Could you make Trains longer or shorter?

[eyein91681 0]

Is it possible to make trains longer or shorter or add more engines to the train? just a thought

[mayormot 4]

Each train gets one engine, and there's nothing we can do about it.

However, you can easily make trains longer (or shorter), and it makes a nice "first mod" if you ever wanted to try your hand at modding the game. You can't cause any permanent damage to your game or your cities just by playing with automata mods, and it won't affect gameplay at all.

To do it, you need the Netword Addon Mod (NAM) and a .dat file editor, such as iLive's Reader. Both are available in the Modds and Downloads section.

The vehicles that appear on roads and rails are called "automata" in SC4 language, and it just so happens that the nice folks who make the NAM have already isolated their settings into a single .dat file for easy modification. When you install the NAM, there are several different versions of its automata plugin to choose from, ranging from default Maxis settings to radical heavy-traffic 24x7 settings. It doesn't matter which you use, but the default Maxis settings one is probably the best for a first go, just because it won't introduce any other changes that might lead to confusion.

The NAM installs itself in MyDoc/SimCity4/Plugins/NetworkAddonMod. Whichever version of the automata plugin you used, it'll be the only .dat file there with the word "automata" in its name. Open this file in the Reader (or whatever .dat editor you've chosen).

There is a setting in that .dat file called "Commute Train Length" and another called "Freight Train Length". Each has two numbers: The first is the minimum length of a train, and the second is the maximum length. The game will produce trains of a length somewhere between those two numbers, based upon how heavily used the rails are. Change them to whatever you like (in the range 1-255), then save your changes. That's all there is to it.

Be aware that the "Commute Train Length" settings affect elevated trains and subways also (monorail too, I think). Also, the engine counts toward the train length with passenger ("commute") trains, but not with freight trains. A "Commute Train Length" of 1 would produce just an engine or a single el/subway train car. A "Freight Train Length" of 1 would produce an engine and a caboose.

If you mess up somehow, just delete and re-install the NAM, and try again if you like.

[Daddy-O 1]

Excellent advice. Thanks!

[koffee 0]

NAM and DatGen are available on their web sites. I don't have the links right now, but a Google search will turn those up.

It seems that the Modds and Downloads section here on ST is down. You can look at neat stuff, but clicking Download does nothing for me - in IE and Firefox. I have no problems downloading from the STEX section though. Unfortunately, a few key things are in M&D and not STEX.

Luckily, NAM (which is an essential, IMHO) can be had elsewhere. After reading lots of posts here, iLive Reader seems to be the tool of choice, but it is not in STEX. Again, DatGen can be found elsewhere.

On a side note, the source to Reader is available, but I couldn't get it to compile in Visual Studio .NET, and gave up early in my attempts.

[Daddy-O 1]

Downloads worked for me yesterday.

[mrbarham 4]

Something I have noticed eyein, is that the length of your trains increases with the amount of people using the system. In my tech districts where the majority of the sims are commuting too, the trains are very long, but in the burbs they are much smaller, you may want to consider that when you are altering the length...

[Evil_Someone 1]

search in "Modds And Downloads" for those modz