[SOLVED] No Boats During Building a Canal
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Cori's Coded Solution to the Canal Boats Creation Issue
The key to my discovery is that the canal boats will only spawn on a Corner, Tee, or Cross style canal transit piece. If any of those are within range then a boat will magically appear there. I've taken to calling them the magic pieces.
Here they are illustrated:
I'm now certain what happened for @rsc204's test city is that when the stations were plopped, there were no magic canal transit pieces in range so no boats appeared. The boats-to-create quota was stored in the city save data. When he tweaked the radius (as I'd mentioned above), that then allowed some boats to be created because now some magic pieces were within range.
However, my further explorations showed that with the original settings in the Lua code of the NetworkAddonMod_CanAM_Ferry_Generator.dat inside of BSC CAN-AM Lots NAM (v1.0) the total to produce would get used up quickly when expanding the radius. Then when saving, exiting, and re-loading the city, no boats would be created.
Here's the solution:
Lay out your underlying transit path so there is one single magic piece touching the station. Use the straight pieces for any other canal transit path which touches the station. And then also use straight pieces for the tiles diagonally touching the station. I'm calling these the exclusion zone. Any beyond the exclusion zone can be whatever you need.
^ Collage image made by @Cyclone Boom so y'all can see the underlying network pieces.
Now the boat has only one single place it can appear:
If you build a larger station than the 1 x 2 in my above pics, the layout is the same concept. One magic piece touches the station and the exclusion zone needs to extend out one tile each way past the station.
(All of the above also applies to the canal freight stations.)
Ofc, for this to work, I had to also tweak the code such that there would be a large supply of boats which could be generated, but also that they didn't zoom around in a line like ants to an open honey jar. You'll see all the changes I made in the following code:
^ Click the image for a larger view.
Additionally, I'm attaching the code in text format as well as the updated .dat file. This replaces the BSC one. (Code and .dat file revised 2019.12.24 with additional notes and increased max_count so the stations will never need bulldozed and re-plopped.)
Edit 2020.04.24: I noticed I had a couple mistakes in the comments portion of the Lua code. (The function is still fine.) I've fixed those and here are the latest versions. You only need the .dat file for the game. I've included the .lua too tho if you want to open it in your fav text editor. Cori's Canal Generator Rewrite v1.2.lua NetworkAddonMod_CanAM_Ferry_Generator vCori 1.2.dat If you've downloaded the v1.1 .lua and/or .dat versions be sure to remove the prior .dat before using this updated one.
Edit 2020.04.24: I noticed I had a couple mistakes in the comments portion of the Lua code. (The function is still fine.) I've fixed those and here are the latest versions. You only need the .dat file for the game. I've included the .lua too tho if you want to open it in your fav text editor. Cori's Canal Generator Rewrite v1.2.lua NetworkAddonMod_CanAM_Ferry_Generator vCori 1.2.dat If you've downloaded the v1.1 .lua and/or .dat versions be sure to remove the prior .dat before using this updated one.
Here it is! The splendid solution Cori discovered for the missing canal boats is here. :)
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Ever feel like you've too much SHIP to deal with, now we can all thank @CorinaMarie for that:
Having spent a good amount of time playing with the LUA changes, I've come to two conclusions. First that the issue of making boats both appear and remain persistent is clearly resolved. Although ensuring the canals are built a certain way, trying to put stations near non-straight sections, is necessary to spawn them reliably. Secondly, as per the above picture, I'm drowning in ships.
Certainly it's going to take time to find a set of values that works more generally for all. The can't mod/won't mod crowd will demand an out of box experience, but we can accommodate say a low, med and high option at least. Of course those not afraid of Reader can tweak the LUA with ease thanks to Cori's excellent commenting of what each value does. The problem is right now, that test city above was built intentionally to spawn many, many boats, so it was successful in that regard. Therefore I'm calling on anyone interested in CAN-AM, or who has a pre-existing CAN-AM system, to help with some feedback to find a nice balanced set of values that works in many different setups. Anyone interested can either respond here or PM me as desired. Without any help in this area, I'm afraid I simply don't have the time to do this alone and likely won't for some time. This is no big deal and just requires you have a functioning CAN-AM system and are willing to provide feedback on different values and the # of boats you are seeing.
The other aspects of CAN-AM, which I do intend to alter, as follows:
Modernise (SLURP) the CAN-AM stations transit modding
Convert the corner CAN-AM piece to function as a diagonal (already handled - see screenshot)
Actually this works better, since the boats don't jump about the place, even when used as a corner, it makes for smoother automata. So it's a twofer. Converting the Road/Ave crossings from L2 to L1
This is fairly simple to do and would be optional. I personally feel this would be much better. Of course El-Rail, Rail (PP Viaducts), Monorail and Highway don't work at L1, likewise OWR, so those will be left as is. Try to add some form of diagonal crossing support (tentative) I've already SLURPed the Cal CAN-AM stations, including the addition of "Signs", like RTMT lots use, making them easier to find: I've attached a copy of the updated stations to this post, for those who'd like to try them out. You still need the same dependencies as the originals and it replaces all the original Lot Files entirely. Coupled with Corina's updated Automata scripts/DAT, CAN-AM is working for me the best it ever has. CAL Canal - CANAM Stations SLURPed.dat
Actually this works better, since the boats don't jump about the place, even when used as a corner, it makes for smoother automata. So it's a twofer. Converting the Road/Ave crossings from L2 to L1
This is fairly simple to do and would be optional. I personally feel this would be much better. Of course El-Rail, Rail (PP Viaducts), Monorail and Highway don't work at L1, likewise OWR, so those will be left as is. Try to add some form of diagonal crossing support (tentative) I've already SLURPed the Cal CAN-AM stations, including the addition of "Signs", like RTMT lots use, making them easier to find: I've attached a copy of the updated stations to this post, for those who'd like to try them out. You still need the same dependencies as the originals and it replaces all the original Lot Files entirely. Coupled with Corina's updated Automata scripts/DAT, CAN-AM is working for me the best it ever has. CAL Canal - CANAM Stations SLURPed.dat
A superb advancement in updating the CAN-AM stations to be SLURPed. Feedback is welcomed.
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