Do I get less passengers if my station is just a "junction"?

[muzietto]

Sometimes the placement of a station ends up with its name being "XXX Junction" instead of "XXX".

Town XXX is connected and my station covers all of its houses, yet I have the impression that I get less passengers than what the number of covered houses would assure.

Am I right? Is it so that passengers "dislike" stations that do not carry the plain name of their town?

On the same topic, is it possible that small stations (price 50k $) do not gather all the passengers of the houses they cover?

[MikeC]

4 hours ago, muzietto said:

Sometimes the placement of a station ends up with its name being "XXX Junction" instead of "XXX".

Town XXX is connected and my station covers all of its houses, yet I have the impression that I get less passengers than what the number of covered houses would assure.

Am I right? Is it so that passengers "dislike" stations that do not carry the plain name of their town?

On the same topic, is it possible that small stations (price 50k $) do not gather all the passengers of the houses they cover?

Do your differently named stations, e.g. XXX Junction as opposed to XXX, cover fewer houses than the generically named stations?  (Just checking that I read you right.)  I do know that if I have two stations covering the same space, both stations lose passengers (works the same for mail) when I send them on a train, unless one station covers a house that the other does not, and then the passenger may remain.  For example, I currently have a "Chicago" and "Chicago Junction" station in the US History map.  Chicago has one house that Chicago Junction does not.  If I ship passengers or mail from C, the count at CJ will go down for sure.  If I ship passengers or mail from CJ, C may not go down the same number.

That said, I have never seen the phenomenon you describe, at least not to the point that I noticed it.  It does seem to me that there is a multiplier based on economic level--more passengers and mail in boom times than depression, for example.  Plus, of course, the game's penchant for dropping a ton of outgoing mail every year or so, regardless of town size (Abilene in 175 having two passengers and two mails at the same time exceeds the "book value" of the two houses it has--more noticeable for big cities).

[MaglevForever]

"x Junction" is an example of a suffix the game adds to a city that has been previously connected in the game. The purpose is to prevent two stations from having an identical name.

 

There are more suffixes and if we keep placing stations at one city we see this:

1st Chicago

2nd Chicago Junction

3rd Chicago Crossing

4th Chicago Place

5th Chicago Depot

6th Chicago Adjunct

>6 Chiacgo Adjunct........

 

Further stations are called Chicago Adjunct.

 

This is the automatic naming system. We are free later to set our own names however we like. Identical names are not illegal. But it's easy to understand how they can be confusing.

 

Mike said to check that both stations "cover" all buildings/houses. As long as this is true, there is no obvious fundamental at work here to suggest different availability. Who knows if there is something hidden that nobody really noticed, but if so the effect can't be large, else someone would probably have noticedby now.

[muzietto]

> Do your differently named stations, e.g. XXX Junction as opposed to XXX, cover fewer houses than the generically named stations? 

No, what I describe is a situation where is no station "XXX" at all. The station gets named "XXX Junction" because (AFAIU) I happen to place it not sufficiently close to the town. For example, sometimes I don't want to cross a river to reach a town, so I just stay at the opposite side and buy a large station that extends its area deep enough at the other side.

> Further stations are called Chicago Adjunct.

That's nice. Thank you for the digression. I never got beyond Depot...

> We are free later to set our own names however we like

You mean that it's possible to rename stations? Or just to rename the "adjuncts"?

It would be great to be able to rename stations. With all due respect, "Milano Junction" sucks.

 

 

[MaglevForever]

7 hours ago, muzietto said:

No, what I describe is a situation where is no station "XXX" at all. The station gets named "XXX Junction" because (AFAIU) I happen to place it not sufficiently close to the town. For example, sometimes I don't want to cross a river to reach a town, so I just stay at the opposite side and buy a large station that extends its area deep enough at the other side.

More info is often helpful. In hindsight your first post did have "clues" that I feel I should have seen. You are right, in that case you built what game thinks is a "rural" station and those are automatically named according to nearby towns, but with a mandatory suffix. For them the list starts with "XXX junction" onwards.

 

Maybe you noticed already, but there is an easy clue if your station "connects" a town. If it is close enough you will see the town name turn white and under the name: (CONNECTED). This is useful when placing stations, but anytime later you also can put the cursor over a station to check. If the town name remains normal, it's not really "connected."

 

"Connected" status, as the game defines it, matters for growth prospects. An "unconnected" town, even if well serviced, will barely grow over time compared to one that is properly "connected".  This makes it general strategy to connect to the towns properly. Because of this nobody is likely to have much experience of this situation in order to answer your question. If the case is that a non-connected/"rural" station can connect more houses, then the player will tend to use two stations. If, so he will distribute some freight to both, even if all express pickups are from the rural station. This is why Mike and I are talking about multiple stations that cover the same houses, one properly connected and one in the location that will cover as many houses as possible.

[jeffryfisher]

9 hours ago, MaglevForever said:

there is an easy clue if your station "connects" a town. If it is close enough you will see the town name turn white and under the name: (CONNECTED).

Indeed, this is the first way that a qualifier will be added to a station name: Only the first "connected" station gets the town/city name by default peripheral stations and later stations get those a those annex names.

The pax and mail (and other freight) collected by a station depend on coverage only, not naming. However, if another station covers some of the buildings, then it sees their same loads (loads originate in buildings until picked up). If you sense fewer loads, then a competitor's train may have snuck in and hauled "your" loads away.

[muzietto]

> anytime later you also can put the cursor over a station to check. If the town name remains normal, it's not really "connected."

> Only the first "connected" station gets the town/city name by default peripheral stations and later stations get those a those annex names.

I'll try to take a snapshot and post it here of a borderline situation wrt what you both describe here: there is this swiss town promising 200k to the first baron stopping there. I put my station at the outskirt of town, but it's large and the houses are all covered. The town looks "connected" when I hover the mouse above my station, but I don't get the prize. I put a small station right in the center of the houses and I finally get the money. It looks like the mechanism for getting the dough is tied to some small distance value from the exact town location, as you can see in the map editor.

[MaglevForever]

I wouldn't know for sure without looking at that specific map in the editor, but there is a possibility that this town uses a hidden territory to track this connection. Such a connection is a different case. It depends on what the map maker chose, and if he decided to use hidden territories it was his/her call on the size, aka how close to town center you need to place your station. Connections to hidden territories are commonly used for tracking haulage targets. As a player, the safe strategy for required connections is to place as close to the town center as possible.

[Silverback]

On 5/18/2020 at 8:02 AM, muzietto said:

..... You mean that it's possible to rename stations? Or just to rename the "adjuncts"? .....

 

Yes! Any part or all of the name as Maglev indicated. Heres how if you havent worked it out yet.

Double click the station to open its screen (where you would buy upgrades) if its not already open as it would be when you create the station.

Click on the stations name.

A flashing vertical bar cursor will appear

Type in the name box to change the name and hit enter or return

Station has been renamed.

You could also try and edit edit the default2.lng file and edit the tSTATION_NAME_VARIANT_0 section if you don't like the default suffices. But do read the files instructions (in the file) first.