Hello, TSW2 has always tried sticking to the real timetable when it comes to their routes. How would you feel if DTG created their own timetable for a route, taking the real timetable and adding extra services in between to have a much more active route, or how would it be the have the whole timetable handcrafted which allows for creative services and busy railroads.
then doesn't feel like real life to me anymore when DTG creates fictional train journeys. Unless, for example, there is a soccer game, such as a lot of special trains
I personally don't really care whether a timetable is real or fictional, so long as it is interesting (and believable, i.e. no express trains stopping at S-Bahn stations). Cane Creek with two services per week would be realistic, but not fun at all. Cheers
I mean, what else are you gonna do? There's no passing sidings on the route, there's only 1 industry on the line (Intrepid Potash) and the Tailing trains only run from Moab to Crescent Junction, I guess you could duplicate the services and have them at different times of day, but in the end of the day, its still the same service.
I agree. Considering there's only a limited amount of different trains made for each route, you'd need some artistic freedom in order to maintain a busy timetable with plenty of traffic. And I quite like the railtour services too, wether they're realistic or not. I think every route should have a few railtour services. And the timings of real timetables might not be perfect either. Waiting 15 minutes at a station (like NEC did) wasn't all that interesting, and neither is a very tight schedule that's hardly possible to keep up with ingame. I think they should use the real timetable as inspiration, and then use artistic freedom in any necessary amount to make the route an interesting experience.
Third option all the way. Don't really care about being 100% realistic: one of most important things I evaluate when buying a DLC or a loco is how interesting is the timetable. That's why for example I haven't bought TGV.
Something I have always thought was missing was the ability to actually put a train into service on the timetable mode. I know we have the scenario planner, but, I am too lazy to make lots of trains on the line. As for the timetibles themselves, I have gone for the 3rd option.
Give us a timetable editor and let the users create their own. But in the absence of that, some modifications in the interest of playability and entertainment are probably justified.
As Matt said on Saturday, we currently mostly get the third option. Real timetables are only used for the start times of services, with the rest being auto-generated, and are then copy and pasted for each service.
Personally I want the experience to be as realistic as possible, certainly not using a fantasy timetable, I want it to be believable, so I did vote for option 1. I think adding railtours etc is a nice touch but if a route feels too busy or conversely too quiet then for me that is part of the simulation experience which isn't working. Sometimes travelling/driving trains isn't that exciting. As stated above if we could eventually make our own timetables it would be boon. You could make a proper diesel gala on the WSR and add in things like the Manchester to Stalybridge services on NTP.
Ideally you would use the real life timetable and the real life timetable would provide sufficient interest to not need any modification. Pen Corridor is a good example of that, if you drive at peak time there are plenty of other services. If the real life timetable is limited and you aren't ever going to hit a yellow signal or see much passing traffic I think using a bit of artistic license is OK to provide a more interesting experience. You don't need to go into complete fantasy, just a few extra services here and there that could plausibly have ran.
Exactly. The current timetables are not real ones, but based on them. Since I‘m German, the easiest comparison for me is, of course, the German content. And I can say that you don‘t see nearly as much freight on German rails as TSW would have you believe. But do I mind that? No, because it‘s still believable and adds to the gameplay value. Completely real timetables would be nice for passenger services, but would detract from other gameplay (like German freight in my example). I don‘t think that a lot of people would like fictional completely fictional timetables. Since we‘re already getting #3, I think that it‘s the best compromise.
If they do a West Midlands Railway route and you get no yellow/red signals, no delays and trains running on time then that will prove they are using a fantasy timetable!!
There’s nothing worse than a ‘real’ timetable that repeats the same service pattern throughout the day. There needs to be a little variety in the services. Even if a couple of trains are deliberately put in as late runners or rerouted trains just to mix things up a little. Hopefully the Rush Hour concept will add this kind of thing.
That's best done dynamically as per proper simulators like Zusi, it's a bit silly to have the same trains late or rerouted in every single experience. I'd much rather see a timetable be 'perfect' and 100% authentic, with perhaps some liberties for extra freight as mentioned, although that'd be better served by a system that properly understands Q paths, be it that it only runs when the player chooses or via a set spawn probability, with delays and other non-standardness introduced by a random setting, like Zusi or SimSig. I should add that I feel the same way about having railtours in the standard timetable, taking SEHS as an example it's silly to have two railtours every single time you play the route, when you'd never see anything close to that in reality.
Yes, like the time I was running the Swindon/Didcot sim and had a track circuit failure at Swindon East completely locking up trains out of P1/P3 towards the Up Main. Not a good morning peak (and scarily close to reality as well... ).
