Trying To Understand The Express Goods Info Pane

[mbutton15]

So, I've never seen this info til now !! Currently trying to do the Vulture scenario (think on South West map). I've got the 3 cities up to size - all gold ticks, too ! Now I need to up my passenger count...

I've just connected Louisville to Nashville (and have no other routes involving Louisville). Here's the Louisville Express Goods info pane:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1892677012
I can see Nashville has 9 passengers, which I think means 9 truck loads of passengers waiting to go to Nashville. Correct me any time I'm wrong !!

I set up an 'automatic' line to Nashville and highlighted passengers as priority at both stations. My heart sank when I saw the train load up with 8 crates of silk (or cloth, as the game calls it). Why didn't it load up with passengers ?

Actually, I just noticed on the city summary screen (just above the industry slots) it shows 4 lots of passengers waiting. How does this tie in with the above info pane ?

[Thineboot]

New connected cities will receive goods first before passengers and mail. Once the initial missing goods are delivered you'll see passengers and mail be delivered. You'll further notice that there will be not only a percentage of passengers to Nashville showing up but also for cities beyond.

And no correction necessary.

[mbutton15]

I thought priority meant pick up priority marked items first ??

I guess I need to make it a passenger/mail route and still have passengers take priority. In fact, I did experiment and do exactly that. I set a passenger/mail route and marked passengers as priority. It loaded 3 passengers and 5 mail. But according to the info there were still more passengers - why didn't it take them all ?

How do I interpret the numbers in the above screenshot as I couldn't see any in game help or anything in the Guides section explaining it? As mentioned in the OP, the summary says 4 'passengers', but that doesn't seem to tie in with the info pane ?

[Thineboot]

Goods are essential to city growth. That's why they get delivered when they can be delivered. At least that's my understanding.

Priority adds a weight and doesn't work as you go first no matter what.

As far as my tests have taught me the percentages are accumulated over a 3 month period. Numbers in RE are shown as integer while they are floating points. Hover over them and you'll get a popup telling you they are car loads of passengers (varies with era) and mail (40).

For a quick understanding start a free game and transport only passenger and mail and check out the change of car loads and percentages. Much easier than trying to put it in words.

What you're seeing in the screenshot is an accumulation of percentage of every passenger and mail during the last three months shipped out of Louisville. When you ship out them numbers drop and start to get replenished during the following weeks. When you drop off passengers and mail destined for other cities their numbers raise and drop away if not offered a ride by train in time.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by Thineboot:

What you're seeing in the screenshot is an accumulation of percentage of every passenger and mail during the last three months shipped out of Louisville.

Ah, so it's not telling me what is waiting to go out. Instead, it's what has already gone out.
I was thinking it's what is waiting to go out - no wonder the summary screen didn't tie up with the info pane !!

UPDATE:
If that's what has gone out then why have most of the cities got data against them as I only have routes to Nashville from Louisville ?

[Thineboot]

Numbers are waiting, percentages are already gone out.

Originally posted by Thineboot:

[...] You'll further notice that there will be not only a percentage of passengers to Nashville showing up but also for cities beyond. [...]

Any passengers and mail will board or be boarded that want's to go in the direction the train is heading to. Thus not only Louisville to Nashville but also whoever is waiting for Memphis, Jacksonville and all the other cities that lie beyond Nashville.

Again, easiest way to understand would be a free game with only a single line. That way it's easy to figure out what's actually going one. Starting with a blank slate you suddenly see behind the curtain. I did it with Washington-Baltimore-New York being a short and a long leg and checking out the numbers changing day-by-day and especially stopping before and after (un)loading is essential.

Once you've understand that you have new view on the numbers. They won't add up because they are constantly changing but knowing why gives them a sense - more or less. It's more a feeling than calculating exact numbers as there are just too much variables the more cities are on a map.

[chaney]

Correction necessary.

For a 20 year scenario, the Express Goods screen shown indicates INDIVIDUAL passengers and packages generated PER WEEK from the City to the named destination.

The number of Passengers per train car varies with time, see the information gardlt provided in my guide.

Those newly generated Passengers will wait at the Platform for 14 days. (14 days for a 20 year scenario, so I suspect Thineboot's 3 month figure is for a 100 year scenario, which sounds about right.) If there is a train going their direction, they get on it and will wait more without limit, otherwise, after 14 days waiting while there is not a space for them on a train, they use some other form of transportation.

