Having watched both the Arosa and Clinchfield streams, it's immediately apparent which of the two routes I'll be buying based on gameplay alone. The loco and coaches on Arosa look lovely (although the coaches sound like a rake of wagons with wheelflats), and whilst the distant scenery is a bit poor, I would be tempted by it. However since learning that the timetable consists of just end to end runs with runrounds (like WSR), the route has lost its appeal. Adding a few shunts using the freight wagon would have saved it for me, as this would have provided interesting variety. Whatever route you produce in the future, please try and use the service mode to its full potential. Variety is much preferred over repetition.
Arosa has freight in the scenarios, and they have added the realistic timetable, the service mode is an accurate representation of what happens on the real railway there isn't really much more to add.
It really isn't an accurate representation. Freight is often taken up and down the line as necessary. It certainly shouldn't be confined to just scenarios...
Freight trains are not very common on the Arosa Line. They are planned in the timetable but only run when there is very high demand. Usually, the freight cars are just coupled to the normal passenger trains. Not including a freight train in the timetable is therefore pretty accurate because it doesn't run on this line on a typical day.
If that's the case for accuracy purposes (base on that year for the route). Then there is one question to be made; why include a freight wagon that would only be used in a scenario and not be part of the timetable mode? I rest my case.
Do you know that it is only used in the scenario? I haven't seen coupled to a passenger train in any preview material but that doesn't have to mean that this isn't happening, neither in scenarios nor timetable mode.
Yes, that's correct and the exact point I'm trying to make. Rivet have made a freight wagon, however this wagon does not feature on a single service on the service mode. I'm not talking about no freight trains here, I'm saying that the wagon is not coupled to the back of the passenger train. Shunting that wagon on and off the train would add a lot of extra gameplay, but sadly rivet have missed that opportunity.
Well that really shouldn't matter even if it was true. I mean DTG include railtour services in ECW and SEHS that run at the same time everyday and that's far from realistic, but it still adds to gameplay. Also, Rivet's 204 adds shunting to service mode on MSB when in reality shunting is not something that is timetabled and happens at the same time everyday in the same place.
I couldn't have said it better myself! A lot of people prefer HMA over SKA due to the higher variety of services available within the route itself. This is just one example, of how more variety is better than more repetition. Well said.
Yeeeeees. Totally agree. A few freight services and some depot runs would seal the deal for me. DTG managed it with SEHS when they added the rail tour and freight services after the preview stream. The rivet employee did state there was going to be a day 1 patch with an additional patch to follow so I hope we see something in those.
Well, depot runs will be pretty hard, as there is no depot on the line anymore. Freight services with what we get will also be pretty hard. Best they could do to stay realistic: They could maybe add in the morning a service, Loco solo Chur-St. Peter-Molinis, to get some wood wagons back to Chur, and in the afternoon the reverse with some empty wood wagons to bring to St. Peter-Molinis.
There are the sheds and yard at Arosa and there is a facility in Chur itself. Just stabling empty wagons there or swapping and stabling locomotives would be nice- especially since some of the screenshots feature the locomotive in a shed.
In general we are getting extremely purist with the timetable mode. Not here but in all routes. It´s ok that timetables are as close to real operation as posible. But taking into account that this is also a game it has no sense that we can´t use the included assets in a more flexible way, specially as gameplay is limited to the provided schedule. So adding freight here should be ok as any day could be a high demand day for freight in our simulator. Cheers
Exactly. Whilst I am one for realism where possible, I'll generally prefer extra gameplay even if it's not 100% true to life. Variety sells a product to me. A few freight shunts, perhaps a loco swap from the yard, preparing your set in the morning, would all have sold this route to me. I can ignore the distant scenery being poor, but I can't ignore the lack of variety in content.
Nobody wants an SPG level of freight on the route. It's more like 3 pairs of passenger trains each with two freight cars at the end if you ask me. Or you can have these deliver them up and one loco collects them on the way back (adding a loco move). 4-6 services solving this whole problem. The route doesn't need 200 services, it just needs more than 4 types (up, around, down, around-v2).
Yes I´m also for realism but real life can be extremely boring sometimes and we may even come to the point of routes having just two services because the real railway just have 2 trains per day. Sorry but in this game I want to drive trains and play around with the railway assets not to sit and watch the nature Cheers
Exactly Please don´t ruin the game with extreme realism. The final target is to enjoy it and there must be freedom and a bit of fantasy it that´s required. Simulation is just inside our brains at the end. Cheers
My thought is: why Rivet spent so much time modelling and texturing freight cars for a scenario only? I mean it's a complete waste of time in my view putting myself in their shoes ...
