What's the most pointless thing in the game for you? Mine has to be the hotplate on the new Class 20. Totally pointless, the time wasted implementing that could have gone into something more worthwhile. However, if someone knows of a USB kettle or coffee machine that will heat up if I switched the hotplate on, I may change my opinion.
Noooooo..... The hotplate is vital to immersion. I absolutely love it. It would have been nice to have had a kettle on there too, with a gentle steam effect.... maybe a whistle effect when the water has boiled. Maybe it will get sold to us as an add-on DLC for the Class 20. ;-O The most pointless feature in TSW is, ironically, the Action Points system. It is utterly meaningless. The meaninglessness is added to by having gold medals that are ridiculously easy to get by default on all freight services, and completely impossible to get on most short scenarios, because performance was never calibrated/tested on them.... I am slightly miffed that the TSW2 "Log Book" will be a pointless DTG LIve online feaure (I would prefer it to be in-game), but if it is as pointless as Mastery, then that won't matter because I will never see/use it. NB: Brilliant idea for a thread.... even if you are in the "anti-cooking-appliance" faction. ;-O EDITED TO ADD: It is slightly perverse that the hotplate can be seen from a distance with better consistency and reliability than the broken white marker lights and marker-flaps...., but at least you would know that you've accidentally left the cooker on, and the glow does help you to find your train in the dark.
Mastery in it's current implementation. Some of the tutorials teaching you basically "this is the brake, this is the throttle, congratulations! You are ready!" Collectibles and Jobs (this is just personal preference)
That hotplate thing is British humor, or is that for real? Seriously, the longer I think about it, the more absurd it becomes ...
Totally agree with AP/Mastery being pointless, along with, honestly, the whole XP and leveling system. I feel like all of that could be scrapped and the game would lose precisely nothing of value. Is it confirmed that the logbook is just another online thing? If so, that's disappointing- was looking forward to some proper in-game stat tracking.
If you were out in the Scottish highlands, in a Class 20 doing 25mph... in the middle of winter.... in the 1970s.... then yes - a hotplate would be the only way you could get yourself some hot food when on the (very slow) move..... or, indeed... a cup of tea after your vacuum flask had run out (if you could afford a decent Thermos). The hotplate is an absolutely essential bit of kit. Completely authentic.
Aaah - I saw that the Log Book was described as a Dovetail Live feature, so I assumed it is to be online only. I hope they have fixed all stats/progress counting systems, including trophies/achievements, before designing Mastery v2, and the Log Book...... If the Log Book is available offline, and actually gives you an idea of performance in different weather conditions (so you can understand the impact of adhesion)... then that would be great..... We'll see..... BTW - You can have a decent point scoring system. There is one in TS1, which counts down from 1000 points and penalises mistakes, rather than arbitrarily counting upwards to no understandable target (so you have no idea how well you actually did, when you review your performance on a later date).
Best Score - it tells you the best score you have had on a service before you start, then 45 minutes or more later, after your drive, you get a new score on the debrief page - but it doesn’t tell you if that’s a new high score or show your best score for you to compare. Utterly pointless. You could jot it down on a piece of paper before driving but I imagine a lot of younger players won’t even know what paper is let alone have some handy.
I love the little quirky features such as the hotplate and things like the newspaper on the control desk of the rail tour class 57 in the original TS especially when you only find them long after buying the DLC In terms of TSW, the mastery has got to be the most useless feature, implemented and abandoned almost right away. Followed by a very close second, the Journey mode which was nothing more than a set up links to existing scenarios and selected services. Did DTG really think they could convince us that this was an entirely new mode of gameplay?
Mastery for me... for that matter, collecting medals or points, just arcade nonsense. However, if those medals or points led to a free loco/dlc etc I'd be very interested and motivated to collect them!
I think details like the hotplate in the Class 20 are really cute and interesting. I say the most pointless feature is the Journey mode. It's literally just a list of services and scenarios in a given order, and that's about it. It doesn't offer anything new gameplay wise, it's not even a "journey" because the services don't even have anything in common to connect them (they have different weather, etc). You may as well just write a list of services on paper for yourself to complete. I believe it was literally just a waste of time implement it, and I just can't imagine who at DTG said "you know what the players need? this". When they first introduced it and hyped it up I though it would really be a different gamemode that offers something new, but it's entirely pointless, a waste of resources, data and UI space. Mastery at least gives you some "tasks" and then rewards you with some ingame stuff. Still pointless, but not so much as journey mode is.
Shame we don't have smell as you can just imagine the aroma as that warmed up! I'm glad it shows someone has a sense of humour to be honest. I'm with the concensus on Mastery being as useful as a chocolate kettle and all for a bit of chintz when it does work.
Having the hotplate there in the class 20 was a nice touch I thought... when it actually looked like it was heating up though I have to admit it made me smile, but after you have seen it a couple of times then yes, it's pretty pointless. On the plus side, well, it shows an attention to detail, lets not forget that
"Journey mode" isn't just pointless.... it is actually extremely aggravating. The intention behind Journey (I guess) is that you get a curation of different service types at different times of the day, in different seasons, with different weather conditions - sort of a sampler (for the four variables), and, as such, it is not a truly terrible idea...... ....but.... when you do a service under Journey... it doesn't seem to count as a "service" for the trophies/achievements... but the counter that you can see goes up... and each run is ticked off in the Timetable mode (because it will show a medal).... but you actually have no idea how many services you have done that contribute to the trophy.... or which ones (easily)..... So, I suggest that people completely avoid Journey mode... at least until the relevant trophies have been bagged.
