I would like to report a problem with the brakes that I encountered in the EF-2 in the first two missions of this DLC. At any difficulty setting, the train brake does not work properly, the pointers are stuck and the indicators do not move, the brakes do not respond to the movement of the brake lever, and the train cannot be stopped. The locomotive brake does not bang either, which also does not generate any pressure in the brake cylinder. Only in the easiest difficulty setting can the brake lever be used in various movements to produce a braking effect.
I am attaching two videos showing the problem: The first video is on the Medium difficulty of the brakes. You can see these errors: The dynamic brake does not respond to the movement of the lever using the mouse, it only works with the keyboard. The train and locomotive brakes do not respond at all to the movement of the brake lever. The indicators on the dials do not move. The second video shows the situation on the The easiest difficulty of the brakes: The dynamic brake again does not respond to the movement of the lever using the mouse, it only responds when using the keyboard. The locomotive brake does not work The train brake works very limitedly and only reacts halfway through the movement of the brake lever. Here, on the contrary, it reacts very quickly and immediately to full force. The movement of the indicators on the dials again does not respond.
Have you reported this to DTG? Posting on this forum is not the same as reporting it. https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/reporting-a-technical-issue.31193/
I have to agree with this, it is quite awful tbh. Some of the reviews I have seen and read it looks like people didnt even drive the units before posting. I am pretty forgiving in nature to these sorts of things but this one is quite glaringly obvious
Exactly, I've seen a few reviews on youtube where the authors focus on the graphics, sounds, trees and the environment around, at most they get the train moving but in neither case do they get to the stage where they have to brake the train downhill. Not a single mission was completed in either review. Such reviews have no value and are misleading, I guess it is important to be fast, not accurate. I reported the error and the authors admit the error with the dynamic brake. According to them, however, the air brakes work correctly. I've noticed that the brakes work fine on flat ground, or in smaller downhill, but are completely unusable on large drops with an angle of about 2%. Apparently the authors didn't test this properly either. In addition, the brake cylinder pressure does not match the F5 key with the needles on the dials. I have reported the error again.
Okay, but then how do I know on the dials what pressure I currently have in the brake cylinder? On a GP9 it's clearly visible, but on electric locos I really don't know. There's no mention of it in the manual. I'm posting a picture of trying to brake a train coming down a pass. The train brake lever is in this position for at least 20 seconds, but the pressure in the brake cylinder is not increasing and the train is still accelerating (already well over the track limit here)
The issue here is definitely the gauges themselves failing to provide proper feedback to the operator. I noticed that, myself, that the EQR and BPP needles just whimsically display whatever they feel like. Not at all useful for knowing how much air you've set. As far as the gauges displaying the brake cylinder pressure, they wouldn't reflect what is done to the cars normally because you *should* be bailing off the independent brake when you set air. The manual really doesn't touch on the brake operation or dynamic brake operation well at all, which is a shame.
According to my observation, the setting of the dials is reversed. When the train brake is fully released, the black needle of the brake cylinder pressure is 100. When I move the train brake to the first position, the needle drops to 90. When I move the lever further to the right, the needle drops to 85, and so on. I would expect it to be the other way around, i.e. a fully released brake will be at a pressure value of 0 and then increase. Currently I can't go up the hill in the 4th mission, but maybe I'm not working with the power properly.
Are you looking at the Brake Cylinder Pressure or the Brake Pipe Pressure. With the Brake Pipe (black needle in left gauge) showing 100 the brakes are Released - anything less then the brakes are applied.
The picture in the appendix shows the status of the brake indicators when the brakes are fully released. The left dial shows the Brake pipe value at 100. Brake cyl. (red color) is 155. Shouldn't it be at 0 if the brakes are fully released? I have noticed that the red needle never moves. On the right hand dial the red needle, MAIN RES is at 130 and the red needle EQ is at 0. When braking I would expect the Brake pipe value to decrease and the Brake cylinder value to increase from zero to 15, 20 etc. Perhaps the brakes on these electric trains are quite different in functionality from diesel-electric locomotives such as the GP9, or modern electric locomotives. Unfortunately the manual doesn't say anything about brakes.
To run up hill, get it up to whatever speed you can muster and let it settle down in Series Full Field. You don't wanna ride around in a resistance notch. As far as the needles go, as I mentioned, they're completely botched and read incorrect values all around. Not particularly useful. The only way of gauging the brakes as it stands now is to guess whatever the bar graphs mean on the F4 HUD.
I am looking into what I can fix. The train brakes themselves seem to work and I am struggling to reproduce the brakes themselves not working when going downhill however the dials were not displaying the correct values. I am fixing the dials to the following: Dial 1; Red Main Reservoir Pressure, Black Eq Reservoir Pressure Dial 2; Red Loco Brake Cylinder Pressure, Black Air Brake Pipe Pressure I have fixed moving the Dynamic Brake lever not having an effect. The Dynamic Brake is set up to only work when enough power is being generated to exceed the overhead voltage so is dependent on speed tonnage and what the line voltage is set to in a scenario. I will try and submit a patch in the next few days but may be a while before it gets put out on steam.
Good to hear. I hadn't had issues with the regenerative brakes in particular. The in cab brake gauges were my particular stiction.
Thank you for the information and correction. I encountered problems with the train stopping on the descent from Pipestone Pass (just after the summit tunnel). I was unable to stop the train and I was coming into the descent slowly (less than 20 mph), only switching the brake difficulty to The Easiest and setting the air brake lever all the way to the right worked. On the other hand, I stopped the train on the 2% descent above Piedmont with no problems at all (brake difficulty setting Medium), so I don't know if the error is related to a specific location and train configuration. I normally run with the brake difficulty setting set to Medium. When the bug is fixed, I'll be happy to edit my negative review on Steam. This DLC is otherwise very good, locomotives are unique, sounds good, scenery perfect.
I encountered the same problem with the brakes on the EF-2 in this DLC. This clearly seems to be a bug related to the difficulty settings. Hopefully a patch will come soon to fix this! Tutuapp
Actually, while we're here and you're looking at pushing patches, the Speedometer is not calibrated correctly either animation wise. For example, at 16 MPH the needle shows 20. The signals really need to get looked at. I was running a scenario, and just about ran a switch lined against me (occupying the main, switch lined for siding) with zero indication of there being an Open Switch in the next block ahead. I should have had a Stop and Proceed
There are a lot of signals buried in the ground - you can see them in the HUD but not good if you are driving.
Milepost has released a patch. A Patch for Pipestone Pass Boxcab can be downloaded below for those who know how to install it. The patch will be submitted to DTG to go out on steam however this may take a few weeks before it gets released. This fixes the following issues: ●Brake dials now display the correct values ●Recalibrated the electric dials better ●Dynamic Brake handle now works ●Dynamic Brake no longer works if pantograph is down ●Instrument Lights added to dials in cab ●Some other minor touch-ups on the Boxcab I am aware there are still some other issues/suggestions for improvements that may be looked into as time permits You can get it from their FB page.
