Cargo Airport (and hub)

[LucusLoC]

I am finding that the limiting factor with cargo stations is the vehicle traffic throughput. Often, for really dense commercial/industrial areas I need multiple stations just to deal with all the trucks that want to use the facility. That is all well and good when you have a small footprint like the Cargo Train Terminal or even the Cargo Hub. Simply stack a few of them next to each other (or for better results spread them out a bit) and away you go, more than enough truck/train throughput to go around.

But both the cargo airport and the Cargo airport hub are huge assets. You cannot have more of them in a compact area, and some of the more interesting maps may not have the room near certain resources for two or three of them. The fact that they are limited to only one functional truck entrance is really limiting.

The thing is, the assets themselves already have what look like multiple entrances. The Cargo Airport has a massively long truck dock, with room for two access points at least, and the Cargo Airport Hub has room for at least two train bays and three truck entrances (more if you count the front truck docs and not just the tunnels). Since these assets take up so much room why should they not function as mega cargo hubs? Even at two train bays and three truck entrances (or just two truck entrances for the air only version) that is still far less density than you could get out of a equivalent space in just train terminals. But at even these paltry numbers they could still be very useful, as the air traffic does not use up valuable real estate.

I really think that needs to be an official patch for the game, but absent that I would take a mod that ups the truck/train throughput of these assets. Does anything like that exist?

[snowflitzer]

Hi, what you're describing has always been there.

There are simple fixes for these. Make long slopes, e.g.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=502593656&searchtext=traffic+sponge


That helps your guys queuing without spilling onto highways or roads to cause a traffic mess.

They all take generally 1 truck at a time and the speed is slow. But when you compare to real life they are fast :)

I have usually max 2 cargo airports with rail, 2-3 cargo harbour with rails, and about 6 cargo stations. They all linked to each other with an internal rail network and it works beautifully.

Every commercial area has a cargo station as well as every industry area.
Don't make them to big and the traffic will be fine.

[LucusLoC]

I already do this. The limiting factor is how fast the individual trucks can enter and exit the facilities. I design them such that they do not cause backup issues to the surrounding roadways, and I can watch a constant stream of trucks in and out (no blockages due to the output stream getting stopped by traffic) yet I still find myself needing multiple yards for my larger districts. My current Air Cargo Hub is going 100% full blast, and I still need more trhoughput for the district it is servicing. Requiring them to send their own trucks out of the district is inefficient, and I know the issue can be avoided with enough rail yards/ports ('Cause I have done it to other areas in that same city). The game simply cannot get the trucks in and out of the facility fast enough, so I need more.

Now I could set up a few more train stations in that district, they are small enough that it is not a huge burden, but the whopping great footprint of the Air Cargo Hub really makes me wish I cold just use some of that space for for a few more train/truck access points. I mean, even accounting for the rail yard footprint needed to effectively feed the stations themselves the Air Cargo Hub is just a bad investment space wise (especially when you consider most of my switching yard is underground and extends into districts that have no need of cargo depots). I just need the thing to suck in and spit out trucks/trains faster, and utilizing some of the cosmetic assets already built into the model seems to be a great way to accomplish that.

I mean, we already have multi-platform assets for transit stuff (passenger rail yards, bus hubs etc), why does cargo get a short shift on that front?

[LucusLoC]

No mod to help fix this?

[Owlchemist]

I use this to "fix" it: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1829496988

It's not really a fix, though. But it will allow you to manipulate the AI pathfinding in such a way that you could make a % of the traffic not want to go to the terminal anymore. This is useful for load balancing. In my case, I set it to 50% so that my terminal only gets half as many trucks going to it, and the other half will use other export options available to them.

You are right though, it would be nice to have multiple entrances into a terminal... if nothing less, at least have a separate entrance for *returning* trucks that belong to the terminal and are coming back with an empty load. They clog up the entry roads.

[snowflitzer]

Originally posted by LucusLoC:

No mod to help fix this?

Look I feel for you and I think it could be better but maybe I give you my save and you look at how I manage it?

