Paging Dr Phil!

Seriously though, Philskene, if you read this, i have a question for you.

Having downloaded a number of your routes over the last few days, i must first off, pay homage to a master route builder. These babies are beautiful! I love them. Is there any better, i ask? (Rhetorical question, don't answer!)

Now i will get serious. I have explored the routes fairly thoroughly, and studied the maps that are available for the routes. I now feel that i would be able to create a few basic sessions for, say, Urban Industrail 4a. In these sessions i would like to use the AI to drop off/pickup cuts of cars for delivery to the various industries.
In the readme included with the route, you suggest that this is possible, but i cannot see how you would do this. The only track marks i can see serve to keep the AI on the mainline, separate from the player train. How, without adding trackmarks, would i go about setting up this type of interaction in your routes?

Thanks for any help, as always it's much appreciated.
Mattm.

Hi Mattm --

Thanks for those kind comments about the routes.

If you are considering adding complex AI operations that access the industries on the "player" section of the route, you will need to use the later versions of the routes that do not have the red track direction markers. Otherwise you will find that the AI will not be able to enter the player track at all.

The red markers were intended to keep the AI from wandering off course. However, in TS2009 onwards the markers interfered with the signaling system and made the AI inoperative. I actually found that removing them made no difference to the AI behavior anyway.

So I suggest you use eg IndustRail 2a, kuid [FONT=Verdana, Arial]69871:100298. Despite what it says in the text under the thumbnails on the Download Station, it will work with TRS2004 onwards. All the routes that I uploaded after IndustRail 2a are free of direction markers.

I'm by no means an expert in getting AI to do all sorts of impressive maneuvers (I prefer to get my bum in the seat and actually drive the trainz), but I suspect that all you will need to do is instruct an AI driver to do something at a particular industry. I'm not sure if you will also need track marks. If you do, just add them to your version of the route.
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Please tell me how you progress.

Regards,
Phil

Hi Phil, i appreciate your reply, and i do mean what i said with regards to the route quality. They are absolutely superb.
I only asked the question because your readme's seemed to suggest that the routes were set up to allow limited AI shunting, in the form of transfers between the two railroads. That doesn't bother me too much, i'll just have to experiment, won't i? If i have any problems, i will be sure to scream for help on the forums, and hopefully some kind-hearted soul will heed those cries and render assistance.

Thanks again.

I downloaded 5a two weeks ago and was absolutely blown away by the sheer size and operational potential of this route as well as tremendous attention to detail. Aside from fixing a few assets there were no problems. I was also impressed with huge array of industries included, most of which were totally new to me. Also, thank you for the "read me" file. It was of great assistance in setting up the industries for operation. I can't imagine the countless hours that were invested in creating this masterpiece. Thank you so much for your time and talent.

Regards, tomurban