Streetcar behavior per Maxis lead gameplay scriptor.

[Board_Marshal 104]

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-update-6-streetcars

 

Here is a taste:

 

"...Another problem is that, well, all the vehicles that are in the same area and want to go to the same destination type will all follow the same path, resulting in clumping and general traffic problems. We’re looking into various ways to improve the situation so traffic will spread out better."

 

Nobody "looked into" this, ever, EVer, EVER IN TESTING, EVEN OUT OF PURE CURIOSITY?  Nobody saw this behavior and said "well, that's not good." I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

 

Edit:

Reddit running on it as well:

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1a6xa4/guillaume_talks_streetcar_logic_its_as_bad_as_we/

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

They must have replaced the llama theme with lemmings.

[MaxisGuillaume 289]

When it comes to regular cars though, they *should* avoid roads that have congestion on them, as long as there is other roads to take. That is, if you keep your blocks short enough, have proper traffic management by using street lights when necessary, etc...

[Sunfighter 186]

 

Go lemmings go!

[Zelgadis 638]

Well, I'll give that picture credit for one thing. That's exactly how Toronto people drive.   Gridlock on one road, nothing on the one next to it.

[hym 358]

Out of curiosity, does this mean we can expect the streetcars to implement some sort of "collaborative problem solving" in the future?  Will streetcar A say to streetcar B, "I've got this station, you get the next one."?

 

And if that is possible, can we get the garbage trucks to work together like that?

[Board_Marshal 104]

When it comes to regular cars though, they *should* avoid roads that have congestion on them, as long as there is other roads to take. That is, if you keep your blocks short enough, have proper traffic management by using street lights when necessary, etc...

 

Not that it needs to be said but I'll say it anyway: keep the Maxis staff in touch with the public.  I know people are busy and the PR department probably has a gag-order on everybody which requires it be sanitized before speaking in an official capacity but anything that comes from Maxis will be absolutely devoured by this rabid group of SimCity players.

 

Oh, in my humble opinion, somebody needs to take up the issue of pathfinding, specifically traffic, but if the same system applies to all then so be it.  It needs to be thoroughly but succinctly explained in a blog post or by some other means but without referring back to multiple, disparate posts.  If everybody could wrap their mind around it then, in my opinion, a great deal of rage could be mitigated.  Best of luck. 

[MaxisGuillaume 289]

Out of curiosity, does this mean we can expect the streetcars to implement some sort of "collaborative problem solving" in the future?  Will streetcar A say to streetcar B, "I've got this station, you get the next one."?

 

And if that is possible, can we get the garbage trucks to work together like that?

 

That's definitely something we're looking into, yes. If it works, we'll apply it for all the vehicles (garbage trucks, fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, even commuters...)

[Sunfighter 186]

Sweet, one of my fav things is just putting the sim in turtle and watch the garbage trucks go around.

 

PS. I ran into a bug night (very expensive one =/).

 

See that lil smidge of medium ave? I cant upgrade that with the tool. Has something to do with the schools. Had to destroy them both. Not a terrible thing, that was the worst placement for a college ever. Everytime class would let out traffic would stop on the ave till the school cleared out.

 

[mrbisonm 1,622]

 

Go lemmings go!

 

Totally irrealistic that picture, never seen that in real life that one side is totally empty.......dumb sims! Unless....Yesss, that's it, there's a nuclear explosion warning out in the city. lol

 

mrb

[Panos 29]

Sweet, one of my fav things is just putting the sim in turtle and watch the garbage trucks go around.

 

PS. I ran into a bug night (very expensive one =/).

 

See that lil smidge of medium ave? I cant upgrade that with the tool. Has something to do with the schools. Had to destroy them both. Not a terrible thing, that was the worst placement for a college ever. Everytime class would let out traffic would stop on the ave till the school cleared out.

 

 

 

It's an intersection "square", not a roundabout. 

 

 

You had an old intersection there, and you demolished it. (can see it from the left square without roads going left & right).

Demolish it, and build a straight road to the map exit. It will solve your problem. (Edit : You have to make them turn around into the city.  Build a ROUND road around the school from the free space on the right, but demolish the intersection first)

 

 

 @MaxisGuillaume 

 

 Keep the good work.

  Edited March 13, 2013 by Panos  

[SirChick 184]

Out of curiosity, does this mean we can expect the streetcars to implement some sort of "collaborative problem solving" in the future?  Will streetcar A say to streetcar B, "I've got this station, you get the next one."?

 

And if that is possible, can we get the garbage trucks to work together like that?

 

That's definitely something we're looking into, yes. If it works, we'll apply it for all the vehicles (garbage trucks, fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, even commuters...)

 

 

Wouldn't it be less intensive if we set the paths like bus routes etc? Rather than finding stops where people are waiting just keep going in the route we chose. It won't need to keep re-pathing and creating these crazy routes that they take.

[CaptCity 4,915]

The last few posts here were definitely over the line and have been removed. Folks. whether or not you like the game, comments will be made respectfully without insult. It's time to remember the rules and do not post merely to flame others and don't respond to posts that obviously do not deserve a response. That's what the Report button is for.

[uebs 11]

The explanation of how trams work was helpful, in terms of maxis's thought process...

 

but I'm surprised nobody from maxis or anyone on the QA team said wtf, this traffic is nonsense...

