Clear skies to overcast to clear skies to thick fog to thick fog and light snow to light snow and no fog to heavy snow to heavy snow and high winds to thunder and rain with no winds. Have some activists recently been employed at dtg I wonder?
What’s really mental is dynamic weather on the WCML Preston-Carlisle, weather changes as quick as you blink your eyes. That’s the reason why I avoid doing a service through journeys mode
Have tagged JT in the official feedback thread re this. Trouble is, I do like to do the Journey Mode as the "best of" a route, but hardly showing off the scenery when it's shrouded in fog or you have to endure 60 minutes of raging thunderstorm.
Timetable mode and custom weather are the TSW player’s best friends. You only get static weather but it is usually a better experience.
God Mode add on is the best option because you can set custom weather and then change it any time you like during the run. May only be available for PC though.
I think it's like this on most routes. Sometimes it's fine and others it's like the acid version of Vivaldi's 4 seasons.
I usually do go custom weather, sometimes I forget, then I'm too far into a service by the time I realise the weather's on dynamic.
Sorry to be the pedant in the pub but "Climate" relates to long-term weather conditions, the world is split into climate zones that represent the usual weather for those zones. I appreciate that the title was probably tongue-in-cheek but I couldn't help myself. But, yes, I agree that while "Dynamic", random weather was a good development in TSW there are times when you get 4 or 5 different weather types in 30 miles. I'd love to know if the random weather settings are adjusted to the area the route is set in and takes elevation into consideration. I've not been convinced either are because I've had an unusual number of supercell thunderstorms in Scotland, far too much snow on the usually mild Sussex Coast and I've never had a rain to snow to rain event when going over an elevated section of track (I've tried it on Shap and the Pennines). I also find some of the weather effects disappointing, thunderstorms are generally more potent on their leading edge, then gradually fade to just rain. Sometimes a "daughter cell" can pop up behind along the same frontal system but most UK storms are single cell unless it's very warm and there's high relative humidity; summer basically. It also appears to be only cloud to ground lightning, no cloud to cloud lightning; the stuff that, when obscured by cloud, is referred to as "sheet lightning". At night it can be possible to see lightning that's over 100 miles away, usually flashes above and within the top of the cloud at first, then at about 5-15 miles away (depending on noise pollution where you are) you start to hear the thunder, the rain usually comes last and, from thunderstorms, often starts with a few big spots followed by a downpour and, sometimes, hail. In the UK, a gradual increase in rain is more indicative of "Warm Front" conditions, a gradually increasing layer of stratus cloud and steady rain that lasts for hours (this is happening in Essex as I type, we're in a Trough, a temporary dip in barometric pressure on the leading edge of a large low pressure system, in case anyone is interested). Unless it's really hot, these rarely result in thunder or lightning, just a complete wash-out of a day. Cold fronts on the other hand can be very lively and are often followed by heavy showers and single cell thunderstorms in Spring, Summer and Autumn. It's rare to just get rain without it escalating into a thunderstorm in TSW. There's a live weather mod for PC, it's WIP I believe but I've used it on a couple of runs and it's been pretty close. It updates every 15 minutes. Sorry, rambled a bit there, just my thoughts on my experience of Dynamic Weather I could ramble for hours as I find weather fascinating but I'm sure you've all got better things to do with your time.
Unfortunately, I like to start with the scenarios during which the weather is pre-set. I drove on both WCMLS and Boston-Worcester yesterday in 100% dense fog. Apart from anything else, that kind of weather is so untypical, especially in New England in late summer afternoons.
Dynamic weather is not great at the moment. it's about 10 or more degrees colder than it is irl and every trip I start on any route (I did a lot due to recaching old routes for TSW5) gives thick fog within 20 to 40 minutes that usually doesn't dissopate. the time I start the service also doesn't matter. I hear it a lot now so lets hope the issue is tied to it just being December/January and the next months will be less foggy. I'm unsure how the system works but it seems like it's per country or per continent and weather isn't that specific. like the release of Semmering the daylight in winter started at 4:30 am. just like the passengers trying to jump on the tracks on almost every route, old or new, I would like to say again we need a crew to fix and take care of the core features.
I've found that if I don't want snow, fog etc, but the sort of weather you'd see more in summer, set the date between February and November (although be aware the dates - the closer it is to winter ie December & January, the worse the weather may get). Doesn't always work though.
The fog can be really annoying. Sometimes within a couple of minutes of joining a session the fog rolls in. Really the session should start with fog or rain etc, randomised in the menu. Not start a game with clear skies then the weather change after a few minutes. Whats the point of starting out with clear skies if that's gonna change quickly every single time. Also the transitions are a bit all or nothing. Especially when it goes from bright to dark like the flick of a switch. If the transition was a bit longer you could treat it like localised weather patterns.
If it’s too difficult for DTG to fix dynamic weather, then so far as Journey Mode is concerned then maybe give players the option to choose a static weather type, same as when you select a standard Timetable run. Or perhaps DW itself needs a master intensity slider which allows players to choose the likelihood or intensity of any change and how far those changes will go. So instead of hot sunny day to apocalyptic thunderstorms you go from hot sunny day to slightly overcast light cloud, then back again. Like many DTG ideas for the sim, dynamic weather is very good, but let down by poorly thought out and flawed implementation.
My guess is, it could be fixed but not financially feasible to fix it. Perhaps they could sell it to us. As dynamic weather 2.0 when tsw 6 drops.
