Share Your Naming Conventions

[Saint Landwalker]

I'm always down to hear about how people name their lines in order to better organize the line manager and similar information. Do you have a particular naming convention? Share it with the class.

I'm starting to develop a new one from what I used in TpF1. It's still a work in progress, but it looks something like this:

• [TRK] EDN Tools Local
  
  
• [TRN] ATL-NSH Intercity
  
  
• [SHP] HOU Food Import

Which tells me:

• Truck line, Edinburgh, local tools delivery
  
  
• Train line running from Atlanta to Nashville (intercity, duh)
  
  
• Ship line, importing food to Houston

I'm probably going to end up shuffling things around a bit. I want to differentiate upfront whether something is a passenger-local line, passenger-intercity line, or freight line (and maybe between different parts of a freight chain, but not sure how to do that). So I might add a tag after the vehicle tag for something like [PINT] and [PLOC], and then do... something with freight? I dunno.

Anyway, I want to hear about y'all's.

[𝓕𝔁]

Pretty much the same as yours, handy in order to manage lines and mass replace with newly released vehicles, i.e search for BUS, select all bus lines, upgrade all vehicles to that shiny new bus :)

[Saber Kitsune]

For rail passenger lines:

"P - (Terminus City A) - (Terminus City B)" - local trains, stopping at every city between them.
"P - (Terminus City A) - (Terminus City B) Express" - express trains, stopping at major cities only.

For rail cargo:
"C - (Source) (CargoType) - (Destination)"

For buses:
"P - (City) X#" and "P - (City) Y#" - My bus lines are usually linear, so I base an X/Y axis off of a town landmark. Numbering starts closest to landmark. Z gets used if I end up with a line that doesn't follow either axis.

For trucks:
"C - (City) (Cargo) Distribution" - bigger cities may see use of Q1-Q4 suffixes to refer to quadrants made from the earlier X/Y axis.
"C - (Source) (CargoType) - (Destination)" - yes, the same format for trucks as well as rail.

Don't really use ships/aircraft much, so no special conventions for them.

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by Saber Kitsune:

For rail cargo:
"C - (Source) (CargoType) - (Destination
....
"C - (Source) (CargoType) - (Destination)" - yes, the same format for trucks as well as rail.

I like this [Source] [Type] - [Destination] setup. I might appropriate or modify this one for my own purposes.

[babylon218]

Still experimenting, but I'm quickly noticing a few issues with the technique I used in TpF1.

1) Line names are a LOT shorter in TpF2. In TpF1 I'd call a goods train consisting of vans between two goods stations "Station A - Station B (Vans)". Not practical with the longer names in this iteration. Shortening it to 3-letter codes helps, but has a different issue - developing those codes and remembering them.
2) The game does not make it particularly easy or useful to filter between vehicle types in my experience. This means if I have an intercity truck route and train route, it can be even more awkward. So, altering the naming convention to give the vehicle type as well as origin-destination-cargo type? See point 1. It makes the line name too unwieldy.

So, I'm probably going to end up employing Alpha-Numeric codes for lines to make things easier:

• Numbered bus routes (e.g. 1, 2, 3, X1, X2, X3, etc.)
  
• BR style train reporting numbers (1Axx,1Bxx, etc.) I used to do this with individual trains in TpF1 with the line name just containing the priority number and route letter at most, but may have to deploy this more seriously in TpF2.
  
• Ships might get away with a really basic system, will have to do some testing.
  
• Not a clue RE: aircraft. Again, going to have to see how it works.

I'll give this some thought and experimenting and report back with my thoughts.

[Saint Landwalker]

What do yo mean by "shorter names in TpF2"? I've had some pretty long names, and haven't noticed them being capped any earlier than in TpF1, but maybe I just haven't gotten to the point where it became an issue under my existing convention.

[babylon218]

Originally posted by Saint Landwalker:

What do yo mean by "shorter names in TpF2"? I've had some pretty long names, and haven't noticed them being capped any earlier than in TpF1, but maybe I just haven't gotten to the point where it became an issue under my existing convention.

From what I've seen - and it could just be my GUI scaling - while the character limit isn't lower as such, only a certain amount actually fits in the line manager list before it gets cut off. That's difficult when you have a long place name, as well as another place name and wagon type to fit in as with my example.

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by babylon218:

Originally posted by Saint Landwalker:

What do yo mean by "shorter names in TpF2"? I've had some pretty long names, and haven't noticed them being capped any earlier than in TpF1, but maybe I just haven't gotten to the point where it became an issue under my existing convention.

From what I've seen - and it could just be my GUI scaling - while the character limit isn't lower as such, only a certain amount actually fits in the line manager list before it gets cut off. That's difficult when you have a long place name, as well as another place name and wagon type to fit in as with my example.

Ah, I see what you mean.

I've always (back to TpF1) used three-letter codes for all my cities, so that wasn't an issue itself. Where I always run into uncertainty over how to handle naming is for "transfer" steps. Say I have a farm, and I take the grain on trucks (Line 1) to a train station, then by train (Line 2) to a food processing plant. What do I name Line 1? What about if I have something like Crude Oil > Truck > Train > Oil Refinery > same train > Fuel Refinery > Truck > Town?

It all kinds kind of weird and "Eh close enough." I don't feel like I have a good system to manage all of that.

