Hello my fellow train geeks. Im curious on how everybody plays TSW. My personally I play German routes for 3 or 4 days then get bored in German sorry guys. Then I USA for 3 or 4 days again before I get bored. But UK for anything from 7 to 10 days before changing. I mean im not on it constantly but thats how I do. Just wondering how everyone else plays. Thanks sorry if I have offened anyone but calling us geeks.
I just play the routes I feel like playing. I mostly play Scotrail routes being Scottish and being a bit more familiar with the Scottish railways but I also get the odd temptation that tends to happen out of the blue with routes I haven’t played in a very long time. I’m not a fan of San Bernardino line at all as it’s slow and boring and the scenery is very average but for whatever reason I just had that strange temptation out of nowhere I really wanted to give it a run and so that’s what I did. It was ok but was glad to be done with it. Haha. But yeah sometimes my brain just does that.
I normally play each route alphabetically, playing the main scenarios before moving on to the next route in the alphabet. If I really like the route I'll go back and do Journey Mode or individual services. I was in WCML South ready to go back through the bottom of the list, but stopped playing for a bit until I picked up NY-Stamford back when it was on sale. I did all the main scenarios for it and have been messing around in Journey Mode mostly running Amtrak trains. I haven't had much time to play lately, so I've found taking an ACS or an Acela out for a limited-stop spin has been a decent way to unwind before or after chores.
I did a playthrough in chronological order of release, and I made it up until TSW3. Installing stuff as I went along. Planning to do the same for TSW4 upwards soon. Currently playing ECW, Medway and Stamford. And I only have these plus most relevant layers installed. The playthrough learned me that I lean more towards playing the newer routes (TSW 3 and newer) because of the better graphics.
I really like that route and Richmond extension will be great. But I think it has way too many layers on it witch effects performance.
I currently switch some layers off that you hardly/seldom see, like the stuff from SEHS, ECML and Chiltern line. It really helps prevent blurriness, especially around Kings' Cross / St. Pancras. And it hardly lessens your experience.
I just go off and play something else entirely. At the moment I'm alternating between ETS2 (just grabbed the latest ProMods which has added some really nice bits to the North), ATS and SimRail with an eye on Snowrunner and doing some Derail Valley. I have got my return Markinch to Eastbourne under way in TSW, but just can't motivate myself to get back on it for now.
I have played other games way more in the last few months. I revisited Far Cry 6, tried some runs on Bus Simulator 21 and did a complete playthrough of the remastered Horizon Zero Dawn. Still frequently play TSW, but I have played less in the past year than the year before.
I've been playing so much Forza lately I'm kinda dreading going back to Snowrunner; big difference between racing through Tokyo and crawling across a frozen Russian lake praying you don't run out of fuel lol.
No certain order to the routes/locos I run - Just whatever suits my fancy at the moment. I do take a break from TSW - usually to MSFS 2024 till I have a fancy to drive a locomotive or D/EMU then back to TSW - Being pretty lucky with my investments and retirement I do have a tendency to jump on new DLC in both so that does neccesitate me switching back and forth... JT rooutes are probably my most go - to routes, but do like the Cargo line and have been back on the Great Wetern a bit lately with the HST farewell pack
I tend to (re)live in the 80s and hang around my old haunts in JT land, but every now and then I’ll flip back to the nearly present and go for a spin on the rest of the WCML, Great Western and Cardiff. No discernible rhyme or reason to it, just whatever the mouse clicks on when I fire the game up - the only sure thing is I know I’m going to enjoy it
it depends what i like, about once or twice a month i’ll get really drawn to a route for no reason then play it all week, and get bored eventually. in the last few months I've had that happen with trent valley, MAC, b2c, cardiff and frankfurt s bahn. what i want to play changes week by week which is the great thing about tsw, i can play what i want when i want
I only play British routes sometimes if i want to do freight i do some US ones German routes i have no interest in
I mostly play the German/Austrian routes and the Dutch one. Most of the time I know on forehand what route I want to play, because during the day this comes in mind. I normally do not play the same route over and over again, it's more like a daily change. I never play US routes (no interest), sometimes I play an UK route, but on this moment I only have Glossop Line installed.
The one thing that’s quite strange is how quickly I abandon routes that I thought would be interesting. The Czech route is a case in point, though I think that’s largely down to the choice of traction - would have been so much better with the 751 loco. Medway Valley, for all it’s a lovely route and the new Electrostar sounds are brilliant, after a few runs in each direction I haven’t really gone back. Preston to Crewe is another - I expected to find myself hooked on that for a couple of weeks, but drifted away. Maybe it’s not the routes, though the A to B nature in many cases doesn’t help, maybe it’s the nature of TSW with the very repetitive gameplay, timetables that rinse and repeat on a standard pattern service, etc. I want something that really hooks me, a challenging drive over a massively scenic route, along the side of mountains or teetering above steep gorges. A bit of randomisation thrown in the works. In short, TSW has become boring both with the gameplay and the choice of routes.
Very much dip and out, whatever I feel like at that moment. Used to alternative been UK and Europe but less so now. Tend to pick specific services either at random (based on knowing which type of run I want), and occasionally use Quick Play but find it frustrating. Awesome services spreadsheet also great. USA routes now entirely sacrificed for disk space and cost.
In a UK content player who does the journey modes. I tend to also stick to the BR blue and older stuff for the most part, modern EMU style isn't my cup of tea. I've played all the Steam stuff too and will be branching out for the German steam route as it stands! Loved the ECW railtour with the FS and 33 to mix it up but found the ECML FS journey quite dull personally. Had a few recent runs down ECW for the 171 journey mode but it's not as good as the 313 is. Been playing a lot of WCMLOS when I have been playing, but it takes me multiple sessions to get through a run. I like my shorter routes and journeys tbh which is partially why I'm looking forward to the Thames Valley route!
Playing less these days I find myself chasing the journey modes on the last released routes, which I can never keep up with (except for Thames Valley Branches). Outside of that scenario, I had set up a wheel to which I added every DLC and so would spin it to decide what to play on stream. After that for my personal sessions I would just resort to letting ChatGPT choose for me as I couldn’t be bothered to update the wheel every other week.
