I am new to train simulation and I had pre-ordered the original Train Sim World in hopes of exploring railway networks across the world along with additional community content and multiplayer. Well, I got ripped off and TSW2 made that official. Trainz Railroad simulator 2019 is expensive and seems much worse than TSW. Is there any good train simulator with decent graphics, good community support, and multiplayer? Something like ETS2 when it comes to world size, multiplayer, community support, number of vehicles in the base game, etc. Not graphics ofc.
No, creating routes and rolling stock is expensive, no matter the simulation. This rings true for Run8, Trainz, Train Simulator, and Train Sim World. There is Open Rails but I have no clue whats available for it.
Well, hm. Multiplayer is a funny thing with trains. People talk about it but with the amount / type of interaction, I can't for my life imagine what's good about it. Observer mode, now that's something interesting. Although Youtube is available. That aside, you should go for either of the two extremes imo: pick up the (yearly) editions of each game, enjoy the versatility at efficient prices (50% is fairly standard, can get to 60-70%) I didn't play much Trainz yet but I was shocked by the (good) amount of variations of rolling stock received pick one game and stick to it, you can mix and match trains and routes, it gets really nice eventually that's where I am with TS, with basic use of the editor TSW is somewhat there but you are at the mercy of the designers without an editor My Steam friends play TSW2 mostly these days, so I assume it's fairly good. Just wait for a sale if annoyed by the price. Same about the other games. According to the announcements you can keep playing your existing stuff. Okay, if you care about decent graphics a lot, you should really just stick to TSW 1+2. I do, too, but after some 15 minutes I get used to almost anything and can appreciate the artistic value.
Basically no, because it takes time to create content akin to real life and people don't want to wait
It's a very good thing in yards, watching all those people humping, switching, building trains - Run8. EDIT: + dispatching, yeah
I tried Run8 and its cool for what it is. Multiplayer adds something different. I noticed that with Run8 the community seems relatively small and able to police itself, so if someone starts acting silly online they can get kicked off. I'm not sure if that would work with TSW2 or TS2020/1. Multiplayer was a bit of fun but I'd rather do most of my train driving offline I think. The downsides to Run8 were graphics and that it was US trains only. But it was fine for that it was, the physics were nice as well.