[Thoddy]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=801491220

[❆🎄Douglas 🎁 🎂]

I use:

P for passenger trains
C for cargo trans
L for local passenger lines such as Bus or Tram
T for trucks

So:

P: CW (passenger clockwise route)
P: ACW (passenger anticlockwise route)
P: North <> South East
Since usually my train lines are long and cover most towns, names tend to be east, west, clockwise etc, depending on the map.

C1a: Construction Materials > Edinburg
C1b: Quarry > Construction Materials

C2a: Grain > Food Processor
And so on

This way the entire chain of one type of good is in 1 number. Easy to scalate production as all lines in that chain is specified.

L: Edinburg Passenger Service 1 (or L: Edinburg PS1)
And the number goes unlimited according to how many tram or bus lines I have in the city.

T: Edinburg Industrial Service 1 (or L: Edinburg IS1)
T: Edinburg Commercial Service 1 (or L: Edinburg CS1)
So instead of defining the cargo type I just define the area it serves. That was more helpful in TpF1, since industries receive up to 3 types of cargo and most of the time 1 line could deliver all of them, since trucks are multipurpose. But in TpF2 that could probably mention cargo type.

I rather use longer names than too many acronoms, to help find and visualize easier, not to codify everything.

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by ❆🎄Douglas 🎁 🎂:

C1a: Construction Materials > Edinburg
C1b: Quarry > Construction Materials
And so on

Out of curiosity, what do you do if you have a chain that splits? For example, Quarry > ConMats Factory, but then you have ConMats > Edinburgh and ConMats > Glasgow out of the same location? Just treat the deliveries as C1b and C1c?

[Bautz]

PAS -> Passenger Train
EXP -> Passenger Express
APN -> Airplane
BUS -> Bus
TRM -> Tram
FRT -> Freight Train
TRK -> Truck
MSS -> Passenger Ship
FSP -> Freight Ship

Then the Product. Then the source and destination. Or if final Dilivery the delivery destination.

[N7J6M]

Every line starts either with P- (Passenger) or F- (Freight) then it varies with abbreviations such as P-Train-Circ all citys CW (Passenger Train Circular service clockwise to all cities) or something like F-Truck-Catl1:FoodPrc2 (Freight Truck Cattle from farm 1 to Food processing plant 2). As long as the abbreviations work for yourself and can standout amongst a crowded box full of lines they work.

[babylon218]

Okay, after some brief testing, I have a system that works at least conceptually. Based on the BR Train Reporting Number system:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1935771024

Based on my first real TpF2 game. Made the map in the editor, and it's rubbish, but this screenshot kinda gives an idea as to how the listed lines interact. 1st character of the name is the Classification (1 for express passenger, 2 for ordinary passenger, 3 for express freight (distribution to final destination), 4 for intermediate freight, etc. I don't have this fully worked out yet.) 2nd character is the 'area' or 'strategic route' (in this case, A indicates the network emerging from Norton Radley, B the network emerging from Croydon off-screen. Potentially you could use letters referencing the principle destination on the route, so N and C respectfully.) 3rd character is the more specific route, and the 4th character the individual service.

So, 2A11 is an ordinary passenger train in the Norton Radley Area between Norton Radley and Leiston, and is the first line on that route. The final character isn't too relevant at this stage, but could become more important if you have multiple lines on the same basic route.

As another example, 4A21 is an intermediate freight train running from Norton Radley Harbour to Norton Radley station. 4 indicates it's going from an intermediate goods point (picking up planks at the harbour in this case) and taking them to the distribution/production point. A indicates it serves the Norton Radley Area. 2 indicates it is on the route between Norton Radley and Norton Radley Harbour. 1 indicates it is the 1st service on that line (again, not terribly relevant since it's also likely to be the ONLY service on that line). I've also put down the consist type. 4A21 consists of both box vans and stake cars, so it's a mixed consist.

Benefits are it sorts your lines by 'priority' (exp pass, ord pass, exp freight, etc.), then 'area', then route and service, which is how I like to search for things.

This method still needs proper testing on a built-up network, so I'm going to go off and do that and make any adjustments. Might put up a guide when I have done if it works well enough.

[❆🎄Douglas 🎁 🎂]

Originally posted by Saint Landwalker:

Originally posted by ❆🎄Douglas 🎁 🎂:

C1a: Construction Materials > Edinburg
C1b: Quarry > Construction Materials
And so on

Out of curiosity, what do you do if you have a chain that splits? For example, Quarry > ConMats Factory, but then you have ConMats > Edinburgh and ConMats > Glasgow out of the same location? Just treat the deliveries as C1b and C1c?

Just put the name of the 2 cities. C1c: ConMats > Edinburg | Glasgow. Its still ConMats chain.

[T3kx]

Food Main 1 (Dark Red)
Food London (Bright Red)
Food Paris (Bright Red)


PAX LON-PAR (Dark Blue) *Caps for intercity
pax London 1 (Bright Blue)
pax London 2 (Bright Blue)
pax Paris 1 (Bright Blue)
pax Paris 2 (Bright Blue)


PAX-LON-EDI (Dark Blue) *Caps for intercity
pax Edimburg (Bright Blue)

Honestly, imho, no need to add brackets or whatnot with TRK, TRA, AIR... just use the filter or play with letters so Train are first in lists, but grouped with related lines.