What could be done to improve the Free Roam mode? After asking myself this question I came to this conclusion: Being able to select stops along the way This is the most obvious improvement I can think of. Many, if not most of the times, I am using free roam mode to drive more special services/formations, which are not represented in the timetable. Be it railtours using historic rolling stock or just using rolling stock that usually wouldn't be seen on this route. I just drove the BR103 together with the expert 101's IC coaches on Dresden-Riesa, replicating a IC service with stops at Dresden Hbf, Dresden-Neustadt and Riesa. While this only had one stop inbetween, I still wished for this feature. I did my route set up by first setting my path to Dresden Neustadt and then after arriving setting it to Riesa, so I have my crucial information about when the stop is gonna come up (distance) on the HUD. Sure, this works. But to be fair, its just annoying to do, selecting the train again in the map, zooming out, setting it up to Riesa, checking that the path is right and eventually correcting the path itself with a "go via". While this wasn't that big of a problem, as my route only contained one stop, this is the exact thing that holds me off of doing more free roam sessions. I'd honestly love to just take a BR218 with n-Wagens in a historical colour scheme and do a full service run on Linke Rheinstrecke. Do I want to do the above mentioned procedure at every stop? Definitely not! Sure, if I want to stop at literally every station I could set the final destination and then use the track display in the HUD to at least know that there is a station coming up and usually it shows far enough ahead to then stop in time. But what if I only want to stop at bigger stations? I'd love to see this feature implemented by having a sub-menu to open where you can then add a stop, maybe even choose the track or just simply let the dispatcher do it. (You could still correct it with the "go via" thing in the map free roam menu if you want to stop at a specific track). Passengers boarding and deboarding the train Well, this basically builds on upon the introduction of being able to set up stops. While doing my service just now I was a bit sad to see that nobody gets on or off my train. This just adds to the immersion obviously and especially with the expert coaches that actually have a semi realistic door operation (I also discovered that the BR103 is more or less compatible with the coaches and unlocking or locking the doors in the cab actually locks the doors on the coaches, contrary to the NRM IC coaches). Maybe this feature could also be implemented in a pop-up menu that asks if I want passengers to be able to get on my train. Cause, besides freight, there might be instances where I don't want passengers to be able to board. I really believe that these features would elevate the free roam mode onto another level and actually give it some more sense. I like the idea of the free roam mode itself, but I just think that at least for passenger operations its not fully there yet. Its fine for freight or if you just want to drive around with a single loco. What do you think?
I agree. What I would also like to see in free roam is: PIS should work when setting a stop at a station Loading and unloading of freight such as coal, it shouldn't be restricted to timetable mode Being able to set paths for other trains and having the AI drive them Lights should be green by default, they should only be red if a train is currently in that block
I would like Load/unload Couple/uncouple instructions added, Be able to set the train up as an A.I and then ride it as a passenger or be the conductor.
whilst I agree that Free Roam does need improvment, all I really want in Free Roam is the ability to SPAD without being kicked out the game and to be able to switch every point (manual or not).
Yeah this is a good suggestion too. This could be coupled with being able to set up any kind of train name/number you want which would then maybe get shown on the PIS too. But I fear this could be highly complicated for something so small.
I came up with more Being able to change timetable consists With this I mean that I can couple to existing consists in the timetable mode. What if I wanna drive a regional train thats usually a single BR425 unit with two units or even three? I know, that at least for substitution its problematic because couple/decouple prompts might not work if you'd have more cars than normal. But in this case, just give us the freedom and if we bug something out, its our problem? :P Selecting an existing schedule to drive Also pretty simple, really. By that I mean that you could spawn yourself your constist of choice and then select a timetable service that you wanna do with it. It could be done with some requirements, e.g. the train must obviously be passenger or cargo, depending on which service you want to do. Also you'd need to start out at the same track that would be required for the service. While this would be a neat feature, I don't really prioritize this highly. Changing the route of a timetable service Well, explains itself. It could be used to simulate some more uncommon situations that might occur in reality like spontaneous change of tracks in the station or something alike.
