EIP (Pendolino) Priority Handling by AI

[PlagueDoc]

The AI dispatcher(s) don't do a great job when it comes to ensuring that the highest priority trains get to their destination on time. I was stopped behind slower services at least five times and even sent to the opposite track for no apparent reason - leading to a 25-minute delay. This is a regular occurrence. I have done 5 full return trips between Warszawa and Katowice since I bought the game by the end of April but I was not able to arrive on time ever, due to the poor AI dispatching. Often my train and a slower service are sitting at the same station and then the slower, lower priority service is sent out first so I can only follow them leading to constant slowing down. Often, on the "high speed" ETCS section I end up crawling at speeds of 40-80 km/h due to spacing until eventually, the AI lets me overtake the slower service.

This aspect is very unrealistic. I haven't been on any Polish train yet but have travelled on numerous highspeed trains and the common goal is to ensure these trains can travel uninterrupted at track speed without having to slow down for slow service ahead of them, let alone, crawl behind them or released only after they are released.

I am optimistic that this will be looked into so it will be possible to follow the timetable consistently, not only "sometimes" when the stars align. It all comes down to how the AI dispatcher prioritizes the services, and whether it recognizes early on a potential conflict that can lead to the higher priority train having to slow down.

Edited May 12 by kityatyi

[jayzhead]

Generally, the AI dispatchers are very primitive. They only seem to look at the section to the previous post, and completely disregard the timetable. If a slower service has a pt stop that is timetabled to let a pendo pass, if that pendo is not yet in the immediate section prior to the AI controlled station, it just flags the slower service through, often condemning the pendo to hang behind a freight train for a ~25km section. It is pretty much impossible to have an on-time run in with the EIP services unless the dispatch stations are all populated by players (players who know what they're doing, that is, but that's a different issue 🙂). 

Also, there is just plenty of weird behaviors at different AI posts that are baffling - like Dandowka, which is pretty broken and constantly holds passenger services to loop freight around them, which is the exact opposite of what it should be doing. Or GW's tendency to put on time EC services in the siding for absolutely no reason when going south, with no trains coming up behind them for the long section from Psary.

Anyway, it is what it is for the moment. We just have to work around the current limitations of the AI in the game and hope the devs will improve it at some point.

[PlagueDoc]

Yep. Interestingly, I just managed to complete my first ever on-time Pendo run, from Katowice to Warszawa. Dead on time - on a server with only 1 human player apart from myself. I was still slowed down a couple of times but this time it was all momentary, rather than long periods of idling. Nonetheless, the AI dispatchers need further "training" otherwise the Express Intercity Premium services will never live up to the expectations. 

 

[PlagueDoc]

Rant incoming. After 102 hours of gameplay (bought Simrail by the end of April), I can safely say it's a love-and-hate relationship. 

The Pendolino drives me nuts. This evening I departed Warszawa (1443 EIP service bound for Gliwice) and shortly after Korytów the first blessing arrived, I was slowed down to a crawl and eventually forced to stop, which, in the Pendolino, is a nightmare due to the bug with the drive handle or whatever it's related to. Then, finally, back at speed, I was once again made to come to a halt before Strzałki behind another slow train. After leaving the first ETCS section, all went well, although, at this point, I accumulated a 4-minute delay thanks to the highly trained AI dispatchers. But then came the second ETCS section and I was again struggling behind a slow train for a long time before I eventually was allowed to pass it. I arrived in Katowice 9 minutes late.

In the beginning, when I was only learning the signals and the controls, I often made numerous errors and contributed to the delays. But not anymore. I can drive the Pendo pretty well and can read the signals almost instantly knowing what they translate to. This would allow me to run through the line at track speed and arrive on time. But in the hands of the AI dispatchers, an on-time arrival is a game of pure luck.

The definition of ultra-frustrating is when you finally accelerate to 200 km/h only to be informed by ETCS that it's time to slow down for a full stop due to a 6-digit freight train crawling ahead of you... And when you finally get the green, you struggle to make the train move due to the bug with the traction lock or whatever is involved.

This bug with the Pendolino's controls should have been a hotfix, really. Admittedly it's been fixed internally and the fix was going to be made live but it does not appear to have been released yet.

Rant over.

 

 

 

[the810]

On 5/12/2024 at 2:36 PM, jayzhead said:

If a slower service has a pt stop that is timetabled to let a pendo pass, if that pendo is not yet in the immediate section prior to the AI controlled station, it just flags the slower service through, often condemning the pendo to hang behind a freight train for a ~25km section.

It seems that they're working on fixing this because I had the opposite issue today.

I was dispatching in Idzikowice where I had a southbound EC with pt to be overtaken by two Pendolinos. One of them was very late so I calculated that if I let EC depart early (after the ontime Pendolino), it will be in Olszamowice some 4 minutes before the delayed Pendolino. Win-win, no need to cause delay for EC, while at the same time it won't disrupt Pendo in any way. I dispatched it towards Opoczno which was controlled by an AI.. and the AI has decided to stop the EC there and wait for the Pendolino that was still somewhere up the line. So it's definitely not only looking at the neighbouring section in its logic.

