[Smecty]

I posted this query on TS but got no replies. Hopefully, as the official forum of OR someone here will have an answer, one way or another. Here goes:

Is it possible in ORv.8 to take control of an AI train such that you can move it out of the way? Occasionally I'll run into a situation (no pun intended ) where an AI train will be stuck at a signal on the player path and in order to continue the activity it's necessary to get rid of said AI train ... either by moving it out of the way on a piece of tangent track or just deleting it. However, I've yet to find out how to move from a player-train cab to an AI train, cab or no cab.

Cheers,

Dave

[James Ross]

I believe not, though I'm not sure it'd be such a leap to add it to the current code.

[cjakeman]

Hi Dave,

Smecty, on 28 December 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

Occasionally I'll run into a situation (no pun intended ) where an AI train will be stuck at a signal on the player path and in order to continue the activity it's necessary to get rid of said AI train ... either by moving it out of the way on a piece of tangent track or just deleting it.

Deleting it might be a simple-to-add facility - appreciate the need for it now but hoping that need will decline in the longer term. I'm adding it to my OR wish list.

If you'll forgive me, I'm much more interested in following up the notion of abandoning the Player Train and taking over an AI train.

Once we've got Rob's new code, AI trains should behave themselves a bit better. I would like trains to become interchangeable, so that a player can abandon his train which then automatically becomes an AI train driven by the simulator. The player can then take over any other train. Equally, a multi-player client can log in and take over an AI train for as long as he wants.

Can any other rail sim work that way?

[jared2982]

cjakeman, on 10 January 2013 - 10:54 AM, said:

Can any other rail sim work that way?

Not as far as AI trains but in the explore route mode TS2013 allows you to take control of any train you want. The ability to take control of any train on the route would be a very desirable feature in OR.

[railguy]

In MSTS with Bin, it is possible for a player locomotive to couple to a stopped AI train and take control of it. I once built an activity where an AI train on the main would pass a player set of locomotives sitting on a siding, clear the siding switch then stop with a waiting point--all of this on a "dark" unsignalled railroad with manual switches. I used double reverse points on the player train path to allow the AI train to pass the player locomotives that were sitting on the siding. Then, I would run the player locos out of the siding onto the main and--very gingerly--couple the player locomotives to the AI train. I say "gingerly" because trying to couple to the AI train at any more than about 2 mph would crash the sim. Once my "helper" locomotives were coupled, I could stay in them and run the whole consist up the hill as a helper engineer; or I could switch cabs to the road engine on the point before I took off and run the train as the road engineer.

One thing that would really kluge things up, though: if the activity was built with the AI train beginning the activity at anything other than completely stopped, the AI train would IMMEDIATELY accelerate to that speed as soon as I coupled the player locomotives to it.

I have not tried this in OR, but it would be an interesting experiment. I may try it this weekend just to see what happens.

[roeter]

railguy, on 10 January 2013 - 05:19 PM, said:

I have not tried this in OR, but it would be an interesting experiment. I may try it this weekend just to see what happens.

Can you wait just a little longer?
We are now working on a version which has been completely recoded with regards to the control of AI trains.
Anything you find with the present version is of little relevance for all will change soon!

Already I can tell you that you can then try to do it using one of these options :

• If the AI train is a passenger train which is stopped in a station, it will not depart until the time as set in that train's timetable.
  
• If you set a Waiting point for the AI train, the train will wait at that location as long as indicated in the waiting point details.

Regards,

Rob Roeterdink

[railguy]

Well, I did try the coupling to an AI in OR with a player consist. The two WILL couple, but it causes OR to "error out" within a couple of seconds. Based on the above post, I didn't bother to copy the error log. I can replicate it and save the error log if it would be of interest.

[Guille592]

jared2982, on 10 January 2013 - 01:25 PM, said:

Not as far as AI trains but in the explore route mode TS2013 allows you to take control of any train you want. The ability to take control of any train on the route would be a very desirable feature in OR.

I hate to admit this, but this is one of the reasons I like trainz, even though I don't use it anymore. In trainz just as in TS2013, you can take control of any other trains in sandbox mode, with the difference that you can also get the control of the AI train, drive it, and when you get tired of it, let it go again by setting AI mode back on.

[JTang]

OR only needs a few lines of code to enable me to jump and drive a static consist, driving an AI train may need a bit more work.

[jared2982]

This would be a great feature to have and would allow for much more prototypical operation in many cases. Not to mention more complex yard switching with multiple locomotives without having to hook on to them.

[roeter]

JTang, on 30 January 2013 - 07:58 AM, said:

OR only needs a few lines of code to enable me to jump and drive a static consist, driving an AI train may need a bit more work.

Hmmm, I beg to disagree. If you apply the condition that the AI train must be at a standstill (with perhaps an option in the selection window to stop it whereever it is), switching to AI train is just as easy as static consist - in fact, there are less complications as the AI train already has a path etc., whereas a STATIC consist could only be run in MANUAL mode, or an additional interface to select a valid path must be made available.
The main issue is that it needs a new window to select to which train to jump - and a set of options what to do with the 'abandonned' train.

Regards,

Rob Roeterdink

[Csantucci]

Selecting which train to jump in could be done by adding a "jump to train" button in the dispatcher window and selecting the train as it is done by the "see in game" function. I like very much such function and often use it to check how an AI train behaves.
The "abandoned" train should become an AI train continuing on its path.

[jared2982]

Or perhaps an option to make the abandoned train a static consist or to select a path for it to continue on based on its current location.