A few observations about activities and AI

[Mark_Blum]

This may be old news to many of you. I really enjoy the little FJ&G route, especially in OR with all the switching. I also like AI trains and found I could not make them run on the route. When I went through the F5 menu to see what the AI train was doing, it showed a stop indication.

The route has no signals on the home tracks between Fonda and points north. So I tried an experiment by installing the default BSNF signals, including interlocking wherever I could find a passing opportunity, such as the station track in Gloversville. It worked. Now the AI behaves according to signals.

That lead to a new issue and discovery. The AI train was way too fast. I adjusted the "Expected Player Performance" parameter in the Service Editor (in the activity editor) and confirmed it did (very nicely) slow down the AI train.

I'm not sure I want to hide the signals underground; I kinda like the look. But it's good to know OR signal logic works, and that you can have AI traffic in dark territory - if you add and hide the signals.

OR just keeps getting better and better.

Hope this helps someone. Thanks!

Mark
A Southern Railway Fan

[wacampbell]

Thanks for sharing what you've learned.

OR will be undergoing significant changes to its AI and signalling behaviour over the next months culminating in it having its own Activity Editor. I'll appologize in advance that some activities that work today may behave differently by the time we are done. So have fun with it but don't get too invested in what we have today.

[charland]

Just a note Mark,

There were no signals on the real FJ&G, hence no signals on the route. AI traffic does work in MSTS but you need to really pay attention to the time as they ran by schedule. The only AI traffic would have been between the freight and doodlebug in Fonda and for the most part that would have been the freight working or holding in the yard and waiting for the doodlebug to head north after completing the station stop.

Paul :-)

[conductorchris]

I also recall some AI in an activity with the Broadbin local which begins with the freight from Fonda having dropped it's cars and heading into the engine house (I think). It was very clever how that was done, I thought at the time.
Christopher

[Mark_Blum]

All:

Thanks for the comments. I am very pleased with the direction OR is taking with activities and signaling and revising any outdated activity to keep up with advances brought on by the OR team is something I would enjoy and look forward to!

And to Paul and Christopher - I just love the route. I understand it didn't have or need signaling and appreciate the prototype tips for operations. I used a couple of NYC RS3's to pull some rock up to the loader about two miles south of Broadablin - seemed like a good idea at the time .

I've been successfully shamed into pushing those signals underground and finding a suitable doodlebug - though I might get an old coach somewhere and pull it with #21. Maybe with OR multiplayer we can have a three-way meet in Gloversville at the yard one day.

Thanks to the OR team for, well, for everything they're doing!

Mark
A Southern Railway Fan

[charland]

Hi Mark,

There just happens to be an FJ&G doodlebug available at:

https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/tslib.php?searchid=109826&page=11

The Fix file is for the couplers, when I made the bug it didn't occur to me that someone out there would want to use it to drag around other cars... can't say I ever seen pictures of the prototype doing that!

After the FJ&G was taken over by Delaware Otsego the aging S-2s were replaced with a DO RS-2 and 3 for a couple of years, have seen shots of them double headed out of Fonda with eight or ten cars heading up the hill.

Paul :-)