Topic: Multiple Carriers Speed Question
littlekatana![]() Topic Opener |
Posted at: 2021-10-31, 15:32
Hey everonye. Still learning the game.. I know there is a reason and a calculation in the code, but I can't figure out how having multiple carriers on a road increases the goods transportation speed. The goods have to travel the same distance no matter what, and the slopes / number of segments doesn't change, so I can't see how having more than one person do that carrying changes the speed. Can anyone explain? ![]() ![]() |
Nordfriese![]() |
Posted at: 2021-10-31, 15:41
The carrying speed for each individual ware is the same, but multiple carriers speed up transportation as a whole when many wares are waiting to be carried between two flags. Let there be two flags A and B connected by a flat 2-tiles road. Two wares are waiting at A to be carried to B. If there's one carrier, he needs 1.8 s to go to A, 3.6 s to bring the first ware to B, 3.6 s to go back to A, 3.6 s to bring the second ware to B. In total it takes 12.6 seconds until the second ware has been transported. If there are two carriers, they both go to A in 1.8 s, pick up one ware each, and go to B in 3.6 s each. It takes only 5.4 seconds until both wares are at B because now the two carriers work in parallel. So the speed increase is gained by reducing the time wares are idly lying around on flags waiting for a carrier to pick them up. This is also why a second carrier is assigned only to roads with a high wares throughput – on roads with low traffic, this waiting time is already minimal, whereas on busy roads a lot of time is wasted waiting for a free carrier. ![]() ![]() |
geokinkladze![]() |
Posted at: 2021-11-02, 19:25
Are you referring to having mules/donkeys/animals as a second carrier between two flags or splitting a road into smaller sections by having more flags? ![]() ![]() |
littlekatana![]() Topic Opener |
Posted at: 2021-11-03, 22:31
> *geokinkladze wrote:*
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hessenfarmer![]() |
Posted at: 2021-11-04, 08:25
A road is defined in widelands by its start and end flag. A flag can be placed at any field on the map with the limitation, that a minimum distance of 2 fields to any other flag need to be adhered to. The fields on the map are predefined according our coordinate system (see also https://www.widelands.org/documentation/geometry/) Edited: 2021-11-04, 08:25
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littlekatana![]() Topic Opener |
Posted at: 2021-11-14, 23:59
A follow up question is about the quickest route. I thought I had read something about this on the forum but I can't recall or find it. My question is if there is a free route that is longer with carriers available to take the goods now, and a shorter route that has a backlog of items waiting at flags, which ones is preferred for a given item? ![]() ![]() |
mxb2001![]() |
Posted at: 2021-11-15, 01:15
I'm no expert (still figuring stuff out too) but I have had success at building bypass roads to get a backlog cleared. -- ![]() ![]() |
hessenfarmer![]() |
Posted at: 2021-11-15, 10:02
AFAIK routing is based on a cost function, which takes the wares at a flag into account. So if there are multiple wares waiting at the flags on the shorter route the cost might increase until the longer route becomes "cheaper" then the shorter route. ![]() ![]() |