Cargodist explained?

[AlphaCentauriBear]

Hello, fellow players.
I know there are a lot of topics about cargodist. I checked few of them and, of course, checked wiki. Unfortunately, the information amount there is very very low. I still don't understand the concept. Anyone can point me to the good and more detailed description? Thank you.

Few questions from the top of my head.

#1
What does it change conceptually? According to wiki each unit of cargo wants to go to specific reachable station and continues traveling until it reaches it.
Does it mean no changes at all when I connect one source with one destination? If so, why would I want to build distributed network just to allow cargo to decide where it want to go?

#2
How does it change economy mechanics if at all? In original player wants to transport cargo as fast and as far as possible. Does cargodist adds any tweaks into it?

#3
Anybody can explain this new station long and hierarchical list of waiting passengers: from/to/via? What the hell does it mean? What are these red lines?
Nothing in wiki about it.

#4
How does it make game more economically challenging? I am not asking about new features like interface, map lines showing under/over used routes, etc. These are all helper tools.
I am asking whether it affects my decision (profitable / not profitable) on building a transport network?

[Auge]

#1
What does [CargoDist] change conceptually? According to wiki each unit of cargo wants to go to specific reachable station and continues traveling until it reaches it.
Does it mean no changes at all when I connect one source with one destination? If so, why would I want to build distributed network just to allow cargo to decide where it want to go?

If you connect one station with one other station with enabled CargoDist, there is no change because no other station is reachable. But on the other hand it is (in real life) normal to reach a destination with change overs from one line to another. CargoDist tries to simulate this real world experience. For some players this is much more interesting than the original game behaviour of loading passengers/cargo at a station A, unloading it completely at station B, load new cargo at station B, unloading it completely at station C and so on. For other players it isn't.

#2
How does it change economy mechanics if at all? In original player wants to transport cargo as fast and as far as possible. Does cargodist adds any tweaks into it?

It adds no tweaks for transporting cargo as fast and as far as possible. If one has these goals, one will have these goals also with enabled CargoDist. But the above mentioned mechanic of not unloading all cargo at the next station changes the needs of ones transport network completely. If the cargo, loaded at station A, doesn't unload at station B or station C because it's destination is station D, one has to add further capacities (vehicles, stations tiles, etc.) to a line to fulfill the needs of the neighbourhood of the intermediate stations (B and C). It's a different game style than the one of the original game.

#3
Anybody can explain this new station long and hierarchical list of waiting passengers: from/to/via? What the hell does it mean? What are these red lines?
Nothing in wiki about it.

Isn't it self explaining? Playing with CargoDist it is relevant to know the destinations of the cargo packets to optimise the network (number and capacity of the vehicles on the different lines, rail infrastructure, airport size, rail and road types (of different speeds), etc.).

Tschö, Auge

[jfs]

The core thing to understand is that CargoDist does not add destinations to cargo. It's cargo distribution, not cargo destinations.
It adds a distribution logic that superficially makes it look like cargo has a destination, and actually makes cargo take longer trips where it does not always unload at the first accepting station, and may transfer-unload instead of deliver-unload.
It can mean more delivery to further away stations, and will almost always mean you need much more capacity on your routes.

[AlphaCentauriBear]

#1
What does [CargoDist] change conceptually? According to wiki each unit of cargo wants to go to specific reachable station and continues traveling until it reaches it.
Does it mean no changes at all when I connect one source with one destination? If so, why would I want to build distributed network just to allow cargo to decide where it want to go?

If you connect one station with one other station with enabled CargoDist, there is no change because no other station is reachable. But on the other hand it is (in real life) normal to reach a destination with change overs from one line to another. CargoDist tries to simulate this real world experience. For some players this is much more interesting than the original game behaviour of loading passengers/cargo at a station A, unloading it completely at station B, load new cargo at station B, unloading it completely at station C and so on. For other players it isn't.

#2
How does it change economy mechanics if at all? In original player wants to transport cargo as fast and as far as possible. Does cargodist adds any tweaks into it?

It adds no tweaks for transporting cargo as fast and as far as possible. If one has these goals, one will have these goals also with enabled CargoDist. But the above mentioned mechanic of not unloading all cargo at the next station changes the needs of ones transport network completely. If the cargo, loaded at station A, doesn't unload at station B or station C because it's destination is station D, one has to add further capacities (vehicles, stations tiles, etc.) to a line to fulfill the needs of the neighbourhood of the intermediate stations (B and C). It's a different game style than the one of the original game.

Thank you for explaining it. I agree it adds a lot to the simulation side of the game. Making it more realistic.
My concern is that from economical point of the game it is better NOT to allow it by building point to point connections even if cargodist is enbled.
True, some people may disregard economics and just enjoy sorting passengers between destination. However, balancing economical aspect would tremendously improve attractiveness of this mod as it turn into: "sorting passengers for profit" - both in one game.

#3
Anybody can explain this new station long and hierarchical list of waiting passengers: from/to/via? What the hell does it mean? What are these red lines?
Nothing in wiki about it.

Isn't it self explaining? Playing with CargoDist it is relevant to know the destinations of the cargo packets to optimise the network (number and capacity of the vehicles on the different lines, rail infrastructure, airport size, rail and road types (of different speeds), etc.).

Tschö, Auge

I tried to understand them with all use cases I could imagine. Unfortunately, they are not self explanatory. Not completely, at least. Otherwise, I would not ask.

[AlphaCentauriBear]

The core thing to understand is that CargoDist does not add destinations to cargo. It's cargo distribution, not cargo destinations.
It adds a distribution logic that superficially makes it look like cargo has a destination, and actually makes cargo take longer trips where it does not always unload at the first accepting station, and may transfer-unload instead of deliver-unload.
It can mean more delivery to further away stations, and will almost always mean you need much more capacity on your routes.

Agree to that. I understand the idea. However, see my concern above.
It turns it into pure simulator disregarding economical competition or challenge. Which is fine, I guess.

Any other mods those combine destinations with profit? For example, satisfying demands: i.e. a consumer needs so much cargo of certain type - player should satisfy the need in the most optimal way.

[jfs]

That's what a lot of City Builder type game scripts do. They set up goals you have to fulfill by delivering specific kinds of cargo to specific cities/industries by those cities.


Originally there were also some implementations of Cargo Destinations, which were sort-of competing with Cargo Distribution, for getting included in the vanilla version of the game. At the time, CargoDist won out, in part because it requires significantly less computing power to handle, but recently some contributors have toyed with the idea of bringing CargoDest back again.