How to edit a ready activity

I apologize for my stupid question, but I always wanted to know if there is possibility to change the train composition in some one's else activity. If the answer is positive, then where could I find
the appropriate instructions how to do it.Thanks in advance.Adam

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RE: How to edit a ready activity., downside, Jan-17-03, 09:11 AM, (1) RE: How to edit a ready activity., black5, Jan-17-03, 09:35 AM, (4) RE: How to edit a ready activity., MasterChief, Jan-17-03, 09:13 AM, (2) RE: How to edit a ready activity., kevarc, Jan-17-03, 09:31 AM, (3) RE: How to edit a ready activity., adamw, Jan-17-03, 03:57 PM, (5) RE: How to edit a ready activity., heffedhome, Jan-19-03, 03:26 AM, (6) RE: How to edit a ready activity., black5, Jan-19-03, 07:58 AM, (7) RE: How to edit a ready activity., MSG Redleg, Jan-20-03, 11:15 AM, (8) RE: How to edit a ready activity., adamw, Jan-20-03, 04:37 PM, (9) RE: How to edit a ready activity., kevarc, Jan-20-03, 05:38 PM, (10) RE: How to edit a ready activity., Brad 110, Jan-22-03, 07:32 PM, (12) RE: How to edit a ready activity., Brad 110, Jan-22-03, 07:29 PM, (11)

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LAST EDITED ON Jan-17-03 AT 09:13 AM (EST)

You can alter any consist in an activity if you want to. However one of the many problems that may occur is that altering the overall weight of the train can put the activity out timewise (thanks Kevarc for this information I gleaned from one of your informative posts) and really screw things up. There are other problems but at this moment in time I cannot recall them.I also try to run activities as the author intended them - after all he/she spent a lot of time putting it together.BillEDIT - and by the way no question is usually stupid - the stupid thing is not asking the question.

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Conbuilder and Routeriter have functions that make that easy.
You can even change the static consists if you want.
As I only use steam I am always changing consists etc...the 2 systems are good at different things so I change according to what I'm doing.
It is a bit tedious but worth it in the end.
Georges from London.

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Adam,Yes, it is possible to modify the trains in any activity. I'd bet this is how most of us get started in the activity creation process! You simply need to go into the Activity Editor. Select OPEN, choose the route where the activity is located. Select the ACTIVITIES folder, and open the appropriate activity (this may be the tricky part - sometimes the names are a little obscure). On the right-hand side of the screen, look for Service Editor. This is your train. Click on EDIT, and another screen will open on the left. Here you can edit the train or its path. (Don't recommend you mess with the path, just yet.) Select your consist, click on EDIT. The Consist Editor will come up, allowing you to change the train any way you like.I'd recommend backing up the activity (activityname.ack) somewhere before you start messing with it, just in case you do screw it up (it happens to the best of us!). Also, try simple changes, one at a time, and then run the activity to check out your handywork. A little good judgement goes a long way.Good luck,
MC

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First the oh no stuff - Like to other poster pointed out, try to keep the weight and length close to the original, if you do not you might not fit into a siding or, if you make the train to heavy you may not make it up the hill. I did an couple of acitivites that if you add 1 car to the consist you will stall. Another thing is, if it is a switching activity you may inadvertantly change the car number, the number you see when you hit f7, and you may never complete the activity. This can be avoided by editing the consist in wordpad, but that can be extrememly tedious if you are changing more than one car.Now the how to's.
download Conbuilder, it is a whole lot easier to use than opening the AE, then opening the consists editor. Then you can edit consists till your clicker doesn't click anymore. BUT, first back up the consists you want to edit. Kevin Arceneaux
It is time for Amtrak to become a fallen flag!

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Thanks to all. I intend to change only the motive power in some activities.Best regards.Adam

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>Another thing is, if it is a switching
>activity you may inadvertantly change the car number, the
>number you see when you hit f7, and you may never complete
>the activity. Amen to that! I found that out the hard way. I changed a consist in one of the stock activities and only realized that after 4 hours of driving, I couldn't complete the activity because my consist didn't match the work order.To make matters worse, apparently this particular activity was built using a loose consist, so when I tried putting the stock consists in the activity, none of them worked either. That sucked. Load the activity... hit f9 to compare said consist with the work order... open activity editor to switch the consist... Load the activity... Rinse and repeat. -Urgh-So I had to build a new consist that would match the work order. Easier said then done. The work order car numbers didn't follow any logical sequential order, which made it incredibly difficult to recreate the consist in the editor.I was just about to bag the whole activity until I realized I may be able to edit the consist file outside the editor. I was able to do it, but as kevarc mentioned, it was tedious.So in short, save yourself a headache and only change consists that don't have to match any specific work order.-Jeff

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I believe ( but my memory may let me down..)..that Routeriter allows you to change all consists (including static ones) and corrects info accordingly...it would only take 2 mins to check anyway. Just thought I'd mention an alternative..
Georges from London.

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Too bad we can't go back and rewrite some MSTS logic.......There are so many excellent activities and fabulous rolling stock available to us now but it is tedious and downright dangerous to change the rolling stock in an activity to "personalize" it to our preferred era, locale, or road name.I have changed some of the defalut rolling stock by renaming the data in the wag files, etc and in essence substituting my preferred cars for the BNSF stuff. This is really not that hard to do and I'm sure some of the gurus we have could do a program that makes the swap outs extremely simple. To us "Users" all programs are simple:-)
IMHO......
If the system was set up with "universal" rolling stock folders we could all use the same activities without having to modify them at all.
For example: Instead of using engine WVO_SD40-2 for instance, the activity would call for Eng_01, Wag_01, Wag_04, etc, etc. If my system has a WVO sd40-2 in the "Eng_01" folder that would show up in MY activity. If Joe Brown uses an English steamer in "Eng_01" then he would have his preference.Some thought would need to go into what folders were needed and a way to name them (Eng_01, Box_01, Gon_01, Diner_02 etc)With enough logically named folders and wag/eng files it would be easier to swap cars around. If I get tired of seeing a UP 90MAC this week, I could swap it for a 70M with a quick change and change would be system wide.Just some food for thought. Maybe next time KUJU will ask me first

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I'd like to see (or maybe it's my dream) such a level of simulation, which will include a random situation generator.I mean not only a random traffic state, but as in Flight Simulator, a weather etc.
And one more attribute to feel MSTS more authentic, it would be more static rolling stock visible at the sidings. The questions is, if Kuju are capable to achieve such a level of sophistication.Adam

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NO, too many people, each with their own setup. It is way to late in the game to be changing things.Kevin Arceneaux
It is time for Amtrak to become a fallen flag!

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IMO it is never "to late" to make changes, so long as there is a migration path to where the change is is taking us. I would have no problem with an update that required, for instance, that all my rolling stck be run through a conversion program of some sort in order to work on a new rev of MSTS.
Brad Meyer

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>There are so many excellent activities and fabulous rolling
>stock available to us now but it is tedious and downright
>dangerous to change the rolling stock in an activity to
>"personalize" it to our preferred era, locale, or road name. When one breaks it down, an activity is a route, some services, and loose consists. The services are consists and paths. ISTM that anyone with the requsite skill to modify an activity would also be able to use the paths provided (they end up in the path folder for that route)to build a personalized activity.Brad Meyer

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