Traffic AI and lack of population

[Sasha Mason]

I think there's really more that could be done to add details to the map.
I mean, look at https://i.imgur.com/9Y5rEXU.jpg this plaza. It looks wonderful. But there's barely anyone there and there's also never anyone sitting on the chairs or anything. There's also never a single car driving through it even though they technically could.

Or this road here: https://i.imgur.com/2VMLwOp.jpg
It's completely deserted.

Or this roundabout here: https://i.imgur.com/rdaiWMg.jpg
As far as I could tell, they only ever enter and exit from the top and left side of it.
https://i.imgur.com/0Q2htiV.jpg (though you can see how all the pedestrians are only on the right side and none on the left)

It took a while for anyone to even show up though. And the cars that do drive around always drive at a speed so slow that many tractors and harvesters (even with headers attached) can overtake them. I'd love to see something more similar to what ETS2 has. The roads are really populated and the AI even has the ability to overtake you on certain roads.

Now I realize that ETS2 and Farming Sim don't really have the same focus, but I would argue that you still spend quite some time on the road driving equipment around or making deliveries so I don't see why they wouldn't go all out with the traffic or even allow traffic everywhere so that it doesn't feel like I'm the only guy living there in certain places.



Also what happened to people greeting you? In FS17 they actually said hello to you when you were near them. They don't do that in FS19 anymore, unless it's because I'm on Felsbrunn and there's just no german voice lines for them for some reason. Haven't tested it on Ravenport yet because I did not find anyone walking around there yet.


EDIT: The Ravenport population is also mute, and for some reason only really seems to spawn near the beach. Not a soul anywhere in the town itself.




Also, Silky Rough, the main difference between you and me is that I see possibilities for improvements, where as you just deal with that you're giving never caring about improvements or the possibilities of such.

[Knottypine]

When Giants adds things like AI traffic and pedestrians to their game, it's basically for a tiny bit of ambient life. Cars will always follow the same path, over and over. There is one path, and all vehicles follow it. Same as pedestrians. There are no split paths they take... pedestrians and AI vehicles, they're on rails.

Ravenport, there are only pedestrians near the beach. And there are wayyyy more beach umbrellas and surfboards than people!

[Sasha Mason]

Well as far as I could tell from a modding video someone did, apparently, it is possible for those traffic splines to split. In fact it's even possible for vehicles to have different speeds based on the spline that they're on.

Proof they can drive at different speeds: https://youtu.be/XO9RXFEhYvw?t=626
Proof that you can set it up in a way that they can go on different splines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEmdY83bgQg

Assuming of course, that FS19 still uses the same system.

I guess the main reason would be that they can't give way. Then again, the traffic AI has no problems waiting at a railroad crossing either, and the train is also just a vehicle running along a set path.

[Knottypine]

Cars stop at railway crossing because they're being blocked, the same as if they're blocked by my tractor. The only difference is that they don't honk at the railway crossing! lol

Driving around is a breeze because after a very short time, you know exactly where the AI traffic is going at all times. I can bomb around because I know that oncoming car is going to turn. Unrealistic yes. There are some roads I know that they will never turn down. Some unpredictability would be nice, but it is what it is.

Maybe it's a performance issue as to why there are very few pedestrians and AI vehicles.

[Sasha Mason]

It might have something to do with Multiplayer as that could easily end up being a nightmare if you had actually properly populated towns with 16 or so players roaming around. But then again, traffic can be turned off, and pedestrians could just as easily be a setting too. They don't have any gameplay relevance, you can't collide with them or interact with them in any way so it wouldn't even matter if some players would choose to not have pedestrians.

As for performance, I kinda doubt it. They're just following their set path and stop when there's an object blocking them. They cannot be pushed around either so their "AI" is pretty much as lightweight as possible. And even then, it could also just be a setting in the options menu for those that don't like it.

Btw it's not just the lack of AI vehicles but also the fact that certain roads are just unused completely. Might be an unpopular opinion but I actually really like both vanilla maps in FS19 so I'd love to see those maps actually being more lively than they are. Also the fact that the traffic are literal bricks can be dangerous.

One time in FS17 I actually had a car drive a bit into my trailer. It ended up being quite the accident because I was messing around with one of those trailers that you can transport other vehicles with and I had my ramp lowered, so you can imagine how I got lifted up and stuck because of some random AI car deciding to collide with that. I do remember that one of the much older FS games had AI that actually had physics and could be pushed around. What ever happened to that?

[Silky Rough]

I agree, they're fake and horrible. Have you ever noticed how the people simply clip through the tractors when you run them over. People physics is way better in Goat Simulator and that was only $10.

As for cars.... don't talk to me about cars.... I had a Renault doing 30 stop my 85 tonne B-double roadtrain juggernaut absolutely dead in it's tracks. I even bounced! They should have been pulverised. Nope. No damage. No dead. Didn't lose a bean.

[Arrancar]

Lmao this is so much better than US map, now I feels like changing maps.

[UnableRogue]

Arrancar původně napsal:

Lmao this is so much better than US map, now I feels like changing maps.

Me too. I only ever played Ravenport.

[Sasha Mason]

I actually picked Ravenport over Felsbrunn because I thought it looked better and I liked the colouring better. Sadly Ravenport doesn't have such a neat vantage point: https://imgur.com/a/ry89lmo

Also bet ya haven't seen vehicles like this: https://i.imgur.com/mS5XBQ9.jpg

[UnableRogue]

Nice and no I havent. Looks like smaller fields though

[Sasha Mason]

Because for some reason, those large AI vehicles are Felsbrunn exclusive.

And yes, Felsbrunn's fields are in fact smaller than Ravenport's: https://i.imgur.com/sjwVTKy.png

[UnableRogue]

Did you manage to change the railway gates in the Felsbrunn map?

[Sasha Mason]

UnableRogue původně napsal:

Did you manage to change the railway gates in the Felsbrunn map?

Haven't messed with that yet

[UnableRogue]

Well if you have problems let me know. I can put the text here so you just have to copy/paste it into the .xml. It's quite simple really.

[Anskari]

oh...I'm sorry, we are forever alone

[Sasha Mason]

Anskari původně napsal:

oh...I'm sorry, we are forever alone

Reminds me of the very early farm sim games.

Just you on an island and a giant bridge with a "under construction" sign