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Custom GLR and EL Requests (ATTN: SFBT)

Started by rjalh, March 05, 2008, 12:12:45 AM

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rjalh

This request involves especially Herr Andreas Roth and the SFBT team.

First, I would like to thank them for their excellent work on here.

Given what they have done so far, I would like to know the following:

1)  I like trams, but I also want to use EL trains.  I like using custom trams, but I want the train-like EL automata to continue (I don't want to suppress it).  So, if you are able to program distinct automata for various tram lines (the colors), why can't you have the train-like (multi-car) EL automata for the EL lines?  It seems that the ability to do the one would imply the ability to do the other.  Has this been done?

2)  I like the MAPP (amusement park), and I use it with the pedestrian mall tiles from NAM because it's not very realistic to have cars driving all over an amusement park.  I mix in small commercial lots (SimGoober's brand name small eateries work well) to generate pedestrian traffic throughout the amusement park.  Yet, I want to provide my sims a ride around the park.  So, the tram museum works well for that purpose, but there isn't another stop besides the museum.  It would be great to have a historical tram stop (not an avenue one) that would not generate any tram automata except for the historic yellow one that the museum uses.  Then, sims could take the tram around the amusement park in a unique sort of ride that would differ from the "real sim world" modes of transportation. Is this possible, too?

Thanks!

UPDATE:

[I am new on here, and I could not figure out how to reply when there is no reply button.  So, I'm modifying my original as a response.]

Mr. Roth, thank you for your reply.  I did not know how the automata worked before.  I think that I have an idea of how I could "have my cake and eat it, too" with respect to the MAPP tram -- it's a bit of a cheat but it saves the "reality" behind the eye candy, which is important to me.

Suppose that you had an eye candy historic tram station that you could set on the GLR in the amusement park.  (The tram museum could be near the park entrance, and it would generate the yellow tram automata.)  To make the museum and the tram stations truly functional mass transit stations without compromising the historic tram automata, you could make a subway station that looked like a food vender booth (cotton candy!) or something that would seem fitting in an amusement park and then set that 1x1 lot next to the stations in the game.  Then, you could run subway lines (and pretend that they don't exist) under the GLR track.  In this way, there would be real traffic along your tram route, and you could measure it by looking at the subway (which you would keep apart from other subway lines, of course).  I borrowed this idea from Pegasus' brilliant canal water taxi scheme.  It's a fudge on realism (by ignoring the subway lines), but it achieves a certain desired result, given the parameters of the game.

So, if you ever have the time and the will, I would really appreciate a non-avenue eye candy historic tram GLR station -- and it seems like this idea might be attractive to others, too.

Thanks, again!

Andreas

1) The BSC SFBT GLR Tram Mod relies on a custom automata generator script, this means that the red, blue, green and yellow trams are automata that is generated by the lot, much like the police cars that appear around police stations etc. However, el-rail automata is a visual representation of the traffic on the el-rail tracks. It is not generated by the stations, but by the game itself, based on the current usage. Also, we cannot create multi-car trains with a custom automata generator script, but only single cars, like the colored trams. The el-train suppressor file that I added to the download was mainly done in order to prevent el-trains showing up on the GLR tracks (which unfortunately means they won't show up on el-rail tracks as well, since GLR tracks are merely el-rail tracks on the ground). So no, this can't be done.

2) Creating a new GLR station with that model for the MAPP shouldn't be that hard - it's a good idea, actually. :) I will have to test if the museum tram automata is able to pass several stations in a row, so it might not be necessary to attach the custom automata generator to the station as well (otherwise, too many trams might show up). Obviously, if you actually transit enable those station, rather than creating an eye-candy one, regular el-trains will show up on the tracks if the GLR line is actually used by the sims (and if you don't have the el-rail automata suppressor installed). Maybe an eye-candy station would do the trick, though.
Andreas