The Traffic 101 scenario in the Diesel Legends of the Great Western DLC for GWE has a major flaw in the timetable. Here is my bug report... The scenario has you being held up by a late running train (that is the premise) but after being held up for a short section you actually arrive at West Drayton early because the arrival time is incorrect, and from then on you are held up only by the incorrect timetable times and all lights are green, as the train that is supposed to be holding you up has moved on further up the line, which defeats the object of the scenario and is deeply unsatisfying to play. West Drayton appears to have an extra 10 or so minutes added to the stop time than it should and all times from then on are later than they should be, so the train that is supposed to hold you up has long gone and all signals are green. The times for Slough to West Drayton in the general timetable is only 12 minutes and that includes two stops in-between at Langley and Iver and yet this scenario has 17 minutes allocated and no stops. Even with initially getting held up, I arrived around three minutes early. The time between West Drayton and H&H also seems a bit generous, as that is 4 minutes in the general timetable for a 101 service, and 9 minutes here. Each of these time errors allows the train in front to escape. I haven’t compared times here for the stations after that (your guys can do that when they fix the scenario!) but it is all wrong, and requires re-scripting, as the scenario is a bit pointless as it is now. The timetable section with the biggest issues is... Burnham 14:04 - you arrive late Slough 14:10 - you arrive late West Drayton 14:27 - you arrive early and the rest of run is arriving early at each station. Hayes & Harlington 14:36 Southall 14:42 5 more stops to Paddington
Yes stujoy I totally agree with you. The arrival time enables you to get the on time AP points? If you were continuously late...you wouldn't get the points? They hold you at West Drayton too long...for you to even consider catching the train in front. It was a clever idea, that sort of fumbles. D
The whole idea of being held up is that you get held up. The amount of points you need for a medal would be set as what is achievable by playing the scenario and therefore points for being on time don’t really matter as that’s not the point of the exercise, you are supposed to turn up late. It’s just another example of poor workmanship and poor quality control that stuff like this gets through. This DLC has plenty of this kind of thing in it and some has been fixed. It can’t be construed as being ‘working as intended’ as it doesn’t make sense. The timetables and the scenarios are the major part of this DLC so they should work and be meaningful.
I was a bit disappointed with this scenario as well. Other scenarios, on the Tees Valley with the class 20 for example, use unusual routes, feature workings which you don't normally see in the timetable, generally are scripted to entertain. I understand that services have to be a bit sparse in timetable mode but surely in a scenario, they could go to town with unusual occurrences, especially as the driven train in this scenario is supposed to be running late. We could be held while an oil train crossed over into the goods line. Stopped for a Greenford bound DMU to pass in front. When I stopped at Slough there was a Western stopped in the up fast platform which left soon after. "Great," I thought, " they've used a bit of imagination". I was looking forward to more railway like interractions with other trains but if I remember correctly, that was it, greens all the way and loads of waiting time at stations. The scenarios should showcase what is possible with TSW, and include lots of activities that aren't typical of the timetable runs. Imagination should be given free rein. This scenario feels like an afterthought which doesn't deliver the experience it promises.
It would be a good scenario if it had been made correctly. Set up a service that has a timetable to keep and then set up a train in front that’s running late that gives the player lots of yellow and red lights and makes them late too. I’ve made them myself in scenario planner, in an hour or so, it is simple but can make a good experience. The only difference in DTG making the scenario is that the instructions and things need adding in but setting the the times of the trains is the easy bit, especially for something uncomplicated like this. It’s a run from A to B while getting delayed. It’s scenario setting 101. But still it went wrong and was released like that, failing to do what it said it was going to do.
Yes, it's not well scripted. I reran the scenario (on PC) and tried driving at under 50 mph to see what would happen but, apart from that one red light wait outside West Drayton, there are no hold ups. And the wait times at some stations after that are sleep-inducing. I love driving the 101, it's my favorite UK loco, but this scenario is not fun.
