Until here, only construction principles were discussed, beginning with laying out the tracks, adding signals, stations and other fancy stuff. Now there is only one thing left: We need to add the rolling stock which uses all the rails to get from here to there (and hopefully make lots of money). In order to do that, we have to set correct orders for our trains.
The order window
All orders are defined in the order window. The general layout of the window has not changed much since the original TTDX: The main part of the window shows the list of orders, at the bottom there are buttons to set up orders. A train (or any other vehicle) processes the orders from the top to the bottom, once it has processed the last order, it will jump back to the first order.
The buttons at the bottom of the window are used to add new orders and to adapt existing orders. In order to adapt an order, first one has to click the order which highlights it in white, then the desired changes can be done.
The buttons in the order window
The following sections describe the different options to change the order list and to manage the different orders.:
- Delete
This deletes the selected order. Deleting the "end of order" entry deletes all orders.
- Full load
This toggles the "full load" option for the selected order on or off. This is described in more detail in full load
- Go To
This adds a new order at the end of the order list. If an existing order is selected when adding, the new order is inserted directly before the selected one.
- Non-Stop
This button toggles the non-stop function for the selected order on or off. It is described in detail in section non-stop
- Skip
This makes the vehicle skip the current order and continue with the next one. It is intended as a way for the player to manually resolve issues with trains that got lost or stuck.
- Unload
This toggles the unload function for the selected order on or off. This is described in more detail in section unload
The basic order ("go to station x") tells the vehicle to do three things:
- Proceed to the given station. It will also stop at any station it encounters on the way (this is only important for trains, planes will not detour to land at another airport). Note that this behavior is influenced by the settings for non-stop handling, as explained in section non-stop .
- If the station accepts the cargo, unload it there and get money for the transportation. If specific unloading options are defined this behavior may be changed, see unload
- If any cargo is waiting at the station that the vehicle can pick up, it will do so until either the vehicle is full or there is no more cargo waiting. Then it will proceed with the next order on the schedule. Again, setting different loading options may influence this behavior, see full load
The creation of the order list by defining the stations that a vehicle has to go to in which order is the most important part of setting up the order list. However, there are not just simple orders like "go to station xyz", but also a number of additional other orders that can be inserted in the order list.
The different orders can be selected from a drop-down menu. The following options are available:
- Go to: The vehicle goes to the selected station/airport/dock or depot.
- Go to nearest depot: The vehicle goes to the nearest depot for maintenance. The unloading options will be replaced by maintenance options, allowing a precise control over what should be done in the depot. More information can be found in section depot orders.
- Conditional order jump: This allows jumping to other orders in the order list depending on whether a condition is fulfilled or not. To set it up, you first select this
option and then select the order where to jump to. The possible conditions for the jump are as follows:
- Load percentage: This allows to jump if the load percentage is above or below a threshold value.
- Reliability: This allows to e.g. send a train to a depot if reliability drops below a threshold value.
- Maximum reliability: This allows to e.g. send a train to a depot if reliability is below a threshold value.
- Maximum speed: This will allow jumping if train speed is below a threshold value. I used it in games to enforce going to depots for replacing older engines with newer faster ones by raising the threshold value accordingly.
- Age (years): This will allow jumping if the vehicle has reached the end of the lifetime in order to be replaced, or to enforce additional maintenance for older vehicles.
- Remaining lifetime (years): This allows jumping if a vehicle reaches the end of its lifetime in order to be replaced.
- Requires services: This allows skipping a depot order if the vehicle does not need servicing.
- Always: This will always jump.
- Shared orders: This allows copying and sharing orders from another vehicle, so that both will use the same order list. This is the same thing as explained in section shared orders.
Non-Stop
In various circumstances, it is very useful to tell trains not to stop at every small station, but to head on through towards the actual destination. This is especially true for express trains which should not stop at small villages, and for freight trains which should not stop at passenger stations where they cannot unload their cargo anyway. This is where the Non-Stop option comes into play.
Here we have a train schedule with non-stop orders. When on the way to station 2, the train will not stop at any station in between.
With the addition of waypoint stations, a new problem arose: We can instruct a train to go to the waypoint station non-stop, but it will still stop for a moment at the waypoint, instead of just storming on, since there is actually no use stopping there. To circumvent this problem, a new non-stop handling has been implemented.
