Light rail modding help

[mikeseith 457]

I'm looking for some modding help with my small light rail project.

I have made 4 trams: 1 with a red stripe, 1 with a yellow stripe, 1 with a blue stripe, and 1 with a green stripe.

I have made 4 small transit enabled stations in all of the above colors.
Some pictures:






Trying to make more european looking cities here.
The trams may look familiar to you train fans. They are one of oppie's train engines reskinned and smaller.

What I need to know is.
Can I make a station spawn a specific vehicle instance and that instance only?
Example: I have a line running in my city east to west and put down all red stations on that line. I would want that line to have only red trams running on it.
And I would like a north south line with all blue stations with blue trams running on it.
or maybe the transit enabled lots that they run on can allow only the color trams you what.

Is there a way it can be modded or am I asking too much?
Thanks

[ert90 8]

Sweet! Will this be released?

[DuskTrooper 314]

The yellow one looks like a Dallas DART Train...

[mikeseith 457]

Date: 8/11/2004 1:31:25 PM
Author: ert90
Sweet! Will this be released?

quote>
Soon after I find out if it is possible to make a color coded line system as I described I will release everything on the exchange.

This will be part of the ground rail system. So if I can't have a specific vehicle to station mod going, it will be an either trams or passenger rail choice. Unless you don't mind 10 car passenger trains running down the center of your major boulavards.

I still need to make the trams light up at night and I need to make larger high volume stations (not easy to make fit in a tight space).

Thanks for the interest ert90

[Daeley 46]

Date:8/11/2004 1:28:05 PM
Author:mikeseith

What I need to know is.
Can I make a station spawn a specific vehicle instance and that instance only?
Example: I have a line running in my city east to west and put down all red stations on that line.  I would want that line to have only red trams running on it. 
And I would like a north south line with all blue stations with blue trams running on it.
or maybe the transit enabled lots that they run on can allow only the color trams you what.

Is there a way it can be modded or am I asking too much?
Thanks

quote>

I am currently looking for a way to make a custom building spawn a custom vehicle (as I was asked to by Swamper77), this seems to be a similar issue.

I have already been succesfull in making a building spawn any existing kind of automata. I have already found a way to make it work with custom vehicles, but I still have to do some preogramming to actually see it work ingame. I'll keep you updated.

[Mexicanboy13r 12]

WOW!! That looks very good!! I can't wait for that!

How about if theres a way to connect this with subway?

[mikeseith 457]

Date: 8/11/2004 2:31:25 PM
Author: Mexicanboy13r

WOW!! That looks very good!! I can't wait for that!

How about if theres a way to connect this with subway?

quote>

Hi Mexicanboy13r,
I'll see what I can do about connections to subways. I'm still new to modding, but willing to learn.

[ardecila 124]

Date: 8/11/2004 2:17:39 PM
Author: Daeley

I am currently looking for a way to make a custom building spawn a custom vehicle (as I was asked to by Swamper77), this seems to be a similar issue.

I have already been successful in making a building spawn any existing kind of automata. I have already found a way to make it work with custom vehicles, but I still have to do some programming to actually see it work ingame. I'll keep you updated.

quote>

Are you doing this with occupant groups, or effects?

[Mexicanboy13r 12]

great to hear from you!  And I can't wait!

[theyeti2001 0]

This is great. I started a tram thread a while back, but you've pretty much made what I was looking for. One question tho. Are you going to make different length stations and Transit Enabled Lots? As 2 TELs can't be placed next to each other only 1 TEL can be used between crossroads, which could be anything from 1 to 10 or more squares long. Also are you going to make a variety of different style lots for different areas of town? Sorry if I sound pushy but I've been waiting for a good tram modd for ages. Now if only we could get rid of the dirt at crossroads.

 

Yeti.

[Ninja12 3]

where did u get those train tracks in the middle looks very cool

[DuskTrooper 314]

Just wondering- are those tram tracks an overlay texture? They should be, so we could change how the underlying texture looks like- say, red brick, etc. This would be better for certain areas.

Soo...whats the ETA?

[Speedy 0]

This is very good work! It would be great to ad another mass transit to my cities. I really hope you will release this when it's finished Keep up the good work

[ardecila 124]

Yeah, they are overlay textures. I saw a lot with one like it on the Japanese site. Is that the one you used, Mike? I downloaded that lot just for the texture, then deleted everything except the texture DAT.

As for the dirt: does the crossing ALWAYS have that dirt, or just some of the time? Try playing with the wealth level of the station to fix it.

[pjj4000 0]

this is sweet. you are God.

[mikeseith 457]

Theyeti2001,
So far I have made 4 transit enabled lots, and yes, they are 1,3,5 and 7 tiles long. I am planning on making a 9 and maybe an 11 tile long lot also. I only have made the small stations in the pictures so far. I have been trying to make larger stations but its hard to make anything not look awful in such a small space. And as I remember, it was your posts that got me thinking about this light rail project in the 1st place.

Ninja12,
Yep, I made the texture for the lots. My 1st attempt at base textures I might add.

Ardecila,
Those are base textures. I transit enabled the lots using the tutorial by Qbert2 so I think base textures are all you can use. Maybe if I feel energetic I'll make lots with a variety of base textures. Playing with the wealth levels of the stations is a great idea. I'll look into it right away.

Everyone else,
thank you for your Enthusiasm, and I will work on this as fast as I can. Right now I'm working on making the trams light up at night.

[Zeddic 3]

Sweet... That looks really good! Just what I need to my smaller towns/cities. But when you are releasing those, I'd suppose you to put all lots in their own files, so user can choose, which ones he/she wants to use. (Just so menus don't get too overcrowded... ) Also different colors look nice.

