The present default length for cars to determine track capacity in the AG4 program is 28 meters or approx. 81 feet. This figure is to accomodate the longest of cars which would be the present day car transports which are around 80 feet. This is perfect for the modern day activities that can use these cars. I, however, am building activities for the Shuswap route that is in the 1960's era and the longest car at that time was a 53 foot flat car that was used to transport the road trailers of the day which were a mere 12 meters or 40 feet in length. With my short 40 and 50 foot cars, the yard is only 50% of its' total capacity due to the default limitations. One track in question had a capacity of 29 cars. If I change the little box saying car length to 16 and run an activty, nothing changes, it stays at 28 meters or 29 cars instead of a new 51 car limit. I would like to see the program altered so that a player can change that default number to what he or she would like as a default thereby using the yard tracks to better use especially when long auto cars are a thing of the future.


Dispatcher

That is a good request and we'll put it in the file for a future update, thanks. Right now, that setting is only valid when CREATING a new template, it does not affect users RUNNING the template. Also the template designer can override the number of cars allowed on each track. Sometimes the limit is set by designers because too many cars on yard tracks can really impact frame rates and cause other problems.

First be sure and go into the user-settable world fill settings (when generating the activity) and increase the maximum cars per track to what you want to see. I think the default may be 30 cars so even if the designer allowed a larger number you'll only see 30 unless needed for work (i.e. pickups to build your train not just "fill" for scenery).

If increasing the user-settable world fill setting doesn't give you the results you want, you can fix this for your Shushwap template, but for now to do it you have to change the car capacity for those tracks in the SWLTDB csv file for the template. You CAN easily change this without causing any adverse effects -- except of course if you make it too large you can have cars running off the ends of sidings or even cause MSTS not to start if there is no room to place them.

Thanks,

Steve

Further to this siding capacity problem,, On page 14 of the manual there is a layout of the "customize your activity" screen. on the bottom right there is a box marked "total capacity of selected destination tracks" and the default number within is "0". the manual does not explain this box as to its' function. What is the purpose of this box and does it have anything to do with the above problem?


Dispatcher

That box counts the total car capacity of the selected tracks based on the activity template designer's setting for each track. It is used so while you're creating you activity, you can see how long your train could potentially be if you wanted to run a through freight to end at destination tracks, and also for having your pickups set out at the end. For instance if you wanted a 65 car train and set the "maximum cars to handle" at 65 and the "initial player train" at 65, if there wasn't room for at least 65 cars on the destination tracks you wouldn't be able to get a 65 car train (there wouldn't be enough room to set it out).

As you start clicking destination tracks you'll see that number change, it will increase as tracks are added, decrease if destination tracks are "unchecked".

Thanks,

Steve

Steve;

The reason I asked about that box is I have never seen that number change. After reading what you said I went out of here, tried it, adding destination tracks for setouts and that box number never moved. Adding or deleting tracks, nothing.

Dispatcher

Works properly for me. Are you certain that you have the latest version of AG?