With the new non-stop handling enabled, the schedule will read a bit different, but the changes are more dramatic. First, for every order, even those without non-stop being set, an implicit non-stop order is assumed. That means the train will only ever stop at the station given in the schedule and nowhere else. Orders with non-stop set (route through station x) are taken as being waypoints, i.e. the train will go there, but directly switch to the next order without stopping at the waypoint.
Full Load
In some cases, it is a good idea to make a vehicle wait until it has fully loaded. This is especially true for freight trains where the penalty for slower transportation is negligible, compared to passengers which need to be transported very fast. It has therefore always been possible to toggle a full load option for an order. This has later been revised and extended.
There are two problems with full load. First, the train will most probably wait at the station for quite some time, blocking one platform. You therefore need to have enough platforms at your stations to make sure the blocked platform does not block the rest of the traffic.
The second problem arises when the train can carry more than one cargo for example passengers and mail. Now it may happen that the mail compartments are already full, but there is still room for passengers, so the train will wait for passengers. Even worse, there are engines which can carry cargo like mail. When using them for freight transport, you cannot set the full load option, because they would wait forever at the freight station, because no mail will ever wait there. To solve this issue, additional loading options have been introduced.
This is a very basic schedule for a freight train. It will fully load at station 1 and then go to station 2 where it unloads and makes the money. If there is not enough cargo at station 1, the train will wait there until enough cargo has arrived.
The behavior of full load is defined via patch configuration. There you can activate the option "full load for any cargo". If this is activated, the train will leave the station as soon as the first cargo is fully loaded.
Unload
As already pointed out, the unload option is a false friend which is repeatedly used wrongly, especially by newcomers to the game. It is not necessary to set this option to make trains unload and cash in for the transported cargo. In fact, setting the option actually prevents the vehicle from making money with that cargo.
So what purpose does this option serve? The answer is rather simple: One can use it to force a train to unload a cargo at a station, regardless of the cargo acceptance. However, the cargo is not turned into money, but stored at the station instead. It is displayed in the station information window as cargo being en-route from another station. So any other vehicle can pick up the cargo and transport it to another destination. This mechanism is used to create complex transportation chains and feeder services. The money for the transportation is only generated after the cargo has finally reached its destination, so it might happen that vehicles make a loss for the partial transport.
Here the train uses the unload-option. It takes cargo from station 1 and carries it to station 2. Here the cargo is unloaded and stored at station 2 for further transportation by other vehicles. The train will leave station 2 empty!
The full load and unload options are mutually exclusive. The explanation is easy: A train that has unloaded its cargo would then reload it in the next step, rendering the whole idea of unloading for further transportation completely useless.
Depot Orders
Vehicles had to be serviced regularly already in the original TTDX game, otherwise they would lose reliability and break down more often. Many players found the concept of break downs very annoying (a train broken down somewhere on a junction would disrupt traffic flow, also the breakdowns would happen far too often) and would deactivate breakdowns altogether.
One can still - even when playing without breakdowns - simulate regular servicing to get a more realistic gameplay. This is achieved by depot orders. This also solves a problem where trains might try to go to the nearest depot because it is time for servicing and getting lost in the process. With a depot order in the order list, the train should never need to go anywhere else. Additionally, one can refit vehicles to carry different cargoes, if the vehicles allow that.
Depots also have the advantage that an arbitrary amount of trains can be parked inside them without taking up any space. This might be relevant for stations where trains may have to wait for full load. Placing a depot in front of that station would allow further trains to wait inside the depot until the preceding train is fully loaded and the station is free. However, that is quite unrealistic, there's good reasons why there are huge shunting yards and sidings in the real world.
The first order makes the train go to a certain depot, regardless of the service interval. The second one orders the train to go to the depot only if the service interval has expired, otherwise this order will be skipped. To change between the two types of order highlight the line with the order. The full load button will change into a button named "Service" which triggers the two options.
Refitting is possible in the latest Patch version. This means one can order a train into a depot where it can be refitted to carry another cargo. This option is only available, if the consist can actually be refitted. The refit order must be preceded by a goto depot order, because you can only refit a train in a depot. The actual refit order is available as advanced order.
