AI Traffic behaviour in MSTS Options

[Greenleader]

I am busy compiling a simple activity on the Garden route of South-Africa. The player train starts at Knysna to George and I have three AI trains coming from George to Knysna. Two of them behave like I want them to. Theye start at their given times and the proceed towards their end piont. The third one just show up and wait for the the player train to enter the station and then will start to move. There are 6 stations between them where it can pass. It does not matter if I make passing paths and I did make sure that AI and player trains do not share a platform. I do have the tutorial for Activity Guide by Arnie Lee. This is a very good program, but even it can't sort this out for me.

Any suggestions would be welcome
Thanks

[sgdavis]

I am busy compiling a simple activity on the Garden route of South-Africa. The player train starts at Knysna to George and I have three AI trains coming from George to Knysna. Two of them behave like I want them to. Theye start at their given times and the proceed towards their end piont. The third one just show up and wait for the the player train to enter the station and then will start to move. There are 6 stations between them where it can pass. It does not matter if I make passing paths and I did make sure that AI and player trains do not share a platform. I do have the tutorial for Activity Guide by Arnie Lee. This is a very good program, but even it can't sort this out for me.

Any suggestions would be welcome

Thanks

Martin

Try NOT using "passing paths" but instead always routing the player train down a given track and the AI train it is meeting (I am assuming these are going in opposite directions?) through the other track. Sometimes this helps. AI traffic logic is one of the big known weaknesses/issues with MSTS and creating believable traffic patterns is one of the biggest challenges for our template creators.

On a personal note, I am glad to see you made it to the forum, I apologize for the difficulties. Like I said I now have to restrict new membership because of all the spam and porn we were getting, neither of which I want on my site (and I doubt anyone else here does either).

Thanks,

Steve

[Greenleader]

Try NOT using "passing paths"

Steve, thanks for the "welcome".

This activity thing is making me think, but I will sort it out. Yes, I do not want to use "passing paths" but sometimes it seems to be the only option and to get them out, you have to do the whole path over again. I am trying now to alter the starting places of the AI trains to try and force them doing things, but I think the heard me already. If it is two AI trains on that line, it seems to be okay, but not more. Is there a restriction on the amount of AI traffic to a distance of line?
Thanks

[nbeveridge]

Steve, thanks for the "welcome".

This activity thing is making me think, but I will sort it out. Yes, I do not want to use "passing paths" but sometimes it seems to be the only option and to get them out, you have to do the whole path over again. I am trying now to alter the starting places of the AI trains to try and force them doing things, but I think the heard me already. If it is two AI trains on that line, it seems to be okay, but not more. Is there a restriction on the amount of AI traffic to a distance of line?

Thanks
Martin

No restrictions on how many AI trains on one line, or at least I have never found the limit. BUT . . . and this is a big BUT . . . the more you have which run on the same line, or at least part of the line, the more likely that the MSTS AI dispatcher will bog down or whatever it does. I am working on some templates now where the prototype has passenger trains leaving as close as five minutes headway, and MSTS simply cannot do it. I have backed off to every fifteen minutes, and it seems to work well.

[Greenleader]

The path that I use is 39 miles long with 18 cross points along the route. I start at point A and the AI at point B. They move towards me. I Have their starting times up so that I have to cross them along the way. The first one is waiting for me 7 miles from my start point. I then have to wait for the second one there until it gets there. If I let it start earlier it waits for me 25 miles up the road and there are many crossing points. I manage the times now that the dispatcher send the second one so that I have to wait for 20 mins for it to cross. I can set the start times of the first two AI trains at 5 mins apart, the dispatcher won't let them go earlier.

The third one will stop also at 20 miles up the road and wait for me to pass even if there are plenty crossing points. I did make sure about the paths of AI and player train. All AI are goods trains and player train is a passenger train.

By the way, do the dispatcher know the difference between the two types of trains ( goods/passenger) and do that influence the route?

I did simulate the path and drive it. The outcome is the same.

Thanks

[jrmeindl]

The path that I use is 39 miles long with 18 cross points along the route. I start at point A and the AI at point B. They move towards me. I Have their starting times up so that I have to cross them along the way. The first one is waiting for me 7 miles from my start point. I then have to wait for the second one there until it gets there. If I let it start earlier it waits for me 25 miles up the road and there are many crossing points. I manage the times now that the dispatcher send the second one so that I have to wait for 20 mins for it to cross. I can set the start times of the first two AI trains at 5 mins apart, the dispatcher won't let them go earlier.

The third one will stop also at 20 miles up the road and wait for me to pass even if there are plenty crossing points. I did make sure about the paths of AI and player train. All AI are goods trains and player train is a passenger train.

By the way, do the dispatcher know the difference between the two types of trains ( goods/passenger) and do that influence the route?

I did simulate the path and drive it. The outcome is the same.

Thanks

There are few things that you also need to factor with regards to AI traffic. Speed and timing of the player train also will have an effect on where the dispatcher will hold trains. I have run many activities trying out different speeds and have come out with different results. Sometimes I will get held at a signal or the AI train might get held sooner than what you might have anticipated. Another thing is switching, the reverse movements along the path by the player train can have undesirable results with AI traffic. For this reason, I always save the activity whenever I enter into an area with passing sidings. Many times I have gotten to the other end of the siding and received a clear or approach signal only to have an AI train meet me out in the cornfield. Passenger AI trains can sometimes give other problems within an activity. I did have this issue while working and testing the Raton Pass 3 templates. If there are big differences in the speed assigned along the route, it can ultimately influence the trains. Raton Pass 3 has areas that are assigned 40-65 MPH for freight and 40-90 MPH for passenger along the same sections of mainline. The passengers do gain on the freights and screw up all the trains behind them since the dispatcher has trouble in situations like that. It might hit a few reds an then proceed along at the restricted speed. In the service edititor, you can limit the performance of them, but this does get trickey since not all situations are the same. I might be able to time them for myself, but yours might be completely different. With only 39 miles, I would not use much more than 2 AI trains for traffic from my experience along single track mainlines.

Jim

[Greenleader]

Thanks Jim.
Between your answer and that of Denis, I have a lot to keep me busy for a while