Enough Is Enough!!!

Until it gets an actual decent singleplayer mode, it's not really competing. I own it, but never play it due to not wanting to play multiplayer.

 

Great news! Thanks for the heads up!

 

I don't think they want to compete. They saw what was missing, and the market is there for multiplayer railway games. It's been requested by many, offers ever-changing experiences, the possibility to actually ask a real dispatcher why you're sitting in front of a red. You can choose servers and look at the action in your web browser before joining in, choose quiet servers with a few players, blast the horn to greet an oncoming train driver - it's nice they did it and not chose to make the same rigid scenario singleplayer game again that's already been done to death. It's a Railway sim - not a driver only sim, and it's nice and challenging to actually dispatch, following the timetable on your simulated PC, making adjustments based on delays etc. Like the real thing. A real simulator. And much better lighting and passengers, not those sad solitary zombies like in TSW that always seem to not want to board my train for some reason, and not ever share a single smile.

 

Yes I often wonder why TSW passengers even bothered walking all the way over to a train platform if they never had any intention of boarding the train.

 

I’m always surprised how many passengers there are on Newark Northgate station between 2 and 5am, that town must be a mess properly good nightspot!

 

That is precisely what I hope SimKol avoids.
The game is great, it would be a shame if it gets 'dumbed down' for consoles like TSW did.

 

Nothing could be further from the truth, Newark is usually asleep by 2230

 

I don't expect that, is it a well laid out game and well produced, they do have standards they are following.

TSW has become this mess due to the Lava Flow coding, meaning it was released in unfinished state and must be kept backward compatible to ensure DLC compatibility with DLC based on that unfinished code. You see what happens when they try to improve core stuff. In each case something got broken seriously. (Latest thing is the broken Paddington Station lighting, following the RRO poles misplacement and GWE HST wipers)

I do not see that happen in SimRail, there's a good professional team at work there.

 

The issue i have with mp is that I can't really pick up where I left off. Once you leave and come back, you can't finish the same exact service which is what singleplayer allows. I also prefer to play by myself, not other people and the scenarios only give so much playtime before there's not much to do. That's why I like tsw, except the save game doesn't work for me a lot of the time

 

Checking in just to be on page 69

 

On TVL hardly anyone seems to get on my Player services but they do seem to love TPE services going in the other direction. I nearly got knocked over by the deluge of passengers coming off this imaginary service arriving at Saltburn.

 

When it comes to SimRail those who aren't interested in multiplayer are unlikely to be persuaded to play the game, despite the advantages it has over TSW. Right now, TSW4 has ~800 players, SimRail has ~600, TSW3 has ~300, and all of them are dwarfed by TS which has ~1600 players. I don't play SimRail, but not because of multiplayer - I just don't care much for the trains in the game already. When it has something from Western Europe (particularly the UK, Spain or France) I'll be much more interested. Plus, I appreciate the lighting may be better but based on the screenshots on the Steam page it does have 'unpolished-Unity/Unreal-itus', with cold, harsh lighting and poor antialiasing. It was that way in the Prologue edition as well, so I haven't got my hopes up for better graphics. Meanwhile in TS I have very smooth edges with nice warmer lighting which to me is much more appealing.

Nice.

 

Pretty much my feeling. I mean you can use the (external) map to find a service in roughly the same area as where you left off but it's not the same as picking up the same run continuing any delays or quirks in running you might have encountered. Save game or at least some sort of checkpoint system is now up as next on their roadmap so hopefully this will increase the appeal of SP. How this will work remains to be seen but if you are having a network the size the one in SimRail is becoming, you need to look at how you can service the needs of those who don't have hours at a time to sit in front of a screen playing train games.

 

I know what you mean, having spent lots of hours in SR by now I can tell you it has much improved since the Prologue and the beginning of EA. I also didn't "like" the look as much, now I think the lightning is much superior to TSW, same is for OHLE rendering etc. SimRail looks more "polished" overall, at least the content we have.

 

All valid points, as we're free play what suits us most.

Like I said, I don't think SimRail strategy is to take players away from other games. They are adding to the market and are doing stuff that hasn't been done. Just like Railroader, or other sims like Run8 are just there for people who want to play it.

I like the locos featured in SimRail, they are well done and a joy to play, and not the same old stuff again. And I like to explore other countries, as UK for example is well covered in TSC and TSW already. So Poland is a great addition to the railsim scene, both scenery and rolling stock wise.

The choice is getting bigger now, that's good.

 

I second this, they've really stepped up the graphics overall and the lighting looks way better than before and than in TSW.

 

Yikes, I have never seen so many zombie NPCs in one place, and not one gets on the train, Sooooo they are here and there Why? That crowd makes me think of the old movie, invasion of the body snatchers.

