Metro system destroyed by Sunset Harbor

[Manglerdome]

Since they changed the subway car length they also change the length of the stations. Turns out many many of my subways are stuck and cannot move. I couldn't figure out why the population was dying and they were screaming for "no workers". Because they are starving to death in the subway apparently.
Great patch really.I feel like I want to uninstall the game, I have spent so many hours tinkering with the subway system in my city and it is all just wrecked now. :(

[snowflitzer]

Do you have by any change 90 degree angles in your metro?

[Mr. Monday]

Just delete and rebuild your stations. That'll update their lengths to allow for the longer trains. Also check for turns that are too tight as snowfitzer pointed out.

[natgpg]

Hey, Manglerdome. I hear you; it happened to me, too--and all the 280k+ citizens of my city, Wandos. The Wandosians enjoy 17 subway lines; almost all are two-line transfer stations. So I was left distraught to encounter the same problems you described: the default station platform lengths have been lengthened, as has been the default "metro" subway vehicle. This means that if you have under "select vehicle" the simple default type "metro", the computer will now select the longer version, and eventually replace all of your formerly regular length metro vehicle with the longer one. I have been told that the new subway programming is now limiting turn-radius for subway trains, so now the new, longer default trans may not be able to negotiate some of the tighter turns you system may have had in place.

How to handle this challenge? Well, IMHO, neither you nor I should have been put in this predicament to begin with; we should have been given the choice of whether or not to accept the option of using longer platforms and longer trains, and more limited turn radius. But this was not left to us. You certainly can try as Mr.Monday says: "just" delete and rebuild all your stations. This was not acceptable to me, both as a practical matter and on principle. Some of my stations are tight complexes of up to four platforms, and I just do not have the physical space to refit longer platforms in to the space available; this would also have made for tighter turns, not looser ones. So I searched the workshop for shorter-length subway trains. I found several that might work for me; I chose one that I think is called "classic metro 2x2" (I will check for this and append this message reply to you with the exact name when I will have next gone online to play the game). But you can go to the workshop yourself, and look in the long list on the right side to select the box labelled "vehicles". (Don't go looking under the box labelled "metros", as this will pull up stations, not vehicles.) There, you can peruse the different subway trains available. The old, standard "metro" was a train of 6 cars, each holding 30 people, and all going 24mph. See if you can find one type of train with the number of cars you want; you can change their "holding" and speed stats yourself (I think I subscribed to "Customize It!" to do this.) For my purposes, I chose a 4-car version (= "2x2"), and it was able to negotiate all of the tight turns that already existed on my systems. So I did not have to replace any stations, nor redo any tunnels. My thought is that you could still find some 6-car train, which would emulate the former, default "metro" train, which would then allow you to reestablish the former subway service that you've been used to. (I would avoid subscribing to any train simply called "metro", as my hypothosis is that they have simply taken the multi-digit identifier code that had been assigned to the former, shorter train and merely reassigned it to the longer version. So you can think you are choosing the shorter version, and a longer train nevertheless majically appears.)
One thing you must remember to do, for each of your subway lines, is to pull up the "lines overview" and select for subways; it will then show a listing of all of your lines. Then click on the "magnifying glass" for each of the lines (you'll have to do this one line at a time; that "magnifying glass" symbol is on the far right side--make sure you do not click on the "circle around an 'x'" symbol, as that will delete your line altogether!) You will then want to highlight each of your existing trains--they will probably be labeled simply "metro"; click on "remove vehicle" for each of these, totally depleting subway trains from that subway line. Then find and select the "select vehicle" button. It will pull up a small window showing all of the possible subway trains you can choose among; this will include the new default, longer subway listed as, simply, "metro", plus any other train type you have subscribed to from the workshop. Avoid highlighting "metro"--after all, this is what has created the whole problem, to begin with! Instead, choose your preferred model(s) by highlighting them from the "select vehicle" list. Then you can click the "add train" button, to add as many trains as you would like, or you can have your budget control the number, by clicking the similarly named button on that subway line's main window.

I have done all of the above, and it has worked! At least so far. I have not had to remove any of my now-considered-shorter platforms/stations, nor have I had to replace any subway tunneling. This said, I have run into a couple of problems. Once you chose to "remove train", that train will try to immediately return to the depot that your "subway line window" shows that line is using. Some of my removed trains could not make some turns necessary to get them back to that depot station. In these situations, I had to bulldoze the tunnel segments in which they were caught, and rebuild a temporary tunnel, usually with a wider curve, to give that train (and any others that may be following it back to the depot) a temporary way to remove itself from your subway system. Once all of your removed trains are gone, you can bulldoze the temporary section you had just put in, and reinstall the original tunnel segment's layout.

A second aggravation I have noted. The new subway tunneling program apparently places new subway tunneling at different depths than it had in the past. I have found that I can usually
"pick up" (by click-and-hold-and-dragging) a tunnel-end wherever I had left it, but it is harder for the computer to match the proper depth when you try to adjoin it to a subway station platform end. So far I have been successful, but you have to watch carefully to note whether or not the little grey circle cursor is actually at the same depth of the platform, and not a little less deep nor a little greater deep.

