Stat track request thread?

[tlittle]

I would like to see if anyone thinks it is a good idea to give ideas to the production team as to some hard coded stats that might be included in the sim for any of us to see while we are railroading and/or available via sim-connect:

1. Time road traffic is "stopped" waiting at a crossing. Let me explain, I would like to know how long Joe Engineer (or myself) has kept road traffic stopped because they keep going back and forth coupling cars on a long train, when they could have done this much more efficiently.

2. Tons of material hauled (perhaps broken down by type?).

3. Miles driven (passenger/freight/total).

4. Total number of cars hauled (perhaps broken down by type?), and/or total passengers hauled.

5. Number of couples.

6. Derailments or number of crashes

Any other ideas out there?

[eaglefan9727]

I would like to see if anyone thinks it is a good idea to give ideas to the production team as to some hard coded stats that might be included in the sim for any of us to see while we are railroading and/or available via sim-connect:


While it might be a good idea to give ideas. The team has already pretty much said that they have enough on their plate and will not include any of the suggestions at this time for this release of the sim.

[stonelance]

I actually think this sort of thing is really cool. I would love to see something like this, but I don't know if we will have any time for it. I think most, if not all, of the things you mention should be possible to track through a SimConnect add-on.

[Turbo Bill]

I think an efficiency rating of your run would be a neat idea. This would prompt the engineer to run as close to posted speeds as possible without speeding or mishandling the train. Kinda like how it is when the Road Foreman of Engines does a ride along. This could add a new level of difficulty to the sim.

[tlittle]

I think most, if not all, of the things you mention should be possible to track through a SimConnect add-on.

That would be GREAT! Thank you for your reply, and for those who think it would be cool, I am going to be creating a rail community like no other. I may need help though, it's a huge task! I already have a very nice 10+ year virtual airline community going (www.air-source.us) and I think there is great potential between both of these sims. Thanks to the community AND an open architecture such as the one ACES provides - these kind of things can happen.

Now... it's just a matter of finding the time to do it :)

[Company Notch]

I would like to see if anyone thinks it is a good idea to give ideas to the production team as to some hard coded stats that might be included in the sim for any of us to see while we are railroading and/or available via sim-connect:

1. Time road traffic is "stopped" waiting at a crossing. Let me explain, I would like to know how long Joe Engineer (or myself) has kept road traffic stopped because they keep going back and forth coupling cars on a long train, when they could have done this much more efficiently.

2. Tons of material hauled (perhaps broken down by type?).

3. Miles driven (passenger/freight/total).

4. Total number of cars hauled (perhaps broken down by type?), and/or total passengers hauled.

5. Number of couples.

6. Derailments or number of crashes

Any other ideas out there?

A lot of what you're referring to here are components of a basic "economic" model inside the simulated world. One of our longer-term goals is to build out more of this sort of thing such that users can "accomplish" different things with the product and in turn grow a "career" and gain experience.

As Steve alluded to above, I believe you may be able to get to some of this information via SimConnect for this upcoming version. Future versions will make use of this info (and many other bits as well) directly in the game environment.

-Rick

Rick Selby
Lead Game Designer
Microsoft Train Simulator

http://yardlimits.spaces.live.com

[Driverman2008]

What exactly is "SimConnect"? Will it be manditory for MSTS 2 players?

[beatle]

SimConnect is the name of our externally callable API (currently supported in FSX and ESP) used by addon providers. Click Here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526983.aspx) to see the online docs for the current version.

Tim
http://beatlesblog.spaces.live.com

[stonelance]

SimConnect is an API developed for Flight Simulator (and now TS2) that allows 3rd party developers to write code that will either be run as part of the game, or can communicate with the game via network ports.

This allows an add-on to have customized behavior and also allows a lot of other things like tracking parameters of the sim and passing them to an external app. It can also be used to drive things such as full-motion platforms, web server communication, etc.

[HHackman1]

Will that allow the passing of train files?

Ex.:
Player pulls into yard after a long run,then cuts away his engines to be driven to the diesiel shop for refueling ,ect.
uploads consist to the player 2 a yardmaster for humping,flat switching,ect.
uploads the engines to player 3 in charge of the diesiel shop.


These players in turn upload the files to other players once there done with them.

OR I'm I way off base here about sim connect

[stonelance]

I think something lke that might be possible. I'm guessing that is something similar to what VATSIM and other related add-ons for Flight Sim are doing.

[HHackman1]

Awesome!!! :D Thanks for your reply. If true we could get a whole community just to run North Platte,NE