Setting a Priority for a stop on a route will take as much of the Priority as available before taking anything else.

[Thineboot]

Right, numbers show the passengers, not the carloads. I've mixed up the inside and outside screens.

3 months is the time for the percentages, not the time passengers wait. After 3 months the percentages are nullified unless there are more transported in which case the numbers just change. That's why I used these cities as it took the train more than 3 months for a full turn.

[Dray Prescot]

Keep in mind when setting Priorities on manufactured goods, is that only some of the production is available for export, for small Industries (no improvements/upgrades) most of the production usually gets consumed locally (unless it is not in demand at that City).

[Thineboot]

I've rebuild a test I did a few weeks before, this time with the intention to solve this topic.

Free mode, The East, 1830-1850, New York, 3M, 0 Competitors, Manual


Starting with New York - Baltimore - Washington and a young Grasshopper, only Passengers allowed.
See New York city view Express goods and details[i.postimg.cc]
All 19 destinations add up to 93.5 with each number treated as +0.5 greater on average than displayed. Using the same on other cities gets you a similar result. That means those Passengers per week are not integer but floating points.
1 Passengers car can transport 25 Passengers in the 1830-1850 era.
12 Passengers (waiting) are 322 Passengers / 25 = 12.88. The numbers of ??? (waiting) are always show as rounded down integer.

1. Jan: Loading for 8 Passenger cars started in New York. 8 Passengers cars suggest 200 Passengers.
2. Jan: Passengers (waiting) dropped and 322, too.
8. Jan: many percentages for Passenger cars jumped to ~25% as did the overall Transport by train percentage.
Less and less new Passengers were added each day.
After unloading the last Passengers in Washington I removed the train.
26. Feb: New Passengers rate dropped below 1 per day within the last week. See +93 Passengers per week. This rat wasn't even close on 8. Jan.
19. Mar: 77 days are past since 1. Jan or 70 days since 8. Jan when the first percentage for Passengers cars showed up had passed. And all numbers fell back to 0%. See Use of railroad (10 weeks) or 70 days.


8 Passengers cars were not enough to get +93 Passengers per week back. Therefore I've added a second line New York - Albany - Syracuse. 4 more Passenger cars left New York but Buffalo and Jacksonville had still 0% Passenger cars. Expanding the second line to Buffalo and adding a third Grasshopper on a parallel track heading toward Washington solved that. With 8 + 5 + 1 Passenger cars a total of 350 Passengers were loaded. 350? There are only 322 Passengers in New York. Meaning Passenger cars leaving a city are not necessarily full.

1. Jan: Loading for 14 Passenger cars started in New York. 14 Passengers cars suggest 350 Passengers of which 322 Passengers could have been loaded at maximum.
2. Jan: Passengers (waiting) dropped and 322, too.
8. Jan: all percentages for Passenger cars jumped to ~25% as did the overall Transport by train percentage.
Less and less new Passengers were added each day. 91 of max. 93 Passengers after the first week. After 4 weeks the numbers between test were nearly even.
After unloading the last Passengers in Washington I removed the train.
26. Feb: New Passengers rate dropped below 1 per day within the last week. See +93 Passengers per week. This rat wasn't even close on 8. Jan.
19. Mar: 77 days are past since 1. Jan or 70 days since 8. Jan when the first percentage for Passengers cars showed up had passed. And all numbers fell back to 0%. See Use of railroad (10 weeks) or 70 days.


In all tests there were only 309 Passengers available on 19. Mar, 11 weeks after start. With 3 to 6 cities connected and growing the actual max. on 1. Jan had to be less than 322. I guess it's a starting bonus to kick off the game with only adding 1 Passenger per week effectively.

Percentages for Passenger cars rose during the weeks form ~25% to ~33% without adding any new Passengers after the initial loading. I guess that's the bonus at game start diminishing.

The average sum of 93.5 Passengers per week rose a tiny bit to 94.5 Passengers per week while the +94 per week were shown. 94.5 / 33% = 286.4 that's not 309 but close enough (92.7%) to say that you can transport about 30% to 1/3 of the maximum Passengers want to travel are waiting at the station. That's a bit odd but I'm sure someone will come up with an explanation.

As said the rate new Passengers arrive at the station is highest when no Passengers are waiting. Thus a constant loading of smaller portions is better than waiting til a train can be loaded to it's max. of 8 cars. Nothing new but now in numbers.