Ahh the old waste of time rant, the hot plate took all of about 3 minutes to implement, plus it was done in my own time so exactly no time was really wasted anyway :P Sure it doesn't really do anything (although if I was really bored I probably could get it to do something rather extravagant!), but it gave a few people a nice chuckle so in my opinion its time well spent
Not only was it time well spent. It was also "lucky" that it worked on PS4. Are you thinking about spending any time on the broken white marker lights, the broken marker-disc flaps, and the sound bug that some are reporting with Class 20....? Or are you preserving the Class 20 as it is now....? Talking of preserving faults (or not).... thank you for finally fixing the Class 47 (on NTP) just two years after it was released, and getting the fix deployed just before TSW2 is released.
Not a rant, purely personal preference. However, I have now found a USB cup warmer on a well known auction site, so if you can get it to send a signal to that when I switch on the hotplate it would be greatly appreciated
Climate control in the cabs would be my pick. Possibly if dynamic weather was simulated, the windows may fog up and they might have a use then....or if the passengers complained about it being too cold/hot...or if you lost points for not having a comfortable temperature....just some ideas. The way it is now, they are just pointless knobs
That's a bit harsh. Oh.... you mean the climate controls....! Sorry.... ;-p Yeah, you would think that if they have bothered to animate a switch, that it would have a function..... Personally, I think that the ELEPHANT in the room is the unused content... like half of the OSD map by the docks, and various other areas in various DLCs, that you can't free roam around in.... ;-(
Working hotplates is a good addition, because this is a train simulator after all. It adds to the immersion. When I'm drinking a hot beverage, I turn the hot plate on. When the beverage starts to cool down a little, I turn down the heat. And when I've had my last sip, I turn it off. It's quaint! As of right now, I agree with the other posts about Mastery. The rewards are disappointing. In Fishing Sim World, you're rewarded with hats/clothing. In TSW, I'd like to see different liveries, or at least a 'weathered train' variant.
I actually enjoy the addition of little Easter Eggs like the Hot Plate. It's something that we should see more of. We should welcome more interactive elements in the cab as well such as guard buzzers and climate control buttons even if there's really no tangible use for them.
That's what they all say. Cold weather - it's such an old excuse. Okay.... enough innuendo for one day... or I will turn into Frankie Howerd.... ;-D Titter ye not.....! Naa-aay...! Oh dear.... too late....
It has too be the blinds.To be honest If the AP point's can get us free DLC's that would be nice too see
Sounds like a workplace safety problem. What happens if hot stuff falls off and boils the driver? The company he works is responsible for their workers health and a safe workplace. "Good old days", I know
The horrific step climbing animation on newer addons, gets on my nerves every time I have to suffer it.
For me the most pointless things are the loading pages we have to click through to start the game. Whoever thought click E to continue was a good idea should be ........
going straight into the graph when we reach destinations. we should be able to shut down and take the key out. also mastery is pointless. plus markers in shunting sidings when we know we just have to go over the point and not stop miles away to reverse or go forwards. this annoys me so much.
In the good old days the kettle and the hotplate were much bigger, and you drove the train by standing inside the cooker. If you wanted breakfast, the fireman simply whipped his main tool out of the firebox... (we are talking about his shovel here) .... and he could quickly fry you a couple of eggs and slice of bacon on it, and then you couild enjoy some hot salty protein (we are talking about the bacon and eggs here). With the Class 20, the hotplate for cooking was the least of your safety problems..... There is no deformable structure protecting the driver (now fixed with the dandy looking Class 70), so if you were about to crash into the doors of your local Traction Maintenance Depot, then it was more than your breakfast that got ruined, unless you were Harry Potter....>
Well you can always just click "continue to freeroam" and shut down afterwards. That's what I do, at least.
Plastic Pal you made my day! Learned something cool about British train history, too - seriously I didn't know as I don't know much about UK railway anyway (outside of "TSW-content") ...
The thing is, mastery and action points would be a great feature, had they been better implemented. Having challenges and scoring the driver on their performance isn't really a bad idea at all, but as it stands right now, there's not a lot of gameplay value that it offers. Sure, earning new panoramas and new tile scenes are cool and all, but I along with many others just aren't compelled to go out and complete challenges. Maybe if DTG added some sort of leader boards, and had more challenging scenarios with tighter time limits, maybe mastery wouldn't be soo bad after all. But hey, on the topic of useless stuff– how come I have to skip the opening title movie whenever I boot up TSW? I swear I must've seen it a gazillion times already. I'm already playing your game DTG, theres no need to convince me to buy TSW again haha ...Or maybe that is the point?
Many games I play show an opening title movie that needs user input to skip... it's no drama really to press a button Having said that, how easy is it to incorporate a little tick box in the corner stating ''don't show me the intro anymore''...
