Intro Years for Different Station Sizes

[jeffryfisher]

The game's internal data lists the different station sizes as if they were station improvements, so each has a year of introduction. Out of the box, all three are available in 1800 and never expire, so they're not very interesting -- until someone changes them.

So there might be a modding opportunity. I'm going to experiment to see if I can postpone the medium and large stations to later dates without crashing the game.

Question: What do you all think of the possibilities? Would it ruin the game if medium stations were unavailable until say 1839, and large stations unavailable until 1866? Would it add another delightful wrinkle to playing on some of the early maps? Are you okay with delayed availability but in favor of other years? What years? What's your rationale?

My own thinking is that the earliest rails served specific freight sources like mills and ports. Larger scale freight terminals (with urban rail-nets not shown in the game) developed over time, and I am trying to figure out what would be reasonable. I anticipate that having only the small stations at the dawn of railroading will induce more quaint (and historical) twists in routes, and that the introductions of larger stations will (along with more-powerful engines) produce historical transformations.

That, and I have a morbid desire to see how badly the AI handles the limitation. The computer companies already handle bridge advances rather poorly. Maybe they'll just crash the game if they can't buy the station sizes they want.

PS: I've never seen the AI upgrade old wooden bridges to stone or steel. In many of my USA games, the AI places a large station immediately behind a wooden Hudson River bridge in the NYC megalopolis. Trains turning around there can have both head and tail on the bridge simultaneously. By 1920, NYC can have 20+ houses within the station radius, and the weight of moribund trains on the old wooden bridge is alarming  ;)

BTW, if I do mod any station's intro date, I must keep it earlier than the Metra cars, buildings and freights (I think that's 1900). On a Metra-scale map, all three station sizes should always be available.

[Gwizz]

Many players from the past have expressed a desire for the ability to restrict a large station until a later time.

I would like it.  I asked Pop Top for a siding station that went with one industry or a flag stop as an even smaller station in the game.  I didn't get either.

I don't believe an AI will crash the game if it can't build a larger station.  But then,  I guess it would depend upon how the mod was constructed.

[cogeo]

This, although historically accurate, won't be very appealing to most players, I'm afraid, incl me! I often use large stations (built on the mainline or on special short spurs) as "collectors" of farms, raw materials etc. And as I'm so obsessed with building "perfect" ( :P) tracks, it usually costs me a lot less to build one large station or two, instead of smaller stations and longer and more spurs.