I would like to propose a package of new features for german freight enthusiasts! Wagon enhancements Coupling One major feature would be introduction of new coupling system that should be corresponding to the real procedure and consisting of multiple steps. Hooking the screwling hook, tightening the screw, joining the hoses and opening the brake valves on both sides; the reversed steps for uncoupling. We will need the valves to have influence on the continuous air pipe through the train -- if the hose is connected but valves not opened, air and brakes do not propagate further to the consist. If the valve is opened but the hose is not connected, it vents the air from the train parts, setting brakes to maximum level. Derail Valley has a perfect simulation of this, devs can take a look there to how the operation should look like and what are all the scenarios that can happen by incorrect setting. Single click coupling should remain as an option with a switch in settings for beginners. Tutorial on advanced coupling should also lead the player through proper procedure on approaching the consist with a loco. If you bump the consist in a naive way, you will bounce back. Correct way is to creep into the wagons while keeping the power setting at minimum, but not idle -- and regulating the speed with independent brake, that's why it does not cause traction lock like train brake does. Once the loco is pushed sufficiently at the wagons and no longer moves, you put independent brake to maximum, and only after that you disengage power. This ensures that the bumpers are pushed inwards for both the loco and the wagon, so you have easiest time with the screwling coupling. Decoupling tutorial should highlight that you are supposed to put the train brake into full service or (emergency brake) before the uncoupling, to make the air loss during uncoupling less violent. After the hoses are uncoupled, valve on the wagons should be opened to let the remaining air out (with audible hiss) and then closed again. Brake pads An update is requested to models of wagon brake pads. I did not check but I assume they are modelled to correspond with brake state currently (visually pressing on wheel or not), but visual check is not always enough during brake tests, some wagons have the brake pads behind the bogie cover, so you need to poke them with something (often they are simply kicked with foot), to see if they hang freely, or if they are pressing against the wheel. We could simulate this by simply adding a popup next to cursor when pointing at each wheel from up close, to say if it is currently in braked state or not. End of train markers The white and red signs signalling end of train are currently working automatically, but not always in ideal or realistic way, especially when the train changes direction or the loco is driving from cab 2. Let us place them on our own. It can be an extra task on more complex freight services. Loco enhancements Train data We know that everybody wants Ebula, but I understand that it is not easily implementable without major changes in route building that would add some sort of markers moving the screen. Let's implement something much easier -- train data screen. In reality, you are handed the brake report and you enter the data into PZB, AFB and ETCS systems to have them correctly configured and working. To achieve this, we would need to make bigger change to the sim core again, add a new UI and so on, so let's simplify it: have the data already entered, but viewable by driver. This will provide more information to the driver and eliminates the need to fetch this data from out of character sources like main menu. It can be simply togglable screen on MFD, that will show the data that the simulation already knows, they are just not presented: maximum speed, train length, train weight, brake percents, brake mode and axle count. While some of these are available in main menu, brake percents are not, and they are super important for driving freight trains correctly, and we need to calculate them manually using external tools now. Maximum speed of train should also limit the AFB and LZB maximum speeds now. Safety systems test Test of safety systems should be performed before departure of the train. This is relatively simple, launched by a button on MFD. During next 60-90 seconds each of the safety systems will test its indicators, audible outputs and application of penalties (usually setting brakes to emergency level and releasing again, twice in a row). Both the train data screen and safety systems test can be seen for example here: Route enhancements New tasks: Assisted brake test After connecting the loco to consist, assisted brake test should be performed. The game should require a short sequence of steps -- secure the consist by independent brake, set the train brake to full brake, wait for the full brake to propagate to the end of the train, get confirmation of brake level on last wagon by yard staff by radio, set the train brake to full release, wait for the full release to propagate again and get second confirmation. Non-assisted brake test In some cases the driver needs to perform the above check of brakes by himself. As running there and back is not as much fun, it should be reserved only for scenarios and short trains coming from industrial sidings. The driver sets the brake level and then goes check the actual state of brakes on the train end. Brake malfunction A task suited for scenarios, where brakes somewhere in consist are failing. Driver is tasked to identify which wagon is failing by checking its brake state, disconnect the brakes of the failing wagon and continue at slower speed to next available siding. New timetable services: Handover trains Addition of Üg (Übergabezug) services to the timetable. These trains consist of a small shunter and either single wagons or single group of same wagons (three or less, usually) that connect the industrial siding to nearest station with available sidings. The service should be coupled with either a light shunter run in the opposite direction, or with another Üg service back with similar consist in opposite state of being loaded. These services have additional bonus that they make the sidings overall more populated with wagons, before they are eventually collected. Local collect trains Addition of N/Ng (Nahgüterzug) services to the timetable. These trains drop and collect groups of wagons left behind by Üg services while running on the mainline. We saw a lot of these services on Vorarlberg and it was a great addition, let's add these to other routes as well. The train usually runs on the full length of the route, but makes 2-3 stops along the way to exchange parts of the consist to serve local needs. Train preparation With the new features on various required testing, we will need bit more time to perform everything. There should be enough time (10 minutes sound good) at the end of "move loco to consist" type of services, and where this movement is part of the mainline service, they should be split apart. Another option is to make mainline freight services not dispatched automatically, but only on request by calling the dispatcher when the train is ready. This will allow the rest of the timetable to proceed disregarding the player service until their train is ready. By calling the dispatcher at different times, you add replayability to each service, when one day you will go right away, and other day a passenger train slips in front of you! Now, where to try out all these? Ruhr-Sieg Nord remaster would be amazing. It has a freight yard, various industrial sidings and we already have so many new content since its release that could layer in. And it's a favorite route of many of the freight enthusiasts. What do you think?
