One of the things that i’ve always missed in TS is some randomization. An unexpected red signal here and there, which will be different the next time i play the scenario. Well in TS i solved that by making quick drives with random generated AI traffic in front of the player train. So if TSW should be interesting for me i suggest the following. Code the signals so the main signals can have a percentwise probability of being at stop. And a random time they’ll stay there before going green when the player train nears. In the real world trains on the line can be delayed too. No two days are exactly alike. Zusi has something like it built in. It’s called the “chaos function” and it’s really nice. Keeps you on your toes. With this randomization TSW (and TS so i didn’t have to built those scenarios myself) would be far more interesting. The world has random stuff happening, so should a simulation.
100% agree. In timetable mode its very very rare to be chasing adverse signals, or to be stopped or slowed to have something cross in front. Failing randomness, perhaps timetable a certain percentage of trains to be late enough so that if you're driving the next train you experience the knock on delay.
On 4 track sections you could also have random "weaves" off the slow (or relief) line to the fast (main) line or vice versa. Or station delays with a pop up message, the ones in SimSig always amuse me - train delayed 40 mins waiting catering trolley (like that would happen IRL!).
That's a really good point, that would be easy to implement I believe but would make the game so much more enjoyable. However, I hope it is not going to be just ANY random signal, but some where it makes also sense (e.g. before or after a station or junction)
I love the idea of these random events (either signal changes or weaves off to another line) that have been suggested. And feel it would go a massive way to increasing the joy of driving them, especially in service mode. I did wonder if adding randomisation would create QA problems. So one thought I had was if in each route you could have for example 15 set places where a randomisation event could be triggered and occur, so for instance as mentioned at the signals before a station, places where it would make sense. Then if the player elected to have random events occur one or more of these could be triggered, causing a signal to change for a set amount of time for instance. This way they would effect the AI trains on the track so even if you are not affected by the signal directly, you might be affected indirectly by a delayed train holding you up. You could also build in the fact the randomness is determined by a seed value, and you have the option to use a generated seed value or one you type in, and have this value shown on the pause screen. This way if you are reporting bugs you can supply this value so that it can be replicated for testing or if anyone else wants to play the service the same as you and have the same events occur. Also if a random event does occur you might need for details of it to come up in a window so that people do not assume they are stopping at a red signal due to a bug.
I would hazard a guess these things dont happen is because predominantly we have low capacity tracks, which are almost always two lined, with a miniscule amount of 1 tracked area. This limits the ability for issues to appear. Also to be fair to DGT, they have enough complaints about players waiting an age at red lights now...which may or may not be due to bugs/missing steps in the process...imagine the complaints if it wasn't a bug...and it was meant to be like that "sometimes". D
This would have to be very well executed in order to not make the game worse. Many things would have to be covered: -better dispatcher - there are even now with static timetable instances of trains running against each other, nonsense red lights etc., here the dispatcher would have to react a lot better -it would have to be a turn on/off feature (you need to be able to turn this off to have the option to get medals) -define the way of randomisation - giving you random red lights would be very frustrating and unrealistic, so you'd have to define, what the factor is (for example a random length of station stop time or a generated working place that is there at the beginning and all trains react to it)
Yeah I mentioned it would have to be a feature you can turn on or off, and would have to default to off, and if a random event did occur anywhere on the track even if it wasn’t directly in front of you a warning would need to pop up somewhere so as a player you would know an event has occurred and therefore encountering a danger signal might not be due to a bug. Events I would like to see would just be something like a AI train stopping for a maximum of a few minutes extra. this could be triggered to occur at stations or along the route. As you point out random nonsense red lights will just annoy people so just having something like an AI train wait a bit longer at a station and set off late.
Well i got it working in TS. DTG are welcome to ask me how. Btw the train sim that Deutche Bahn use to educate train drivers (ZuSi) , have randomization in service mode.
