A.I. trains not loading properly

[Cheripok]

Hi everyone.

This is my first ever post!

I've been working hard building a real scale route in T:ANE and I've come across an issue which i can't solve. Figured a few out myself but this one has me stumped.
I'm using the J.R. Diamond River Summerlee coal tipple. If i run a train through it at an appropriate speed it loads perfectly but if i ask an A.I. driver to do it i run into problems. Mostly they will start off ok at about 2mph but by three or four cars in they slow down to 1mph and then stop showing a ! in the driver icon. Usually they manage to load between 5 or 6 cars before this happens. I have laid the track in the direction of travel and the train has enough space beyond the mine to complete the move. In order to check if it was the way something specific was laid out that was causing a problem i set up a simple test on a blank board with a very basic track layout and no junctions or signals. This time the train ran the first car or two through too quickly to load and then commenced loading at around car three before again stopping at around car six and putting up the ! again. I feel as though i may be missing a little bit of vital knowledge so if any one can point me in the right direction I'd be delighted. Thanks for reading this. Cheripok (David).

 

[pware]

One question I might ask is exactly how are you instructing the AI driver to load at the tipple? Your description makes no mention of this important piece of information. Are you using driver commands in the Driver Setup Rule such as "Navigate To <name of tipple>" followed immediately by "Load"? I don't have that particular asset (the J.R. Diamond River Summerlee coal tipple) so I cannot be sure but some industry assets do load at low speeds while others require the wagons to be stationary when loading. It is possible that by simply giving your AI train the instruction "Navigate to <name of tipple>" without any "Load" command then the first few cars are loading before it stops because of a lack of any further orders.

TANE can give you some on screen information as to what is happening. When in Driver mode open the Additional Tools Menu (the "spanner" icon near the top right of the screen) and select "Show Message Overlay". This will place diagnostic messages on the bottom left of the screen. This may help you work out what is happening.

The direction in which the track is laid makes no difference to anything other than the direction that signals and buffer stops face.

 

[Cheripok]

Thanks for your feedback. I usually give then a "navigate to" followed by a "load" command", but have tried inserting a "halt train" or "wait for xxx" in between too. I'll try your suggestion about the text overlay and see if that sheds any light on things.

 

[Cheripok]

OK we have some info. on why they are not loading now. Message overlay says "waiting for track clearance...then adds stuck and waiting for instructions. This is a terminal line approaching a buffer but if i drag the train to within about 20 metres of the buffer it has about 280 metres of clear track behind the last car to the tipple so it's not short of space. Some kind of pathing issue because there is nowhere to go after the buffer?

 

[stagecoach]

I dont have the J.R. Diamond River Summerlee coal tipple but I did try the built-in one and it worked fine. If a junction is not set for its exit it will stop and then forget the rest of the load and continue its journey.

 

[cascaderailroad]

AI is fallible at all times, drive manually instead, just like they drive trains in real life, hands on the cab controls. Expecting AI to drive prototypically is like, expecting Trainz to be real ... When in fact it is just a virtual reality video game cartoon, with lots of flaws

 

[mikeaust]

The loco may be seeing the buffer as a red signal. Try putting another signal just in front of it. It will then get a yellow instead.
Cheers,
Mike

 

[JCitron]

The AI will stop short of the buffers by a good amount. The way to avoid that is to extend the track a bit more into the hillside, or use a piece of invisible track to make the line longer and put an invisible signal just prior to the buffer facing so that the signal, shaped like a triangle wedge, so that the point is facing towards the buffer.

 

[ecco]

Hi everyone.

This is my first ever post!

I've been working hard building a real scale route in T:ANE and I've come across an issue which i can't solve. Figured a few out myself but this one has me stumped.
I'm using the J.R. Diamond River Summerlee coal tipple. If i run a train through it at an appropriate speed it loads perfectly but if i ask an A.I. driver to do it i run into problems. Mostly they will start off ok at about 2mph but by three or four cars in they slow down to 1mph and then stop showing a ! in the driver icon. Usually they manage to load between 5 or 6 cars before this happens. I have laid the track in the direction of travel and the train has enough space beyond the mine to complete the move. In order to check if it was the way something specific was laid out that was causing a problem i set up a simple test on a blank board with a very basic track layout and no junctions or signals. This time the train ran the first car or two through too quickly to load and then commenced loading at around car three before again stopping at around car six and putting up the ! again. I feel as though i may be missing a little bit of vital knowledge so if any one can point me in the right direction I'd be delighted. Thanks for reading this. Cheripok (David).

Try as I might I could not get Summerlee to work (SP3) which is strange because I have used it.

However, this will work:
CSX engine
10 Coal Hoppers (the MaM Green ones) ETA: Just noticed these have European couplers. Probably any coal hopper will work.
Mill Creek Coal Mod 1 - Be sure to set the consumption rate to 0
Start the train at least 3 train lengths from the tipple
Have at least 2 train lengths of track available past the tipple.
Buffer = = TM end = = = Sig 04 = = minimun 1 1/2 train lengths = = = tipple = = = 3 train lengths = = = <TRAIN<


Driver Commands:
Wait 10 seconds - this is vital
Call At Mill Creek - I prefer Call At over Drive To or Navigate to
Load
Drive to TM End

Mill Creek does not load a moving train. It stops for every car. (For continuous loading you could also try Coal Mine Basic - but it's very big).
Be Patient. When the train has finished loading, 9 full loads and a partial, it will sit and the AI will think. This may be because of the Buffer - I've not noticed this on a large Route where the train has "somewhere to go".
Give it at least a minute. The train will then begin moving to the TM.

Oh yeah. If it doesn't work the first time - exit Driver and go right back in to Quick Drive.

Like some other computer games, Trainz is (unintentionally) a puzzle game.

 

[JCitron]

I would like to add another thing, which I forgot.

I put in a 5 mph speed limit on the mine lead to keep the AI from speeding along with a track mark just before the mine. The AI is directed to wait at the mine for about 5 or 10 seconds and then proceed to the mine as directed.

AI drive to Mine-stop (track mark) at 5 mph.
Wait 10 seconds.
Drive to Mine
Load.

What this does is a couple of things:

1) The slow speed keeps the AI from whizzing through the mine and forgetting to load all the cars.
2) The wait at track mark gives the AI a pause before it moves forward into the mine.

This process also works well for other industries as well such as power plants.

 

[Cheripok]

Problem solved. I layed about 1km of invisible track beyond my track end and put an invisible buffer on it. I then changed the buffers on the visible track to dummy ones and all is now good.good. Thanks for the reminder about the message overlay function because that's what pointed me i the right direction after seeing the "waiting for track clearing" message. Why it requires so much invisible track i'm not sure but it didn't work with less so maybe it's a function of train length times "x". Time to move on to the next conundrum

 

[Cheripok]

What a nice community! So many suggestions. Thanks everyone.

 

[JCitron]

Problem solved. I layed about 1km of invisible track beyond my track end and put an invisible buffer on it. I then changed the buffers on the visible track to dummy ones and all is now good.good. Thanks for the reminder about the message overlay function because that's what pointed me i the right direction after seeing the "waiting for track clearing" message. Why it requires so much invisible track i'm not sure but it didn't work with less so maybe it's a function of train length times "x". Time to move on to the next conundrum

The buffers are actually stop signals. By placing a piece of invisible track beyond the stop along with an invisible signal, the AI then sees this as a yellow and will proceed up to the buffer. A sneaky trick ain't it!

I'm glad we can help. We're generally a friendly crowd here.