[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

I've worked pretty extensively with complex activities using all the enhanced AI shunting features... This solution eludes me - dark route - I assume traffic is controlled by having scheduled meets at passing sidings and whomever gets there first needs to wait for the second train to arrive - then both continue on their merry way to the next scheduled meet... I can't seem to get this to work - will this work in ORTS and if so - how to set it up ?

Thanks...

Regards,
Scott

[ebnertra000]

I am under the impression that it should work. I think it uses switch nodes like control points, and in so doing, will be able to set up meets. Who goes into the siding should indeed depend on who gets there first, but I think one can force a train to hold the main.

DISCLAIMER: I myself almost never build activities. I am basing this off what I've seen andheard elsewhere and what I could get out of the manual

[charland]

The Dominion Atlantic is all dark territory. I made plenty of activities for the route and most contained one or two meets, never had a problem you just have to time them right or it could be a long wait!

Paul :-)

[vince]

Hi Scott,
When I released the LIRR beta it had no signals so can be considered a dark route. I genned up 12 or so activities one of them a quite complex 2.5 hour freight run. Lots of AI, AI that interacts with the players path many times. I was astounded that OR ran this without problems. Only minor tweaking of some AI start times was needed.

It seems that the OR Dispatcher uses JunctionNodes to control the AI. For the player, a red bar across the 'track' display and the 'Switch' in the display meant 'stop and hold'. I'm not sure how OR does this but to the original question, I've found you can get complex activities to work if you follow a certain two step method;

1.lay out player path and run it. Take notes of timings along the run.
2. add one AI at a time, fully testing the entire activity each time any time an activity change is made.
Most important? Taking accurate notes is all.

That's it. The Long Island Rail Road LILCO Coal activity has over 10 AI's running, no signals and so far in around 900 downloads of the route I have not received a single complaint on any AI lockups or glitches.

In your case Scott, leave in all the AI you've coded but disable all spawn times but one and get the exact timings for player meeting the AI. . . . . . Then add the second AI.
Inexplicably this addition of an AI sometimes causes unexpected timing changes, this being the reason for requiring a full run every time. And on a long activity . . . yeah . . http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/curiousPC.gif
.
One thing I've found is if a route does not have posted track speed limits it apparently causes headaches for the AI Dispatcher, causing inconsistent meet timings on the LIRR. I never investigated but the problems went away after I installed speed posts.


regards,
vince

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the great responses...

So - not sure I understand it all... My simple test has the player and AI heading at each other with a passing siding in between... The passing siding is defined as a passing path... Ideally - I want the AI to take the siding and wait until I pass... All my tests resulted in the AI ignoring the siding and it continued without hesitation to plow headlong into me...

It sounds like it should take the passing path and stop - based on the repsponse ?

If we could trigger a wait point based on a trigger event - would be the most helpful...

• Wait Until - Activation Trigger Event

Regards,
Scott

[R H Steele]

Why not forget about using passing paths? Player path is always on the main, AI path always goes through the sidings?
Player may have to wait if arrives first, but AI will always use the siding.
If AI arrives 1st it will take the siding and wait for Player...or am I missing something here.

[scottb613]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for responding...

Yeah - without signals - AI stays on main and doesn't use siding - continues down single track main and plows into me...
:wtf01:

Regards,
Scott

[charland]

Hi Scott,

On the DAR I've had no problem having the player train take the siding and wait for an AI train to pass but, you can make you life much simpler if you are just running the player down the mainline and would like the "AI" train to be waiting for you in a siding, just put one in the siding as a static consist and run past it.

Paul :-)

[vince]

I should have added: Passing paths did not work. Gerry's solution did.

regards,
vince

[Csantucci]

scottb613, on 17 March 2018 - 02:17 PM, said:

...
Yeah - without signals - AI stays on main and doesn't use siding - continues down single track main and plows into me...
...

What OR release do you use? Maybe stable release 1.2? Actual experimental releases instead should have solved the problem of AI trains plowing into other trains. They at least should stop before running into the other train.
Moreover, to avoid that an AI train runs into another train, the train created later must be created at a distance of more than 5000 m from the other train, because this other train has already his path set for the next 5000 meters. Moreover also the meet siding should be more than 5000 m away from the train created sooner, at the point the later train is created, else switches are already set.
P.S. what I'm writing here stems from what I feel is the way OR operates. Personally I didn't create dark territory activities. So, no guarantee ;)