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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 19/10/2013 at 23:23 #50160 | |
maxand
1637 posts |
Sometimes I find myself with only an hour or so to play SimSig and would like to see some way to prevent new trains from entering the area after a certain (sim) time. E.g., If I have a snapshot saved at 10 AM which was worth keeping as everything is running nicely, want to reload it but set the sim so that no more trains enter after 11 AM, it gives me a chance to clear my area by, say, 11.30, which I find more satisfying than just exiting the program at that time, leaving trains running. SimSig, like so many computer games, can be addictive, so it is useful to be able to "see off" the last train before exiting. Similarly, I don't enjoy the "realism" of playing out a TT to its bitter end, which often means having to hang around while the very few services scheduled after midnight come and go, with long waits in between, before sending all the trains home to bed. The standard Wembley Suburban TT comes to mind here. One is tempted to speed up the TT just for these last few trains, but this then makes the sim ultra boring. I'm sure there must be others who feel the same way. Don't know if a wish for such a feature has been raised before. A message such as "No further trains entering" might appear in Messages at the cutoff time to alert the player, if this option has been set, and/or the F4 Timetable Train List might show no further trains scheduled. Last edited: 20/10/2013 at 00:06 by maxand Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 02:32 #50162 | |
BarryM
2158 posts |
" said:Sometimes I find myself with only an hour or so to play SimSig and would like to see some way to prevent new trains from entering the area after a certain (sim) time.Max, Simsig is not designed for this type of scenario. If you want to stop trains from entering, you can put a "BLOK" on the lines coming from an off sim location. For trains entering from a siding, when it appears, just reverse it using F4. If you are bored, just turn it off! Barry Barry, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 03:36 #50163 | |
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maxand
1637 posts |
Quote:Simsig is not designed for this type of scenario Do you know enough about the code inside SimSig to feel qualified to make such a statement? I doubt incorporating this feature would take much effort. It would depend more on how many requested it. Simsig already allows us to nominate our starting time, so why not a "last train entry" time? Quote: If you want to stop trains from entering, you can put a "BLOK" on the lines coming from an off sim location Good point, but this isn't as easy as a built-in feature applying to all entry points. Quote: For trains entering from a siding, when it appears, just reverse it using F4. Don't you mean F2 - Signalling options? I prefer TTs that finish cleanly, say, by 12.30 AM instead of a slow lingering death at 4 AM. There is another way, of course, and that is to cut up a TT with an editor into hour-long segments, but it would be tedious and also fail to include trains from, say, the hour before that which are still in the area. Last edited: 20/10/2013 at 03:50 by maxand Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 04:45 #50164 | |
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BarryM
2158 posts |
Yes sorry I meant F2. Simsig was a teaching program for training professional signal-persons. It is not a kids game! Barry, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Last edited: 20/10/2013 at 04:46 by BarryM Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 05:54 #50165 | |
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Late Turn
699 posts |
I'm usually in the same boat - often with only an hour or two for Simsig. In reality, though, you'd walk into most boxes at the start of your shift with trains already running (and the seeding feature helps set this up in Simsig), and there'd still be things on the move when you walk out of the door eight or twelve hours later! Although some locations put the trainset to bed each night, it's a continuous process at others. If there is a quiet period at the end of a Simsig timetable where there's just a single ECS move across the sim to stable, then I'd probably call it quits at that. I wouldn't want to exclude thoselate moves altogether though, as that'd remove parts of the slightly earlier challenge.
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 06:50 #50166 | |
58050
2659 posts |
I must agree with with BarryM's comments. From a timetable writers point of view I try & make all of the timetables I write as realistic as possible for the box I'm writing a timetable for & if it means running the tt to the bitter end then so be it. If people adopt the preocess of having a cut off for new trains entering then any timetable written using that rule wouldn't be realistic. The railway is a continuous 24 hour operation that runs 7 days a week, the main issue with SimSig is the fact that the clock doesn't reset itself at midnight or else we could attempt to create timetables which could continually re-run themseleves. Like previous posts state maxand could just terminate the session he is playing at anytime like anyone else. Also Late Turns comment are very accurate & I agree with what he says you could walk into any PSB in the country at any time & apart from the odd exception someyhing somewhere on the panel would be moving. So when alls said & done what the point of this? When I get to play a timetable I usually have the 'smapshot' feature set to every 15 minutes, so if I had to run a sim for a very short time then I would move the time on by 15 minutes & then shut down.
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 06:50 #50167 | |
flabberdacks
636 posts |
Maybe an option in the timetable to 'Force entry now' would help with getting rid of those scarce late runs?
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 08:42 #50169 | |
Peter Bennet
5402 posts |
We strive to make the Sims as realistic as possible, and we get upbraided where we don't - then we get demands for simplification - hey-ho. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply The following users said thank you: Signalhunter, BarryM, DriverCurran, Sam Tugwell |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 08:58 #50171 | |
Steamer
3986 posts 
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Personally, I play it out to the end, but make considerable use of the 'F' button when chasing the last few ECSs off to bed. In any timetables I write, my rule of thumb is that any train entering the area at 23:59 will be included, anything at 24:01 won't. Other TT writers will have their own custom.
