AutoReplace

Automatically replace and upgrade vehicles

For TTDPatch 2.0.1 alpha 63 or later

Switch

Configuration file: autoreplace on|off|<reliab>

Command line: N/A

Quick Info

Autoreplace enables the game to automatically upgrade your engines through the use of a GRF file. It will upgrade old engines that are nearly expired to newer ones if the situation meets three requirements:

• The newer vehicle is available to the player (Either normally, or as a trial use)
• The vehicle meets the reliability requirement specified (defaults to 80)
• The player has enough money to replace the locomotive.

When autoreplacing engines, each engine is replaced at the same time with the same engine, regardless of the length of the new engines. This may cause some trains to stick out of stations where they did not before. That must be fixed manually for each train.

This switch requires the autorenew switch.

Detailed Info

This switch is an improved version of the autorenew switch, and requires "autorenew on" to work.

Instead of merely replacing vehicles with a new version of the same model, autoreplace can also upgrade vehicles if better models are available.

To decide what models are both better and at the same time a suitable upgrade for the current vehicle, the patch requires support from grf files to provide this information. This means that each vehicle set will determine the upgrade path for its vehicles. Currently, there is no user interaction possible, all upgrades are predetermined by the respective grf file.

To prevent the purchase of vehicles with low reliabilities, you can use the switch parameter to set a minimum required reliability for upgrades. The reliability is specified in percent, with 80% being the default.

When deciding on models to upgrade to, the patch will pick the best model that is available to the player (either regularly or through for exclusive testing) that has the required reliability. If the model is too expensive, the patch will wait a short while for the money to become available. If no better model is available, the patch will autorenew the current model.

The autoreplace upgrades happen whenever the autorenew switch would otherwise renew the vehicle, so the autorenew time setting also applies to the autoreplace switch.

Note that for trains, it is possible that a locomotive is replaced by one that is longer than the original model (e.g. because of a tender), and as a result the train may not fit in all stations. This must be resolved manually by removing a wagon or two, or making the stations larger. If a train is multiheaded, all engines will be replaced by the new model, even if they are not the same type as the main engine. Depending on the autoreplace scheme defined by the respective grf file, the patch may or may not upgrade from a steam/diesel locomotive to an electric one.