Suggestion: "Single-car-train" rides (like Wild Mouse) Block improvements

[Ayindi]

Hi,
I want to suggest an improved block handling of rides like the Wild Mouse where every car is a single train. Currently I have a Wild Mouse Ride with like 5 Cars/Trains and several block elements, but unfortunately the cars constantly stop at the block brakes because only one car is allowed in the "station block" (which does not make sense for single car rides in my opinion) In this case some possibility to count each station element (or whatever is feasible) as one block would be nice. People get into the train at the beginning of the station while other people leave the train at the end of the station. Right now this ride is quite ineffective since only one car is allowed at the station. I guess other rides of this type are also affected. This is less of an issue for normal train rides since one train is usually on the ride while the other one is at the station.

[mooman82]

have a look at this it will help https://youtu.be/wdm54LHo2Jk

[Ayindi]

Thanks, it was an interesing watch, but it shows exactly the problem I mentioned. If more than one train would be allowed in the "station block" it would be lot smoother an would not require so much tweaking.

[gompedyret]

I for one consistently design my single car coasters to not use block brakes. Then again, I tend to avoid block brakes in general, as we're not particularly good friends.

[abcxyzjt]

I would argue that allowing more than 1 train in a block section would completely nulify the reason for having blocks.

Try runing less trains then maximum for your coaster, this will allow more than just one block to be open at a time. Or ensure your block sections keep getting shorter and shorter as the ride goes, allowing trains to move out of the sections before the train behind them arrives at the blocks.

Another fun tip, on your lift hill leave a size 1 section of the hill with no chain. Make sure your trains are long enough to go over the non-chained section, but this will add another block section to your coaster, allowing more trains to be run.

[deanr201]

You could always build a seperate unload station, and then use spare blocks between your loading station. this would remove the problem.

Alterntivly create shorter station for loading and unloading, and use a better brake run leading up to this would also remove the problem.

You should always make sure you run at least one less train than you have blocks this way you should always have a clear block.

A lot of this does come down to how you create your ride. There is now a block overview so you can see where your blocks are easily.

[Phaz]

I know this is an old thread, but the problem remains. Why can only one car enter the station?! For all other blocks obviously only one car is allowed. But in the station more cars should be able to enter. That's also how it is in real life, in Roller Coaster Tycoon, and in Planet Coaster. All the cars are in the station when the ride starts as well.

I consider this a bug, or otherwise a really poor design choice. :(

[Ayindi]

Haha as the creator of this thread I can add some more experience to this! Maybe it will help you! :) While the original issue still remains to some extent you can work around it quite gracefully.
My suggestion for ANY coaster. Make one station segment (length of each segment depends on coaster, for wild mouse 1 square is sufficient for a regular coaster I'd suggest approx 3 or 4 squares) for passengers to leave and ANOTHER station segment (divided by one normal track part) for passengers to enter the train. That means for a Wild Mouse Track you should make 2 station parts (each 1 square) and a block brake before the station.
When adding some more block brakes to your track you will see that you will have a couple of "one car trains" that will allow a quite smooth operation of your coaster. In case they regularly stop you might consider removing one train to balance the ride.
Just as a reminder: FOR SINGLE CAR TRAINS DONT USE LONG STATIONS! USE ONE SQUARE FOR GUESTS TO LEAVE AND ONE SQUARE TO GET INTO THE TRAIN. HANDLE THE OTHER TRAINS VIA BLOCK BREAKS REASONABLY PLACED ON YOUR TRACK!

[TEA CAT]

Hey, sorry to resurrect such an old topic, but this caught my attention because i too was wondering why two trains can't enter a station that is long enough for both. After some messing around I discovered an interesting behaviour - if you have a block section exactly as long as a single train between two stations, two trains are allowed to occupy it at the same time. It doesn't work well and the trains vibrate against each other complete with a clanging sound effect. I suppose the feature to allow multiple trains in a station was planned, but never finished and this behaviour is due to some leftover code.

It would be nice if a future update added it back. I suspect the way to implement it is to separate each train-length run of station parts into its own block section.

Here's a video of the behaviour in question. I've demonstrated it with the wild mouse, but I also replicated it on the steel coaster - the trains don't have to be a single car length, just the block section has to be the length of a single train and between two stations.

https://youtu.be/Tn34ocEEv6w