 

I just a DLC of the likes of the Werry Lines but on TSW.

Or just some Niddertahlbahn/ BPO quality Welsh, Cornish or Scottish routes.

 

Funnily I have no interest in railways outside of the UK, and even less in modern stuff, and yet I love Simrail!
For those who've never tried the multiplayer but shun it because you think you know what it will be like... you're missing out.
All the complaints I hear about train sims being repetitive, no dynamic events to create interest, about AI dispatchers being idiots and not being able to dynamically route, being sat at a red for ages not knowing if you're supposed to be there or the game is bugged.. every one of those is solved by the human dispatchers and in fairness the AI ones are damn good as well.
I've played 260+ hours and come across one bad egg the entire time, and he wasn't even driving badly. The players are just the same as most of us, they're train nerds.
Not sure why you're stopped? Ask the dispatcher - although chances are they'll already have let you know why. Sometimes they'll ask if you want to stop as scheduled or not if you're freight, or let you know they can pull you over for just 5 mins to let an express past, not the 30 minutes that you're scheduled to stop for. Need a bathroom break.. let the next dispatcher know, they can put you in a loop and let you answer the call of nature.
We literally have a thread in this forum for "Awesome Tsw Service Mode Runs".. which is short hand for "TSW services that aren't a tedious non stop from A to B with some fun traffic involved". This happens ALL the time in Simrail, and it's dynamic (every time you play) and interactive and can create so many really memorable drives, even on the exact same timetabled service.

It's not perfect, but it's good. Really good. If they had a UK steam era route I'd not do anything else!

 

That would be catastrophic for TSC steam loco development!

 

Thank you I really meant playing it in my spare time

 

I also wasn't sure about MP first but it just a better SP experience. People might think "Oh MP this might be stressfull, I just want to enjoy the view" for example, you can do this in MP in SR. It is just as relaxing then playing SP, just much better, as you described (nailed!) it.

 

Simrail runs great for me now even on ultra settings, so definitely moving in the right direction. I still find the keyboard controls clunky however, and the HUD doesn't do a great job of providing feedback, unless you're using a mouse to move the levers which has a cool popup display. The fact that it's in Poland doesn't really attract me, I'd be happier with DE, UK or US as I'm much more familiar with those systems. They should definitely develop the single-player experience more as it feels like a safe environment to mess around in; multiplayer adds the unwelcome pressure of potentially holding other people up behind you or (if dispatching) routing people the wrong way etc..

 

I pretty much the same, although I would say with TSW I've gained more of an appreciation for our continental brethren, certainly with their AC loco's (Where's the UK's 81s-89's!.....another topic!). I also quite like the 'absurdity' of the US stuff, in terms of it's sheer size and grunt!!

It's good to hear you had/are having a good time with it, and watch with interest in hope of a console release. I've group of 10 grumpy old bar stewards good friends I've played with for over 15 years on console, we all tend to play the same things so the possibility of playing trains together is akin to your mates coming round with their locos to run on your layout as a kid. And yes I know, we could all do it on PC now, but anything with a keyboard is for work (Spectrum/ Commodore exempt!), console is for chilling!!

 

Exactly this. I think if you really want realism then MP is the better way to go, it's a real railway world you're entering, real people operating the rails. Far superior to AI (still )

People's fears of "griefers" are probably the reason so many want a SP experience only. But this ain't Minecraft or CS:GO. It's a niche game for nerds like us, and I don't think it attracts the kind of players y'all fear.

 

I'm more concerned about things like being able to pause, play whatever service I want whenever I want, etc etc...

 

You can always ask the dispatcher to route you into the next siding, as pausing is naturally not possible because everyone would have to wait for you, like in the real world. People oft don't consider the consequences when asking for more realism.

And choosing quiet servers, you can choose any service you want. Of course, there's a timetable running. Which is what people asked for.

And, there is a SP mode, and I think we'll see a scenario editor soon (I've done a few custom scenarios using a lot of copy&paste). Timetables are a MP thing.

 

Singleplayer mode is just a couple of scenarios. If you are at a siding then you exit the game because real life happens and try to reload, you can't pick up where you left off. That also means you have to play a really short service if you are busy. I can't play a full end to end service in one go and unless I leave simrail running the entire time, I can't pick the same exact service. If the same tt came to sp, then I would consider playing it although the tutorials were extremely lacking or didn't exist. No tt for sp = no buying simrail unfortunately

 

Yes, sounds like it's not for me at this point. I can't wrap my head around multiplayer. For one thing I can't devote enough time in a game to join with other people. And I'm still not convinced multiplayer is appropriate for train simming.

Plus geography is still too limited for my taste.

