Recreating the pre hydraulic launch sequence in nl

I think i figured it out! Ive been playing around with the slight roll back the train has when it is let go to hook onto the catch car.

I started with sloped track. Then I used a tiny lift track with like a .001 acceleration so the train can go forward but stops when falling back on it (like the catch car!). Then after that i have a brake section that i calibrated so that it has 0 accell on the transport, launch of 1.7, then make it so the train has a complete stop slowly right as the last car clears the lift behind it, then for some reason it just falls backwards and stops at the lift, where it stays as many seconds as you make it. The only problem is that it doesnt ever stop completely BEFORE falling back onto the "catch car". But if it slowly decelerates it is still pretty convincing.

[Metazoanhaddock]

If you could upload an example, that'd be really great.

ok!

Go ahead and check it out its uploaded.

[Metazoanhaddock]

+1000 internetz for you, sir

It works for me in the editor, but seems a bit unreliable in the sim. Sometimes it just rolls back and never launches. It might just need some tweaking of the numbers. If you can get it working consistently though, this is very clever. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah i just realized that problem. It might be fixable. Ill play around with it. If anybody has any ideas just let me kno!

Having a slightly steeper launch could give a marginally faster rollback which is less sensitive to tiny fluctuations in the physics. I think your concept is sound though, I'm sure you can get it working properly with a bit of trial and error.

Hell, I'm sure Intamin also had similar reliability problems when they were first testing their launch.

[Metazoanhaddock]

So then its spot on accurate!!!

lolz yeah i was gonna say, ive even got the maintenance issues down!

This = awesome.

Great "discovery"! It makes the launch area much more realistic and awesome. I give you props for thinking of that...very nice.

Just work out the kinks and it will be great. It's also nice that you shared this with us (instead of keeping it to yourself).
[:)]

Well i might have if it had been perfect to begin with lol. But since its not, Im hoping that it can be something that people can kind of figure out on their own and make better. I wanted to share the basic concept so it could further develop you know? But thanks!