AI Coupling - Limited Range?

[Shadders]

Hello everyone,

I've been experimenting with the new AI coupling feature in RW3 and I've run into a bit of a problem. I'd really appreciate any help from more experienced scenario authors if possible

My scenario has an AI train starting off a couple of minutes after the scenario begins, it's position is about a mile, maybe a mile and a half away from a station terminus. What I want it to do is travel down to the terminus and couple to some waiting carriages, then wait a few minutes and head out back the way it came, exiting in a portal.

What happens in my scenario is that it will get to the station and gently bump into the carriages, wait the required amount of time, then set off, leaving the carriages behind.

I set up a separate scenario purely to test this aspect. And because I wanted to see what happens more quickly, I placed the loco much closer to the station, about 100 feet away. This worked perfectly every time.

So then I moved the loco back to where I wanted it to start and found that it failed to couple correctly.

My suspicion is that rolling-stock does not seem to get enabled with physics unless a loco, player or AI controlled, gets within a certain range. When it does, the physics "initialise" for that rolling-stock, resulting in a tiny movement in their position, enough for the coupling command to fail. Honestly, this is a bit of an assumption on my part, it's based on playing scenarios where the player loco approaches some wagons and all of a sudden they start making sounds, even if they are not on the same line as the loco.

So, my questions are:
Has anyone else had this problem?
If so, did you work around it successfully?
And most importantly how?

Thanks in advance to anyone taking the time to respond.

Best regards,

Shadders.

[AndyM77]

You are trying the coupling command with a static consist from the start aren't you? You're probably aware, but current limitations mean that the AI only knows what it can couple to from the very start of the scenario, if something moves into another position the AI won't couple as it won't be expecting them there.

To be honest I haven't delved that deeply into the AI coupling features yet so there may be even further circumstances to be aware of.

[Shadders]

Hi AndyM77,

Thanks very much for posting.

Yes, it's a static consist in both scenarios. In the AI test I did, it worked at close range. I then deleted the loco, moved a mile or away and then stuck the same model of loco where I wanted it and added the same instructions. Actually, come to think of it, there was a slight difference! As the loco was more distant, I added a couple of waypoint instructions to make it take the same route through the junctions as the one in my main scenario. Could it be something as daft as that?

Kind regards,

Shad.

[AndyM77]

I do find that sometimes waypoints do more harm than good as you actually confuse the dispatcher even more than it already is! Anyhow... I've just done a very quick test on my current GSC1 entry set in Hedborough North - I've a 166 DMU in the main shed and a pair in the siding just south of the shed (around 200M away), the 166 moves to couple then stops dead and then crawls not even getting near the vehicles I want it to couple with.

Thinking out aloud here - I'm wondering "if" we need to actually use a 'scenario only' marker just in front of the locos / wagons / carriages that we want to couple up with, and tell the loco to stop here first and then move to couple up with whatever you want it to couple to, as it seems to me that the AI knows that there is something to crash into and has a fit causing the dreaded "crawl".

Basically try keeping your waypoints in, add a marker just before the carriages and then ask it to couple up. It might work..

I'll have a play properly in a few hours time, so if the above doesn't work then maybe I'll accidently stumble across a solution.

[Shadders]

Thanks very much for the reply, I'll try the marker right now.

Best of luck with your scenario!

Shad.

[AndyM77]

I've just had a successful couple! It appears for the couple to work the length of the wagons / coaches / other multiple unit /etc needs to be shorter than the marker. The AI usually stops at the far end of a marker when you tell it to 'Stop At' or 'Pick up passengers', and if you simply tell it to couple to 'mk3 coaches in siding 1' it'll crash into them if they are at the start of the marker - however, move them towards the end of the marker so that the start of a marker is exposed and the AI will recognise that the "Normal" end is blocked and will slow down at the start of the marker point resulting in a successful couple and not a crash. You'll also might get a static consist conflict if you simply say 'couple to mk3 coaches in siding ', to remedy this tell it to drive elsewhere once the couple is complete.

Hope that helps

[Kromaatikse]

You can make the AI stop in a particular place now, by using a Stopping Point, rather than having to add yet another marker.

[Shadders]

Hello,

Well, I got it working

I started off by moving the consist to collect to a different platform, but then encountered a problem with another service that's heading toward the terminus at the same time. The loco doing the pick-up would correctly halt at a red signal, but the other service would stop on the next track even though it had a green light. Messing with the timings did not seem to help so I changed the single loco to a "special" service and that finally persuaded the dispatcher to let it though. The other service, set to "Express Passenger" stopped being daft and behaved itself from then on

As far as the coupling went, this time it just worked. No stopping point or markers, wish I had an idea why I had problems to begin with though as I'm bound to encounter it again.

Right, that's the first 15 minutes of activity done, at this rate I should have completed by Christmas I'm hoping that I'll speed up a little as I gain more experience though.

Thanks once again for the advice!

Shad.

[lemberg]

I have been trying to get loco's to couple up for the past week on my trainspotting scenarios, but they kept crashing then it struck me , The loco comes down the main(driver at front) it then reverses the front is trying to couple up but it's the rear that is approaching hence the crash. Using the add to rear command lo and behold it worked, does'nt matter where the stock is in the marker. YO!
Keith