Heavy truck ban problems and routing...

[Vimes]

Hi

At one side of the map I have a small industrial (generic) section which is doing fine with a goods train set to export goods. This is great as the proximity of the goods train station is close enough for the generated goods traffic to be kept within the industrial section.

At the opposite side of my map I have tried again to develop the agricultural industry, even though I am having a problem time with people not wanting to work there over other type of work, even generic industry seems to get fully staffed over that of farming. But...

To prevent the need for the heavy vehicles transporting the farmed goods to the opposite end of the map (through the centre of the city etc) I built another good train station and connected it by highway just adjacent and close to the farming industry.

But the trucks still prefer to get stuck in traffic, cause congestion and drive to the opposite end of the map and use the same goods train as the generic industry one does - grr.

So I decided to restrict the residential zone where the trucks are passing through from heavy traffic (assuming that the mass of trucks going through it are classed as that). But even with reducing a section of road to a simple two lane (as highways would be ignored by the ban) the trucks still travel through the city to the opposite end of the map. But there are many other roads that they are passing through within that residential zone which are not highways, so really the two laner was not needed.

If I delete that section of road then the truck use the goods train yard nearest to the farms and all is well. Pop the section back in and then they stop using that one and start using the one furthest away.

should I expect the Heavy Truck Ban to apply to those trucks carrying the agricultural products to the goods yard at the opposite end of the map...? Even so why do they wish to use that one so far away through dense traffic against that of a functioning one right next to them...?

 

[barter]

As far as I can see there are only tractors, buses and rubbish trucks and not heavy lorries and won’t be affected by the ban. When you delete the road they have no alternative but to use the cargo station, hope that helps

 

[Vimes]

Thanks for the reply

So does that mean the trucks, which take the agricultural produce from the farms to the cargo railway station, are not classed as heavy trucks....? That is why I was wondering if they would be in that category. But they are, relatively, big cabs pulling large trailers, hence I assumed they are heavy trucks. If not what are heavy trucks, as I see no bigger....?

Also even if what you write is correct why would they prefer to use the cargo station at the opposite end of the map rather than the one which is working next to the farm they are collecting from....?

 

[barter]

I can’t really shed any light on why they prefer to you the station on the other side of the map but the cims seem a bit fickle, I’ve had the same in my game where there is no rhyme or reason to logic they use and paths they choose. Do they actually drive past the cargo station? If not try to route them there, I know easier said than done lol


Another thing you can do is look to where the destinations are of the tractors, are they being exported?? I’m sorry I can’t be much more help without seeing the whole map…but I think its half the fun of the game is trying to sort these problems.

 

[Simulant]

Your screen shows another issue that is bugging me massively. Each bus line sends out dozens of buses - in some cases it looks like a tramway with up to five cars in a row... Even upgrading the capacity of the buses (to let's say 90) and reducing the budget doesn't help the odd spacing between the buses.
To me it looks like a general scaling problem - there are too many service vehicles, too many trains, too many of everything to accomodate too few buildings. a tour through my cities is like attending a parade of garbage trucks, hearses, buses and such. this massively spoils the realistic feel of a city and resembles more some kind of city fun park. as there are too many parameters it's hard to work against that fact with mods - it should be rebalanced in the game's core IMHO.

 

[Vimes]

Sometimes when you are trying to fathom it these "logic" challenges you are kinda disadvantaged from the start as you are not aware of what cards you have in the deck to start with...!

The trucks drive past the open and free cargo station and make their way through the centre of my city to the opposite end to queue in the quite full cargo station, which is serving the generic industry.

As a side note I was quite upset last night as I could not get the screen shot function to work with the F12 key. So I changed it to F4. BIG mistake...! That loaded the last saved game and this I was my last fifty or so minutes of play, grrrrrr...!

At least I got the shot I did....!

But to me it does not make sense on two counts. The heavy truck ban, if applicable and it seems that it should be to me.
Going all the way across the city missing out the nearest and empty goods station. But using that very same station if I delete the road but to go back to the humongous journey and queue if the road is connected again....!

As for the numbers of service vehicles, buses and garbage trucks etc, I agree that it seems like feast or famine but Soda in the workshop has already improved both the hearses and released one for the garbage trucks.

 

[Simulant]

Thanks for the hint about Soda's mods. I forgot about them after I suspected them to cause some irregularities in my save games. But that was a false lead and at least the hearses & garbage trucks follow their command again and work well.
Still - the dispatching of any vehicle and services is odd. Everything comes in waves: Freight ships, busses, girls with dogs. A cargo train is offloaded within half a minute and a bizarre convoy of trucks and hotdog vans storms the cities. I fear that this is a very generic problem of the simulation balance and very hard to come over with just a few tweaks. The vanilla game seems actually mostly balanced if you follow the high and odd requests for road connections, schools, bus stops, crematoriums and so on. but it's far from being realistic. in my attempt to recreate f.e. Cape Town with the original road connections, bus lines, fire and police stations and so on the whole city fails immediately and i have to add much more facilities and IRL non-existing metro lines.
I understand the need that the simulation has a very artificial and reduced economy and generally the concept of balancing everything through services might be smart - but somehow i feel the whole system represents more Duckburg than any real urban community...

 

[barter]

I also use Soda’s mod…I’m not really sure what to suggest for the best, personally I’d be tempted to delete the road or make it one way to make the cargo station more attractive and figure and alternative

talking about the deaths issue i found that I had to provide a hearse for every weekly death

 

[barter]

Your screen shows another issue that is bugging me massively. Each bus line sends out dozens of buses - in some cases it looks like a tramway with up to five cars in a row... Even upgrading the capacity of the buses (to let's say 90) and reducing the budget doesn't help the odd spacing between the buses.
To me it looks like a general scaling problem - there are too many service vehicles, too many trains, too many of everything to accomodate too few buildings. a tour through my cities is like attending a parade of garbage trucks, hearses, buses and such. this massively spoils the realistic feel of a city and resembles more some kind of city fun park. as there are too many parameters it's hard to work against that fact with mods - it should be rebalanced in the game's core IMHO.

I use this mod to help out with the number of buses

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424106600

 

[Simulant]

I use this mod to help out with the number of buses

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424106600

Thanks for that hint! Do you know if this conflicts with Traffic Manager? And is it able to alter the capacities? I couldn't really tell from the description and the comments on steam.

 

[barter]

Thanks for that hint! Do you know if this conflicts with Traffic Manager? And is it able to alter the capacities? I couldn't really tell from the description and the comments on steam.

I don't use traffic manager but i do use "Toggle Traffic Lights" mod without any issue and one of the comments says they use traffic manager and it, give it a go you can always knock it off just copy your saved game first