How do I problem solve the AI's routing choices.

RobWed

Member
I am trying to automate two ICE trains on the Schwaninger Land route using Driver commands. I'n using Navigate To... (Schwaningen); Load; Navigate To... (the other end of the HS line) Terminate Train. My down train is stuck at Schwaningen on Load. No doors opening no passenger movement. I added a Halt Train command just before the Load to no effect. Are the ICE trains different from other trains?

My Up train is stopped at a signal which says "Line ahead is blocked by another train". It's track path is blue. The path crosses over to the Down side just ahead and then back to the Up side before Schwaningen. There are no other trains. Is a trackmark and Navigate via Trackmark the way to fix this?

TIA
 
So I was able to build a test route with an industry platform and the loading and unloading of passengers is automatic. So perhaps adding Load to the Driver Commands is unnecessary...

Routing is still driving me nuts...
 
Yes, you need a "load command" or "Terminate Command" after the "Navigate To:" so it will unload passengers and then load them. The "Terminate Command is used at the terminal at the end of the line so that it unloads but does not load.
 
You can use track marks and direction markers.

Track marks will guide the drivers through complex junctions and areas.
Direction markers are like one-way signs. You point them in the direction you want the drivers to go. If the driver encounters the point-end of the direction marker, they will not, or should not, go in that direction.

As time goes on, you'll gain more experience and begin to anticipate what the "AI" will do. In the process, you'll also come up with some interesting swear words and lots of creative names for AI drivers. You'll also blame the AI drivers for drinking more than tea, soda, and coffee at lunch and end up firing them all. ;-)

Anyway...

Navigate to... means that the AI will find the quickest way between points and will do what they have to in order to get to their destination.

Drive to... is more specific and is used for those places where you want the AI to head to a specific location using specific tracks. In either case, the AI will still complain about the route not being available if it's blocked.

Here's a couple of tips regarding track marks.

When you have a yard or sidings, the AI will take the shortest path between two points. This means they will take the junction and 99.9999% go through the yard rather than stick to the 65-mph bypass line. To prevent this, place some navigate to track marks in the middle of the bypass track. By placing the markers in the middle of the bypass track, this will get the AI away from the yard lead. I go one step further. I will place three sets of markers. The first is just past the junctions, the second is in the middle, and the last are farthest away.

If you use wyes, place a track mark on each point and in the middle of each leg. From my experience, AI will do a weird reverse move sometimes to turn their train around on the wye. To prevent that, again to get them past the junctions, I direct them to the middle of the legs. This keeps them on the route they're supposed to go and prevents the absurd backup, reverse, forward move.

Signaling will be another bag of worms to deal with. Unfortunately, I can't help you with German signaling with this route but later on if you bring up a post on American signals, I can help you with those.

You may be implementing the Load command incorrectly. For the most part, using the Navigate to... Industry/Station - pull down the field and put in industry/station, followed by the Load command works pretty well. The AI will slow down when the station script "grabs" control from the AI and stops the train at the platform. Once the script finishes, the AI will pick up the next command in the queue and continue on to their next destination. This is the backbone of most operations and whole schedules can be built around this for passenger and even freight operations.
 
"Navigate To ..." and '''Drive To ..." commands are used in terminating situations, where you want the AL to slow down on approach and stop at the trackmark (e.g. "Navigate to Trackmark <name of trackmark>" or industry.

If you are using trackmarks as waypoints where the AI will not slow down and stop as it passes over them then use the "Navigate Via Trackmark ..." or "Drive Via Trackmark ..." commands
 
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