Weather Preferences

I’ve always been curious if I’m the only one who loves driving in storms on multiple routes, so I made this poll to find other people’s opinions on driving conditions.

Currently my favourite route for storms is west Cornwall local with class 37/5, feel free list your favourite route and train for certain weather conditions

 

Here’s some screenshots from one of the trips with the Class 37/5

 

My personal choice is light clouds, followed by light rain as a second choice. To me light clouds lighting looks more realistic as I find clear skies (sunny) to be over exposed, like the gamma needs to be toned down slightly.
Luckily the tv I play on (Sony Bravia QLED 2024 model) has a lot of excellent features that can adjust the lighting to my liking.
This game really could use a brightness setting though. 99% of all AAA games do, so why not TSW?

 

99 percent of all my Trips are either light clouds or doomsday, which means all switches are on max.

 

My trips are either sunny, sunny w/ full snow, or a storm. I love the sunny w/ full snow on WCMLS and WCMLOS

 

whatever it is outside

 

Light clouds. Nothing annoys me more than to find the Journey Mode runs have been set up in a raging thunderstorm or driving blizzard so you can barely see 10 yards in front of the train. Or dynamic weather which invariably Switches from sunny to thunderstorm after 30 seconds and never goes back.

Diving deeper, the weather is also pertinent to the route. Driving Cajon, AVL or SBO 95% of the time it should be clear blue skies and 80 degrees. On the other hand, Cathcart, Edinburgh to Glasgow or Fife Circle should be seen from more typical British weather!

 

Light clouds mainly. The lighting looks more natural with light clouds. I used to go with random weather untill it got screwed up. Constantly changing weather patterns suits the UK fine but some us routes shouldn't be getting constant rain or fog.

 

I look up a city/town on the route I'm about to drive on my weather app to see what the current weather is there. Then try to emulate that as best as I can with 'custom' weather. Major pain in the backside is that you have no control over temperature. The game will almost always give you a negative temp in winter, which is not at all realistic. So, if the weather on a december day is 6°C and raining, there's no way to emulate that. The game will give you a negative temp and always give you snow iso rain. So, it would be great if we could have control over the temperature in TSW6.

 

Light clouds. I’d drive in the rain more often if it wasn’t for the deafening rain pounding on cab sound

 

Light clouds and at certain times of the day 10 - 20% fog so you can get the rays of light shine through the trees

 

Snow, particularly at sunrise or sunset.

 

I'm usually a fair weather driver; blue skies or light clouds.
On occasion I like to set a fog or light mist in the early morning with sunrise, or a lovely winter's day with blue skies, lying snow, and no wind. Nice and crisp!
I don't get driving in the rain. Who wants to go to work on a rainy day? Perhaps if the cab was nice and snug...

 

Light clouds. I'd say sunny but DTG doesn't always do clear skies that well. Some clouds gives a bit of texture to the sky.
Of course most scenarios seem to be at night and/or in terrible weather for "reasons."
I get that it might be for "challenge" or something but you just don't get to see the route around you so they are boring.
It's like driving in a tunnel endlessly.

 

Sunny with light clouds for me. More cheerful and the light illuminates the route nicely.

 

I always go for light clouds, with custom weather. Sometimes I change it up, a dynamic evolving stormy goes perfect on WCMLOS.

 

I like sun and light clouds, not when it's peeing down

 

I like the start a new route by doing it in sunshine so I can see the route and landmarks. Once I'm more familiar, then dynamic and whatever happens, happens.

It'd be cool if the weather could match the real world setting real time.

 

I try to match the weather that is outside my window

 

For me, it often depends on my current mood at the time. Also I like to set the weather to fit the real one outside, adds a little bit of immersion

One thing that bugs me is that Dynamic Weather is so unreliable. I love it when the weather gradually changes over the course of my journey. But Dynamic Weather just means dense fog after a couple of minutes on 90% of my runs, regardless of starting conditions.
Although I had some very nice runs with it as well. For example, Linke Rheinstrecke: Started at Mainz in light clouds, gradually more overcast until it started to rain around Bingen, light to heavy and back to light rain until shortly before Koblenz, where the clouds opened up again and let me finish on a beautiful cloudy evening sunset

 

I usually start a service on light clouds and just let dynamic weather do whatever, it does get annoying when it'll turn to a thunderstorm after 5 minutes... which is why I use the God mode mod lol. You can get some great shots in most weathers, I just wish that the settings in photo mode were more fine tunable.

 

I hope I never grow tired of leaving Lancaster for Preston in the snow with an 87. Tap challenge!

 

Hey, at least when Dynamic Weather brings the fog in (as it always does) it reduces the draw distance to make things run smoother!

