Is there an easy way to address "Frequency"

[timber192]

Hello. New player for TF2.
Is there an easy way to address “Frequency”? What must be done to change the value?

I have read threads and discussion on this topic, watched Youtube videos, but am still confused. Rates, Times, 1/20… omg.
In Era3/Chapter3 – Mission 4/16, you are tasked with reducing the frequency to 120 or less. I have no success in getting this done.

So may I pose these questions:
Assumptions: Trains as transport, Frequency is 500 and want to reduce the value

1 Is frequency a measure of the “line/route”? or individual trains on that line/route?
2 Do you add or subtract the # of trains?
To the line/route or to the entire 'system'?
3. Do you add more stops to the line/route, or subtract # of stops?
4. Do I want short/fast turn-arounds of train on a route? Or longer/slower turn-arounds? (Related to Q3, I would eliminate intermediate stops from A>B>C>D and just do A>D)

I haven’t’ enjoyed a PC game this much in years.
Thanks for any replies.

[Autocoach]

Frequency is per line and is the measure of how often one of your vehicles passes a certain point going in a particular direction. Eg 1 train frequency 10min , 2 frequncy 5 min

[MagnusA]

The term "frequency" is misleading and should be called "interval" or something like that. It is measrued in time intervals (minutes, seconds and so on) and is the mean time intervall between the vehicles on a line. More vehicles on a line decreases the interval and less will increase the interval.

If frequency in the game was used properly itwould have been "vehicles per minute" or something like that, not the other way around as TF does.

[Huperspace]

"Frequency" (1/s) is the wrong name for it. it should be called "Interval" (s). It's the avg. time one vehicle approach a station per station (if you are waiting for an metro on a station and every 5 min one train is coming then it's called 5min-Interval). 1 line, 1 train, 2 stops, 10min : it's the time for forth and back; same only 2 trains -> 5min: it's the time between station.

if you have to lower "frequency" then you have to shorten travel time or increasing the number of vehicles.

[sergetechone]

As for the game is consern, let take this example : Just say you just build a train line, from City A to City B and the stations are in a good location within the city, you buy a train and select a route. Check the Route Listing for that particular line and see the frequency. The frequency is going to be a trip both way for one train. Let say : 10 min. So you need a few more trains on the line. And you need to make sure the rail line as proper signals to handle multiple trains. So you buy an another train. frequency will be 5 min, add two more of 3 more, or more until the frequency is equal or below 120 second or 2 min. The same idea goes for a bus line. In my play, my passagers line are always 3 min or bellow in frequency so the passagers will start to show up at the stations / bus stops.

As for cargo, it is the rate is more important. If you are supplying a town who need 100 in Food for example, and one truck can have a rate of 5, than you add more trucks to the line until the rate of the truck route reach close to 100.

Passager is the frequency and Cargo is the rate.

[Tossi]

Originally posted by sergetechone:

... Passager is the frequency and Cargo is the rate.

Overall very good post except for the last totally stupid sentence that makes no sense and only serves to confuse. Also frequency and rate are interconnected. If you have two completly different lines and use vehicles on them that have exactly same capacity then if they will have the same frequency then they will also have the same rate.

[potski]

It is true that in science/engineering frequency means the number of oscillations in a fixed time period, such as the number of waves in a sound during a second, so this could be measured as 250 Hz. But it is also normal in English to say:

Q. How frequently do the trains run?
A. There is one every five minutes, give or take.
Q. Give or take what?
A. Sometimes they are two minutes, sometimes ten. But the average frequency is about five minutes.

What is NOT normal conversation is to continue:

Q. Are you sure that's right?
A. No, I am misleading you. The trains have a frequency of 0.0033 Hz
Q. WTF???

They are using frequency in the Japan mission that way. But this is slightly confusing as it is not described exactly that way in the game interface, and I think the description mentioned minutes while the target is then displayed in seconds, or something like that. So I was slightly confused by what it was at first referring to when I saw it displayed as just over 500, this is seconds or about 9 minutes, and you need to get it under 2 minutes (120 seconds).

So it wasn't immediately obvious that all you have to do to achieve it is literally add some more trains between Osaka and Tokio (not "Tokyo"?).