You deserve few bunnies:

[jmusshorn 7]

This lightrail business should definately be added to the Network Addon Mod. Maybe you should PM Builderman or Tropod and tell them about this. It's incredible! Hope to see it in my city soon!

- James

[Daeley 46]

Arcedila: this would be done through occupant groups and vehicle group id's.

 

basic idea: create a new group id for the vehicle and define it. Then, create a new automata attractor script for this vehicle and attach it to a new occupant group.

 

This should work, but you'll have to give me some time to actually complete it.

[vil 3]

Sweet. Just absolutely sweet.

I dont believe color coded lines are possible. Same as trains. Actually this would replace trains, right? How about working it in as the ANT network or replacing elevated rail (rare in europe)?

Good luck with the project!

[jacqulina 162]

excellent work just what we need

[theyeti2001 0]

Well, glad I could provide some inspiration .

[ardecila 124]

mikeseith: You can have overlay textures on transit-enabled tiles. How do you think Maxis did the transit-enabling on the ferry depot? After you do the transit-enabling, open the lot in LE and put the overlay textures on. Problem solved.

Daeley: That's funny. About 4 weeks ago, I had the exact same idea about creating a new occupant group to spawn trams. I even e-mailed DM about it, and he said it was totally possible. The only downside is that the core script that defines the Occupant Groups needs to be managed by some authority, so we dont get different permutations of custom Occupant Groups. BTW: Is there any way I can create a mod that removes the Area 5.1 requirement for the Jet Fighter? Id like to have them spawn on the PEG Aircraft Carrier, but they refuse to.

vil: Yes, they currently replace trains. However, if Daeley can create a new Occupant Group to spawn these things, then they wont have to replace rail. You can even seperate the tram-carrying lines from the regular lines.

[nooneatall 6]

This post may not be too helpful, but needless to say you have made very good progress. It would probably be difficult enough to do what you are attempting to do, but it would add to the realism, so I see your incentive.
You should do like mentionned above, PM tropod maybe and add it as a new network in the NAM, they could help you out a bit also I beleive.

[espee04135 47]

What a wonderful project! those pics are great. Looking forward to adding your creation(s) to my cities. Good Luck.

[Daeley 46]

well Arcedila, I'll tell you something funny... you can create new occupant groups without modifying the script that defines occupant groups

 

and to your second question, I believe it should be possible to do that yes.

[the7trumpets 10]

Very impressive, mikeseith.

Am I correct in assuming that what you have done is created custom transit enabled lots for the stations and straight pieces of track, but relied on the existing rail network for curved pieces and crossings with other networks?

A coupple of months ago, I had an idea to do some massive texture and RUL/path work to attempt to use the ANT which tropod unlocked for a light rail system. The downside is that it is unclear what all is complete and what is incomplete behind the scenes (in the exe), so there may be some issues with it, but I'm willing to try.

To make a long story short, if I actually get my act together and start working on this, would you be willing to lend a hand? Your trains and stations look absolutely amazing, and with the possibility of custom trains for individual lines, this is simply incredible. I'll need help making textures for the network, which basically involves loading in an elevated rail overlay (Without crossties), and placing it on top of different road tiles.

My plan is to start with oneways (since the RUL and path coding is much simpler), and then do avenues (which will be more complex, but look simply awesome). There will be challenges along the way, but if you're willing to help with the parts I have much difficulty at, I think we can do it together.


As far as integrating it into the Network Addon Modd, I believe that Tropod (as he should) has restricted the modd to 'actual' network pieces, not transit enabled lots. So, as is, he may not want to let it in, but if we make the thing work with the ANT tool, I'm sure it would be no problem because it would be much more user-friendly. The other advantage of using the ANT is realism. Light rail trains have narrower tracks (95% of the time, some exceptions in Germany) than heavy rail tracks. However, it is very concievable that light rail, elevated rail, and subway could operate on the same track width and electrification principles. Using the ANT, we could create a light rail that interfaces with elevated rail and subway, but not heavy rail.


But alas, I'm rambling now. Let me know if you'd be interested in working together to attempt the creation of an 'actual' network.

[Daeley 46]

okay, so from now on occupant group 0x1DDD attracts cement mixers

 

note that I did this with only one LUA file no change to ingred.ini were made

next I'll try to get this effect with a custom vehicle... but give me some time, i'm experiencing some weird problems with this...

[Swamper77 90]

Daeley,

 

Glad to see you are making some progress. Hopefully, I will be able to setup some things so SimGoober's hotels spawn vehicles of their particular chain. It would be nice to see the custom Hotel Shuttles I made be spawned from each of SG's hotels.

 

-Swamper77

[mikeseith 457]

That looks promising Daeley. I have been snooping around and found a lot by themadprogramer that uses a new occupant group for a custom vehicle. I have been messing with it all day with poor results I'm afraid.

Yes, all the trams are on the road and not the rails. I got those results using response vehicle type. Don't think thats the way to go.
I feel I'm getting close, but I don't know how close.

That is an interesting offer the7trumpets. If you take the lead on this I'll help out in any way I can...Please note that I've limited modding experience and at times I get a bit busy with real life and have to (sadly) set my many sim city projects aside. The idea of having a real light rail system and a more realistic aproach to planning mass transit is exciting.
And yes, all of your asumptions are correct about what I have done so far. I made transit enabled stations and straight pieces while using the rail for everything else.
If I'm correct, even while only concentrating on the oneway roads we may have many hundreds of FSH files to redo in the game to do what your suggesting. Big job there. Just give me very simple, clear instructions and I'll help out as much as possible.

By the way, I got the trams lit up for night time as you can see in the picture. Those cars are german taxis. I'm trying to find a way to make those little taxi signs light up before releasing them on the exchange.