[PlagueDoc]

Even if they are working on a fix, the latest update was made available in April. I've been playing this game since after that update and my experience is that the AI dispatcher is doing an extremely sloppy job. It's sheer annoying. Completing an on-time run in the Pendo is almost a mission impossible with the AI dispatchers - even if you make it on time once in a while, it's pure luck. 

Today again it drove me crazy while driving from Katowice to Warszawa. After reaching Szeligi, I had enough and quit the game. I will be back once the dispatcher is fixed and a Pendolino Express Intercity Premium will be handled as a priority train. Today, I was first slowed down on the first ETCS section shortly after Zawiercie behind a lower priority service and made to crawl at a speed way below Vmax for about 5 minutes, building up an initial delay of 3 minutes. And then I reached Knapówka where the AI stopped me for two trains coming from the opposite direction - one was a freight train, the other a commuter. The Express Intercity Premium service was held to let these two services pass. Seriously? This is a joke.

And then, with a delay of 15+ minutes thanks to the "super-efficient" AI, I was again made to stop before Szeligi even though there was no traffic ahead of me: neither in the direction of Warszawa, nor the opposite. At this point, my frustration reached the boiling point and I shut down Simrail. It was topped by the fact that the Pendolino has a bug that makes it hard to get it to move once brakes are applied. This was promised to be fixed almost a month ago, but nothing happened. The developers made no further comments or provided any additional information or updates. 

 

Edited May 20 by kityatyi

[Gazz292]

i guess if you want to be on time every time you drive, it may be best to play in single player where things are more scripted ?

Multiplayer is where SimRail is different.... other people's actions affect you, and your actions affect others,   just like on the real life railways.

It can be as simple as a train taking a little too long to get upto line speed, or braking too soon and crawling into a platform that delays a train behind them, or worse, one that is due to cross their path at a junction ahead.
Then other trains get delayed due to that and it snowballs. 

This is a simple fact of life when you share the railway lines with slower trains,  
Until we get hover trains that can overtake any other train in front of it without having to rely on a single set of rails for 30+ km, this kind of thing is just part of railway life. 

 

Maybe enjoy the challenge of making up lost time ??
It'd be sooo boring if every light was green and you ran at max speed everywhere all the time.

 

i've only got 726 hours in SimRail, but every one of them was driving either an EU07, EP08, EN57 or ET22,  and the most fun is when my train gets delayed part way through the run, but i manage to end the trip back on time. 

And the times it doesn't work out like that and my train is 30+ minutes delayed at the end of my shift, well that's railway life, all part of the fun. 

[PlagueDoc]

10 hours ago, Gazz292 said:

i guess if you want to be on time every time you drive, it may be best to play in single player where things are more scripted ?

Multiplayer is where SimRail is different.... other people's actions affect you, and your actions affect others,   just like on the real life railways.

It can be as simple as a train taking a little too long to get upto line speed, or braking too soon and crawling into a platform that delays a train behind them, or worse, one that is due to cross their path at a junction ahead.
Then other trains get delayed due to that and it snowballs. 

This is a simple fact of life when you share the railway lines with slower trains,  
Until we get hover trains that can overtake any other train in front of it without having to rely on a single set of rails for 30+ km, this kind of thing is just part of railway life. 

Maybe enjoy the challenge of making up lost time ??
It'd be sooo boring if every light was green and you ran at max speed everywhere all the time.

i've only got 726 hours in SimRail, but every one of them was driving either an EU07, EP08, EN57 or ET22,  and the most fun is when my train gets delayed part way through the run, but i manage to end the trip back on time. 

And the times it doesn't work out like that and my train is 30+ minutes delayed at the end of my shift, well that's railway life, all part of the fun. 

Good point well made.

But the fact remains that the AI dispatcher lacks "basic skills" to carry out his duties properly, regardless of how many players are online and how badly players mess up the timetable and the traffic flow. The AI dispatcher should be able to prioritize more efficiently to ensure the timetable is kept or even to help make up lost time.

While it is indeed a challenge to lessen the delay resulting from the subpar work of the AI dispatcher unfit for duty, I am not looking for these kinds of challenges. My aim is to simulate certain operations but when the vast majority (pretty much all) journeys result in a delay of 10+ minutes, it is no longer realistic. 

No, that's not railway life. In "railway life" it happens once in a while but not always. If it happened all the time as something inevitable, they would modify the timetable accordingly. The timetable, however, suggest a 2:33 journey time which is hardly (if at all) achievable with the current capabilities of the AI.

Edited May 23 by kityatyi

[Gazz292]

Could always pretend it's DB instead of PKP,   in Germany hardly any train is ever on time nowadays 😄