If I was being awkward, I might describe this as a bug. But actually working out what the developers, who are not English, want you to do, is part of the fun. Find a bear? How? Exact number of rocks? Which rocks? Make a noise? Yeah, I shouted at the computer and it made no difference :)

[Vimpster]

Originally posted by Tossi:

Originally posted by sergetechone:

... Passager is the frequency and Cargo is the rate.

Overall very good post except for the last totally stupid sentence that makes no sense and only serves to confuse.

Though it may not have been made clear I believe he was simply saying that when dealing with passengers frequency is generally the more useful stat to look at and when dealing with cargo the rate is the more useful stat. But yes they are of course both interconnected and changing the one will unavoidably effect the other.

[timber192]

Thank you all for your insightful input.
From an overall frequency average of ~500, I was able to get that down to an average below 120.

I did this by double-tracking between close major cities, then making sure I was running 2 PAX trains for each route. I did that for 5 routes (10 trains) and was about 130 seconds average. I then added a third train to a line (dropped to 122) and then a third train to another line and achieved the goal.

I spent millions of dollars and am pretty sure none of these ‘extra’ trains are going to be at all profitable. But that’s OK, this is just goal-achievements for the chapters and a long tutorial to learn the game.

Again, thanks to you all. Tc

[potski]

One passenger line Tokio to Osaka, stopping at Nagoya, was all that was required and put all of the passenger trains running on that line. But , yes, you need to double track so that none of the trains get in each others way, use signals and spread the trains out. Then you only need 5-6. Still at nearly $50 million each that's some expense.

They can make a profit if you have enough passengers. I put a third track running alongside the passengers to take a couple of cargo trains to supply food to Tokio and Nagoya, which helped bring the populations up, and number of passengers. And I brought passengers by bus from some of the smaller cities to Nagoya, I didn't want to slow down the trains (it takes some distance for them to get up to full speed) by having more stops. Osaka, Nagoya and Tokio are already built for you, so I just stuck with them, and converted Nagoya and Tokio to joint passenger/cargo stations. I love that new feature :)

[timber192]

Thanks Potski. FYI - my issue was with the mission Era 3, Mission 4. This takes place in Germany in the 1960's. So you have that to look forward to... :)

[Zalym]

Originally posted by timber192:

Thanks Potski. FYI - my issue was with the mission Era 3, Mission 4. This takes place in Germany in the 1960's. So you have that to look forward to... :)

Thanks for this whole post--I'm working on this one too.

Originally posted by Huperspace:

"Frequency" (1/s) is the wrong name for it. it should be called "Interval" (s). It's the avg. time one vehicle approach a station per station (if you are waiting for an metro on a station and every 5 min one train is coming then it's called 5min-Interval). 1 line, 1 train, 2 stops, 10min : it's the time for forth and back; same only 2 trains -> 5min: it's the time between station.

if you have to lower "frequency" then you have to shorten travel time or increasing the number of vehicles.

Thank you for the help!

[potski]

Originally posted by timber192:

Thanks Potski. FYI - my issue was with the mission Era 3, Mission 4. This takes place in Germany in the 1960's. So you have that to look forward to... :)

I did the first part of the German mission last night, right after posting here about the Japanese mission. So I knew the principle, still took me a while to work out how to do it with a much more complex network. And now I understand better your reference to double tracking :)

[Zalym]

Spoiler contains mission-breaking and enjoyment-killing "bug?".

The trains don't even have to be able to run their lines to accomplish this objective.

While building tracks and then buying trains, I paused the game so that I could work on my plans without the warnings I was previously getting for some trains headbutting each other.

As I was buying new trains and assigning them to their lines, this objective completed.

Whether or not the trains can ever physically complete their routes with any frequency at all, the time is still calculated and drops as if they could based on the math of the routes alone.

Example: Going back to explore this, I found out that I could buy 6 of the RE450 electric commuter trains and assign them to a line with one track at each station and no signals between them, and the frequency would still drop even while the game is paused and the trains are in the depots.

This transport sim's "campaign" makes me want to pull my hair out for all the wrong reasons.

[texasmail]

I worked on the "Frequency 120" issue for quite a while. I finally ended up selling all of my trains. I then set up a separate short route with two end terminals with 4 tracks. I put a train on each track that had 7 cars that each could handle 33 passengers which is 924 that meets the 900 capacity. With this short route, the trains easily met the frequency. I'd post an image, but I don't see how to paste one into this comment.