*mindless railfan drool* would welcome stuff like this also for passenger side of things since I prefer that one more often when I wait for a train either in Bratislava or Vienna, I see shunters preparing loco-hauled express trains for later, or various locos working in yards/sidings of big stations preparing consists... or when a service ends, driver switches the PIS to "Betriebzugfahrt" or sth, and then I dont really know where they go, to depot, yard or prepares it for other service yep, I mean, together with your suggestion, bringing in some engaging real world stuff would certainly enhance the immersion
I'd love to learn all of this, even read mnul if required. But good lord... DTG will probably never do this. Nonetheless, fingers crossed, hope is high.
Very comprehensive wish list, thanks for that. I like every aspect of it. It goes far beyond what I was wishing for on other threads in this regards, however, every single one of them would be really nice to have and would add so much more gameplay possibilities! What I would add is that I do would like to actually see more details of my train then just the basic details already entered in the train. As you know, in certain instances it does make a difference what mode to put your train in depending on individual waggon weights. I would really like to be able to pull up a list with all the details to each individual waggon, like a „Wagenliste“ in the real world.
Excellent idea if you want to make it bigger combine it with a big marshalling yard like Rbf Hamburg Maschen Hagen Vorhalle.
This might be stuff that could be featured as the "Expert Line" Locos that were mentioned in the survey. That's exactly the stuff I'd expect!
Correct so is your local Wien Kledering which will melt a PC. Oddly if one has Hamburg Maschen and Wien Kledering one can spawn a 1064 in Maschen to run the hump same way as a Maschen 290 363 204 G6 365 spawn in Kledering Hump
Kledering is huge but still small compared to Maschen like a regular nuclear bomb compared to Tsar Bomb
First of all, these are all excellent ideas I think you'll be happy to know that LZB/PZB test have been implemented on the BR 101 Expert and should be coming in the next patch. I'm also nearly done with implementing a rework of Sifa on the two vehicles in the DLC (I'll update the changelog thread when it's been submitted, but Sifa will be in the patch after the upcoming one, just to be clear) which will allow you to perform a pre-departure Sifa test. With these teasers out of the way I thought I'd respond to your suggestions point by point describing whether these are feasible in the near(ish) term or not. This will be a long and rambling post, sorry in advance 1. Coupling. This one is unfortunately very tricky because of the core "connectivity" system. Every vehicle has different types of connection components for stuff like couplers, air hoses (brake pipe, main reservoir pipe etc), jumper cables and so on. These can be assigned to different groups but if they are in the same group (as they nearly always are) they will connect automatically together in a sort of "master-slave" architecture where the coupler is the master. To implement realistic coupling you would have to split these up, or change the core system (extremely unlikely, unless DTG decides this will be a sort of TSWX feature). However, if you split up each hose/cable into a different group then you need to do a lot of programming to make it work for AI trains and you end up with backwards compatibility issues you have to solve (reminds me of the BR 101 Expert that basically has two locos inside of it to work with Expert vehicles and legacy stock). Suppose this is all solved, you still have to decide how realistic the actual coupling should be. If it's working like the old coupling system, but just split up into a bunch of different connection components then you're basically done here, but if you want the player to be able to click and drag then you've only just begun... Lastly, and this goes back to the compatibility thing: the realistic coupling would only work with compatible (Expert) wagons. For an Expert-Legacy coupling you'd have to revert to legacy mode so the opportunities where you actually get to use this new feature would be limited to scenarios or layer services (or in an Expert timetable but with limited, at first at least, rolling stock variety). 2. Brake pads & brake malfunctions. I'm not so sure brake pads are animated for current rolling stock, maybe for some. However, all of this is perfectly feasible without core changes. You just need a lot of work It is definitely a very interesting idea if you connect animated/visible brake pads and brake malfunctions like stuck brakes etc. 3. Assisted & non-assisted brake test. All feasible but if you want it to be "guided" it would have to be in a scenario setting. For service mode you may run into issues of it being boring for players that just want to pick a train and do less time consuming (but still Expert style) setup, so it would then have to be used sparingly. Of course this almost surely implies an Expert timetable, unless the original timetable is really light and layers can be added. 