We need some basic Track Laying Items...

[Doc Savage]

Nearing the 200 hour mark between beta and release, track laying is leaving a little bit to be desired. Not only in the realm of realism, but in the realm of efficiency and ability. There are just some things that take way too much work to do.

Not only do they take more tedious and fiddly work to get done, when they are done they don't look neat nor realistic. So... here are a couple ideas that would make track laying a little nicer that *don't* involve re-writing or heavy changing of the track laying tool.

We need the ability to make a common "Y" track. A "Y" section that you can Plop, rotate and attach to would solve this easily, no changes to the track laying tool required.

We need the ability to make an "X" section. An "X" section that you can Plop like a tower or station and attatch to would solve this easily, no changes to the track laying tool required.

We need to be able to Shift+Click to disable auto connect / snap, both end to end and side to side so we can make dual ends and so we can nuance around other tracks without them trying to snap together.

We need a simple bridge we can Plop over rivers. Strip the building off the Warehouse or Station. Instant 2/3/4 rail Bridge. Make that the max length, and make one @ 1/2 and one @ 1/4 of the station length. The Complex Bridges and long(er) Bridges can remain 2 track so no editing of the track laying tool would be required.

We need a standardized cross over bridge. Take the Bridges above, raise them to a standard height / elevation and allow them to be placed over existing rails. Running rail to them would create the earthworks and such. I would likely not allow the full length station for this one... At any rate, it would be nice to have a basic overpass I didn't have to muck about with, and it wouldn't require messing with the track tool to make.

With these I believe most of the track laying issues would be solved to an adequate level of work, eliminating much of the tedium of trying to emulate with just switches or lines. It would also go a long way to making tracks look more realistic, giving us some of the tools real rails use when having to solve their real world problems.

As always, YMMV. Cheers..!

[The Spacecop42]

All I really want is the ability to make X intersections. That would allow us to merge two double tracks, removing the bottleneck, cause right now you need to first merge the double track, divide, then double track again, it's stupid

[FalconerHG]

Some great ideas. I'd be happy with just the X-es though

[gm_feirefiz]

Hi,

we are currently working on track laying and definitely looking into crossings. Please be aware that this takes some effort and certainly some time.

[Doc Savage]

Originally posted by gm_feirefiz:

Hi,

we are currently working on track laying and definitely looking into crossings. Please be aware that this takes some effort and certainly some time.

:choo::choooo::choooo::choooo::chooo:

Good to know. Thanks for the response, I'm sure most will be happy to have them.

I'd really like the Bridges / Overpasses my self...

Cheers..!

[Vandraad]

I want the ability to dictate either to tunnel under or bridge over something. If I want to cross another track, I should be able to choose one or the other. Sometimes going under is a much better option.

[TheCollector]

You can already do this by changing the elevation of the points of your planned track.

[aKamikazePug]

I like the x and y ideas

[Vandraad]

Originally posted by TheCollector:

You can already do this by changing the elevation of the points of your planned track.

How?
EDIT: Nevermind, I found it. Sad that I never noticed that before.

[Doc Savage]

Originally posted by Vandraad:

Originally posted by TheCollector:

You can already do this by changing the elevation of the points of your planned track.

How?
EDIT: Nevermind, I found it. Sad that I never noticed that before.

Or happy, you finded it..!

It's one of the things from beta that really helped a ton. The "X" they're working on will help too. Hoping it's a piece and not a finicky track laying mode. Maybe if it was just a hotkey...

Cheers..!

[Silvermink]

We need a way to put a warehouse or station over existing straight tracks, like the fuel. Currently, getting a station or warehouse to rotate correctly to existing track without having the reconfigure miles is a pain.

[MadHaTr]

So did they ever add a way to disable the snap?

[genemead]

Wow, this is an old thread.
If anything ain't done by now, it ain't ever gonna be.

I've never needed the snapping disabled. Actually, the snapping is a godsend.

[gardlt]

The answer is no, but snapping has been changed since the original comment was made. And, yes, that change was a long time ago now, 2018.

When this comment was made it was impossible to build a pair of parallel lines with flush ends, two side by side track points weren't allowed. With the bulldoze we could crop tracks to a flush end. This has been flipped: we can now build flush ends but the dozer can only crop to un-even ends.

[EMAPhil]

I find snapping pretty much OK these days But I wish when you plant a 2 or 4 platform station it put the X crossings in automatically. I don't want the signal controlled variety just something simple.

[chaney]

The nice thing about digging up ancient threads is that I get reminded of posters from the past ... I enjoyed Doc Savage a lot back then, and I'm happy to see TheCollector's name as well as the others.

Track building could have been better, but with experience you avoid most of the pitfalls.