General question for everyone what are your thoughts on on-board in cab and platform announcements. When they work as they should. Me personally I dont mind platform and on-board announcements its the in cab ones that really annoy me it feels like they are non stop. But irl would you even get in cab announcements?.
IRL no, you wouldn’t get announcements fed into the cab directly, just feedback from the passenger saloons behind it. There are settings in TSW to adjust the volume of in cab announcements or you can turn them off. As for the announcements themselves, some of them are fine, others are great (ECW being the best & MVL close behind). I find the standard set to be ok, but the male voice sounds really fake IMO and that’s what drag them down. For improvements overall I’d like to see the male voice either reworked or just removed, along with better formats for local & long distance services. Unfortunately it seems third parties will be responsible for any improvements in their individual releases though, if other features are anything to go by. Also it’s predictably disappointing to see them broken in ECW & there being no response on that.
As far as in-cab announcements go, I'd like to see them removed from locomotives and slightly muted in EMU and push-pull stock cabs. Like CK said, you wouldn't hear it from the head-end on loco-hauled power, just the guard's buzzer acknowledging the all-clear. In addition, not all trains utilize an automated-style announcement system. A perfect example would be the Stamford route, where the Metro-North automated announcements are fantastic and pretty true to the real deal on the M8, but never something you'd hear on an Amtrak train, where the Acelas have their own, and they aren't used at all in Amfleets (conductors manually make station announcements). To go even further with this, if we ever get a P32AC-DM DLC with Shoreliners, even they wouldn't have the automated announcements, with them being manually crew-called as well. While I know it would never happen, and this is purely for North American trains, I would love to not only see/hear garbled radio chatter come to the game, but also train crew audio that radios to the front end on Amtrak trains clearing players for movement, similar to the guard buzzer function (IE: Amtrak 281, All Clear Rhinecliff).
I generally don’t mind them, where appropriate. But the biggest frustration (on PS5) is that ‘all train announcements’ setting and volume levels for cab, onboard and platform announcements don’t save so always default to ‘on’ and 100% each session.
I remember Matt P mentioned in a live stream that it was an easy fix and he would let the team know. I guess he forgot.
I wish there was a differentiation between long distance and regional trains in the german announcements. On an train like ICE or IC it feels weird when right after departure I get told what side to get out of the train on the next station when the next station is 30 minutes or more away.
Oh, interesting - really? I think I've never heard something like that but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. xD
I don’t mind hearing them muffled, as you would in real life. Having them blaring out as if I’m sat with the passengers I really don’t like. Yes you can change the audio level in the settings, but on PS5 at least, every time you load the game it’s reset itself back to 100%, and I always forget, so I suddenly get deafened as I’m leaving the station.
They should not be audible in loco cabs, such as on Preston to Crewe though obviously you would hear platform announcements through the cab window or door. The constant safety or BTP follow up announcements need nerfing as they are as much a pain in the game as IRL. Calling points need to be consistent and include onward locations beyond where the train ends in the game.
Not always correct. I don't know about UK locos, but in Germany there are indeed some locos where you can also hear announcements.
The option to have the announcements in the cab is for the player, you as a human playing a game, to hear the announcements if you wish and not to simulate the driver, you as a game character, hearing them. It’s the same as having SIFA or AWS alerts audible when in an external camera. It’s for the player and not simulating the reality. It would be nice if the setting to turn them off (or down in volume) persisted but that is a bug and not the design of the system but there is the choice to not have them in loco cabs.
I generally like them, but there needs to be a standard apparent volume across all DLCs and personal settings memorised between sessions. I was playing a MK to Euston run this afternoon and it seemed a bit quiet without them.
I think announcements as a feature is really cool, but there are definitely areas that could be improved. For the modern trains and platforms that use automated announcements in real life, I think it works well in the game. As mentioned by others above though, the manual announcements sound too robotic. I think it would be better if the voices sounded more natural if they would be spoken live. I will give credit to Just Trains on the Crewe-Preston route though, as it sounds like they tried to make the voice sound more human. Another announcement feature I think is good from Just Trains is the manual activation on the pacers. It both sounds more realistic and gives the player another thing to do while driving. I think this style of announcement, the one initiated by the player rather than automatic, should be implemented on all new (to the game) stock that would have had either the driver or guard speak the announcement. This would improve the guard mode gameplay as well.
To be honest, the constant repetitive announcements are quickly becoming quite annoying. Yesterday I had a drive with the BR442 on Leipzig - Dresden, the repeating "herzlich wilkommen im zug RB31 nach ...., wir wunchen Ihnen ein angenehme reise" is working on my nerves. I don't know if they play this irl after each station, but how many times do you have to hear this on full lenght trip? The "die nachste station ist .... " is fine in my opinion, so are the station announcements.
If it's anything like northwestern Germany, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, no, the whole shtick is not played after every single stop, but only after some (I can assume the major? but I haven't figured out a rule for certain) stations.
If it's not like that irl, I can't understand why DTG it implement that way. Now you just want to turn it off. I can understand when it's played after leaving a major station, but after every station is quite annoying.
I'm keen to hear what the official licensed announcements sound like with the Mildmay extension. If done well I think the announcements really add to immersion, but they destroy it when they are just a bit naff, like announcing the station you are going via. The Just Trains routes really need something less robotic if that's possible, otherwise I think better without.