And another matter. I have noted that most of my subway stations were two-line transfer stations. This type of station I had to have found on the workshop quite some time ago; they all had the shorter platform length. I have found that I can copy these stations, and place the copy at some other place in my city. This has allowed me to continue to expand my system, using the old length standard. For this, you need to have subscribed to "Move It!" from the workshop, and choose the "copy" option after you have selected your preferred station. In places where I want only a single-line station of two platforms, the computer still pulls up the new, longer style it has assigned as the new default. (Where I tried to "copy" one of my few older-style shorter-length stations, the computer nevertheless would look to place the newer-style longer-length stations; I have not found a way around this. But, for me, these "single" stations are not in crowded areas, and the longer length of the platform has not gotten in the way. And the shorter trains can all use it.)

All that said, one more quirk. Where I have connected a new tunnel to a new, longer-length single-line station, I have found that the grey-shaded portrayal of the tunnel system appears perfectly connected while in the "underground" viewing mode, but when you are looking at your city from the usual, above-ground surface-view mode, the tunnel segment that connects to the station appears as a ground-level metro track that is heading into a tunnel, at the place where the track connects to the platform. I have yet to report this problem to the discussion community, so I do not have a fix to offer for this matter. (As it happens, I have not run my game much since I encountered the "they've destroyed my metro system" problem; I've used the opportunity to re-train all of my lines, and to tram-system upgrades for my city and the like.) But at least my subway system is up and running again, and I didn't have to rebuild the whole damn thing!

I hope this helps you find a way not to have to totally rebuild your whole system!

[natgpg]

BTW, I should have probably mentioned that I deselected using the Sunset Harbor DLC; that was my first, best attempt to limit the damage. To do this, as you start through the start-up sequence of windows, on the (first) window, you see a "play" button, below which is a statement of how many hours you have played the game. On this same screen, scroll down somewhat, and keep looking at the right side. At some point it will list icons of the various DLC's you have purchased, and it will give you an option as a button to "manage my DLC's". I chose to press this button, and then to "not install" Sunset Harbor for my games going forward. (Given the choice between saving my metro system vs. gaining a new fishing boat system, I chose to dish the fish. You decide.) I will continue to deselect Sunset Harbor until the powers that be have chosen to fix the problems that they have created and foisted upon us.

[Belhade]

Since that's a free "update" and not part of the DLC, that shouldn't affect the metro changes.

[natgpg]

Back again, with some subway train suggestions, as I had promised. I have elected to use "Classic Metro (2x2)"; there is also a "Classic Metro (2x3)", which I believe is the old-style, 6-car subway train that we had all come to know and love (although I would check its carrying capacity and speed). There is also a "Sydney Metro 6-car..." that seemed interesting to me, as well as "Copenhagen_Metr..."; this latter may have 4- and 6-car versions. Lastly, I had long subscribed to, but had never used, "m100"; it also seems to have a shorter variant as "4 car M100 metro train".

As an aside, I see that Belhade has offered a short clarification comment, above. It has reminded me that this whole problem started as a free update that was foisted upon (me), though it came close to the time as Sunset Harbor's availability. I since subscribed to Sunset Harbor, but as it was then built upon that free update, I chose to avoid compounding the existing problem by loading Sunset Harbor into my game play. I thank Belhade for reminding me of this clarification--it all begins to merge in one's mind after a while!

[Manglerdome]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will have a look at it tonight.
Regarding the "just delete and place new ones", it is just not that simple. The "new" stations might not fit in the location due to height difference, interference from other tunnels and so on. I don't have 2 subway lines, I have 20+

I am also sure I have sharp angles somewhere in my subway tracks, but if all this is causing an issue they did a really bad job with the quality control for this release. (well it is obvious that that is the case)

[Clunk]

The prospect of 'above ground' metro was a good one and I personally very much looked forward to its introduction. But the truth is I made only one small section above ground in one city which I've since moved on from due to functional issues, such as passenger vehicles deciding not to carry passengers and running empty, despite deleting and remaking the lines and vehicles more times than I care to remember.

The hassle introduced with SH and the patch for non-SH DLC users has, judging by posts on various CLS fora, been appalling. Not just metros, but the overall game mechanic, too.

With only one piddly patch since release it seems life within CLS was far better and far more stable, and less prone to problems, pre-Sunset Harbor.

A swan song which backfired and only leaves a sense of frustration for many in its wake, perhaps. Such a shame.

[evalen]

Just look at it like your city just had a disaster and the City is now conducting a plan to repair all the disaster areas, have fun working on your new plan for your city.

[Manglerdome]

Originally posted by evalen:

Just look at it like your city just had a disaster and the City is now conducting a plan to repair all the disaster areas, have fun working on your new plan for your city.

I actually took this approach, I have been "repairing" the subway system. I rename the linest that have been completed and try to do one section at a time.
Have to take pauses doing this as it is quite irritating when something that previously was a perfect placement now is "SLOPE TO STEEP".

[Belhade]

Originally posted by evalen:

Just look at it like your city just had a disaster and the City is now conducting a plan to repair all the disaster areas, have fun working on your new plan for your city.

The lifecycle rebalance in the patch (Operation Make Everyone Elderly) appears to be an implementation of the covid-19 pandemic.