Need help with session/activity design.

[SeanW]

Greetings all;

For a long time now, I've been working on a mega-massive route called Halsiburg. It is sufficiently developed now that I can publish an Experimental Build, at least the route is. (TRS2006 BTW).

But I need help designing the activities for the player, and I originally posted a thread in the Scripting forum seeking this assistance, on the (perhaps erroneous) assumption that I'd need to get into coding to do what is required. That thread is here
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=49353
and a screenshot thread of the project thread is here:
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=39080

But I guess not a lot of people read that forum, so I must cross post

Nutshell, what I need to do is:

1. Build a virtual "Central Traffic Control" system so that the player does not need to switch any junctions, and is prevented from doing so - which I've seen in some sessions. This includes for automation for complicated moves such as assembling a train, leaving a yard and so on.
2. Provide prompt boxes that explain what the player is supposed to do at any given time.
3. End the game and return the player to the Driver Menu after they have completed the activity (or caused a derailment.)

Things I'd like to do (but may be more complicated and are less important)

1. Punish the player for speeding or missing a stop, e.g. by halting and locking out the train/tram/bus for a short time.
2. Provide a "ticker" that shows minor information, station ahead in X meters, adverse speed limit change ahead, etc.

I also know very little about this, keep in mind, as I pretty much just went into Surveyor and started placing things.

Can anyone enlighten me on what I need to do? Or, would anyone with experience in Session design like to do the sessions for the Project?

The Experimental Build of the route is ready for imminent release, so all that is needed is 2 good sessions for it.

 

[pcas1986]

Sean,
Although I've been a member for several years, I'm not sure what the eitquette is for advertising a new route on DLS. If you are not comfortable with writing sessions then I suggest you challenge this forum to develop some with the objectives you stated.

AFAIK you don't need scripts for that - it's all done in the session manager. Although I'm not sure about the help part. I recall there are some samples in the standard content provided by Auran that do that.

This is the right forum though.

Looking forward to seeing the route.

Cheers
Paul

 

[john259]

With TRS2006 there are two ways you can go.

1. Rules and sessions. Difficult to do anything beyond the very simple, especially if a rule doesn't exist to do what you need. Creating new rules requires highly advanced programming knowledge. The Rules and Session Guide is a good introduction to using Rules, but doesn't go as far as writing them.

2. Trainz Pro Routes' SCS2006 (Scenario Creation System for TRS2006), available free. This is a much simpler and more powerful option IMHO.

In TRS2004 there's a third option, namely to write scenarios in the GameScript language. Auran removed support for that in TRS2006 although the greatest coding experts have discovered ways to do it.

John

 

[Vern]

Until/if Auran implement some sort of autonomous despatcher, the only way you can have a train run without any player interaction at junctions is to save your original route that way in Surveyor (but then any deviation from that will require the player to change junctions manually). This is a long standing gripe with me about TRS - here we have probably the best sim for route creation on the market but hindered horribly by what is effectively the free drive mode from TRS 1.0 being the de-facto method of driving.

Even the latest version (TS2010) still requires you to switch points a couple of times on the ECML session even though in reality the line is controlled by a remote panel signalbox.

As regards setting up a timetable or enforcing speeding/red signal violation there must be a way to do it. Again, in TS2010 the player train does not have any commands as would be given to the AI driver but it still monitors you stopping at stations (including the "right away" message), speeding or signal violations. I assume it is done via one of the scripts but I can't find any documentation or instructions how you set this up in a session. Appears to be a dark art...

 

[john259]

Vern,

Everything you list can be done in a TRS2004 scenario, probably in SCS2004 and SCS2006, and probably in driver sessions with rules provided the rules exist or someone can create them. To learn how to do it, try that Rules and Sessions Guide, or SCS, or if you've got TRS2004 then my beginners guide to writing scenarios. To see how it works in practice you might like to try one of our Razorback Railway activities if you've got TRS2004 or TRS2006.

John

 

[pcas1986]

With TRS2006 there are two ways you can go.

1. Rules and sessions. Difficult to do anything beyond the very simple, especially if a rule doesn't exist to do what you need. Creating new rules requires highly advanced programming knowledge. The Rules and Session Guide is a good introduction to using Rules, but doesn't go as far as writing them.

2. Trainz Pro Routes' SCS2006 (Scenario Creation System for TRS2006), available free. This is a much simpler and more powerful option IMHO.

In TRS2004 there's a third option, namely to write scenarios in the GameScript language. Auran removed support for that in TRS2006 although the greatest coding experts have discovered ways to do it.

John

Thanks for posting that link John. I have a Auran published copy of the TS2006 manual that came with the Limited Edition DVD but the manual doesn't have anything like the detail of the Guide.

Cheers
Paul

 

[SeanW]

Hi everyone;

I've downloaded and plan to read the Rules and Sessions guide, but in the meantime if someone could give me a link for Scenario Creations System, I would be much obliged.

 

[tompallen]

How about 2010?

Do earlier guides to session creation apply to 2010? If not, are there new guides available?

Tom Pallen

 

[john259]

Hi everyone;

I've downloaded and plan to read the Rules and Sessions guide, but in the meantime if someone could give me a link for Scenario Creations System, I would be much obliged.

There are two versions of SCS, for TRS2004 and TRS2006. The TRS2006 version also worked on the initial releae of TS2009 but not with SP1 or later I think. There might be plans to create a version for TS2010.

For the download try the Trainz Pro Routes web site forum, although I think I read somewhere that it might also be available on DLS.

Do earlier guides to session creation apply to 2010? If not, are there new guides available?

The concepts are the same but details might differ and new versions of Trainz probably have additional facilities. AFAIK there only documentation so far available for TS2009 and TS2010 is on the TrainzDev server's wiki.

John

 

[SeanW]

I'm back

post deleted

 

[SeanW]

A BIG thank you to john259 for posting the link to the Rules and Sessions Guide. I was really quite intimidated by the whole idea of session design because tbh I hadn't a clue what it was all about. That document explained it really well, to the point where I now feel I can make sessions for Halsiburg on my own.

I've deleted my above post for this reason.

Expect to see on DLS (if I can ever get the uploads to *work*) the route dependencies, followed by a revised EAV (I'm throwing out EAV 0.0.0.1), followed by some sessions to play with and enjoy.