[Priest]

only thing that would be nice would be to swap entry and exit of the cargo trainstation
At least i place it ALWAYS inside a one way road ring, and that means its allways wrong around

[LucusLoC]

@Snowflitzer, I do not think you are hearing what I am saying. I do not have a problem with traffic at the cargo stations, I have a problem with the throughput of the station itself. I am working on a very large city (basically a "fill in the map" project, it will go until my computer cries uncle) and that means larger districts for stuff. Larger districts mean more demand for cargo terminals, and even if I have the traffic issue sorted out (which I do) there is still a limit to how many trucks/trains it can spit out in a given time. So what do you do when your cargo facility is at 100% usage, as far as the game mechanics go? *You build more*. Only problem is the Air Cargo Hub is huge, so building more is not really viable. But giving it more entrances (basically more internal facilities) would mean it is still a viable facility, even with how the game works internally.

I am not trying to min/max or fully optimize or "game the game". I actually want something that resembles (aesthetically) a roughly realistic city, with larger regions dedicated to certain functions (limited, of course, by the built in abstraction, but who is counting?). Answers that "game the game" are not part of the solution, nor will they actually help because what solution like the "traffic sponge" solve are not the problem I am having.

[snowflitzer]

Fair point, as I have seen the issue coming up several times over the last year on steam I don't think there is a solution to the throughput of the station unless you design a new with a different output.

Don't know if that is a limit of the game/unity engine or you can change it on the station.

[spawmatthew88]

Originally posted by snowflitzer:

Hi, what you're describing has always been there.

There are simple fixes for these. Make long slopes, e.g.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=502593656&searchtext=traffic+sponge


That helps your guys queuing without spilling onto highways or roads to cause a traffic mess.

They all take generally 1 truck at a time and the speed is slow. But when you compare to real life they are fast :)

I have usually max 2 cargo airports with rail, 2-3 cargo harbour with rails, and about 6 cargo stations. They all linked to each other with an internal rail network and it works beautifully.

Every commercial area has a cargo station as well as every industry area.
Don't make them to big and the traffic will be fine.

I'm playing on xbox with a bunch of DLCs and utilized 3 cargo air ports in my last city. I'm starting a new one now, planning things out, and Im wondering, is that pathway something I can build out on xbox? Or does that mod utilize things I'm not aware of and therefore won't be able to build it properly on xbox?

OR... can I just visually copy it, and build it out with roads?

[OneJasonBradly]

I would think you could build one of these things between the two assets.

[tomydenger]

Originally posted by spawmatthew88:

Originally posted by snowflitzer:

Hi, what you're describing has always been there.

There are simple fixes for these. Make long slopes, e.g.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=502593656&searchtext=traffic+sponge


That helps your guys queuing without spilling onto highways or roads to cause a traffic mess.

They all take generally 1 truck at a time and the speed is slow. But when you compare to real life they are fast :)

I have usually max 2 cargo airports with rail, 2-3 cargo harbour with rails, and about 6 cargo stations. They all linked to each other with an internal rail network and it works beautifully.

Every commercial area has a cargo station as well as every industry area.
Don't make them to big and the traffic will be fine.

I'm playing on xbox with a bunch of DLCs and utilized 3 cargo air ports in my last city. I'm starting a new one now, planning things out, and Im wondering, is that pathway something I can build out on xbox? Or does that mod utilize things I'm not aware of and therefore won't be able to build it properly on xbox?

OR... can I just visually copy it, and build it out with roads?

The issue is as dumb as it sound, just make a very long and compact road so it doesnt overstack where you don't wants it to. You can makes your own yes.

On my end, i don't like building that, so i use this mod :
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2911178252
But i don't know if you have access to mods.

Also, the asset you were speaking about is basically a roundabout

[WhiteKnight77]

Originally posted by spawmatthew88:

Originally posted by snowflitzer:

Hi, what you're describing has always been there.

There are simple fixes for these. Make long slopes, e.g.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=502593656&searchtext=traffic+sponge


That helps your guys queuing without spilling onto highways or roads to cause a traffic mess.

They all take generally 1 truck at a time and the speed is slow. But when you compare to real life they are fast :)

I have usually max 2 cargo airports with rail, 2-3 cargo harbour with rails, and about 6 cargo stations. They all linked to each other with an internal rail network and it works beautifully.

Every commercial area has a cargo station as well as every industry area.
Don't make them to big and the traffic will be fine.

I'm playing on xbox with a bunch of DLCs and utilized 3 cargo air ports in my last city. I'm starting a new one now, planning things out, and Im wondering, is that pathway something I can build out on xbox? Or does that mod utilize things I'm not aware of and therefore won't be able to build it properly on xbox?

OR... can I just visually copy it, and build it out with roads?

If you have one way roads, and can raise or lower roads, there is no reason why you could not build something like this. Even just a long, one way S road can help absorb traffic.