Decided it was time to get some proper traction running on BML, so called up the Scenario Planner to set up a Class 33 hauled run from Victoria to Brighton. Stunned to find on entering the editor, on the Down it's not possible to specify a path all the way from London to Brighton, the furthest you can go is Three Bridges. On the Up starting at Brighton the farthest you can go is East Croydon. Would be interested to hear from DTG why this is the case, otherwise it is just another piece of the ongoing farce surrounding the release of this route.
Have you logged a ticket for this vern? Also is this the same when the sceanerio is not off rails, just 377 etc? (Don't think many routes are as long as this so wonder if they have capped the planner so to speak)
No ticket yet as I'm assuming this was a deliberate design feature or omission. Certainly no reason why the route couldn't cope with one train running 55 miles as opposed to the 20 or 30 or even more that might be about in Timetable mode.
I haven't looked at the planner for BML Vern, but can you choose a different departure platform? On some other routes you get different paths from alternative starting points.
Think it may depend on which platform you start from at Victoria. I used the scenario planner to run a Class 52 diesel service from Victoria to Brighton stopping at Gatwick and had to play around with the starting point before I got the whole route available. Similarly at Brighton I ran a Class 45 service to London.
Scenario Planner is known to be annoying because the small amount of Sidings, but: In this case a little try and error can help before open a thread. You can choose London Victoria Platform 15, from there you can select your way --> London to Brighton in your case. Same in the other direction: Brighton Platform 4 to London Victoria Platform 16. This is on pc, cant really tell how it is for other gaming platforms.
OldVern I also ran the class 47 from Victoria to Brighton as you can see below from about 1 min into the video. So it does work. I didn't record the scenario planner setup here though unfortunately but you may be able to see what platform I start at
Can't answer for TinTin but I found it a lot better than the timetable mode. There were a few points with immersion breaking annoying stutters between Victoria and Clapham but it was playable. From Clapham to E. Croydon was a bit better apart from the approach to Croydon which had some of the worst scenery pop ups in any TSW2 route, especially the "twin towers" at the southern end of the station. In contrast Battersea power station is visible in game from miles away so this problem should be easy to fix and it needs to be. From Croydon to Brighton the performance is OK even with sustained high speed running. Slight slow downs at Gatwick and entering Brighton but still enjoyable. This is the route section I have driven the most using scenario planner and a few programmed AI services.
Okay so the paths available depend on your starting platform. Better but still rather silly. I will give that a try next. Edit: Yes I have now been able to set up a Class 40 run from Victoria to Brighton, So I partially recant my opening sentiments but will maintain that it is still a daft limitation.
Cheers. Actually it was night and day compared to running with the normal timetable. Even Victoria behaved itself and I enjoyed that run a lot
East Croydon onward things improve greatly. I am on PS5 tho so the experience may slightly differ but hopefully not by a lot
Not knowing which platforms are locked to a particular path without designating the path first is a big drawback of scenario planner 1.0, it means there is alot of trial and error when setting up a scenario. The other biggest drawback for me is not being able to slot a player service into an existing timetable or to 'fill up' with AI...adding individual AI services one at a time and getting the timings right so they make sense is a royal pain in the backside. Hopefully we see big improvements in 2.0
PersonallyI would like to see something akin to the Open Rails Timetable Editor. Yes it’s a glorified spreadsheet and not glamorous to look at, but it does the job even to the point of assigning return workings to an incoming movement.
I agree. On the GWE route I went into scenario planner and painstakingly went through EACH station noting down the platform routes. It took a while but the result was that I could create some really interesting scenarios with mixed traffic. With some 30 stations available on BML it is a daunting task but I started last night and put together a stopping service from Victoria to Streatham Common with some AI traffic for eye candy. It would be nice if DTG would release the platform routing details as a downloadable PDF that could be printed. This would serve as a useful stopgap till scenario planner 2 is released.
I’d like to make a service that goes all the way and be allowed to choose what stations I stop at. I thought that was what Scenario Planner was for. But I only got a handful of stations on the list, the same ones the express trains stop at. Almost useless. Version 2.0 is on the roadmap so maybe that will allow players the option to make services that aren’t dictated by severely limited options.