Given what we've been through weather-wise lately IRL, I think the far more concerning thought is that some supervillain has hired DTG to program his weather control machine.
Seriously pleased our roof is sturdier than it looks. Not so much the rain getting in but the hassle of dealing with insurance then actually finding a roofie who’s not a cowboy/crook prepared to come out and put the tiles back on!
I believe basic elevation is taken into account - I remember a few reports on here on Cajon Pass with fog snapping back to clear, and it turned out it was something to do with exiting clouds that were sitting on the hills. As for regions, I believe it is all manual. When Peninsula Corridor was released, DTG were aware that it never snowed there, but were also aware that some people may want to experience it in snow. For this reason, they programmed the temperature to only fall below 0C on one day of the year.
Left Cowdenbeath in clear blue skies yesterday, and by the time I was in Dunfermline Queen Margaret I was pretty much expecting a Yeti to appear on the platform it was suddenly so snowy.
Also I've noticed its so predictable starts clear then cloudy then fog and last snow if in winter months and thats any route I played
Fog to snow would require an extraordinarily quick change in atmospheric conditions. Fog is usually found in the middle of high pressure, hundreds of miles from the nearest precipitation. As I mentioned before, low visibility in heavy snow does give the appearance of fog but the reason you can't see very far in heavy snow or rain is that the precipitation scatters ambient light, making it difficult to see beyond the precipitation.
The volumetric fog can completely ruin a run, as I recently experienced on WCMLS and MBTA BW. And it's often totally out of place for the areas and time frames in which it occurs.
Yeah, I have the benefit of the God Mode patch so can remove the fog when it's out of place. Interestingly you can also turn the thickness of the fog up to levels I've never seen in game, a real "pea-souper" as we used to call them in London. It's a fantastic challenge driving without the HUD with only 10 metres of visibility.
Well the run from Boston to Worcester was indeed through a real " pea souper ", zero visibility in cab and barely a yard or two outside. The passengers had just watched a baseball game at Fenway, so it was spring or summer, fall at the outside and dense fog was very unlikely, especially for the entire run. Perhaps, the DTG writers ( if it wasn't written in Bangladesh ) need to check with the local weather when they're coding these scenarios. The other instance was in the WCML between Euston and MK. I've noticed that dense fog is much more common around suburban London in game than I'm sure it is in real life. What is this obsession with fog, indeed bad weather generally, by the programmers at DTG? Or is this stuff outsourced to people somewhere in the world who think we're still in the 1950's? It seems to me that dynamic weather, is, like the eye adaptation or the funky snow throw up, someone's bright idea that the coders couldn't quite realize in the game. When something doesn't work right, either correct it or abandon it. That was always my mantra throughout my working life.
If you're on PC, I highly encourage all of you to use the recently released live weather mod. Dynamic weather is just another byproduct of a Dovetail experiment left forgotten, such as suspension for TSW4 era vehicles.
I recall they recently mentioned it's better for performance to turn dynamic off. Bit hard to do if you're not on timetable mode. It feels like it always defaults to rolling fog whenever it's on. Annoying when you wanna enjoy the scenery.
The volumetric thing was for distant haze, I'm sure of it. Visibility changes from day to day here in the UK, just as there's a near constant haze over LA in the dry season. But yes, I agree, we had our first foggy day in about 3 years a few days ago here near London. Cities are more prone to them at this time of the year but fog in Spring, Summer and early Autumn is not something you see aside from coastal mists up to a few miles inland on the North Sea Coast in exceptional situations. We had a rolling sea mist a couple of years back, I though someone's house was on fire at first. Thunderstorms in Scotland, apart from single cell ones within showers, are pretty rare. I was staying in Killin near Loch Tay back in 1996, they had a thunderstorm and the whole town came out to watch it.
Well most of the journey mode for freight seems to be in darkness and crappy weather. I get it you want some "challenge" once in awhile, but does every trip have to be intended to not see the landscape around you? "Lovely route you have here... if I could see it...." Maybe that's a thing in Europe where they only run at night (and in blizzards and lightning apparently) but I know for a fact that lots of freight rolls on sunny days too. =-)
Down here in Kent we have had fog a couple of times recently. No where near as much as tsw would make it seem. Apart from low lying fog, hugging the marshes some mornings. Last Thunderstorm we had was November. Every time I play sehs it's fog, snow, thunderstorms.
We had a couple of rumbles last night from the single cell that seemed to be traveling up the A12. Both Essex and Kent have the same problem with the formation of thunderstorms especially early in Summer, because we're surrounded by relatively cold water which cuts off the fuel (warm/humid air) to storms. I've watched so many storms heading East only to totally collapse when they get within 10 miles of the North Sea. You're in a better spot for imported storms from France though.
I live on a island in the southeast. We seem to get our own weather patterns, completely different from the mainland here. I did notice that the thunderstorms usually miss us and head over Essex way.
Off topic a little bit but noticed darkness levels is not very well done so playing wcml in set in june on 8pm job and its pitch black its not even dark at that time in june in the uk
I don't think TSW recognizes British Summer Time or Daylight Saving Time. So 8 pm in TSW would be more like 7 pm as far as the solar/lunar cycle goes.
So playing wcml south in middle of june and guess what it starts to snow blizzard come on dtg thats not realistic
No, but I've had heavy rain in August (the dry season) on Cajon Pass. Can confirm from having been there that is not normal at all. About as common as snow in June (which can happen but very very rare)
