Stock List by Route (New Idea for Route Creators)

rdawes · Post by **rdawes** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:50 pm

Let me know if this is a stupid idea? Now that is probably a stupid idea itself!

I have had many hours of delightful driving on the new NW England Route. BUT, I have also spent hours finding and downloading or adjusting the stock required for these activities.

Would it be possible to create a list of locos, carriages and wagons for the route time period that could be listed with the route instructions and that activity authors would use for their activities. (No substitutions) They could advertise this in their activity info so that users would be aware that they already had the required stock. Kind of a route creator's seal of approval for the activity!

We might even be able to combine these files in compilation zips?

I think that this might encourage more users to try activities if they didn't have a daunting list of required stock to deal with.

My tupence worth.

Bob

petermakosch · Post by **petermakosch** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 12:00 am

It's my Train Pack idea!

Have groups of trains, so its like an Activity (or 2-3 act's) come zipped with the trains they require, or, in the Sctivity Description, have "Train Pack's 1, 4 and 5 needed" and there would be these train packs, no bigger than 10MB (Dial-Up friendly (Just- i think)) of various trains and wagons, then you just need to download one or two files to get them all.

Just thought: Mabye have the file Size 7.5MB (Approx) so Non-Premium Members can download one in their MB Allowance slot?

chriscooper · Post by **chriscooper** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 12:18 am

Having train packs would be pretty useful, especially as many of the items needed for activities are quite small, especially wagons so even with broadband can take quite a while to download. Even better would be if they would all install themselves aswell as often installing all the stock can take nearly as long as downloading the route in the first place. Also, if you don't have premium access you would be able to download one large file whereas with lots of little files you would go over your download limit.

rdawes · Post by **rdawes** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:07 am

The ideal situation would be to have the stock packed with the route but I realize that route editors are interested in building routes and I appreciate that.

I like the stock pack idea where the activity author would specify that you need NWE packs 1 & 3 or something like that. Maybe this would encourage authors to use standard stock instead of all of these combinations.

As an example, in Class 47 locos I have 48 without counting cabs and sounds. My MSTS loco and stock backups cover 8 CD-R's and counting.

Bob

ianmacmillan · Post by **ianmacmillan** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:42 am

I agree.

We already have the basis of a standard stocklist on the routes supplied on CD.
Mid East has a good selection of stock for the BR blue era and I wish activity writers would use this as a basis.

Similarly use should be made of existing consists. I have several Class 56 and 36HAA consists. I only need one.

Writers should be free to choose whatever they want for the Player train. This would allow recently available stock to be added, but I see no need for lots of similar stock on AI trains which are passed before you see much.

rdawes · Post by **rdawes** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 3:30 am

Ahh.

Another MSTS2 option!

petermakosch · Post by **petermakosch** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 10:03 am

I will contact some Train Authors and see what they think, as i know many do not like the idea of their train being packaged together with someone else's. If everything is okay, I will put them all into an Installer Suite so its just point and click!
Pete

jjules · Post by **jjules** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 12:43 pm

My route will use only modern-day stock. HSTs, 220s, 221s, 170, 158s, 153s, 175s..The list goes on and on. Therefore it will not be hard to find the stock. The included activities will not be using any out-of-place stock, and I will request this is not done by anyone either.

Steam locomotives can't be run on my route really, as there will be no water towers and so forth to refill with.

pdeee · Post by **pdeee** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 12:50 pm

Bob,

Skipton to Carlisle 1920 has its own Trains folder with engines and rolling stock, approx 350 â€“ 400 items, no searching required, cabs, sounds etc all inclusive, the latest version going out is complete with footplate crews.
A rolling stock .htm, listing all the items, by the trainset item folder name followed by .eng or .wag name, all colour coded for easy recognition, black for drivable or normal stock, blue for AI stock and red for light versions of stock, couplings, brake type is also listed, MR carriage and goods wagon Diagram numbers, engine classes, with authors initials for each individual item.
Also to assist while compiling or using activities a PDF, showing a diagram of all station, goods yards, quarries works etc.
I personally feel that all routes listed as complete should have these items.

pdeee · Post by **pdeee** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 12:55 pm

Forgot to mention it now comes with 43 activities................

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 1:17 pm

In general a good idea... NWE V2 could be released with this in mind, (alan s. was offering assistace a while ago, but maybe my delay in getting the update finished could have dampened his enthusiasm somewhat!

)
The only problem, as I see it, for NWE, is that it really is a hybrid as regards eras... In the few weeks that V1 has been out, we have had excellent activites written based on the early 60's, late 70's / early 80's and through to the present day....

so the level of stock needed to cover all these periods could be a little daunting

Cheers,
Terry

dforrest · Post by **dforrest** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 1:53 pm

terrycunliffe wrote:NWE V2 could be released with this in mind ...... ....... ........... but maybe my delay in getting the update finished could have dampened his enthusiasm somewhat!

Terry

What delay? You have only just issued version one !!!!!!!!

.

terrycunliffe · Post by **terrycunliffe** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:19 pm

dforrest wrote:
terrycunliffe wrote:NWE V2 could be released with this in mind ...... ....... ........... but maybe my delay in getting the update finished could have dampened his enthusiasm somewhat!

Terry
What delay? You have only just issued version one !!!!!!!!

.

Ahh... thats 'cos Alans offer was to do V1... and I accepted, and then declined, with a view to releasing V2... So all my fault for messing people about!

Terry

rdawes · Post by **rdawes** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:51 pm

This sounds like it has interesting collaborative possibilities for route creators, train designers and activity authors. Maybe that's what version 2 should be in all cases so that no one gets held up by anyone else in the initial stages. Terry's NWE could be the test case as there's already some nice activities available which I assume can be easily adjusted for v2.

Pat, I was surprized with how much you packed into your new route CD. It is sitting here waiting for me to clean off some stuff before I give it a run.

Plus, I'm trying to finish the mapping of the GWML West for XTML before Christmas.

Bob

kevarc · Post by **kevarc** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 3:04 pm

AS an activity designer, but not a skinner, modeller or route designer, I find it very hard to include any stock with my activity packs. This is because I am not going to start trying to get permission from all the skinners, etc for permission to include the stock. It also ballons the size of the activity files. I use Route Riter to package all my activities. RR generates a required stock list. I take this and create a table and then add the zip file names and where they can be found. Then my beta testers tear it apart looking for mistakes. This has reduced of the "cannot find *****" complaints to only a couple and most of them are those who do not read the entire file.