Queue for Dispatch at Stations

[Captain Morgan]

Hi!
Its no secret that the Dispatch slots are very disirable. Though the current "Who clicks first wins" situation is not so nice, especially with Zawercie and Sosnowice. Staring at a black screen for up to an hours is kinda boring dont you think? My idea would be a queue for each station that could be limmited to some queue spaces so that its 1. More fair and 2. You dont have to stare at a black screen for that long. If you eventually get picked there could be an auditory allert or something that reminds you that its your turn.
Let me know what you think about this!

[Gazz292]

i think things like this have been suggested before, 

but the problem is the queue system would then become the 'who clicks first wins' part instead,
And it would need something to stop people constantly clicking to take up all the spaces for their favourite dispatcher post. 

Maybe some form of limitation to how many times you can operate a particular dispatchers post per day per server thing needs to be thought about? 
Or timeouts, your first post of the day you get straight into the dispatcher post, second time you have a x second delay when the servers restart which allows someone else the chance to get that post for their first time, third time you try to get on the same post it's a longer delay or something.

of course the rich kids will abuse this kind of system by having multiple steam accounts and copies of SimRail just to hog their favourite dispatchers post on their favourite server.

 

I know that usually people want their favourite dispatchers post but only on their favourite server,  so the popular servers are full all the time, but there's other servers with just one or 2 drivers in it during the day, and no one in the dispatchers posts, 

Right now:

EN1 has 13/16 dispatchers.
EN3 has 3/16 dispatchers.
EN6 has 0/16 dispatchers.
EN8 has 1/16 dispatchers.
EN9 has 2/16 dispatchers.

So for the english servers, everyone wants EN1 all the time, obviously because they want live drivers to interact with instead of AI trains?

[iPanuzzo]

Just need tokens.
Worse stations - you obtain tokens by working there.
Best stations - you spend tokens by working there.
Speed of the tokens being spent can vary based on the demand.

But queue... would you join a queue of 5 ppl waiting for SG knowing each one of them will spend 5 hours straight there?

[Schyrsivochter]

I don’t think signal boxes can be divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that way. Some people might find signal boxes Psary or Dąbrowa Górnicza boring, but personally I occasionally play them explicitly cause I don’t always want to have to do too much thinking. People have varying preferences.

[DazT]

At the moment you've only got a small finite number of signal boxes to work with only a few busy boxes, as the sim develops more and more will come online and the days of 100 people trying to cover 16 positions will hopefully become the thing of the past. Hopefully within a few days 16 boxes will become 17.

I did a few hours on Psary for a change yesterday as the usual ones were full and was sat next to someone on Knapówka who was my SimSig partner in crime many years ago, from long ago before I became an actual signalman. (It was my experience using SimSig that actually got me the job, well a few of us). I didn't know at the time he was there until he called me out on the box to box chat, by name! Small world, so we had a good chin wag, but didn't cause chaos like we used to on SimSig!

Normally if I can't find a box I like working, then I'll have a blast driving instead, but even that can be fastest finger first with everyone (myself included!) all trying to grab the EC trains with the EP08's on when they spawn in, but even that's recently worked to help me out by being scuppered for an EP08 when I sat down and did some of the local stoppers with the EN76 units which I used to avoid like the plague only because I couldn't master the power/brake handle, but by not getting on the EC's I have actually grown to love them and now since I've grasped a driving technique that works and worked out how to drive it!

Edited March 7, 2023 by DazT

[DazT]

13 hours ago, iPanuzzo said:

knowing each one of them will spend 5 hours straight there

Only 5 hours, amateurs! 🤣🤣

[Fightdrug]

Am 5.3.2023 um 19:38 schrieb Gazz292:

i think things like this have been suggested before, 

but the problem is the queue system would then become the 'who clicks first wins' part instead,
And it would need something to stop people constantly clicking to take up all the spaces for their favourite dispatcher post. 

Maybe some form of limitation to how many times you can operate a particular dispatchers post per day per server thing needs to be thought about? 
Or timeouts, your first post of the day you get straight into the dispatcher post, second time you have a x second delay when the servers restart which allows someone else the chance to get that post for their first time, third time you try to get on the same post it's a longer delay or something.

of course the rich kids will abuse this kind of system by having multiple steam accounts and copies of SimRail just to hog their favourite dispatchers post on their favourite server.

I know that usually people want their favourite dispatchers post but only on their favourite server,  so the popular servers are full all the time, but there's other servers with just one or 2 drivers in it during the day, and no one in the dispatchers posts, 

Right now:

EN1 has 13/16 dispatchers.
EN3 has 3/16 dispatchers.
EN6 has 0/16 dispatchers.
EN8 has 1/16 dispatchers.
EN9 has 2/16 dispatchers.

So for the english servers, everyone wants EN1 all the time, obviously because they want live drivers to interact with instead of AI trains?

you know that i allways dont understand everytime this ,,i wanna play bedzin or sosnowiec but its allways used by someone :C" but at the same EN 6 is complete empty

Edited March 7, 2023 by Fightdrug
yes meet...

[Der_Jannik]

The queuing-system has already been mentioned here. A queue does not improve things. If someone just joined, e.g. Będzin and I join the queue, It would still be possible that I would have to wait 2 hours until he leaves the station. And if there are 2 or 3 people in the queue already, then there is no chance I will be able to play that station today.

 

Am 30.1.2023 um 16:16 schrieb Der_Jannik:

Additionally, if you get kicked from the server for some reason, there is still a relatively high chance of rejoining your station. With a queue, this would no longer be possible.

 

The same would apply to a token system. If you sometimes get kicked from a server due to connection loss, or to let AI fix things for you, you would have to spend a token to reconnect. And if I'd have to play a simple station to get those tokens, I'd just be bored playing one while watching YouTube or something. That's really not how it's supposed to work.
Also, if enough people collected multiple tokens, then the stations would still be full, and you would have to wait.

I think that the system is good as it currently is.
As Gazz292 and Fightdrug have already said, there are almost always good stations available on less popular servers.
Sometimes you are lucky and manage to get something good in EN1, but sometimes not.

[iPanuzzo]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:11 PM, Der_Jannik said:

If you sometimes get kicked from a server due to connection loss, or to let AI fix things for you, you would have to spend a token to reconnect. And if I'd have to play a simple station to get those tokens, I'd just be bored playing one while watching YouTube or something. That's really not how it's supposed to work.
Also, if enough people collected multiple tokens, then the stations would still be full, and you would have to wait.

 

Nope, you spend tickets while you manage the station. Not for connecting to the server.

Noone wants to play SG at EN6 because there are bots everywhere. Ppl feel lonely. Everyone wants to handle ppl traffic. So if you make more ppl join other servers and operate trains there, you will have more slots for SG.