G'day all, I have installed "B2_CN Extra tanker - b2cnxtkr.zip" and at the start you are in a siding and another train is passing but it stops for what seems to be no good reason, single track and no signal at that point to stop him. Nothing comes up in the log file. I let the act go for an hour and nothing changed, anyone tried this act?
Regards
Barrie
I haven't run these activities, but I have a suspicion of what the problem is. In MSTS, an activity designer might have placed a waiting point in the player path to allow the AI train to have "priority" to pass the player train. On unsignalled routes in OpenRails, this won't work for this reason, quoted from the OR manual, paragraph 107.1: "Differently from MSTS, waiting points do not influence the length of the reserved path [of a Player train], except when the WP is followed by a signal in the same track section (no nodes – that is switches – in between)."
So, with no signal in its path, the Player train is given the full path out of the siding onto the main, despite the presence of a waiting point. The AI train must then stop as its path is through a switch lined against it. Proof of this could be had by checking the alignment of the switch on the siding. If it is lined in favor of the Player train, then the AI train will stop.
Now, the solution: Use Control+M to go to manual switch mode. Line the siding switch in favor of the main. This will give the AI train the path to overtake the Player train. Once the AI has overtaken the Player train, line the switch back to the siding to allow the Player train to depart the siding. The use Control+M to go back to "Automatic" operation.
I ran into the same issue awhile back when I was designing an activity for Blackfoot 3. As an aside, on a "dark" railroad such as Blackfoot, it is pretty typical for train crews to have to line their own switches for meets, etc., so the workaround I outlined above is pretty prototypical.
G'day wwhall, the AI train actually passes the player train"almost" but stops for no apparent reason, no signal and single track. would be nice to be able to see if it actually works in MSTS but that is in the distant past.
Regards
Barrie
I ditched the route because of the absence of signals and the problems it causes.The simple answer would be to have signals but "buried" which I understand is not difficult.
G'day all, ragtimer I agree with you and there are routes out there that use buried signals to give play-ability. I will not wast any more time as I am sure there are more routes out there that are scenic and playable, end of story.
Regards and thanks.
Barrie
I ditched the route because of the absence of signals and the problems it causes.The simple answer would be to have signals but "buried" which I understand is not difficult.
Ragtimer, I would reconsider. The CN Blackfoot/Vegreville Subs V2&V3 are fine examples of route building, I would not dismiss them so easily. Also included with the routes is a well written document >>> MSTS Dark-Territory Activities.htm <<< which helps considerably in understanding this route. Additionally, with OR being so flexible ( I know you run MSTS .... remember this route was made to run in MSTS! ) it is easy enough to work around the lack of signals as wwhall and derekmorton have posted. You should really give it another try.
Cheers, Gerry
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I tried making playable activities,but just could not get AI trains to pass the player train and I have no intention of playing any activity with no AIs and have no intention of just leaving static consists in passing loops.
It is a pity because it is a great route.
I've made a number of activities for my own use on Blackfoot 2 and 3. Unsignalled routes are one reason that OR has a dispatch window and the ability to take the sim out of automatic operation and manually operate switches. Instead of discarding one of the best-built routes available for OpenRails, maybe simmers should learn how to use the excellent tools available in OR. It's not difficult.
Has anyone tried ORTS's ability to have AI Trains trigger events and waiting points? This seems like it would be of a HUGE benefit for activities in "dark" routes.
Be careful, there were 2 published version of Blackfoot 3.
The first one was timed to be released around a July 4 holiday and consisted of one huge 1.3gb download that some users reported troublesome download issues with. The current version in the library is in two chunks (terrtex in one, remainder of route in other) and had some file updates through July 11.
This first version also had some late additions of zero degree nodes (MP 43, and MP 104.5-ish) in order to accommodate MSTS beta testers who were reporting broken couplers. These zero degree nodes were reportedly added after interactives were installed. In other words, the interactives were not stripped from the segment before adding these additional switch nodes. This was discovered when OR users were finding newly created paths were coming out bad or broken. Using my downloaded copy of the July 4 version, I quietly removed the MP 104.5 zero degree pairs myself and replaced them with normal track, trying to delicately un-f*ck the TDB, hoping I was gingerly walking back the #1 route building sin. After that, paths for OR were working correctly. The current 2-piece download also has the MP 104.5 zero degrees removed, but still has the MP 43 pair of zero degrees. So in the end, who knows the genuine sequence of these zero-degree additions and deletions and whether the TDB is genuinely fine or not.
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