Update 2.2.0.0 for Random Events is now available! [Changelog]
Where a car stands and which way it faces is now decided in one place, from the road's own shape, instead of being guessed at by each event individually.
Fixed
Vehicles are placed along the road, not across it. Headings used to be taken from the straight line between two points of the road network, but on anything other than a dead straight road that line is not the road, so cars were set down at an angle to it. The problem was worst on rural and off-road maps, where it was impossible to miss. The road's real shape at that exact spot is used now.
Events place on the road they picked. An event chooses a stretch of road, but placement then looked for the nearest road to that spot — and where tracks run parallel, the nearest one is not always the right one. That is how a scene could end up laid out along a neighbouring track. The chosen road is now carried all the way through.
Vehicle size is taken into account. Offsets used to be identical for a hatchback and an articulated lorry, so the big rigs hung over the edge. Each model's real width is now measured in game and used, and where a road genuinely cannot hold a vehicle the event is skipped rather than placed badly.
Convoys follow the road. Escorts, motorcades, processions, cruises and emergency runs lay out along the road's actual course, at even spacing.
AI vehicles keep off dirt tracks. Routes are built along roads of the quality they started on, so a car no longer turns off tarmac onto a trail and strands itself.
Effects leave with their event. Wreck steam, road flares and responder lights used to linger after a scene was gone, sometimes for a couple of minutes.
Added
Placement self-check. Type this in the console:
extensions.randomEvents_manager.placementAudit()
It spawns each event in turn and writes a placement report to settings/random_events/. It is included so a problem can be reported with numbers rather than a description. Add a list to check only some events, for example placementAudit('convoy,racers').
Note
Placement on maps whose road data is unusual is better, but it will never be perfect. Where the data does not describe a usable road the event is now skipped, so on those maps you may see slightly fewer events than before.
https://www.patreon.com/ML2000/posts/random-events-v2-159406584 (embed)