Terrain Levelers in 1.05?

[j484fan]

I recently reinstalled my 1.05 version as something with the Cereal building caused my game to crash, but good, I assume I somehow put some files into the wrong place, but I did put the ones showing 2D in the 2D folder.
Anyhow, as I have been redownloading files into the game, I have all the railyard structures, but though I thought I was able to use them in 1.05 before, the Terrain Levelers will not show up in my building choices. They do not even show up when I check a map in the editor, this is the same case for the railyard structures, yet they are available for me to choose when I load a game in play mode.

Not sure what this issue is, or how to correct it. Are there any solutions, or are those available for 1.06 and TM only?

[nedfumpkin]

They should work in 1.05...I'll have to look into it and get back to you.

[KenRuof]

Has anyone figured this out yet? I have 1.0.5, 1.0.6 and Trainmaster and these do not show up in any of them

Thanks

[nedfumpkin]

I think we discovered that if they didn't show up then you had to load the map in editor then save it with them disabled. I think. I will be revisting them when I get some more time.

[KenRuof]

Many thanks,

I know they worked, I have an old install from a year ago that they worked in but that computer died.

Ken

[nedfumpkin]

just noticed my reply...disabled should be enabled.

[KenRuof]

Well I think I found the reason and as was stated it is part of the map. I loaded one map they don't show up and loaded another one and they do. To bad there is not a way to have them show up period without modifying the maps.

Thanks
Ken

[Gumboots]

Since this seems to be the only thread about terrain levelers, might as well continue here.

I looked at the readme for ones that are on the download page. Is the large one based on the largest station size? Also, does it retain the same snap-to-track behaviour as the standard station?


My initial thoughts are that the ones in the zip are probably a bit too cheap. I'd be inclined to make them more like 10k and 20k instead of 1 and 2.
Also, it might be handy to have a third one based on something like a steel mill shell. A really big one might be useful occasionally if you want to flatten a larger area in one hit.

[Blackhawk]

If i remember correctly, these can be built anywhere and don't snap to the track like a station does. I think they are cheap because they were meant just as a way to level out a sharp elevation change so buildings could be placed on a hill. If you made too large of a leveler it would probably run into the same problem trying to place the building might have in that the terrain is too steep to support it. I'm sure Ned will offer his thoughts on it as he's the creator of them when he gets a chance.

[Gumboots]

Ok.

My thinking was that in practice, earthworks always cost, and they often amount to a substantial chunk of the total building cost. So 1 and 2k seemed a bit on the cheap side, while 10 and 20 seemed more realistic but still affordable.

The reason I asked about the snap-to-track was because last night I ended up using several large stations as terrain levelers. At that stage of the game, the extra cost didn't bother me as much as the crappy approach to the station. I had laid a reasonable line, but once I placed the large station it all went bodgey. So I tried the usual tricks with placement of post offices first. That wasn't enough, so I bulldozed the first large station, then built and bulldozed a couple more until I got it all sorted.

This worked very well. Since the line was already laid, and since the line was what I wanted to fix, the snap-to-track came in very handy. If trying to use ordinary bulidings that don't snap to the track they'll sometimes be repelled to a distance that makes them useless.

The thought about the really large one was not so much for the sides of hills, but where you want to knock down a smallish peak or fill in smallish depression on an otherwise flat surface. That can sometimes be handy, and would be best achieved by a large footprint.

[Hawk]

For whatever it's worth, anytime I want to do some minor terrain leveling like that, I just Shift+E into the editor and do it there. Then Shift+E back into the game.
Works like a charm for me.

[Gumboots]

Um, yeah, but that's sorta cheating. It's kinda like going into the editor and writing an event to give you Orcas in 1853.

Oh and the one I was playing last night was one of those infernal limited track scenarios, where you don't want to bulldoze even a couple of sections of track because you just know it'll mean waiting around for another year just to connect that town. Otherwise, I would have just bulldozed the track.

[Hawk]

Cheating? Surely not!

As any good tycoon would do. If you can get free labor you jump on it.

[cheminot]

That's a good idea from Hawk! It ain't cheating as it should be an option in the main screen (the laying of tracks). I've been looking for ways to level terrains & the levelers don't seem to work good enough. After all, we don't want to lay tracks the way AI does it, do we?

[OilCan]

For whatever it's worth, anytime I want to do some minor terrain leveling like that, I just Shift+E into the editor and do it there. Then Shift+E back into the game.

I have done the same thing, but very rarely. I have to decide that the map maker has done an absolutely terrible job before I will go into the editor and smooth a route. Some of the PopTop maps qualify for an 'absolutely terrible job' of map making. I can't immediately think of a user made map in which I smoothed a route, but there probably was one or two.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I only do it (Shife-E + terrain levelling) when there's extreme distortion to the terrain due most often to placement of a Maintenance Shed on unlevel ground. Otherwise I try to live with bad topography and just adapt my tracklaying as needed.

[Hawk]

I only do it (Shife-E + terrain levelling) when there's extreme distortion to the terrain due most often to placement of a Maintenance Shed on unlevel ground. Otherwise I try to live with bad topography and just adapt my tracklaying as needed.

That's what I was talking about when I said this:

For whatever it's worth, anytime I want to do some minor terrain leveling like that, I just Shift+E into the editor and do it there. Then Shift+E back into the game.
Works like a charm for me.

[Gumboots]

I have done the same thing, but very rarely. I have to decide that the map maker has done an absolutely terrible job before I will go into the editor and smooth a route. Some of the PopTop maps qualify for an 'absolutely terrible job' of map making. I can't immediately think of a user made map in which I smoothed a route, but there probably was one or two.

Offhand I can't think of a PopTop map that needed it, but I may have forgotten. Can you recall which maps you did it with?

[OilCan]

Coast to Coast was one: southwest corner, between San Diego and Yuma (I think). I smoothed a few places along that route.

There is a game in which we connect Chicago, St. Louis and New York, can't recall the game's name. I smoothed some terrain between Chattanooga and Huntsville, but there were several other areas on that same game map which could have used a general smoothing.

I don't go into the editor very often during a game, in fact very rarely, and it is mostly to check an event which seems not to be working.

[Gumboots]

TBH I gave Coast to Coast a miss. I tried it one or two times, but it seemed to have been coded to make all the locos totally gutless, which I found annoying. So i just skipped it.