Tropic Station Set [WIP]

[AndersI]

is it possible to change (un)loading times on certain stations?

In a way. You can make the loading/unloading times longer by making the station shorter than the train...

[MeusH]

Haha, nice idea, but how would I encourage people to build shorter stations before say, 1970?

Seriously, I thought about speeding up the unloading process by modern unloading techniques. But the time difference wouldn't be noticeable.

However, altering loading time may be considered as feature request

[athanasios]

And I like your idea. It could be like RR Tycoon and similar games where you build additions to the basic platform. I am sure others would like it too. So it is a suggestion (not new if I remember well), and new code is needed. Or is it extremely difficult and we 'd better forget about it DaleStan?

[DaleStan]

Since the loading speed is already configurable, it probably shouldn't be too hard to make it more configurable, but "How?" is a very interesting question. Depending on the vehicle, the load speed ranges from as little as 5 to as much as 255. Determining how to usefully change this could be interesting.

The best I can come up with would be a station callback, as percentage changes on the low numbers would likely get lost in the underflow, while absolute changes for the large numbers would only be of minimal effect.

[MeusH]

How about changing the value (from range 5 to 255) into value from range 50 to 150?
This would make percentage more useful:

Code: Select all

y-new value that will be used in calcuations
x-actual loading speed range
y = 50 + 100x/255

[DaleStan]

And now you're proposing packing an 8-bit value into less than a 7-bit space. Weren't we trying to avoid losing data in the underflow?

Not to mention that percentage changes will cause interesting things to happen after applying that function. If you add 20%, then 5 should properly increase to 6, and 100 to 120. If you apply the function before applying the percentage changes, and then reverse it afterwards, 5->51->61->28 (over FIVE TIMES the original value!) 100->89->106->142 (and even this is over twice the allotted increase)

[0] The actual legal values for loading speed run from 1 to 255. 0, I believe, means "use the default". It's just that I'm not aware of any GRFs that use values below 5.

[MeusH]

My bad - I didn't precise what I wanted with the value

5 > 51 > 61 --(minus difference between x and y, which is 51-5=49)--> 15

50 > 69 > 84 > 65

100 > 89 > 106 > 117

200 > 128 > 153 > 225

Do you like these values more?
And let's don't forget that if author wanted to make his wagon load terribly slow, it should load terribly slow even on our station - but faster than on another.
20% seems to be too small, 50% would return:

5 > 51 > 77 > 27
50 > 69 > 104 > 85
100 > 89 > 134 > 145
200 > 128 > 192 > 255 (max)

If we need to save bits, we can use just four bytes, and then multiply, for example by 6 - the difference in time won't be visible when someone sets value to 20% and the other one sets it to 25%. Even 40% won't do much difference
bits unset - no change
1 > 6
8 > 48
15 > 90

[DaleStan]

So, setting a "50%" increase should more than quintuple the loading speed of default rail vehicles? I think something's wrong with your math.

If, however, you aren't planning to use anything below 50%, then the underflow losses will be minimal, even on the low end of the range. I was imagining things like 10% increases.

[MeusH]

Well, the percentage mark shouldn't be taken into account this way - The Value would be used in percentage calculations of modified loading rate value. Let's just assume 1=small and 100=big change.

And that's just suggestion in response to

as percentage changes on the low numbers would likely get lost in the underflow, while absolute changes for the large numbers would only be of minimal effect

[MeusH]

Thank you everybody for voting.
Both votes and posts in this topic will be taken under account when drawing. Expect some graphics soon
All suggestions are still welcome.
DaleStan, are you still interested in researching the way stations may affect loading speed?

[kamnet]

Just curious if this got anywhere near finished? Lots of great looking graphics, would be a shame if it went abandoned forever.

[Timmaexx]

The last time the author was online was in December 2008
Is this under GPL?

[Purno]

Well, fortunately MeusH posted all of his sprites, and has revealed his e-mail address in his profile. Toss him an e-mail to ask if someone else can continue his work?