Update to West Hampstead Sim

Afternoon,

Forget the modern era myself I would like to see West Hampstead PSB done as when it was 1st commissioned with Platform 1 still in use at St. Pancras and Cambridge Street L.I.P. Still open the sim goes as far back as 1985 but be nice to see it as it was commissioned.

Regards,

Delta Zero Seven

It is known that Kings Cross is now a 'frozen' sim, and that '2023' Kings Cross (with no P11, 3 tunnels, Thameslink, Stevenage P5 etc) would be a new sim entirely.

Given the level of changes noted above, and how difficult it is to implement and test (in sim and timetabling) overlapping multiple eras accurately, I would not be surprised if a similar decision was arrived at for the sim covering MML. Maybe time to freeze it (or simple backdates only) and move on.

That way you would ultimately get a new sim pair for current (2023+) timetables that were initially single era and (only) compatible with each other.

Adding an era to an already-released sim isn't impossible, but it is a monstrous undertaking.

One big risk is potentially breaking all the user-submitted timetables - even those which don't apply to the new era, due to changes in the background made to support the new era. The complexity of coding a new era without wrecking people's hard work makes it daunting to attempt.

flabberdacks in post 151083 said:

Adding an era to an already-released sim isn't impossible, but it is a monstrous undertaking.

One big risk is potentially breaking all the user-submitted timetables - even those which don't apply to the new era, due to changes in the background made to support the new era. The complexity of coding a new era without wrecking people's hard work makes it daunting to attempt.

Quote:

On the other hand, it might mean that those timetables that have had to use work arounds due to simulation limitations may not need to do so and could re-release their timetables with the effected changes that are now possible in them.

Not really how it works.

Quote:

In any case, I can count a minimum of 7 simulations that have had major remodelling done IRL since the simulations themselves have been released to bring them to a 2022 era.

flabberdacks in post 151083 said:

Adding an era to an already-released sim isn't impossible, but it is a monstrous undertaking.

One big risk is potentially breaking all the user-submitted timetables - even those which don't apply to the new era, due to changes in the background made to support the new era. The complexity of coding a new era without wrecking people's hard work makes it daunting to attempt.

[quote]On the other hand, it might mean that those timetables that have had to use work arounds due to simulation limitations may not need to do so and could re-release their timetables with the effected changes that are now possible in them.
In any case, I can count a minimum of 7 simulations that have had major remodelling done IRL since the simulations themselves have been released to bring them to a 2022 era.

On the other hand, it might mean that those timetables that have had to use work arounds due to simulation limitations may not need to do so and could re-release their timetables with the effected changes that are now possible in them.

ajax103 in post 151088 said:

flabberdacks in post 151083 said:

Adding an era to an already-released sim isn't impossible, but it is a monstrous undertaking.

One big risk is potentially breaking all the user-submitted timetables - even those which don't apply to the new era, due to changes in the background made to support the new era. The complexity of coding a new era without wrecking people's hard work makes it daunting to attempt.

Quote:

On the other hand, it might mean that those timetables that have had to use work arounds due to simulation limitations may not need to do so and could re-release their timetables with the effected changes that are now possible in them.

Not really how it works.

Quote:

In any case, I can count a minimum of 7 simulations that have had major remodelling done IRL since the simulations themselves have been released to bring them to a 2022 era.

It isn't just a case of simply redrawing a sim with the visible changes, as I'm sure has already been said. You need the data, or would you rather have a simulation that's been guessed rather than accurate?

You obviously don't understand the complexity of timetabling, while we are getting modern day TTs being banged out a couple of days after they actually ran, as has been proved they aren't tested as much as any timetable that is bundled with sim. A new simulation timetable will certainly have knock on effects into other bundled TTs, for example one new sim timetable may affect 5/6 other sims that more than likely need to be completely rebuilt from scratch so that everything matches up, that decisions stocktypes etc all match. Then they need to be tested with full run throughs, at least twice.

As 2 developers above have given good reasons as to why it isnt always possible to "just add a new era", historical or modern day. Older sims could require more than one new era, a lot of work for very little gain. People want new sims so developers time is better spent on this and maintaining, not adding eras to existing sims

It isn't just a case of simply redrawing a sim with the visible changes, as I'm sure has already been said. You need the data, or would you rather have a simulation that's been guessed rather than accurate?