 

 

 

Here's an idea to fix my mass transit.  Not sure how easy it is to do or if it's even possible based on how your underlying game code works

 

 

 

To add buses to say my bust depot, I have to add a garage.

 

So why not, after adding my garage,

I set down a route for that bus.  I click 8 times on the map, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Every click gets registered as a bus stop for that particular bus from that particular garage.

The bus will go to each bus stop in that particular order

After a 8 hour shift or 12 hour shift w/e the bus goes back to the depot for a shift change

 

If the road gets deleted with a bus stop that's on it, the whole route gets erased

or

Just that stop gets knocked off the bus stop list.

 

Slightly more work for the user, but I think users would rather do more work than be completely frustrated at what the buses do now.

[uebs 11]

This could probably be applied to Police / Fire / Ambulance 

 

Example fire

 

4 fires break out, each fire gets thrown into a que

Imaginary dispatch, dispatches the closest vehicle to the event, and then removes the event from the que.

Imaginary dispatch goes onto the next event and repeats the process.

 

If the player doesn't have a vehicle to respond to the event, the event sits in the que and waits for an available vehicle at this point it will dispatch the next available vehicle and not wait for the the closest vehicle, because the closest one might be a block a way but it's busy.

[Frode789 70]

When it comes to regular cars though, they *should* avoid roads that have congestion on them, as long as there is other roads to take. That is, if you keep your blocks short enough, have proper traffic management by using street lights when necessary, etc...

 

You mean like this?

 

[Catchin22 299]

I don't know if they patched this or what because a day ago I ran a sandbox with various traffic patterns and I have to say the traffic seemed to adapt. I would take a screenshot but I LOST MY CITY due to the stupid rollback "feature"

Anyhow, I watched cars continuously change the route they wanted to take to get to the entrance of another section of city I built with only one entrance. I also watched some cars take a longer route that would have avoided a line of buses which would have cut them off. So I don't know if that was patched or what, but it seems to be working really well.

[simcopops 37]

Can anyone else confirm what catchin22 said?

[snwboardn 18]

Out of curiosity, does this mean we can expect the streetcars to implement some sort of "collaborative problem solving" in the future?  Will streetcar A say to streetcar B, "I've got this station, you get the next one."?

 

And if that is possible, can we get the garbage trucks to work together like that?

 

That's definitely something we're looking into, yes. If it works, we'll apply it for all the vehicles (garbage trucks, fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, even commuters...

 

That is definitely what I like to hear... I have held off buying... I don't care about constant online connection... But these traffic issues kill immersion. It is good to hear you guys are working on a way to fix them. Keep up the good work and I will buy. 

[GenXisT 127]

i'm only posting in here to say it's really nice to see that a developer is actually on this forum, reading and posting.  So it shows that someone there is paying attention.

This board seems to be the benchmark place for what Sim City is all about.

As a long time fan of the franchise, I can say that I appreciate you actually showing that you're making an effort to listen.

Thx

[Board_Marshal 104]

I don't know if they patched this or what because a day ago I ran a sandbox with various traffic patterns and I have to say the traffic seemed to adapt. I would take a screenshot but I LOST MY CITY due to the stupid rollback "feature"

Anyhow, I watched cars continuously change the route they wanted to take to get to the entrance of another section of city I built with only one entrance. I also watched some cars take a longer route that would have avoided a line of buses which would have cut them off. So I don't know if that was patched or what, but it seems to be working really well.

 

I would think Maxis would have yelled from the mountaintops that they've changed the pathfinding algorithm since it's my understanding that every agent shares the same code.  Then again, maybe they're quietly using us all as testers and if everybody starts to say "hey, traffic is different and its better" they'll come out and say "oh ya, that was us, awesome, right?".  Of course there's the potential that everything gets worse or unintended consequences arise and then they roll it back and we're none-the-wiser.  I've never beta tested a game before because it is simply something I don't care to do and I can be patient for a game to be officially released.  My understanding is that this sort of stuff happens in a game's beta period and that's how devs fix test their concepts on a massive scale by receiving loads of feedback from far more humans doing all manner of things (mostly unexpected) than the devs themselves could trial alone.  It feels like the shortening time until official release and intra- EA, Maxis politics played a role in this whole mess but it's probably all top-secret corporate stuff.  I wonder if there's a hidden Watergate drama going on and somebody needs to ninja there way into the files and release the internal memos, all Dateline NBC style.

[MaxisGuillaume 289]

When it comes to regular cars though, they *should* avoid roads that have congestion on them, as long as there is other roads to take. That is, if you keep your blocks short enough, have proper traffic management by using street lights when necessary, etc...

 

You mean like this?

 

 

Thanks, this is something I'm going to be looking into today. There's really no reason for the cars to not make a right turn into the avenue.

[snwboardn 18]

? Did you guys really not know about this? 

 

Thanks for taking the time to look into this stuff. 

[bjl707 4]

Hopefully this issue has been resolved.  That Youtube clip was rather ridiculous.  Eventually I'd like to see the ability to have overpasses for the busy streets.  Or, a true freeway where the only way on and off is through an interchange.  i.e. No redlights. 

 

It's really cool that one of the developers has taken the time to post on here.  Thanks.

[croxis 150]

My hunch is that it was thoroughly tested as it was "suppose" to be played. It is very difficult to try all the possible edge cases is a sandbox (I recall sc4 needed patching and an expansion too). I have a feeling this might of been caught in beta, but the NDA and youtube takedown probably prevented this.