New York Division-Bergen Line: Episode III, The Erie Rises

[buzz456]

Oh, this is freaking cool!
The reversed texture mapping.. not cool! I bet these are tough to fix.

Naw. Easy.

[minerman146]

It time again for this week's Wednesday Route Update Report

Lets go to the Friday Route Update Status:

[ ] Steaming pile of no.
[ ] No, on the rocks
[ ] Some no-getti with marinara sauce
[ X ] Aye, we will proceed with the update

This will be shakey, I have to re-populate the QDs with rolling stock, clean up and test the East Bound QD. At the moment, we are messing around with portals near Tuxedo. Making QDs are suprisingly time consuming (when you actaully test them - heh.). This could be Friday Evening, 10 January or the following day. I will be recommending route deletion because of the track and signal changes as well as the QD. For those that dont pre-delete, ya never know, maybe the downloader will do its thing.

It's been 30 days since our last update. I havent been in Otisville since December 21st. I miss it. We gotta go West man!

Thanks Buzz for encouraging the repainters!
OpenRailer - oh we know Russell Sullivan, He painted up a GP40fh for use on the Bergen before NJCL was relased. We got many miles in that unit and those Metro North Coaches. He stops by from time to time and says the same thing: "Wow, glad to see you guys are still at it!" He has his own siding at the Curtis-Wright Plant in Woodridge, NJ. Mr. Sullivan is a great guy! Perhaps he will be back after college.

I have been typing all day - so no need for a book tonight. Thank you all for your posts, pictures, new models, signboards and general affection!

Carry On!

Here's a picture in my new Quick Drive test unit.

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[TheR62Fan]

Oh, this is freaking cool!
The reversed texture mapping.. not cool! I bet these are tough to fix.

Naw. Easy.[/quote

Is it ok if I ask how?

[buzz456]

Decal.

[TheR62Fan]

Ahh ok.

[minerman146]

Well, the Westbound QD is finished and Tested. With that said, I doubt Eastbound will get any further along today than starting 1 Player Spawn Point. This mean the probability of a release this weekend is slim. I want to do proper testing for each spawn point and test the AI several times.

Below is a screen shot of the QD screen which will give you an idea how I segmented the QDs. This is similar to DTG, but I didn't place a spawn point at every station.

Bergen_QDs.JPG

Don't hesitate to make recommendations as I work on this!

[mjlevy1118]

Seriously excited! You might have already done this and I'm missing it in your screenshots and recent posts – and if you did, my apologies – but what would be the possibility of creating westbound Quick Drive starting points at a few places between Hoboken and Waldwick? For example, creating westbound player consist spawn points at Secaucus, Plauderville, and Glen Rock, so that we can run NJTransit services without having to start from Hoboken every time?

[minerman146]

Mjlevy118,
This is the kind of response that is always so very helpful.
I only thought of cutting the time to get to the end of route down. You point out you want to replicate, Njt runs. I will put these in. Glen rock will be on the BCL as I have a Hawthorne QD on the Main Line.

And your excited! Me too!

Thanks
MM

I think you posted before about this which was a big inspiration for me to redo the quick drives.

[minerman146]

Whew - these are done. So, Westbound QDs are done. On to Eastbound!

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[Chacal]

This was just published by jtousign.
SS SD40-2 Erie Lackawanna

[minerman146]

Chacal - oh that's going to be a popular reskin! I will get to that when I am done with the West Bound QDs.

*Since I am working on QDs ... any FREIGHT requests?

[kris120]

Oops, you're putting me under pressure where I don't have time right now.
You remember my suggestion about the lots of consists about 9 months ago ?
Freight ? Always !
My suggestion:
Use a probability of only 0.3 to 0.4 on spawnpoints, but place them in front of the signals (with "front" choosen) or behind (when "back" is choosen).
Don't use too many categories, that makes everything too complicated.
I use FreightContainer for general freight, Custom1 for locos only and Custom5 for standing freight on the sidings.
It would be nice if you could use these.
For other special consists, I think a PM is better.
Kris

[minerman146]

Kris,

I definitely remember the Freight Consists. I am not ready to work those. My objective is to have AI that uses my base assets. So for freight, I want to use the Black SD40 (Kuju) and rolling stock. This will keep it simple and compatible with workshop. As far as anyone else making their own consists, I think using some of the AI spawns I have now might be handy. And Kris, I am STILL working your list of fixes. Which I know understand more clearly as I am working on AI enabled QDs. This is a pain in the but and VERY time consuming.

Keep 'er movin!
MM

[minerman146]

Ok, so no, I wasn't able to finish the Eastbound passenger QDs. This morning, I left off at Suffern and configured that QD. Sunday was devoted to getting the AI working in and around Hoboken. I can safely say update Friday.

The amount to time spend working the AI and testing is staggering. I have about 16 hours in from Friday night. Frankly, I am sick of working the QDs. On the positive side, I can get up to 6 moving trains in a scene and repeat this over and over. Even better, is the gratification of seeing the signals behave as they should as the trains thread a needle through these nightmarish ribbons of steel.

All this track and signal work doesn't mean I don't touch up the scenery when it is amiss. There was time for that, and time for Kris120's list o' fixes.

While I did loose my train of thought on the subject of tuning signals, here are some pretty pictures to make up for it. And while Jeffery Epstein didn't kill him self, I did not copy Hoboken - its 100% Minerman goodness.

* Sorry ya gotta turn the lights down low to soak up the atmosphere.

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Carry on!

[jalsina]

Minerman,
These shots are exceptionally detailed. Beautiful.
To what you said I add, with a lot of atmosphere.