How do you make trucks or trains pick up specific things.

[naturest]

So I program a truck to go to the farm depot and pick up grain or livestock and take it to the food processing plant then wait for food and take it to town. The truck starts off saying it will pick up logs. So it travels to the farm and picks up nothing. How do you make the various vehicles do exactly what you want no more no less. I now have a whole bunch of food on my farm which should be in town. I have a train that is supposed to just pick up food and take it to another town but it want to pick up livestock as well, except there is no requirement for livestock so it leaves the station half empty. Any help would be appreciated.

[Saint Landwalker]

When you set a vehicle to "Automatic" cargo (which is the only option that allows it to switch between cargos, e.g. Livestock and Food), it starts its life showing whatever the "default" is (for trucks and ships, which mostly carry anything, that something is Logs). That does not mean it is limited to only carrying that cargo type—it's just a placeholder. Once the farm starts producing grain and livestock, the truck will "switch" to that cargo type and pick it up.

You can only choose between "Only carry this one specific cargo type" and "Carry any type of cargo that's valid for this vehicle." You cannot currently set it to, say, "Only carry food and livestock and ignore everything else."

Vehicles will only carry cargo for which there is a demand that can be satisfied by using that vehicle. Towns don't demand livestock, so unless you have something to carry livestock from the town to a food processing plant, your train will not bring livestock to that town. You can't just hoard cargo somewhere until you're ready to use it.

[akuarmoton]

To assign truck or train car for specific cargo type you must take it to depot. There's small + sign in the truck/train car where you can specify the type it carries. Same thing when you set up autoupgrade, use the small + button in vehicle.

[Vimpster]

Originally posted by akuarmoton:

To assign truck or train car for specific cargo type you must take it to depot. There's small + sign in the truck/train car where you can specify the type it carries. Same thing when you set up autoupgrade, use the small + button in vehicle.

You can also click on the little button next to the word "automatic" in the info window when purchasing the vehicle as well. You only have to do it once and every vehicle bought will copy that setting until you close the vehicle purchase window. It is more simple than buying a bunch of automatic vehicles and than switching each one of them individually by clicking on the plus sign.

[naturest]

Thanks for your help guys

[Lord Bludgeon]

Automatic doesn't work. I just had a train with gondolas the depot set to "Coal" sit at the Iron mine for a year, and the mine didn't bring out anything to the station FOR A YEAR game-time. (the other end of the route was the steel mill, which was sitting on @30 units of coal and NO IRON, and the mine was showing 58 units in storage). Always thought the time-compression of this game was really whacked, but this is ridiculous! Another thing I'll never understand is why that train left the depot and tried to go to the steel mill first...when the route was laid out the other way around?

We should be able to configure the consist as we lay our the route, NOT when we're buying cars!

[Viss Valdyr]

Originally posted by Lord Bludgeon:

Automatic doesn't work. I just had a train with gondolas the depot set to "Coal" sit at the Iron mine for a year, and the mine didn't bring out anything to the station FOR A YEAR game-time. (the other end of the route was the steel mill, which was sitting on @30 units of coal and NO IRON, and the mine was showing 58 units in storage). Always thought the time-compression of this game was really whacked, but this is ridiculous! Another thing I'll never understand is why that train left the depot and tried to go to the steel mill first...when the route was laid out the other way around?

We should be able to configure the consist as we lay our the route, NOT when we're buying cars!

First off, nice necro.


2nd: where the gondolas really set to automatic or coal? If automatic, you made another: waiting for full load. Because this will make your "rate of transport" a lot less than it is supposed to. Even as much, that the industry stops using your train all together (potential getting near zero). Let the train drive some rounds even without cargo and you will see that it starts producing again.

[Lord Bludgeon]

Thanks, VIss. I actually found one of the problems and I'm embarrassed to admit it was a simple one... They won't deliver freight to a passenger terminal. Ever.

I'd still like to know why they insist on running the routes backwards. I rarely have spare cash to let them wander between stations empty, but it does no good to redirect them.

I'm also looking forward to the new version where you can add a passenger terminal to a freight station or vice-versa. In most of the other games I play a station is a station.

[GeeBee]

You can drop freight at a passenger station but you cannot pick freight up from a passenger station. Just make sure you have a truck stop or a freight station in range and you can transport the coal or any other goods or materials providing you have an end destination that needs the supply