Okay this is frustrating!
The user-controlled trains should have equal control of the tracks just as the AI do. I was running a substantial driver's session last night that I had operated for well over 4 hours. I busied myself switching industries and running a local freight up to a quarry and back. The plan was to pick up concrete, gravel, and granite and then return back to the main yard to interchange with the mainline after bringing up empties and dropping off boxcars and tanks at the other industries along the way. I made it all the way back to about a mile or two from the main yard when an AI train came along and flipped the junction under my train!
Yes! I actually saw him do it. He then proceeded along and drove through my derailed hopper cars as if they didn't exist. I was able to remedy the situation by editing and resetting up the derailed hoppers, but that broke the momentum and aura that was created by the initial run. I got my train back to the yard and quit driving after that.
I have had this occur before, but I thought it was due to the kind of freight car I was using, or the switch-lever flipped back to default position. This, however, is not the case. To further test what I witnessed, I watched AI drivers in operation. If an AI driver is stopped at a red signal due to a junction not set in its favor, the driver will repeatedly flip the junction lever as if to test it. With each flip, the signal ahead turned green and the driver lurched forward and then stopped when the signal turned red. This flipping is what caught my train as it was crossing over the points into the yard lead. The AI driver that derailed my train did just that. He fiddled with the lever until it worked as if to jiggle the lock on a door until it can be opened. A user can't do that. We suffer from locked junctions.
In another location, I saw something odd that we can never do. In this location, an AI train was stopped for a signal ahead due to another train occupying a station. The stopped AI was close to a junction, much closer than the 20 meter radius around the junction lever. This was not a modified junction where the radius is adjusted such as what I've done on industrial leads where I need to switch tightly. This was a mainline branch off to another route location. Here the AI taking the branch to the left was able to flip the switch that the other AI driver was nearly on top of as he was waiting for the train ahead to pull out of the station. If this was a user-controlled train, the user would have to wait until the AI driver ahead pulled ahead and into the station.
The way I look at it, the user does not exist in the realm of the AI drivers, but the AI drivers exist in the realm of the user when driving. This separate world is what causes the interaction issues we all have been observing. To operate properly it should be setup so that whatever applies to the human driver also applies to the AI.
We can't flip levers so neither can they. Rules are the rules.
The user-controlled trains should have equal control of the tracks just as the AI do. I was running a substantial driver's session last night that I had operated for well over 4 hours. I busied myself switching industries and running a local freight up to a quarry and back. The plan was to pick up concrete, gravel, and granite and then return back to the main yard to interchange with the mainline after bringing up empties and dropping off boxcars and tanks at the other industries along the way. I made it all the way back to about a mile or two from the main yard when an AI train came along and flipped the junction under my train!
Yes! I actually saw him do it. He then proceeded along and drove through my derailed hopper cars as if they didn't exist. I was able to remedy the situation by editing and resetting up the derailed hoppers, but that broke the momentum and aura that was created by the initial run. I got my train back to the yard and quit driving after that.
I have had this occur before, but I thought it was due to the kind of freight car I was using, or the switch-lever flipped back to default position. This, however, is not the case. To further test what I witnessed, I watched AI drivers in operation. If an AI driver is stopped at a red signal due to a junction not set in its favor, the driver will repeatedly flip the junction lever as if to test it. With each flip, the signal ahead turned green and the driver lurched forward and then stopped when the signal turned red. This flipping is what caught my train as it was crossing over the points into the yard lead. The AI driver that derailed my train did just that. He fiddled with the lever until it worked as if to jiggle the lock on a door until it can be opened. A user can't do that. We suffer from locked junctions.
In another location, I saw something odd that we can never do. In this location, an AI train was stopped for a signal ahead due to another train occupying a station. The stopped AI was close to a junction, much closer than the 20 meter radius around the junction lever. This was not a modified junction where the radius is adjusted such as what I've done on industrial leads where I need to switch tightly. This was a mainline branch off to another route location. Here the AI taking the branch to the left was able to flip the switch that the other AI driver was nearly on top of as he was waiting for the train ahead to pull out of the station. If this was a user-controlled train, the user would have to wait until the AI driver ahead pulled ahead and into the station.
The way I look at it, the user does not exist in the realm of the AI drivers, but the AI drivers exist in the realm of the user when driving. This separate world is what causes the interaction issues we all have been observing. To operate properly it should be setup so that whatever applies to the human driver also applies to the AI.
We can't flip levers so neither can they. Rules are the rules.