As TSW becomes more and more realistic in terms of graphics at least, it is starting to look odd that the beautifully modelled stations don't have any staff running them. I think it would be an improvement, at least for the larger stations, to place staff on the platforms in their high visibilty vests, perhaps even blowing a whistle when the train is ready to leave. That would add to the feeling these are real stations. The other suggestion I have is introducing emergency services. The obvious example is transport police occasionally riding the train or standing on the platforms. However an interesting idea for scenarios would be passenger emergencies, something that has happened many times on trains I've ridden and might be interesting to integrate into TSW. For example you are driving a Saturday afternoon football service and a fight breaks out and you have to deal with stopping the train at a designated station and waiting for the police to attend. Or on a commuter service, a passenger has a heart attack and you need to facilitate the paramedics taking them off. Drivers deal with this sort of thing all the time so it might be fun to include.
The introduced dioramas a long while lago, which are sort of "animated static scenes" so things like this could be applied to that mechanism. Unfortunately they introduced it and then seemingly forgot about it (or at least never took it any further) It also works for things like families, disabled persons, lineside works and so on. All can be done using the diorama technique
I do believe someone has just suggested passengers having heart attacks should become a feature of a train simulator and followed that up by saying it might be fun. Well I’ll be jiggered.
A mate of mine was a driver for Southeastern and I have heard a lot of stories of dramas on trains, including some stuff that I wouldn't dream of suggesting as scenarios. I do think a passenger being taken ill (doesn't have to be a heart attack!) would be a good random event to have to deal with as drivers do have that happen to them and it would be an interesting situation. If you want an even wilder one, I was on a train on the Medway Valley line a couple of years ago that was derailed by a fallen tree. We had to be evacuated to another train over a plastic board. Of course that took about an hour and a half in real life so it would have to be truncated a lot!
I think the thing here is either you DON'T truncate it or you split it. Hard to say you're simulating something and then cut out the guts of it just because you might just be sat there
Interesting suggestion. DTG seem to have experimented with the idea of a Passenger Emergency in a scenario in Southeastern High Speed Extended: Riders on the Thames. Your full length journey in a Networker is cut short because of an issue on the train. They did something similar on the East Coastway: Loose Connection, where a similar fault occurs. It is nice when they do that in scenarios. Real Flight Simulator has simulated emergencies which can happen at any time, but sometimes this can ruin what was meant to be a relaxing flight from Frankfurt to Heathrow. Luckily they give the option to disable failures, so that you can have a normal flight. However, it would be nice to actually be surprised by an emergency when it happens, instead of waiting during cruise in anticipation of a failure (because they are not dynamic. Either you turn them off, or you turn them on and wonder when - not if - your aircraft catches fire.) So while it would be nice to have, it may be unpopular without some serious customisation options in settings.
Bit like dynamic weather then. Doesn't matter what the weather starts as, you WILL end up in a foggy snow storm with lightning!
Actually not for me! Some runs the weather stays the same, some change slightly, some change dramatically, and some change in different ways than others. For me, dynamic weather is functioning perfectly. I understand however, that I am one of very few (if not, then the only one) who is satisfied with dynamic weather's implementation. My view on TSW has always been ridiculously high (partially because TSW2 was my first and only PC game), so the bar to impress me is really quite low, which does lower the validity of my opinion quite a bit
It's got better, but I do still find myself in "adverse weather" more often than not it seems. Maybe my vision is skewed though ass I'm spending more time recently completing journey modes rather than timetable and people do seem to work in the model of "let's make things interesting... add rain/snow/fog"
"Or on a commuter service, a passenger has a heart attack and you need to facilitate the paramedics taking them off. Drivers deal with this sort of thing all the time so it might be fun to include" Yeah Drivers always have a laugh when someone has a heart attack on board their train. Random medical emergencies a big no no for TSW, As are derailments but seeing ambulances or Police cars on roads with sirens going would be a nice change of pace. Also staff on platforms would be brilliant as well.
