Beiträge von Flachdachs

A simple street connection doesn't change things. I guess you mean a line that connects both industries directly. In Train Fever the goods traveled itself between industries. This is an image of a newly started game, I only switched on the cargo layer. Wood is traveling from a forest to a saw mill.

But in TpF2 the goods don't do anything without a line. Here they use my lines, the street connection doesn't matter.

And yes, a more direct line that can transport stone in this case would be preferred. This is sometimes unexpected for players. They have a plan in their mind what goods which line should transport but the game obviously cant read the player's mind. It just sees a new line that can also transport the things and there it goes, until you micro-manage the lines, telling the game which goods can be loaded/unloaded.

The wrong information comes maybe from knowledge of previous versions. In Train Fever there was a 20 minutes rule. If the travel time estimation was more than 20 minutes neither good nor passengers started to travel. You had to make your routes as short as possible to stay within these 20 minutes. This rule was at least removed for Transport Fever, but I don't know how Transport Fever 1 really works in this case. I assume that people concluded from observations mixed with old knowledge and were wrong, but from their point of view it seemed legit. As long as the game works for them they don't have a need to question their knowledge. And that's maybe what they told you. Nowadays people had more time observing the behavior and the general knowledge of the game as well as current tutorials are more accurate than at the time after the release. In the Guides section of Steam for TpF2 is a very good one titled "UnicornPoacher's Transport Fever 2 Guide" written just half a year ago. Both sections Local Network and Regional Networks describe the way to organize goods distribution with Cargo Hubs, the way you want to do it. And in Vehicles and Rates the author writes about calculation rules and that it is no problem at all to have parts of the route going in the opposite direction. Your test confirms this.

The price for a line usage is calculated from the point where you pick up the goods to the point where you drop them, but "as the crow flies". It is not from the origin to the destination of the good/passenger. This wouldn't work for passengers. They are not charged for the distance between their home and the commercial or industrial building, but for the distance(s) where they enter and leave your vehicles. And so it's the same for the goods.

In your example the goods have no other choice than to use Line 2 and Line 3 and to pay for booth. But don't exaggerate this for passengers. They have a limit of time they are willing to spend on their way.

A little micro-optimization, where S are stations and I are industries:

-+-----------+-
 S I       I S

For the situation above the price is higher as when you place the stations between the industries.

-----+---+-----
   I S   S I

On the other hand the way is longer and the rate goes down a bit. As long as the rate doesn't drop that much that you need another car it's a win for you.