A Nice Scenario BUT? Can It Be Done??

[boleyd]

Just a simple minded scenario. I have never watched, or understood, yard switching. However, It seems to be a good source for strong, and interesting, activities.

An AI shunting engine moves about the yard collecting three different box cars from three different sidings. As each on is collected (after the first) it is coupled to the previous. At the end there are three box cars connected to the shunter. Then the shunter deposits the "consist" on a clean siding and movies to a staging siding awaiting its next orders. . A long distance freight engine next couples to the new consist and chugs off to a specified destination. In the meantime the original shunter, or others, go about disassembling or assembling varius consists for loading and moving out to destinations.

I have the impression that this possibly normal activity cannot be accomplished except by the customer manually performing all or most of the tasks which after you do it a few time becomes boring.

[mauried]

I dont beleive this can be done with any of the Train Simulators that exist ATM.
Shame really, as a lot of what makes playing with trains fun really cant be done .
The support generally for AI trains seems to be fairly lacking.
Ive only just started with KRS so Im not sure yet, but it looks like the ability to control AI trains is pretty marginal.
Im not even sure whether the player can even drive an AI train.

[Mike10]

You should be able to achieve that in Trainz.

Mike.

[jp 4712]

I believe that the first part - the switcher playing around - is possible and quite easy. However I think the second part, the mainline loco taking away the assembled consist, is more problematical. I'll have a play later and report back.

Paul

[boleyd]

If some, or all, may be possible, a nice way to implement this would be a separate program that would emulate whatever a dispatcher uses as a form to construct the days instructions for the stuff in the yard. It should be very easy for the program (new one) to interface to RS and create instructions and schedules to accomplish the day's tasks. That program could sort out obvious conflicts so things do not bump into each other.

As an example, in Flight Simulator people use real-world airline schedules to create AI type activity at an airport. Microsoft provided the program hooks to facilitate the creation of airport activity either on a random or structured basis. On a busy day the CPU gets really hot!:confused:

[OTTODAD]

I believe that the first part - the switcher playing around - is possible and quite easy.

Unfortunately it is not. What an AI loco can do in RS is very limited, can be driven in one direction only and pause at way-points if programmed accordingly in the scenario editor.

However I think the second part, the mainline loco taking away the assembled consist, is more problematical.

A Player Service can couple on to any loose consist and even on to an AI loco or train if it is stationary at the end of it's path and has not been programmed to disappear. But passing player driving control to it is not possible.

Yard work, switching or shunting can be done only with a Player Service loco.

My CAJON-OTTO-MINOR Freeroam route has been designed to be used for such switching, has locos placed at Barstow and San Bernardino and after users have placed more loose consists into it's many sidings can have a ball doing switching anywhere along the route.

www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/rs/cajon-otto-minor-v02.zip
www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/rs/cajon-otto-minor-v02-fix-a.zip
www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/rs/cajon-otto-minor-install-readme.jpg

It also features frequent AI trains, running on dedicated for them tracks from the middle of the route towards their ends. ;)

O t t o

[ozark]

Just a simple minded scenario. I have never watched, or understood, yard switching. However, It seems to be a good source for strong, and interesting, activities.

An AI shunting engine moves about the yard collecting three different box cars from three different sidings. As each on is collected (after the first) it is coupled to the previous. At the end there are three box cars connected to the shunter. Then the shunter deposits the "consist" on a clean siding and movies to a staging siding awaiting its next orders. . A long distance freight engine next couples to the new consist and chugs off to a specified destination. In the meantime the original shunter, or others, go about disassembling or assembling varius consists for loading and moving out to destinations.

I have the impression that this possibly normal activity cannot be accomplished except by the customer manually performing all or most of the tasks which after you do it a few time becomes boring.
All this can be done in Trainz already and is quite nice to watch it being done actually and if you could have something similar in KRS or MSTSX that would be great.