"Don't stress/ relax/ let life roll off your backs./ Except for death and paying taxes/ everything in life.../ is only for now." (Avenue Q) Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 10:43 #50172 | |
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58050
2659 posts |
Peter Bennet wrote: Quote: We strive to make the Sims as realistic as possible, and we get upbraided where we don't - then we get demands for simplification - hey-ho. It won't matter what you do Peter somebody somewhere won't ever be satisfied. I'm just gonna carry on wrtiting the timetables I do my way. Adding this cut-off just destroys any realism one puts into the timetable. SimSig is a simulator which is supposed to simulate the real thing. Which in my opinion works wonderfully well, is there anything else out there better? In my opinion the answer to that is no. When I create a timetable(& at present I'm currently writing 3 large timetables for developers) the only time I don't add in a train at the back end of the timetable is when the same train has been seeded at the start of the timetable somewhere on the panel. However the clock still ticks past 24:00 until all the trains left on the panel have gone 'to bed' so to speak. If we go down the road of implementing this cut-off where will it end? The next thing he'll be asking for is a 10 minute timetable to fit in with the times he's only got a short period to play a sim. Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 10:56 #50173 | |
jc92
3690 posts
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you can please all the people some of the time.... my convention is to enter all trains up to 23:59, then thats it, however any trains which are in sim past 24:00 berth at the next stopping point and go no further. I'm not sure Ive ever actually played past 24:00 on a timetable unless testing it. "We don't stop camborne wednesdays" Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 11:34 #50174 | |
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guidomcc
246 posts |
On the simulations I have written timetables for there has been a 'dead zone', where there are no trains timetabled to be in the area of the simulation, usually between 1 and 4 am. I start the timetable at the end of this, and since the timetable did not start at midnight, I carry the timetable on past midnight until the beginning of said 'dead zone'. This is not applicable for all simulations but most do reach a certain low point train-wise in the early hours of the morning.
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 12:03 #50175 | |
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Peter Bennet
5402 posts |
Sometimes people (John/Postal in particular) writes a later start version of the supplied timetable, there's nothing to stop someone editing down the backend of it too if they were so inclined. Or you can open the supplied timetable and enter an end time in the relevant box, save and then run. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 14:04 #50181 | |
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kieron.young2k13
10 posts |
OR cant u just save it and go back to it when you want to continue, thats what i do, i might play for 3/4 hours, save and go back to it next day to continue for another couple of hours 
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 14:27 #50182 | |
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Sam Tugwell
494 posts |
This, surely, is what the save button is for? Sam "Signalman Exeter" Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 16:01 #50187 | |
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Jan
906 posts |
" said:Simsig already allows us to nominate our starting time, so why not a "last train entry" time?It does indeed, but in practice it's probably better not to use that feature, because: - depending on the size of the simulation it'll take quite a while until a normal amount of trains is running - if ever (see below) - a number of simulations feature trains which never/seldom leave the simulation area. If you start up too late, those trains will never run at all. Two million people attempt to use Birmingham's magnificent rail network every year, with just over a million of them managing to get further than Smethwick. Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 20/10/2013 at 21:53 #50197 | |
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Danny252
1461 posts |
How odd, I've always found the "close" button a very effective way of stopping new trains from appearing...
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 21/10/2013 at 07:00 #50205 | |
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clive
2789 posts |
" said:Quote:It would be pretty simple to add to the core code.Simsig is not designed for this type of scenario This doesn't mean I think it is a good idea. That would be Geoff's decision. Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 21/10/2013 at 09:44 #50207 | |
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kbarber
1743 posts |
Individuals deciding what they do & don't want to do with their own sessions is fine - and personally I incline more to letting Simsig imitate life. But I don't think that's any reason to rubbish an idea we wouldn't personally want to make use of. If it can be reasonably easily accommodated then it's worth considering; we don't have to use it if we don't want to. (If it would need a complete rewrite of the core code it would be quite a different matter, of course.)
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 22/10/2013 at 05:09 #50235 | |
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maxand
1637 posts |
Steamer wrote Quote: Personally, I play it out to the end, but make considerable use of the 'F' button when chasing the last few ECSs off to bed.Thanks, I'd completely forgotten about the F shortcut key (pressing it runs the simulation fast for five simulation minutes) but will remember to give it a try. Danny252 wrote Quote: How odd, I've always found the "close" button a very effective way of stopping new trains from appearing...I presume you mean exiting the sim, not really what I had in mind. Thanks to all for your feedback. Out of all suggestions made, interposing BLOK at entry points seems the simplest, followed by manually editing those TTs I like but which straggle at the end. After all, BarryM, this is just a game to me, not a vocation. 
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| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 22/10/2013 at 06:00 #50236 | |
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BarryM
2158 posts |
Barry, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Log in to reply |
| New train entry cutoff time to shorten TT 22/10/2013 at 14:14 #50259 | |
pedroathome
916 posts |
Danny252 wrote Quote: How odd, I've always found the "close" button a very effective way of stopping new trains from appearing...I presume you mean exiting the sim, not really what I had in mind. [/quote] What about saving the sim as you exit? At least then you have somewhere to continue off from without having to repopulate the area Log in to reply |