Advanced orders
In the newest Patch versions one can use advanced orders. In order for these to be available, the goto depot switch needs to be enabled as well (see depot orders for more information). The orders can then be used to fine tune train behavior.
Advanced orders can be accessed by holding Ctrl while clicking the button to set the destination of an order. One can then select the advanced order and set additional parameters if necessary.
The following advanced orders can be set:
- Go to nearest depot
If a train encounters this order, it will start looking for the nearest depot, based on its current position. This is useful if several depots are near, but not all of them can be accessed directly.
- Service at nearest depot
This works just like Go to nearest depot, but only if the train needs to be serviced.
- Load-based conditional order skip
Depending on the amount of cargo currently loaded on the train, a given number of orders can be skipped. For example, if a train is already fully loaded, it does not make sense for it to do a detour and try loading additional cargo before rushing to the factory to get you the cash for the transport. This advanced order has several parameters to be set. First, you add the advanced order to the list, then you select it which will turn the "full load" button into a button labelled "params". Clicking the button then opens a drop-down menu where you can set the parameters.
There are three parameters, Count, Load% and the comparison operation. Count simply is the number of orders that will be skipped, depending on the current load. The load simply states the comparison value, 0% means the train is empty, 100% means the train is fully loaded. Finally you have to set the comparison operator to one of the following: is, is not, <, >, <= or >=.
Example: The order reads "Skip next 2 orders if load > 0%." This order is the third in the order list. Now when the train is carrying anything (load is greater than 0%), it will not proceed with the fourth order, but with the sixth one, skipping order 4 and 5. If the skip-order is the last one in the list, counting starts at the first order again. Attention: It is also possible to mess up the timetable completely by skipping all orders except for the skip-order. So you need to take care and count the number of skipped orders carefully.
- Refit consist
Usually trains run around empty for half their lifetime (i.e. transport coal from coal mine to power plant, transport nothing on the way back). Now there might just be an iron ore mine near the power plant and a steel mill near the coal mine, so it would be efficient to let that coal train carry iron ore on its way back towards the coal mine (given the fact that most new train sets allow refitting of train wagons to various cargoes). This can now be done automatically using the refit order.
To make this type of order work, the train needs to be in a depot when the order is encountered. Therefore you will need to set a goto depot order before the refitting, otherwise the order is skipped silently. Refitting costs are considered running costs, so automatic refits are still done even if your bank account is in debt.
- Go to station (Load only)
This order works just like the ordinary goto order, but the train will not unload any cargo there, even it the station accepts it. This is not the same as the full load order, because the train will just pick up whatever there is at the moment and then head on to the next destination.
- Go to station (Unload only)
This order works just like the ordinary goto order, but the train will unload all cargo (if accepted by the station). This is not the same as the unload command, which makes the train drop its cargo at the station without cashing the money for the transport. This might come in handy in case you have the same cargo waiting at the station, but do not want the train to pick it up.
Shared orders / Cloning
Quite often there are many vehicles running with the same schedule. However, in the original game, each and every schedule had to be set up from scratch. This is cumbersome and error prone, especially when having to rearrange orders for a given line. Therefore, copying and sharing orders between vehicles was introduced.
Copying a schedule is very simple. Select the Go To button and instead of clicking a station or depot, click on the train whose schedule is to be copied. That's it. You can now edit this schedule without influencing any other vehicle.
Sharing orders is quite similar. It is done exactly like copying, except that you have to hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the target vehicle. The shown schedule ends with the words "End of shared orders", so you can see that the orders are indeed shared. Editing the schedule of one vehicle now also affects all other vehicles sharing that schedule.
Shared orders in TTDPatch, also indicating how many vehicles share the schedule. The window in OpenTTD looks identical, except for the information on the number of vehicles sharing the orders.
In order to unshare a schedule of one vehicle, highlight the last entry of the schedule (the line saying "End of shared orders") and click the delete button. This erases all orders from this (and only this) vehicle, leaving all others unaffected. Now you can change the schedule of the vehicle to your liking.
It is also possible to clone trains. To do that, one uses the appropriate button in the depot menu and clicks on the train that is to be cloned. This creates a train that is an exact copy, including the orders. If the trains are to use shared orders, hold Ctrl while cloning the train.