 

Due to dynamic weather being completely borked (please please fix this one day DTG); I usually set the weather to Light Clouds (which also seems the more popular choice going off the poll)

 

I like the variety of weather that's available (except the snow...funnily enough, I rather dislike snow).

 

addendum: i use dynamic weather, but would like more options to set starting weather

 

"Dynamic weather' does tend to furn to fog or rain most of the time. In the UK though... that might be accurate. Still just easier to stick to light clouds and not risk it, since I like the drives for the scenery.

 

I'm going to be the odd one out and share my love for heavy rain, pure black of night and a little sprinkle of fog!

I like a challenge here and there that puts my route knowledge to the test. Plus it does give the game a cozy vibe when you're sat waiting for passengers to load while raindrops hit the cab and watch the poor souls on the platform get drenched in typical UK drizzle!

If only wheelslip was simulated better...

 

I appreciate the atmosphere yes. That's why a nice light snow run at the holidays with say the Jubilee on WSR is cozy.
And why the Holiday train on San Bernadino seems.... lacking.
It just snow much in Los Angeles ;-)

 

Despite the stereotypes - it isn't.

I'm one of the few who uses dynamic weater, always start light clouds or clear. I like the changable aspects.

 

I usually go with whatever the weather is outside.

 

I’ll google the weather for the starting city I’m in and start off with that and dynamic.

However since early May I’ve found dynamic weather rather consistent with little change and rarely moves to rain (maybe one run out of 4), but as soon as I switch the in game date to a winter month heavy rain/snow every time.

 

I wonder if there is any consideration of route/season or it's just a truly random process in the core game? I get WAY too much rain in the desert all times of the year for it to be based on "reality." I know from experience you don't get a lot of rainy days near the Cajon Pass in the summer. That's why it's a desert. Yet it seems like every other run is rainy.

 

I noticed that too. In the recent weeks, when using Dynamic Weather and starting out with clear skies or light clouds, it tends to stay that way longer than usual. There's also less chance of fog, it seems.
Of course there still are anomalies. Just yesterday I did a run on Maintalbahn where it took about 5 minutes to transition from clear blue sunny skies to basically a submarine simulator

 

Rain would be more fun if the trains behaved accordingly and there would be more wheelslip. With most trains the driving is exactly the same in the wet as in the dry.

 

Oh, that's not true at all. Try Cajon in the snow.....

More dramatically, there is a service in Clinchfield which in Journey mode is run in snow, and it's basically impossible to get that loaded coal train up the hill out of Dante. There's a whole thread about various workarounds, ranging from backing up into a level section, to uncoupling half the cars. That same service is no problem in the dry.

 

Not sure I agree on the "drives exactly the same" statement. I guess maybe it depends on the route or loco, but I notice a big difference usually in rain or snow. I can see it being a matter of personal experience and reality. For example if you're driving a light vehicle on a flat track it won't have much effect as it won't be very much felt difference in real life either. Load up a heavy freight train on a steep incline and it's a whole different story.
That's been true back to Sand Patch Grade, so I don't know that it would be any different for later routes and locos.

 

I have to disagree on the "drives exactly the same" issue as well. Example: There's a service on Mittenwaldbahn, to bring a rather heavy freight train to Seefeld or Scharnitz, don't remember exactly, it's been a while. What I do remember is that I tried it during a heavy snowstorm at first, which made it outright impossible to get up the mountain. Didn't even make it to Kranebitten.
In dry and sunny conditions however it's rather easy...

 

I play based on real life time and weather. Been doing that for years.

 

Dynamic, started in full clear mode for me. Never bother fiddling, but it's always fun when the fog rolls in during a tight semaphore area...

 

Myself, I like scenery and feel cheated if the weather obscures it.

I do like playing with full ground snow but clear skies.

 

Ok ok, regarding the drives exactly the same: I play German content exclusively and can only compare to what I have in reality. For example the BR425 is slipping all over the place in reality when the driver is not careful. In TSW you can basically nearly go full throttle and full brake and there's not much consequence...
But yeah, I noticed on Frankfurt S Bahn the BR430 is quite different to drive in wet. Exactly as I'd expect it to be.

 

So that's as people said. It's not the Core of TSW, or even routes, it's individual locos.
I wonder if it is related to what ones have had suspension update or not?
Could have an impact with how they interact with rails.

 

I would have chosen "Light showers" or "sunshine and heavy showers" but TSW doesn't have those options. The weather system is pretty awful but then I'm an amateur meteorologist so I'm incredibly fussy.

The way thunderstorms behave is particularly grating and their appearance with all heavy rain is just appallingly inaccurate.

An official live weather feature might fix it. I did try the live weather mod which was remarkably good but the early version caused CTDs, does anyone know if it's been improved since then?