Sync non adjacent stations??

[anonymous19]

I'm hoping to be able to sync non adjacent stations to be able to make dueling rides that face each other. From opposite sides of the map. Not sure if this has come up in another topic. 

[CharlieP]

I have tried to do this same thing before and unless there is a cheat I am unaware of, the stations where the trains leave from must adjacent or syncing the trains isn't possible (the stations can be of different lengths though). You can have however have non-adjacent exit stations.

[jensj12]

While currently not in the game, devs might get inspired by this parkitect blog post: http://themeparkitect.tumblr.com/post/143226098827/devlog-update-94

You can use some dummy station pieces of a closed coaster to have the synced coasters start a bit further apart. I'm not entirely sure if it'll work, but it did in RCT1. Also remember station sync with the front piece of their stations, if you put a station heading the other side next to it how someone would normally do that, it sometimes works but the coasters lock up once it doesn't.

[X7123M3-256]

I believe this is not possible - even with cheats. I wasn't aware of a workaround but the technique suggested by @jensij12 sounds like it should work, at least where the stations are only seperated horizontally. Another option is to make a mobius loop and use block brakes to sync it.

 

I have not tested what happens when you start reassigning stations or having trains arrive at a station that belongs to a different ride - but I am doubtful that either would make this work. This probably needs a new feature to be added to work properly, but I'm not sure that it can be without a new file format.

Edited July 17, 2016 by X7123M3-256

[NightHawk]

It IS possible. You need to build "dummy" station in between wich have to run in a mode wich wont make the cars go off the track. (for some reason the dummys wont sync being closed like they did in vanilla rct2) It will look something like this:

 

It's pretty complicated to pull of though.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2016 by NightHawk

[X7123M3-256]

Yeah, @jensj12 pointed that trick out above; I hadn't heard of it before. It's a useful workaround in some cases, but so far as I can tell it only works if the stations are seperated only horizontally - can that still be done if the stations point in different directions?

[CharlieP]

I tried putting two coasters next to each other with the first station adjacent to its counterpart going opposite directions. They just sit there waiting for another station adjacent going the same direction.

[Broxzier]

The syncing only checks the last piece of the station, not the rest. If you want the tracks to go in opposite direction, you'd have to align the stations so that the front pieces are next to each other.

[anonymous19]

I know nothing about developing, but why wouldn't this be possible?? I'm going to try that workaround and see how that works out. 

 

Im hoping by some miracle this happens. I could make an entire park of schronized coasters and have them meet at certain points in the park. It would be incredible. 

[zaxcav]

Since station syncing was fixed (barring issues that have not been reported yet) dummy stations in between won't prevent stations from syncing anymore - i.e. it should work like in vanilla again.

In the current implementation, adjacent stations don't actually need to have the station starts next to each other, but for stations facing the same direction this is required for correct synchronisation to always occur - the adjacent station search starts from one station and searches for stations adjacent to the station start in both directions.  So if all station starts are not aligned, which stations are synced will depend on which station is checked first.

For stations in opposite directions, as long as the station starts are next to part of the adjacent station, the rides will sync.

Combinations of adjacent rides in same and different directions work as you'd expect once you understand the above.

Whether this is how we want syncing to work is open for discussion. There are currently some aspects that could be refined/improved.  For example, the rules related to the z height of adjacent stations requires all adjacent stations be equal height or height +/- 2 of each other.  It might be nice if this height tolerance was applied from each adjacent station to the next so, for example, adjacent stations could be staggered down a mountain side. The z height variance allowed between adjacent stations also opens interesting questions about what should happen with stations stacked over one another?