What is the "reasonable expectation" about being told you can drive between routes... but then having routes from different eras that are incompatible? There's "realistic" and then there's "fun and playable." We already don't have "expert level" trains because they're easier to use for casual players...that's why the "expert" title exists. It's a balancing act and always has been. Make one group happy, piss another group off. Making compromises. Because it's a game too, not just a "simulator." Just like "Microsoft Flight Simulator" has to be playable on Xbox with simplified controls too. A true "simulator" wouldn't be on consoles... it'd be virtually unplayable without "rail drivers" to be honest. There would be physics for sloshing fuel and water. There'd be wind effect and drag. There'd be compatible elements between designers. There's not. It's a game about trains. It's supposed to be fun... but to be fun to a huge player base it has to be lots of things to lots of people. Not just YOUR idea of fun. Which is why things like "guard mode" and "railfanning" and "route hopping" even exist. Some people find them "fun."
As many have already written here, this feature is a solution from DTG to the many proposals for route mergers that are not technically possible. In many cases, jumping between routes doesn't make sense because the time period simply doesn't fit. Many good examples have already been mentioned here, e.g. Glossop and NTP. Nevertheless, this feature can work quite well on routes that fit roughly in time and can also be an advantage. One example: Let's assume you are taking train number 1A10 (BML) from London Victoria to Brighton. Your arrival time in Brighton is 10:32 am. If you don't hopping on the East Coastway now, you will have to wait at least 19 minutes for your departure back to London Victoria. This is because the departure time of the next train is 10:51am. But if you hopping to the East Coastway now, you can catch the next train at 10:41am to Seaford (assuming you have Class 313). However, as the Class 313 has already arrived from Seaford at 10:28, the train will be ready for you after you route hopping. But this will only work properly if exactly the same time of day is adopted between the routes. The immersion killer would be if I hopp onto a different route in winter and come out at the other one in summer. Time will tell whether this feature can really be used permanently.
The route hopping feature is just a gimmick and way to promote TSW5, as you can easily just back out to the main menu and pick your desired route. If the feature cuts out the load times backing out to the main menu then that’s a big win in my book.
We'll see. If you cut loading times by 30 seconds but stand around for 12 minutes, yeah it's back to the menu time.
Waiting for services to start, people would say that’s immersive. Not a fan of that myself though, I want to load in and drive asap. We’ll have to see how fine tuned the feature is during this weeks stream.
Yeah that's what I mean. I don't find it "fun" so would just go to the menu to get to driving. Then again, there's people here that don't want to "drive" at all... they just want to ride around and look out the window...or railfan... or be a conductor punching tickets. *shrugs* To each their own. Whatever gives people their jollies more power to em =-)
You can see the feature in the Gamescom video... there is a marker somewhere on the platform, you run to it and change to the other route. It´s a shortcut saving you going to main menu. Not more.
Ha yeah. You have got the hardcore rail enthusiasts elite squad who play the game how you mentioned. I look out enough train windows irl to not find that aspect of the game interesting to me. Driving on the other hand, well that’s something I’ll never be irl. No good under pressure and would probably spad on my first shift and be sacked Thanks Tom. I will have to give that a watch soon.
Haha. Yeah. Not saying I'd be GOOD at it, but it gives me something to do while cruising around seeing the sights. I'd be bored JUST watching the tracks go by. I can see the appeal though if you're doing something else maybe like making a cup or want to relax while learning a new route. There's no stress when someone else is driving. Just more than once... well, that'd be kinda boring. To me anyway. I guess you can always take over the train if you start feeling froggy. A "peaceful hijacking" ;-) Personally I find a lot of the places I want to go don't fit into the normal timetable anyway. Ya know I never checked to see if people get credit for rail mileage when riding as opposed to driving. Probably not? Dunno. I know I'd never make it as a train driver irl. Get too impatient in the slow speed zones. I guess it'd be different if you were paid by the hour. But when I only have an hour or two after work, time is limited! =-)
I guess it depends what way you are going. Your going to get more connecting services in one direction than the other on certain routes. Then you can always get creative. If you find you have to wait around for 30 mins you can spawn a train and do a ecs run or something.
... whilst beeing forced to buy the Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside to use the Watford DC Line on WCML South. Goblin would have been a great route for the deluxe version or include the Aventra in WCML south just like the bakerloo line trains and everything else.
Or you could buy it because it's good lol. Hasn't even been out a year yet and it should be free? I don't get that logic
it would be nice if one could route hop with the same train that they have just finished driving in the previous service, and start the new one already set up... maybe?
Why is it possible to hop from WCML to Bakerloo Line at Harrow & Wealdstone but not vice-versa? I ran with the tube to H&W but there's no way to change to WCML? Or did I miss something?
Ok but what happens when you reach your temporary destination? Do you spawn a return service or use the (currently unreliable) fast travel option? It would be easier to just have a set time function added somewhere like the fast travel option on the 2d map. In real life, if faced with a 30 minute wait, I would probably grab a bacon sandwich and a cuppa so perhaps the set time function could be added to platform food facilities or a food cart! (Alright folks, be gentle and don't shoot me down in flames for that small example of brain flatulence)
Just spawn another train I guess. I have hardly used the route hop feature. It's more like a time machine.
I have had a crash/freeze using it and found the whole new livemap as being far from stable too. (PS5/TSW5) That was before the latest update patch so I may try using it again to see how well it works now.
So I've tested this feature and I have to say, I hate it. For me it is immersion breaking :/ I think I will not use this anymore and hope, in some distant future DTG comes up with a different solution for the merger problem.
This is by far the best example i came across how route hopping can be used. If Timetables Match, its great, and the ICE 1 Services on Frankfurt Fulda and Kassel match up very well. Have done a few Kassel Frankfurt runs with the Hop at Fulda myself
Blatant and unashamed plug time! To use the route hop function enjoyably you really need access to a detailed timetable of the routes involved. Luckily we have exactly that thanks to the amazing hard work of user WonterRail and his absolutely brilliant TSW timetables. Even before we started "route hopping" on TSW I found these essential and feel WonterRail should be rewarded by DTG for something that should be included with each route. WonterRail's superb TSW timetables can be found here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/wonterails-service-mode-timetables.17878/ Waiting around at a station for long periods for the next service is just boring which is why I suggested a time setting option so you can skip the tedium and get straight to being just a few minutes before the required departure time. I hate to put forward "suggestions" but I feel this could be genuinely useful especially if combined with the current on foot fast travel option.
