CAN-AM to Ferry converter lot?

[Gwyain 95]

Does anyone know of any Canal to Ferry converter lots out there? I'd really like to be able to create a more seamless transition between the CAN-AM and real water and was hoping there might be a transit converter lock or something out there that can convert CAN-AM "boats" (busses) to passenger ferries and vice versa.

[matias93 7,535]

Those should be doable as a combo passenger ferry + bus station lot, but nobody has done one. Sadly, the CAN-AM is sparsely used, so not many creators have dedicated time to it, nor the NAM team has given priority to compensate for such lack. Probably @rsc204 could give some more information on the technical side of the situation.

[Gwyain 95]

46 minutes ago, matias93 said:

Those should be doable as a combo passenger ferry + bus station lot, but nobody has done one. Sadly, the CAN-AM is sparsely used, so not many creators have dedicated time to it, nor the NAM team has given priority to compensate for such lack. Probably @rsc204 could give some more information on the technical side of the situation.

I thought that might be the case. Well, I've been wanting to start playing around more with SC4 modding, so I suppose if I want one I'll have to finally start learning. Any suggestions for where I should start reading?

[rsc204 21,868]

On 30/08/2020 at 10:58 PM, matias93 said:

Those should be doable as a combo passenger ferry + bus station lot, but nobody has done one. Sadly, the CAN-AM is sparsely used, so not many creators have dedicated time to it, nor the NAM team has given priority to compensate for such lack.

In short if a suitable model already exists, such as a canal lock, you should be able to TE it for CAN-AM to Ferry transfers, just use Bus switches for CAN-AM. There are lots of things that for whatever reasons, no one ever made, but sure CAN-AM didn't exactly set the world on fire.

Personally I really like it and find it has some useful side benefits. It's often impractical to make large inter-connected waterways between many cities, but CAN-AM is great for some very specific routes, like getting sims from a central station to an industrial area next to the canal. Some of the add ons for SG's original canals include lots that generate small amounts of water or electricity, great for those out of the way places that might otherwise not easily connect to the grid.

As for where to start looking, sadly there isn't much by way of a tutorial for the sort of advanced TEing you'd be getting into here. You will need SC4Tool, it's the only tool that can set up TE Switches and the like. In the first instance I'd install that and try some basic TE creation, just to get the hang of it. After that, start a thread (or continue this one), we can help you step-by-step through the more complex parts.

In short, you'll need to manually add a bunch of switches that allow the permutations you want. This will include the supported directions, travel type, both Outside to Inside (Entering lot) and Inside to Outside (Exiting lot). The logic for what you'll need isn't that difficult, although it can seem complex at first glance.

[Gwyain 95]

The transit enabling was actually pretty easy was I got SC Tools running, but what I can't seem to figure out is getting the ferry connection itself to work. I threw together a quick lot in PIM-X which is registering as a passenger ferry both there and in the reader, but it won't connect to the network at all. I'm going to keep playing around, but if anyone has a suggestion to try I'm all ears.