How To Change AI Traffic Consists?

[Rich_K]

How can I change the consist used by individual items of AI traffic? I am running an activity that has 5 AI trains starting an hour apart running on the same path and all using the same consist, which also happens to be the player consist as well. How can I change these so each train is a different consist? It was easy to do in the old MSTS activity editor but I can't seen to figure out how to make these changes in Open Rails.

[scottb613]

How can I change the consist used by individual items of AI traffic? I am running an activity that has 5 AI trains starting an hour apart running on the same path and all using the same consist, which also happens to be the player consist as well. How can I change these so each train is a different consist? It was easy to do in the old MSTS activity editor but I can't seen to figure out how to make these changes in Open Rails.

Hi Rich,

You need TSRE and use the included activity editor - F4 is the key to get there - simply make new consists and specify them in the AI service. If you can do it in the old MSTS activity editor - it’s pretty similar in TSRE.

Regards,
Scott


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[R. Steele]

Use Ged Saunders MSTS_ActMan >> msts_actman.zip ( File Library ) --- and find the service files for the traffic. Open the service files with an editor and change the consist names to ones of your choice, ...or you could use the TSRE Consist editor and find the traffic consists and manually rebuild them.

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[Rich_K]

I must be getting dense in my old age. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this. Is there a tutorial somewhere that explains this process?

[jonpd]

I must be getting dense in my old age. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this. Is there a tutorial somewhere that explains this process?

OK basically you first need to create new services. A service = consist + path. Your new services for the traffic would use the same path as the old traffic but with the new consists you want to use. You could edit the old services but it might be better to create new ones in case you ever want to go back to the old services.

You can create new services through TSRE's activity edit (F4 key or tools -> activity from menu) or for a simple change I sometimes just copy and edit the service files using a unicode aware editor such as Notepad++. If you edit the service file directly, the new consist name goes in the "train_config" line.

To do it from TSRE select "Open Service Editor" then select "new service". Enter the new services' filename. Then select the new entry you just made from the list on the left then select the consist and the path from the drop down lists on the right. Then select "save activity".

Once you have created your services you then need to replace the desired entries in the traffic with your new services. This is probably best done in TSRE as both the traffic and activity files get updated and it can get messy. Select "edit traffic" then "add new" to create a new entry. Select the entry you just created then edit the service name and start time. Use "remove selected" to remove the old traffic you don't want.

Sometimes after you save, TSRE doesn't update the .act file and the traffic doesn't show up. The work around is to force an update of the .act file by making a small change to the activity info, that usually works.

Jon

[Rich_K]

Thank you for this explanation. It is very helpful.

For the activity in question the original author chose to create AI traffic using 5 instances of the same consist on the same path but at different start times. He also used the same consist as the player consist to do this, so you ultimately see 5 copies of yourself coming at you over time.

I want to change this so that there are 5 different AI trains coming at me, using the original path and timing as what the author intended. So I guess I should change the train only for the first instance and then create 4 more new services. I can then simply substitute one of my services for each of the remaining 4 originals, correct? I succeeded with the first replacement, but the other changes do not show up in the activity file even after i save the activity in the editor. I guess I must edit the .act file myself?

[niknak]

I often change the AI consists but I tend to use Conbuilder as that's what I'm used to.

[geepster775]

If you are changing service names to something new with a unique ID and a unique consist inside each one, you need to (unicode editor) modify both the Traffic and Act files in unison for each change. You can pretty much tell which entries in the ACT file go together with which entries in the TRF file by the start time (the 5 digit number).

[Rich_K]

I appreciate the effort by the author of TRE5 and I am sure there are many who have mastered it by now, but I am really struggling to get the results i am looking for. Every change I make screws something else up. Also, how do you set location events in TRE5? For instance, adding location event to tell the player where to stop at the end of the activity?

The MSTS Activity Editor was much easier to use, at least for me.

[jonpd]

To create a location event, select "open Event Editor" then select the "location" tab. Select "new location event". Navigate to the location where you want the event to happen, click "pick new location" and click on the location in the main window, a red pole should appear. Select the type of event you want, any text message, etc. and a name for the event. Select save activity.