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Cargo Payment Confusion

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Cargo Payment Confusion
« on: April 16, 2018, 05:16:20 am »
 

_bobby_tables_

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I recently participated in a long challenge and was subject to some cargo payments that I could not understand.  I hope someone can help me explain why the game behaved the way it did.

Sorry, but this setup may be lengthy.  I had established two large rail stations acting as collection points at the extreme north and south edges of the map.  I was collecting coal and wood from the north and transporting them to the south station which accepted both cargoes.  Conversely, I was collecting wood and coal from the southern region and transporting them north.  So far no problems and payments for those cargoes worked as expected.  However, I was also trying to transport the resulting goods from the sawmill across the map.  I was picking up goods from both ends and transferring them at the other end of the map.  I had to transfer them since neither station accepted goods.  No problem, I set up local destination trains to pick up the goods and finalize the transport to local cities.  Unfortunately, I was unable to do so profitably.

I ran into two problems.  First was the issue of the two way feeder service (https://wiki.openttd.org/Two-way_feeder_service).  I wasn't aware of this issue at the time.  Otherwise I would have devised a different final distribution chain.  However, at times my local trains did pick up transferred cargo as evidenced by the cargo detail.  My confusion stems from these cases.  Whenever the delivery of these long distance transferred goods was accomplished, I was hit with huge costs instead of profits.  I eventually just terminated the final delivery since I didn't understand why I was getting charged for delivering this transferred cargo.  The trains making the long north-south transfers were still generating big transfer credits.  I just couldn't profitably complete final delivery.

Can anyone explain this behavior?  Is the game trying to prevent such blatant round robin types of routes?  Is this a recognized loop-hole that has been closed with these financial penalties?  Any insights would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!
 

Re: Cargo Payment Confusion
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2018, 12:52:03 am »
 

ST2

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_bobby_tables_, I've waited some days to a n-ice admin make an answer.

Since none, I'll try my best as a normal player ^^

_bobby_tables_, read this sequence:
- https://wiki.openttd.org/Cargo_income
- https://wiki.openttd.org/Feeder_service
- and ONLY after https://wiki.openttd.org/Two-way_feeder_service

... and only after you can ask what server settings are used (most are default, since unknown, as noticed) - you can get people to look at it! (edit line)

IMO _bobby_tables_ didn't read the WIKI on correct sequence, and can be even another steps! All is told on OpenTTD wiki.
BUT I expected that a n-ice admin could be able to say so!
« Last Edit: April 19, 2018, 01:00:08 am by ST2 »
 

Re: Cargo Payment Confusion
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2018, 10:49:42 am »
 

_bobby_tables_

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Thanks for the links.  I realize now that I had issues with trying to implement a two way feeder system.  However, I'm not sure that explains the huge negative costs when I was able to transport the intended transferred goods.  I guess it would make sense if the final local delivery was back toward the original pick-up point given the Manhattan distance calculation being used.  However, I'm not sure that was a significant factor here.
 

Re: Cargo Payment Confusion
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2018, 01:26:33 am »
 

ST2

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well, as I said, each server can have their own settings.

And that's why I was expecting a n-ice admin reply!

_bobby_tables_: I've only pointed links to show how OpenTTD works :)