I have put a post up on the Steam discussion, but I will repeat my report here on the official Dovetail forum. I met a couple of the development team who were on hand at Old Oak Common Open Day and they both talked about the large amount of work going in to make this simulation superior to anything that has preceded it. A complete reworking. What has come out is a fairly good representation of the Great Western Main Line. The game is having its teething problems, mostly with graphics and performance issues and I am sure we have seen reports like this before and I am also sure that Dovetail are working to fix these. After such hard work to produce a realistic simulation, the signalling and the way it behaves is a let down. I was driving a train along the Up Relief approaching Maidenhead and with no prior warning I notice that I am routed to cross over to the Up Main at Maidenhead East Junction. Not at chance to slow down in time. Not a whiff of a flashing yellow signal or an approach released junction signal to slow me down. Not a realistic simulation and for people like me who like to drive like real drivers (without the HUD telling me whats coming out of sight), it kind of ruins the whole experience. There appear to be no flashing yellow aspects at all in the game. Someone in your team has decided that it is correct that simply holding a junction signal to yellow with a junction indicator lit is correct. There are a number of signals that are preceded by flashing yellow signals along the route, there are others that are held at red until the train is approaching the red before clearing, and there are also a few junctions that are preceded by split distant signals. Some examples where I have seen it wrong, UR to UM at Maidenhead (should be flashing yellow before), UM-Up Poplar (SN204 should be approach released from red), UM-UR at Slough West (should be flashing yellows before), Line 5 to Carriage Reception (SN89 should be approach released from red), Line 4 to Platform 10 (SN32 should be approach released from red). Based on these, I suspect there are possibly dozens of other junction moves that would need fixing and I suspect the Dovetail team would welcome more help in ensuring that the game play is more solid through signalling that behaves better. Please contact me. I am very familiar with the route and its operations. There are a few PSR (Permanent Speed Restriction) warning boards that have AWS associated that shouldn't have. One example I noticed is on the Up Main approaching Slough Station a 40mph PSR board sounded the AWS. In real practice, it isn't provided as the move from Up Main to Up Relief at Dolphin Junction for which it applies is in reality controlled by a flashing yellow aspect sequence. SN312 should only show one yellow light when SN310 is at Danger. The yellow that is lit is in the right hand head. When either head on SN312 is green, the AWS should sound a bell! In the game it sounds a horn. The virtual signalman certainly likes to do some very unusual and unlikely junction moves. Possibly too many. One thing I mentioned on the Steam discussion is that the simulation likes to do something that is extremely rarely done in real life. Routing trains out of Paddington and down the entire length of Line 3 from SN41 to SN109 before crossing to the Down Main. This is operationally very restrictive in reality. The normal practice is that nearly all trains from the Up Main get routed towards Line 3 (much more often than Line 2) and Trains going towards the Down Main from would get over to Line 1 or Line 2 as applicable and thus removing the conflict at Ladbroke Grove.
Great post, Mikey! Hopefully Dovetail will listen and continue to make this sim as real as possible because I am all for that too!
