What are the factors that go in to earning more credits? I roll along making my 50 credits about every 45s to 1.25 minutes but that really seems to be it. Is the accrual rate effected by speed limits, activities such as horns for crossings etc.? I have not noticed anything yet. Does collecting all the items generate anything other than an accomplishment? Are there any other ways to increase the income from a scenario or service? Thanks.
The main 'generator' of income is your accuracy when stopping/executing other tasks I might be wrong but for platforms, you have to stop within 2 meters of the marker or else you get coins reduced for every missed meter Completing services or tasks successfully gives you further coins. I think the collectibles only generate achievements, not cash. I might have missed some method, so please correct me if that happened. -ProfCreeptonius
I play CSX so my efforts are in freight. Not too many platforms there and a lot of intermediate spots if running point to point. I typically see 300 - 400 points for intermediate points. I did an experiment and found that if my speed was red I earned no credits. Once I went yellow I was earning again. So much for finishing problematic scenarios early.
If only those points were doing something. When I finish a scenario/service with 24,000 points - it's yay, I guess? I'd rather have some performance report a-la DRS - "this many overspeeds, ended up this late in total, burned this much fuel/energy" - something like that.
I don't quite get the purpose of score either....it doesn't change how much XP you get, and it doesn't get saved to a high score chart or anything, so it really only exists inside the scenario, and once the scenario is over, it's gone. But then it doesn't even serve any practical purpose inside the scenario, it just counts up. I just turned the counter off and left it off, takes up too much space on the HUD.
It's a multi-layered issue. I'm also not quite sure what is the XP or levels for... Like in a game like Overwatch or some other game where you have progression that does not affect gameplay, you get a level and with the level a box with random cosmetics. Fine. In TSW, you get XP and levels and... well, that's it. I honestly am not sure that this is necessary. Like statistic by locomotive and by route would be much cooler to have, but we only have "miles driven" stats. Why? Even something fun like "Vehicles coupled" for switchers, "Passengers boarded" for passenger trains, "Fuel consumed" for diesels, "AWS alarms acknowledged", "PZB emergency applications" - stuff like that. It's a train simulator, not an RPG, after all.
I have disabled the score indicator as it serves no purpose as well as the ‘level up’. Level 1 or level 30, there really is no difference as it doesn’t unlock anything or give any new features.
Agreed in it serves no purpose. I think it is one of those carrot things for me: "see what I did. I got a higher number level." It is really kind of a "duh" thing come to think of it. Although it is one of the only ways I have found in getting some kind of reward in the game. Thanks everyone.
I think DTG implemented the points, collectables etc because it's what other games have, rather than for a particular purpose. Usually these things are implemented in such a way as to expand replayability. For example an achievement might be to "complete X mission without killing any baddies" or "Complete X mission in 5 minutes." These achievements give the player a reason to replay a particular part of the game. Similarly collectables may unlock new outfits or equipment for the player's character or perhaps some concept art from the development of the game. In DTG's implementation there's little incentive to complete the achievements or run around looking for collectables. I think achievements in a simulator should be based on performance rather than some arbitrary action like spinning a loco around on a turntable or opening windows and doors. It doesn't matter whether people are hardcore simmers or a casual gamers, they're not going to stand there opening and closing a window a thousand times. I still haven't found a way of getting a performance report that details occurrences of speeding, late/early arrivals etc. To omit this information, which is available in Railworks, seems like a backwards step. Perhaps I'm being dense and these things are in TSW somewhere?
