Floating Box Cars

[OilCan]

Here's another quirk of the game....floating box cars. I've seen them appear in other games. They remind me of evanescent spirits, not part of the physical world yet visible. Sometimes the box car moves as if pulled by an unseen engine...other times the box car lingers for a while then disappears. I thought these two box cars shown were really odd because they were far out in the ocean (Tortuga Island in the distance)....just floating right above the water surface. Any ideas from the game coders in the crowd why this happens?

[Hawk]

What version of the game are you playing?

[OilCan]

This was using the 1.06 Mod. But I did not add the sound files Lama made for this game. I wouldn't think that would make any difference, tho. Don't tell me that you don't see these floating box cars in some games..........

[Grandma Ruth]

I think this is another manifestation of Tycoonarism

[WPandP]

That's not a boxcar, but rather a flatcar loaded with containers. The advantage of containers is that they can go right from truck to train to ship without unpacking, so they flow just as well overland as they do over the sea.

So what you've got there is a bunch of Tycoonatrons coming to the realization that their containers are seaworthy - only nobody told them that you need a SHIP to carry them!

As for what about the game code makes this happen, I have no idea. My initial guess was going to be that some other asset, like a goose, is mixed up and referring to a car's 3DP assets... but then I notice that this particular car is more than just a single asset; the flatcars all reference a Cargo Model based on what they are loaded with, so the game clearly in this instance thinks you've got a flatcar loaded with goods. The trucks are even present.

Another thought is that this car does belong to a train somewhere else on the map, and is having its location (X,Y coordinates) being errantly read as somewhat displaced. Like, the train is at 100,100 but the car is at 50,100 - and as the train moves to 101,100 the car moves to 51,100. This could be due to some faulty memory or an error when writing data to memory (or reading from); assuming your game isn't crashing, the game just assumes that the car is way over there where the stored positional values tell it, and moves it around as the train moves. Then again, that all assumes that this car is in fact moving and not just sitting there. If it's stationary, then that indicates it's not part of a train and instead has been instanced on its own, which I have no idea why that would be.

[Hawk]

Personally, I've never seen it.

[General_Popeye]

And yet again another quirk about the game that someone else points out that happened to me on several occasions. Not exactly complaining, just pointing out. OilCan i think i found your unseen engine.

[OilCan]

I'm glad to hear that someone else sees these phantom trains. It probably is a coordinate error as WPandP pointed out. Sometimes the phantom appears and disappears very quickly, sometimes it lingers and lets you zoom in close (long enough to get a snap shot), sometimes it fades away as you zoom in, other times it moves on some ghoulish track.

Following the upswing in interest in zombies these days....you don't suppose these are zombie trains? Undead trains?