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.
I assume timetables for existing characters will expand in a future update or two, hopefully. For Explore Mode, would love a customisable timetable for engines we're not currently using. I only know we can place them with only ours we're using in motion. Picture it like we place Daisy and set them to passenger duty on Thomas's branch or the Harwick branch (if we get that branch). Make Sodor feel more alive of our own choice while we're doing our own thing.
Tidmouth Sheds - Vicarstown at 4:30 Vicarstown - Knapford Mail at 5:43 Knapford - Vicarstown at 22:27 Vicarstown - Knapford at 23:30
Hold on. Are you on PC? Because on Console, there's less Timetabled services.... I only have 15 playable services for James. The first one is the 7:50 Tidmouth Sheds - Knapford, and ends the day with a 20:59 Vicarstown - Knapford passenger run.
That’s rather odd then. I haven’t read of any differences between the platforms and there’s nothing in the FAQs about it.
So it's either a bug, or DTG has royalty dropped the ball on Xbox players AND sold half a game at full price. Knowing Dovetail, I'm not holding my breath for a bug...
Just know that the way the timetable is set up is similar to how Wilbert Awdry operated his layouts at exhibitions. He operated the same timetable, with the same locomotives and rolling stock in the same formations, same commentary, in such a way that by the end of the timetable everything - all the locomotives, trucks, and coaches - were all back at the same place they started from the beginning. The timetable in Wonders of Sodor works the same way, with all the locomotives and rolling stock having to end where they all started at the beginning of the day. You will note the same sort of thing happens in TSW, same trains at the same locations with the same consists at the same time. Now there is layering with DLC in TSW which allows for more trains to appear in the timetable and depending on the route some stock does get subbed in (IIRC the stock has to be the length and weight in order to be subbed or something like that). In TSW you can also swap whatever loco is in the lead of the consist, granted it still fits in the same category on the timetable (for example, on Cajon Pass you can swap in an SD70ACe on mainline freight consists usually headed by the ES44C4, but not likely on one of the locals headed by the SD40-2). With Thomas, though, they likely have to get even more specific about how things work because, unlike in TSW where there's a whole fleet of a specific locomotive meaning they can spawn in however many duplicates of one locomotive cover a bunch of services and it would still be fine, the roster on Sodor is made of unique characters, and each has a specific role in spite of whatever canon you ascribe to, and the timetable seems to have formed the trains accordingly: Thomas handles the passenger work on the Ffarquhar branch. That's always been his primary role. Gordon is the railway's main express locomotive. Any time he's pulled goods is either due to specific circumstances or as punishment for bad behavior, neither of which you can account for in a timetable that is supposed to be consistent from day to day. Percy handles goods and shunting on the branch and in the yard. In Wonders of Sodor since we don't have Daisy or Toby (yet - knock on wood) he also handles some branch passenger services alongside Thomas. Diesel is a shunter, and especially in the case of class 08s would not be found heading up mainline trains, so in Wonders of Sodor he's confined to shunting in Anopha quarry and Knapford harbour. Emily is a passenger engine and though in her younger days she would have been an express loco she's better suited to local passenger trains these days, so that's what she does in Wonders of Sodor. Despite her being depicted as sometimes pulling goods trains in the stories her small size and her large single driving wheel would make her unsuitable to much in the way of goods work irl, so that wouldn't have been implemented in her timetable. If you bought James, he's mixed traffic, so he can handle goods trains as needed but prefers coaches because of his vanity and his inflated self-importance, hence he pulls a tanker train in the morning and in the evening, same for the mail train, and for the remainder of the day he pulls passengers alongside Emily (though note he does not get the express to his great frustration). To add to that in TSW there are portals at either end of the route that allow mainline trains to spawn in and out of the route, emphasizing the route's connection to the wider world beyond the route. Sodor only has one entry and exit in the grand scheme of things: Vicarstown, but Sudrian engines are not allowed to run on the mainland, so they remain on the Island, and there are currently no stand-ins for The Other Railway/BR to conduct interchange and move stock into and out of the route to replicate Sodor's connection to the mainland. Given these limitations there isn't too much variety you could practically add to the timetable currently. Now admittedly I agree given that fact they could have implemented a bit more variety specifically with James' timetable given his mixed traffic status which could have included a few more freight diagrams and still met the status quo if his timetable was built like that. My personal hope is that we get more train variety as more characters come to the game and more parts of the map are opened in the future, and the devs are giving themselves breathing room in the timetable diagrams to allow future characters to take those specific roles.
So the answer to "I have half the services of other consoles and the game feels empty due to a lack of variety" is: buy more DLC? How about the services I'm already missing? How about not violating Consumer rights by misleading me? I bought this game thinking I'd have more to do. Not just a weeks worth of repeated services.
I was responding more to the apparent lack of variety in the timetable, not anything that is supposedly missing from the base game that should be there - that's a whole separate issue that should be taken up with support if you really are missing things that are supposed to be in your copy of the base game but just aren't there for some reason, not just stuff you think "should" be there. I play on PC, not console, and I am not familiar enough with the console version to know if there are differences between the PC and console versions of Wonders of Sodor. For TSW there are definite differences between PC and console because of memory limitations on console (ex. in the PC release of TSW US freight trains can be up to 100 cars long while console releases limit the total car count to something like 50, console routes have to "mount" specific routes and any applicable DLC in order to implement layers and store everything else in the cloud to save space while PC routes can just use all the storage on the hard drive and not have to deal with the whole "mounting" rigamarole, etc.). Not to intentionally sound adversarial or tone deaf, but that is literally what DLC is. Been the same deal since the original Microsoft Train Simulator back in 2001, same thing you find in Trainz, same deal as Run 8. You want more variety in your locomotives and rolling stock and more activities to play? Go to the vendor and buy the expansion. Same deal for any hobby outside of gaming. I'm very much in the same boat as far as progression: played all the stories, completed the shunting challenges, got all the Steam achievements, found all the collectibles, and completed all the character-specific challenges to unlock all the posters and unlock everything at the fairgrounds near the Whispering Woods. The only thing I haven't done is played through literally every single character's 24-hour timetable, but that's just something I can do if I've got time and feel like making a run or two either on the branch or the mainline or doing some shunting at the harbour. It's like having a layout - I just go play with it when I feel like it, and if I don't feel like running a timetable one day I can just go goof around and make my own fun in explore mode. And that's how it's going to be until more stuff gets released. Until then, I'm content to just do whatever. It personally doesn't bother me to play something more than once, but I get that I'm probably odd in that regard compared to the attitude of modern gamers. And if I get bored waiting, I have a whole library of other games I can replay until Wonders of Sodor gets more content in the future.
I get that. But I spent £40 for the full deluxe game and only got about 2/3rds of it. Why would I want to spend another £20 for another cut down version of some DLC? My issue isn't with the DLC. It's with the fact that I've been given half a product and now you're telling me to give the same scam artists more money. If a vendor rips me off, I won't go back. Same here. And my issue is that I spend £40 on this, £40 of hard earned money for something that lasted me a week, and I feel that the product I got was not worth that price. Yes. I'm not denying that. But as myself and others have said, those differences have not been made clear in this case. It's a matter of principle. Give me a full product at full price. Or give me half a product at a reduced price. Or if the differences are that vast. Don't sell it at all!!