4. New timetable services I'll group up these points in one. Unfortunately there is no way to change the preset* of a formation after the initial "spawn" before the first service. The game simply doesn't have this function. This puts a big limitation on what you can do with "cold and dark" style of services (scenarios are fine). The reason for this is that a service that starts in cold and dark, will end in cold and dark. So if you want a cold and dark service it has to be the whole thing. You can't do something a sequence of services of "cold and dark", then "drive to coaches/wagons" then "drive to destination" and then either end the service in a portal or have a "shut down" service. All of that has to be in the same service and then the formation has to be destroyed. Suppose you are fine with this. Then you have to add a ton of AI preparation logic (bringing the loco from cold and dark to running), feasible but adds work. Let's assume that you have a single service that starts in cold and dark and then has the driver shunt wagons and drive to a destination, and you have implemented the AI startup logic (not really tested in the game afaik so there could very well be issues here), you'll still have an issue if the player takes over the service from AI. Why? Because Simugraph is still in the cold and dark preset (remember the issue of only being able to have one preset for any given formation). So the player hears a running AI locomotive, walks over to it, gets seated and BANG the loco is dead. Maybe that is something you can live with but 95% of players will see this as a bug (arguably it is a bug as soon as you implement it in the game, since it exposes a big limitation) and bash DTG for it Unfairly bash, I should add, since it is literally outside the scope of the game as defined by DTG. There is an ugly (and cumbersome), but maybe worthwhile workaround (sort of), and something that I've seen players ask for: a "cold and dark" button. Basically some way for the player to press a button to bring the locomotive to a cold and dark state. Unfortunately since Simugraph is so realistic, this is not an easy task when it comes to stuff like air pressure. You'd need to implement some ugly/fake valves that vent different reservoirs that would be expected to be at a low pressure when you take over a locomotive that is parked (the brake pipe doesn't require this since most locos will vent it automatically when the battery is shut off). Still, as ugly as it is under the hood, it is something I may consider. *Presets. Formations have 3 types of presets available. Parked: Cold and dark. I.e. pantograph is down/motor is off. Battery is off. Brake pipe pressure is probably zero and main reservoir pressure is low. Running Stopped: This is the state of a locomotive during a crew change or at a terminus where the driver would leave the locomotive and walk to the other end of the formation. Running Active: This state is more for when you spawn into an already active service (so the train has just stopped at a station). Note that the "Running" presets are not always used in this matter and many timetables only have Running Stopped used for all the services. It is possible that Running Stopped only existed in the early game? Not sure. These presets both have logic in the blueprints and can be saved states (initial values) of Simugraph. You also have Spawn Configuration that can be used to differentiate between multiple of the same preset. A common example is something like "dead in train" where the locomotive would not be in the same state as normal even when the service is running. These you can make as many as you please, afaik. The BR 101 Expert for example has ZDS, ZWS etc as available spawn configurations. 5. Safety system tests Feasible and coming soon to a BR 101 Expert / Cab car near you Summary Safety system tests, animated brake pads and brake malfunctions are perfectly feasible but takes time to implement. Realistic coupling is very much not supported by the core game, so either DTG would have to implement core changes (a big feature and a big can of worms with regards to old/already released content) or a third party developer would have to workaround the limitations and do a lot of bodging. Cold and dark/preparation tests in service mode: Same as realistic coupling, it requires core changes or ugly bodging. In scenarios it is perfectly possible.
