Planning is hard ;_; (also an OpenTTD thread)

Planning is hard ;_; (also an OpenTTD thread) Anonymous 26/04/2025, 07:19:39 1920df No.277526

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There was an issue I've had to deal with in my last MP game of OpenTTD (which was a few months ago by now) that I've never been able to solve due to lack of time and being an actual retard. What you're looking at in the pic is a very, very basic sketch of what I have to contend with. 
So, I wanted to connect several industries (about eight or more) into a single port. Then I wanted to use that port to create farming and engineering equipment to boost the productivity of those industries to increase the production of both primary and secondary products, which would then double or even triple my income and network stress. The problem is... I don't know how to design a station which 
1) would have enough throughput to satisfy up to 40 to 50 trains in the INPUT lane and
2) did so without wasting a dozen km2
Signalling is also an issue. The most sophisticated trick I can do is stacking trains in overflow depots and that's it. All the complicated logic stuff just goes over my head. 
If you have any tips on how to build better stations, balance cargo, or signal my railways better, I would appreciate it.

Replies: >>277713

Anonymous 26/04/2025, 10:50:36 e8d66b No.277554

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OpenTTD pro here, I'm actually having trouble even understanding what the problem is that you're trying to communicate anon.

>40-50 trains
Per what?  Is this a rate?  Keep in mind every train set and the trains within them usually have different cargo capacities and loading speeds  Simply saying X number of trains isn't helpful, you need a lot more context for an observer to try and figure out what your real bottleneck is.

>stacking trains in overflow depots
I would try to avoid this to be honest.  It seems like it might be a useful idea, but it doesn't really enhance your network flow in a useful way that a lot of people often assume.  Depots at station exits can be useful for mandatory servicing, but when you're designing really optimized-flow stations you actually want to avoid situations where multiple trains end up in the same depot, because that means you're actually disrupting the traffic as it tries to get back out of the station.

I'm not even sure I understand what you're trying to do with that station.  I don't see an intermediate industry, is this just a transfer station from boats to trains or vise versa?  If so, there's no reason to have multiple independent input and output train stations.

Replies: >>277568

Anonymous 26/04/2025, 14:27:22 1920df No.277568

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>>277554
sorry for the late reply, I got a bit distracted, and then I got distracted again by trying to get to the point where I could naturally get to the point I wanted to get to. 
>Per what?  Is this a rate?  Keep in mind every train set and the trains within them usually have different cargo capacities and loading speeds  Simply saying X number of trains isn't helpful, you need a lot more context for an observer to try and figure out what your real bottleneck is.
I wanted to leave the rates unspecified. I guess what I should have asked for directly were suggestions for a station design that can handle loads of throughput whilst being compact and expandable. Uhh, pic kind of related. I started a new game and I'm connecting up a basic steel chain for early-game cash but I'm already hitting throughput issues with the sheer volume of cargo I want to process both at the input and the output station. Adding more lanes seems like the obvious solution but do you know if there's a better, more future-proof way of building stations?

Replies: >>277710

Anonymous 27/04/2025, 03:14:43 2d7e64 No.277710

>>277568
I'd say the first thing you should do is get rid of those extremely tight turns.  Some trains sets will let you get away with rather tight turns, but if you're playing with the original engine set at least, you typically want to make the length of straight track pieces in a turn no less than the length of a train.  Does this make your networks bulky when using long trains?  Very much so, but it eliminates the first major source of traffic congestion: when a train in front of another slows down and forces anything too close to it behind it to slow down too.  Once you've resolved that persistent source of traffic congestion, only then can you begin to appreciate how the shape of your station impacts traffic disruption as trains are exiting it.

Anonymous 27/04/2025, 03:21:42 8a101a No.277713

>>277526 (OP) 
What I've always found about strategy games, and openTTD and the other tycoon games, is that there are two ways to build 

>The most efficient way
>The most elegant way

The most elegant way is almost never the most efficient way, it's only the best way to keep everything organized and beautiful. Efficiency is fucking ugly, and while you can find a just werks solution relatively easily that's probably better than something that looks nice, it won't scale and you'll quickly be neck-deep in problems you made before that you forgot the solution to

>Why does this matter for OpenTTD?
Because you have to pick and choose your battles for elegance, especially in something like a competitive strategy game. Not everything can be beautiful, if this is a major hub that isn't going to scale, make it an inelegant but efficient mess. 

>if there's a better, more future-proof way of building stations?
Kind of a catch-22 of elegance unless you knew for sure it would end up becoming the capital of your empire.

/v/ - Video Games

it's fucking video games, baby

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