So after a few hours of playing, I thought I’d raise some feedback/concerns. What I’ve played so far has been fun, but there are a few things that I feel would make it a lot better overall. • Explorer Mode It would be great to have a proper rolling stock menu so we can actually build and customise trains how we want. That feels like a big part of the appeal and it’s missing right now. • Signals / Free Roaming At the moment you need an active destination to pass signals, otherwise you get hit with a “passed signal at danger” and the session ends. I get that it’s there for realism, but making it mandatory kind of defeats the point of Explorer Mode. The whole idea should be that you can just cruise around the island freely. It also makes it harder for kids, who are probably just going to want to explore rather than follow set routes, this was the case with my children. • Skipping Story Scenes There really needs to be an option to skip cutscenes, especially when you fail a scenario and have to sit through everything again from the start. I feel like this should have been included at the bare minimum. • Scenario Fail Conditions Failing a scenario feels too strict. You shouldn’t have to restart an entire story just because you pass a stop point or signal by a few yards and it feels overly punishing. Besides that though, the game has potential, just a few little tweaks needed to make running smoother (see what I did there?) Happy running
I am sure the scenarios give you the option to reload a checkpoint rather than starting from the beginning.
About setting routes, I'm not sure how else would you want to drive without it. You have to somehow tell the dispatcher (even a virtual one) where you want to go so he can set the switches for you. Or should there be like a menu where you can pick a destination by name or from a map? That seems more intuitive.
In Trainz, you can just free roam without having a set destination in mind. You don’t need to mark anything on the map, you just find your way there. Part of the experience for kids would be setting the switches themselves if they want to take certain routes or tracks. It offers a lot more freedom compared to being shoehorned into a dedicated route where the session fails if you deviate or pass a signal. For example, if they go down the wrong track, it becomes a great opportunity to learn and fix it. It encourages problem solving rather than punishing mistakes. There is an option within the map in Explorer Mode, once you select the engine you then have to manually go to the location on the map and select it as a destination. Otherwise, if you start and pass a signal before setting the route it automatically ends the session, which is absurd and defeats the purpose of exploring.
So, basically you want every switch to be hand-operated (at least from the map) on top of being able to set the route? That sounds cool but only really works if you are alone. At least in Train Sim World, the free-roam tools also allows you to spawn a train on an empty track and get the dispatcher to insert you into regular traffic. Not sure if that's a planned feature as well so you could either have an empty world with total freedom or you could follow some rules alongside AI trains. You could also present the dispatcher in a more human way so the players can actually ask him for stuff. To show how a real railway works.
Yeah why not. Have a sandbox mode where all the points are manual for that true explorer feel and then a realistic mode with the current setup for those that want to run to timetables and set routes.
