Having spent several solid months with the game now, I'd like to touch on how *awesome* the Dovetail team was a bringing the trains to life in a game, not just visually speaking, but also with how unique each one feels and how they control just like you'd think. For example, Percy is quick to accelerate and can stop on a dime, but when pulling a lot of coaches or trucks he can be pushed around by them more, whereas Gordon is built for speed, but you can really feel the weight of this massive engine when he gets going. That being said, who has become your favorite?! I've become pretty good with Percy as I enjoy his service (lots of different variety from pushing trucks and mail cars to picking up passengers), and I'm not too bad with Thomas either as I started with him...but after finishing the James DLC, I have to say I love the way James controls - great acceleration, smooth and still has decent control and breaking power even at higher speeds.
Honestly I enjoy all of them, and while Percy isn't my favorite to drive because of the sliding I gotta admit his timetable is the most interesting because it's so varied. Shame about those AI-only services, it would be even better then.
I hear you, Percy is a bit of a slippery guy - which is part of his charm honestly. Driving him in heavy rain or snow with a bunch of full coaches behind you? When I hit the breaks I say a prayer, haha.
I pretty much enjoyed all of them and their timetables except Emily. Since Emily is a GNR Stirling Single 4-2-2 she struggles to pull the express coaches at high speed in her timetable. Especially on Gordon's Hill.
Oh she's got speed, she just needs some time to get up there and on hills well.. I hope you sped up enough to make it over. I think every character currently in game makes sense in the way they're behaving when driven.
One other thing about Emily, once you see it you can't un-see it lol so viewer discretion advised: Spoiler Her siderods clip through her fenders, so in reality she would destroy herself within a couple wheel rotations
Percy and James have the best and most varied timetables which makes them more enjoyable to play, I like Thomas and Gordon but they can get a bit repetitive
I also really enjoyed the James DLC, so after I am finished with Percy, I may do the James Timetable Service
James is basically a mirror of Emily, but with a couple freight and post runs extra. Enjoyable but most of the day it's the same as emily; go to vicarstown, turn around, go to knapford, turn around, go back to vicarstown etc etc. Gordon could have had some added interest by the named expresses not stopping in the same places as the normal expresses. How cool would it be if you could do a high speed run like Knapford-Crovan's gate-Vicarstown or something similar. I always find you stop quite a lot with Gordon. The one character that is way under utilized is diesel. Spends most of the day sitting at the quarry or at the docks. Maybe they plan on adding more services to his timetable to supplement other characters in the future?
