Locomotive availability and orientation

[Kinrah]

I've racked up over a day in DV now, and the main issue I continually run into is that of where the locomotives are and which way they're facing. Often I find myself at a station where there are long loads I'd like to take, but there is no steam engine that spawns there, or it's facing the wrong way and the nearest three-point junction is far enough away that the jobs all reset before I can get back. (Considering that the shunter overheats faster if it's running backwards.) The most frequent places where this happens is at the Food Factory and the Harbor; at the Food Factory, it only spawns two shunters facing south, which is fine for small loads to the Machine Factory or the City, but longer loads can't get up the steep hill, while the Harbor spawns both a shunter and a steam engine facing east, which is barely an efficient route to take to reach the Food Factory but means a long way out of the way for all other destinations.

This also happens at Iron Ore Mine West, which only spawns a single shunter facing west, making it very difficult to haul trains over four cars long up the steep hill immediately after exiting the station.

I remember that a recent-ish build included a shunter spawning at stations the player loads in at, which is fine, but then if you arrive by train at the Coal Mine, for example, the only locomotive there is a steam engine which you would be forced to use to do shunting with; then if you spawn there, you have a shunter but you can't take long loads out.

Obviously when turntables are implemented that eliminates the problem of locomotives facing the wrong way, but without putting both types of locomotive at every station which causes issues of space, availability remains an issue, especially when the planned new locomotive types are added.

An idea I had - I don't know if it's viable, how long it would take to code and implement - is a "locomotive order box", similar to the load/unload box. Using it would cost the in-game money to "order" (i.e. spawn) a locomotive of the player's choice onto the station's P track in the desired orientation. It would need to perform two checks - one, whether there is room on the track to spawn the loco in the first place, and two, whether the player has the appropriate license to drive that loco (eliminating the possibility of a player without a steam license from logjamming the track with steam engines they can't drive). Then when turntables are implemented, it makes a bit of balance - spend time using the turntable, which is free and more fun but slow, or spawn the loco facing the desired direction instantly at the cost of money, allowing the player to get on with the job they have in mind quickly.

Like I said, I don't know if it's viable or if the issue is already being tackled, but it's an idea that hopefully isn't too immersion-breaking. Otherwise, I'm really liking the game so far, and I'm looking forward to some of the planned additions.

[TheLostPenguin]

You can currently spawn locomotives (and wagons, if you wanted to play with something in particular) at no cost, which fixes the exact issue you mention of having the loco/facing.

P opens spawn mode
[ and ] scroll through vehicles
O changes the direction a vehicle will be facing when spawned
Enter spawns whatever is showing in the green box

You need to be on clear track, no points and ideally no wagons/other locos nearby, otherwise the spawn can appear at a distant location to be on clear track, here I just used an empty part of a yard. When you first press P you get the diesel, if you are stood on the track the spawn will be on top of you and you wont see anything until you take a few steps back:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655584924

Pressing ] brings up the steam loco instead
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585060

O changes direction, note how it took quite a bit of space as it moved, this is partly why you want nothing else near when spawning locos
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585152

Enter will spawn it in
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585271

but now we need a tender, P reopens the spawner then ] again selects the tender
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585432

shame it's so far away, you need to get in close to the rear of the loco, pressing P again resets the location so you can usually get it nice and close, although sometimes it takes a bit of fiddling to get it on the right track in the right spot
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585513

Enter once you're happy with the location spawns the tender, if you get it to spawn in nice and close to the loco it'll be automatically coupled to it, if not you have to either delete it and try again or go get/spawn a diesel to couple up with
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585630


Suffice to say having the ability to spawn whatever we want wherever we want should be considered a temporary luxury made available in light of the issues you mention with getting the stock we want at present, eventually it'll go away but for now at least we get to enjoy it :)

[Kinrah]

I did manage to spawn in a steam loco for one journey, though for some reason the tender was extremely difficult to push with the shunter, and when I did get going the loco controls were almost completely unresponsive. To get up to even a decent speed I had to push the regulator wide open (whereas with a game-spawned engine, just opening it up to one notch is enough to reach 20km/h fairly quickly).

But yes, using the game console shouldn't be considered the permanent solution.

[TheLostPenguin]

Vehicles are meant to spawn with the brakes applied so it sounds as if that was working as intended on that occasion, you certainly don't want to do it for far but sometimes I just can't get the tender to spawn snugged up and have to shove it the last couple of meters with the diesel.

Interesting sounding issue with a spawned loco, not encountered it yet myself with frequently spawning a steam loco in when lacking one, but if you can reproduce it at all please do post a report over in the bugs section :)

[Cosmic Lemonade]

Originally posted by TheLostPenguin:

You can currently spawn locomotives (and wagons, if you wanted to play with something in particular) at no cost, which fixes the exact issue you mention of having the loco/facing.

P opens spawn mode
[ and ] scroll through vehicles
O changes the direction a vehicle will be facing when spawned
Enter spawns whatever is showing in the green box

You need to be on clear track, no points and ideally no wagons/other locos nearby, otherwise the spawn can appear at a distant location to be on clear track, here I just used an empty part of a yard. When you first press P you get the diesel, if you are stood on the track the spawn will be on top of you and you wont see anything until you take a few steps back:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655584924

Pressing ] brings up the steam loco instead
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585060

O changes direction, note how it took quite a bit of space as it moved, this is partly why you want nothing else near when spawning locos
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585152

Enter will spawn it in
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585271

but now we need a tender, P reopens the spawner then ] again selects the tender
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585432

shame it's so far away, you need to get in close to the rear of the loco, pressing P again resets the location so you can usually get it nice and close, although sometimes it takes a bit of fiddling to get it on the right track in the right spot
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585513

Enter once you're happy with the location spawns the tender, if you get it to spawn in nice and close to the loco it'll be automatically coupled to it, if not you have to either delete it and try again or go get/spawn a diesel to couple up with
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655585630


Suffice to say having the ability to spawn whatever we want wherever we want should be considered a temporary luxury made available in light of the issues you mention with getting the stock we want at present, eventually it'll go away but for now at least we get to enjoy it :)

wooooooooooooooooooow i never knew this was a feature.