For whatever reason, I can't modify the schedule for a more realistic arrival time because it's locked. On top of that, I got a 500 point deduction for an invalid consist on the Rest & Rehabilitation scenario. What's up with that?
You probably lost the second half of your consist. May have been the cause of your sudden acceleration as well. The Big Buckeye Coupler Fixes Thread | Dovetail Games Forums
it is a Career Scenario and you can not modify them unless you clone and change them to Standard Scenarios
That is a false statement. I've modified several career scenarios. Fast Run to San Jose on the Peninsula Corridor and A Shock to the System on North Jersey Coast Line are two career scenarios that come to mind I've modified. The first one I modified the schedule. The second one I changed the weather on it so that's untrue.
749006 is correct, Career scenarios are designed to not be modified - to do so would be cheating on the scoring. There are probably fiddles that can be done. The best thing to do to be able to modify a career scenario is to clone it as a standard one, and go from there. You will no longer score points, but real train drivers don't either . . . John
Actually, they do keep score when it comes to being certified. It's either 85 or 90 as minimum passing score depending on the company. Not to mention intentionally setting times that players are unable to realistically achieve is cheating the players out of an opportunity to get a perfect score or even a respectable score at that.
The "change to standard" is unnecessary. Only cloning is. Career comes with the advantage - regardless of scoring settings - that objectives aren't binary. Many scenarios come with impossible timetables but in career that's just a couple points penalty - which is unfortunate wording, in many cases that's the metric to tell how awesome you are, 90 points are better than 85 - while in standard that's a failed objective and scenario. Standard scenarios typically don't have timed objectives, so that feels like forgiving. I actually prefer a visible timetable - if nothing else, then a message such as "next stop is X, be there by T" - because AI is usually set up expecting you to follow it. Although some scenarios are funny in that you're late but AI trains are not starting yet, passing all of them stationary. By the way, real drivers are supposed to follow a timetable as well. Regardless why (slow sections, congestion), if you are late, you have to turn faster, and your passengers will dislike it. It's part of bad weather that you're somewhat late because of it, part of the story. Upon starting the game I cared a lot but at some point it becomes "just story".
Well, fair enough, you don't have to - perhaps I don't understand everybody's aims but scoring points in an "unofficial" career scenario surely serves no purpose. As I understand it they don't add to your score. Standard scenarios can and do have timed stops, I don't know why you think they don't? If you don't keep time, you don't complete the scenario correctly and don't get a jolly green tick for it. Yes, real drivers have a timetable to work to but these days there is no scope to make up time except where "recovery time" is allowed for in the schedules. They are timed to make maximum use of the line speed, and they are not allowed to exceed that to make up time! Line speed takes into account, amongst many other factors, passenger comfort. You can't make them uncomfortable without breaking rules - and with black boxes in the cab these days, you would soon be on the carpet for that. John
The issue was me trying to modify an AI schedule. Don't know why the default schedule is an AI train but this issue has been resolved. I've modified the player schedule so everything should be okay now.