Any chance of some service variety in the timetables? The game's only been out for 2 days and I'm already getting sick of doing the same run after the same run because there's not enough variety. Can we add some goods trains or something? I know we have free roam, but I really don't want to have to manually spawn in the train every time I want some variety. I think this lack also makes the game feel more bare and unpolished.
Sure. Take James for example, Out the 15 services, 14 of them are the local service between Knapford and Vicarstown. All with the same coaching stock. The last service is just moving James from the sheds to Knapford station. Can't we have at least one or two services that are taking freight along the line? Or take Thomas. 32 services 26 of them are the service between Ffarquhar and Knapford, 4 of them are the same service with one extra stop, The last 2 are moving the same stock. Every single run with James, Thomas, Gordon, and Emily all have the exact same pattern and coaching stock, all while going to the exact same locations. Only Percy has any variety, taking both goods trains and passenger services. Can't we have James on a goods run to Wellsworth to drop of freight for the branch? We know that Thomas did take trucks from the quarry in the books and TV show. So why not have Thomas do that in game? My point is, the timetable mode is very lacking. It's the same runs repeated over and over in a rushed mess.
I've used every locomotive, already finished every story, all collectables and challenges. To answer your other question.
Wow...that takes a LOT of dedication. Two things come to mind. First, that's a LOT of time that I don't have. It's only been out for 3 days. Second, the types of services seem to be based on character type, so other characters would be doing the freight usually. For example I don't see you mention Diesel and he's my favorite because he runs cargo and the trips are much more varied. Have you tried Diesel? Again, I haven't had much time to play with work, but that's what I saw scrolling through the timetables. Third, as in TSW they're timetables...meaning a full day's work. In that day if you're driving a commuter route you WILL be driving back and forth over and over. That's exactly what a commuter train does. If that wasn't the case, then people would get UPSET that it's not a "proper timetable." Possible suggestions: Long term: 1-Maybe letting characters "sub in" for each other like on TSW? Maybe let Thomas do some of Diesel's freight runs? Unlike TSW, there's not a HUGE difference in capability and capacity (no 14,000 ton heavy trains for example) so they should be fairly interchangeable. 2- Future "cargo packs" or "scenario packs" like in TSW and TSC. Bundle a bunch together for super low cost because they're easy to make. 3- Scenario builder? I haven't seen one yet, unlike TSW but having the community build some would be a way to expand the available runs you can play. 4- Dynamic "missions"? For lack of a better term. Random characters with random cargo, random start and random stop point on the map. The "dipatcher" AI system can already integrate a "Free Roam" into an existing timetable. This would be the same thing but with it all done with a single click. Short term: 1-Try running some Free Roam. Explrore a bit. Build some consists and run your own trips. I do it all the time in TSW when I can't find what I'm looking for in the timetable. 2- Start a forum competition or contest? A best photo contest or something? I know people who have groups that build their own "railways" and "companies" and track accomplishments just for their own internal records. (How many loads from the quarry to the docks, or how many passengers carried, etc) All depends on how nerdy people wanna be and how much you love spreadsheets! 3- Take a break and play something else? Not being rude, but sometimes we all get burnout from playing the SAME thing for 3 days straight. There's a lot of new TSW content coming out you can check out while waiting to see what happens with Thomas in the future. Maybe throw Thomas and Friends in TSW routes from the older DLC and do a "spot Thomas" contest for fun? 4- Add o the TTTE lore, fandom or help people having issues that haven't done all the missions? I dunno, maybe someone else has more ideas. You're only bored if you let yourself get bored! =-)
Yeah. I've tried Diesel. It's mostly shunting around Anopha Quarry and both sides of Knapford harbours. His gameplay is fun and it does offer a change of pace. My only gripe again would be you only do two things as diesel; shunt and light engine moves. You don't actually take a train as diesel. Yes, I understand that a Commuter route is primarily commuter traffic, I don't have an issue with that for the likes of Gordon. But out of the 6 engines currently in game, 5 of them are mixed traffic (for some reason the TTTE wiki does label Emily as mixed traffic as well). So it's not only commuters anymore. They're designed for both goods and passenger workings. In fact, Thomas, Percy and Diesel are all primarily freight in real life! So why doesn't Thomas have freight services. I have, I enjoy doing so. But I don't want to do that every single time I want to run something a little different. I've had Thomas on freight runs and even remade the missing coach. I've had James and Gordon on the branch line. My point was that I don't want to do this every time. I don't want to spawn in every individual loco and piece of rolling stock and set manual paths every time. I want it without the tedium. All I'm asking for, are a few extra services with a little variety. The spice of life.
Well for that... you'd really need a dynamic creative engine as I mentioned above. Nothing in TSW has that. TSC has something sort of kinda like it. Railroader and Derail Valley have that with their freight/cargo generation. That and the ability to "sub" in so you're at least swapping between missions and locos so that's a bit of variety. Otherwise, well you'll always be bored eventually no matter what route you're playing. I haven't ran into that simply because there's so many routes in TSW/TSC (with more released all the time) and I have limited time to actually play. That becomes an acute problem if you are focused on one game and have unlimited time to do it all. It's a bit like "too much of a good thing."
No you wouldn't. You really wouldn't. Go into the game, load free-roam, spawn in a train. You'll see there's already a list of different options. For Pete's sake there's already freight options for characters like James and Thomas. All DTG needs to do is introuce some more services into timetable mode with the consists already in game, and set them to go somewhere. In fact, TSW already has something similar with the timetables in several add-ons like WSR and NTP.