I'm glad new players are entering the market and I'm open to new experiences, but just not yet. I'll wait until there are mature, fully fledged alternatives to TSW/ TSC.

 

I still have the feeling some people might get this wrong. MP is just selecting any available service and drive it. Only difference is that other trains CAN be controlled by Human, same is for dispatchers. You can anytime give control to the AI or leave if you want to. It is more dynamic, but not a big difference to a relaxing SP session.

 

The recently added tutorial for EN57 in the November update was really good, telling you in real time what you should do, but tutorials released previously haven't been updated to a similar standard. However, I'm afraid there may probably be no timetable mode in single player for as long as there is no dedicated server released to public for a private use (i.e. you start your own server with all AI, set the start time and weather conditions and make it private/invisible from internet, and then join this server either as a driver or dispatcher instead of any of the official servers).

 

What you get for just €20 is just massively more than you get in a €36 TSW DLC. A full fledged MP sim, and lots of well crafted unique locos. And miles of track with correct infrastructure, no floating objects and such.

If you're a general railfan and interested in other countries' railways, it's an absolute no brainer.

Of course, for the casual Manchester to Glossop player it'll be too much.

 

Has the SimRail editor been released yet?

This isn't a gotcha question, I'm genuinely curious.

 

Not yet, no.

But as someone will complain about being Off-Topic, why not continue in the OT SimRail thread?

 

Real trained people who know what they're doing.

 

There's surely real life drivers and dispatchers playing SimRail, but most are not trained I'd say. Like most train sim players, it's their hobby and they're loving it. Like in Run8, that's according to YT and seeing what's going on there, is played by dedicated railfans wanting to simulate just about everything operational. Watching Run 8 sessions, you see people actually working a shift

For me, the SinglePlayer is the training ground for Multiplayer. And signalling starts with very easy small signal boxes, and you can advance later to the bigger and more complex ones.

 

Single player allows you to:
- pop to the loo
- answer the door
- make a cup of tea
Whenever you like, without holding up traffic

 

This is no problem in Simrail. If you have to go somewhere just let AI driver control your train. And when you get back disable AI driver. This way you are not holding traffic and can continue driving.

 

You can always turn the autopilot back on, granted the service will continue, but you can go to the oval office without a problem, return, turn if off again and take over.

 

Imagine (the other) Pete’s Wycombe Line or the new Tenbury etc. route which I’m currently helping to test, in a SimRail style environment. Throw in a heady mix of Victory, Caledonia, SSS and BMG steamers along with some delightful Matrix Trains coaches to haul and TSW would probably be consigned to the digital dustbin.

 

Do the last 40-50 pages of this post bear any resemblance to this now? Kind feels like it should just be the "general chat" thread.

 

Can't wait for Searchlight's US route!!!

 

It’s a mash-up for the disenchanted and is currently the SimRail is ace thread. We have been on a rollercoaster with the five or so people who are keeping this thread alive and batting down any slight positivity towards TSW from occasional posters, including the news that TSW is dying, player numbers are down to practically zero and Focus are going bust, and so on. It’s like a conversation you might get in a Wetherspoons at 6pm as the afternoon drinkers are thinking of going home for something to eat. The occasional heated argument, a couple of conspiracy theories, an unemployed security guard telling everyone how easy it is to become a millionaire these days despite having just spent the last of his cash on a pint of cider. All good fun.

 

Didn't see that, can you guide me to it please?

 

It didn’t happen in this thread but in a pub I was in once. Just a comparison to people who don’t make routes but point out how those who do should do a better job because it’s so easy, like what you see a lot of on this forum. Just having a laugh.

 

Off topic! But you forgot the people moaning about moaners.

 

Prompted by the Focus fire sale that is happening on xbox......

Those people who've held off on TSW4, what level of discount would make you dive in?, the deluxe edition is down from £52 to £21, and to be honest, I'm a little tempted, but would like it to be a bit closer to a tenner first, what say you?

 

I think I would be more inclined to spend £21 on it prior to release than now. It's been out for almost half a year and is still a disaster with core features missing and the largest update being a basic UE loading bar. The longer this TSW4 mess continues, the larger the discount it would need to be for me.

And that's before I put in the subjective feeling that they simply no longer deserve my money for their treatment of the customer base/community.

 

I was fortunate enough to get TSW4 for free and if truth be told, that's the only price I'd have paid for it anyway because for me personally, after the non-delivery of promised TSW2 updates and the whole fiasco surrounding TSW3, enough really was enough where Dovetail Games are concerned.
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In saying that though, I think the Standard Edition is £15.99 so that might be a tempting enough price for those who are looking for the cheapest possible way to purchase and play Blackpool Branches.