes.

-d
24
Incorporated Patches and Solved Bug Reports / Re: [r2702] dialog box format errors
Yeah I've seen that in the recent builds, and it annoys me enough that I've been holding back from the latest versions.

An aside: Why is the engine source on tron?  I like to think the SourceForge site would have a web interface that would make it easy to track down the responsible changelist.  This is the sort of printf() kinda bug that I might even have a prayer of tackling and submitting a patch. :)
25
Incorporated Patches and Solved Bug Reports / Re: controlled city growth
Grampy,

I don't see much sarcasm here.  You got an answer: that you can turn off city growth in Experimental.  Much of the rest of the discussion is a collective fantasy about creating new aspects to the game, especially for multiplayer.  The fact is that at present, Simutrans is not Simcity, so allowing the player to spell out each city in painstaking detail and then freeze the zoning is not a priority.  (Although, the environmentalist in me has been watching his towns sprawl together, and thinks it might be neat if he could spell out a greenbelt or two.)

Another thought I had is that you might could girdle a town into specific confines by surrounding it with tracks arranged to make road crossings impossible.

-d
30
Pak128.Britain / Re: Lorries
Quote from: The Hood – on
James, as you say, one thing to try would be to have a blanket increase in goods payment rates.  Danny, if you have time, would you mind experimenting with this (as I know you are familiar with makeobj).  If you take the sources for the goods of SVN, you can increase the revenue for each by however much you want, and try again.  It would be interesting to see what you think represents a good balance (and it would be a fairer test if done on the same save/setup)...

The Hood: I've run makeobj, I guess the next step is fiddling under the hood.  (*cough*)  I'll try when I can, though this week is gonna be busy.

Offhand, I'd say my game is workable but would probably work better if goods trucks cost 10% less to operate.  I'll try to test this soon.

What would be really nice if there isn't one already is a configuration knob to allow players to adjust global revenues.  Call it "difficulty" :)

-d
31
Incorporated Patches and Solved Bug Reports / Re: controlled city growth
Quote from: Hajo – on
Maybe we should offer a SimCity implementation in Simutrans - once a player reaches a certain amount of wealth, he can become major of one city on the map, and use his money to build this city.

Or, when multiplayer starts working, some players can be mayors and some can be transport tycoons.

To be sure, winning certain rights could be an aspect of game play.  Like, maybe you can build an airport only after you've connected five cities, for example.  Multiplayer you''d have to get the mayor's permission to clear land for your railway station, or to plop in a bus network.  Maybe negotiate a 10-year franchise . . .
34
Pak128.Britain / Re: Lorries
The Hood,

I haven't tried much beyond the goods and cold goods.  Cold goods fine.  The books were a slight loss.  IMHO, it shouldn't be hard to break even without the speed bonus.

Buses too have been harder to turn a profit than I am used to.  I did a lot of experimentation, even to having 100% load stops, and short runs on twisty streets might still lose money.  In the end I decided to worry less and make buses wait at certain stops for 1%-20% load (to reduce bunching) with the theory that if p****engers circulate in-town effectively they'll keep the railways fed.  When I let the bus lines run more at a loss, overall profits were fine.

I built a tram network in one city and that thing makes money hand-over-fist.  Well, operations-wise.  The per-mile cost drops substantially and the maintenance costs go up.  Is there a report somewhere that breaks out maintenance costs by, say, track types, signals, stations?

Here's the latest save file . . . my current project is auditing station coverage in the towns to improve coverage and bus service.

(I may have to grab your latest ships and see about floating sheep to the slaughterhouse. ;)

NOTE: Save file is too big to post to forum, so I posted it here:
http://dannyman.toldme.com/scratch/Caernarvon.sve

Cheers,
-danny