Line Equalizer

Line Equalizer

Upgrade your fleet without flooding your lines.

When you replace vehicles with a newer, bigger or faster model, the capacity of the line jumps up, and you usually end up running more vehicles than the line actually needs. Line Equalizer notices the upgrade and sells the surplus vehicles, so the line capacity stays as close as possible to what it was before.

It works the other way too: replace vehicles with a smaller or slower model and Line Equalizer buys more of the new model and sends them to the line, so it does not lose capacity.

Example

A bus line runs 4 buses with a capacity of 65. You upgrade them to a newer model and the capacity rises to 84. Line Equalizer works out that 3 buses give about 63, the closest value to 65, and sells one bus.

The other way round: 4 buses with capacity 84 replaced by a smaller model drop to 63. Line Equalizer buys a fifth bus of the new model, bringing the line back to about 79.

How to use

• Enable the mod and load your savegame.
• Replace the vehicles of a line as usual, using the game's own replace button.
• That's it. Within a second or two of game time, the surplus vehicles are sold, or the missing ones are bought.

The capacity used is the same value shown in the line window, so what you see in the game is what the mod aims for.

Keep the new fleet (Shift)

Want more capacity this time? Hold Shift while clicking the Replace ... Vehicles button at the bottom of the vehicle store. That replacement is left as it is and nothing is sold or bought. The next replacement on that line is balanced as usual.

What counts as an upgrade

• Vehicle models changed and the vehicle count stayed the same: this is a replacement, and the line gets balanced.
• You bought or sold vehicles, or changed the route: the mod simply takes the new state as its reference and does nothing.

So if the mod sold vehicles you wanted to keep, just buy them back. It will not sell them again.

Excluded lines

• Rail and tram lines are ignored. A train is one large unit, so removing one would change the capacity too much.

Settings

Available in the mod settings when starting or loading a game:

• Check interval: how often lines are checked (0.5 s, 1 s, 2 s or 5 s of game time). Default: 1 s.
• Buy missing vehicles: On = after a replacement with weaker vehicles, the missing vehicles are bought (at most 30 at once). Off = the mod only sells. Default: On.
• Debug mode: prints the balancing plan, Shift skips and timing to the in-game console. Default: Off.

Good to know

• Bought vehicles are copies of the most common vehicle on the line, bought in the depot the game picks for that line and spread over the line's stops. They cost money like a normal purchase; if you cannot afford them, fewer are bought.
• The game script does not run while the game is paused. If you upgrade during a pause, balancing happens right after you unpause.
• Replace a whole line at once. Replacing vehicles in several small batches may cause balancing after each batch.
• Sold vehicles lose the cargo or passengers they were carrying, just like a manual sale.
• Line data is stored in the savegame, so the mod is ready right after loading. It can be added to or removed from existing savegames.
• Do not use it together with automatic fleet managers on the same lines; they may keep adding back the vehicles Line Equalizer sold.

Changelog

• Rev 3: buys missing vehicles after a replacement with weaker vehicles (new setting "Buy missing vehicles").
• Rev 2: hold Shift on "Replace ... Vehicles" to keep the new fleet once. Removed the [NE] line name tag. Debug messages only with Debug mode on.
• Rev 1: first release.