DanSSG wrote:I really would like to use some AI in scenarios but even with easy AI operations I get problems
An example: I have an AI UP119 passenger train (defined as stopping passenger) at Sherman station which should start eastwards.
The player starts at Sherman freight spur, has to stop at the eastwards ball signal and let the AI pass before it stops behind the siding and moves onto the wye. But what happens is this: The AI suddenly stops and than moves than with 0.1 mph.
It doesn't matter if there are any signals and it doesn't matter what the destination of the AI is.
I've also had the same problem in the middle of a single track section just a few miles before the AI should disappear an a portal and the player train was miles behind
Yep, it's a common problem in TS, especially with single track routes. I had a lot of trouble at first getting "3:10 to Laramie" to work correctly because of the player train having to pass over the same section of track that the AI went over, albeit at a different time. Sometimes the AI would suddenly crawl along at 0.1 mph, like in your case, and other times it would get so far and then warp to another place along the track, like magic! In the end, I got it to work by making the AI lower priority (low speed freight) than the player (stopping passenger) and setting the start time for the player several minutes after the AI had cleared the main line.
I think one problem is that the dispatcher pre-checks how and when the track is supposed to be occupied according to the timetable instructions, not necessarily how the track is occupied in real time. So if it thinks the track could be occupied by the player at a given time, even if it isn't in reality, it'll affect what the AI does at that moment in time. You can try putting instructions to force the player to wait at the signal and not move until a certain time, in an attempt to make the dispatcher realise that the shared path is free for the AI to use when it gets there. It might work, or it might not. I've had mixed results doing that.
You can see why most scenarios with AI don't have the player train going along any track that AI also has to use, especially if it means they're travelling in the same direction. That's what makes it even harder to do scenarios on single track routes. It's not a fault of the route, it's just a consequence of the rigidity of the dispatcher algorithms. I know of one developer who got so annoyed with it that it became a key factor in his deciding to quit the business of making routes for TS.
Just tell me what you think.