I heard Matt talking again about the situation round manuals. Now removed from the roadmap after a year where nothing happened and rethinking it all. This is going to take long time. I answer every day questions of new players that are very frustrated and completely got stuck with this game. So, TrainSim-Matt don't wait another year with a solution. Natalie created an excellent list of places where new players may find help, but they simply do not know where to look for it. So what you should do is make 100% sure people can find this page and can find their way to the DTG forums. This is essentially marketing. You can put a link in the game description somehow, create direct links at steam. If you like, you can send my TSW2 Starters Guide to every new player, it's free. But do something. As an example see this discussion topic at steam: NOT WORKING AT ALL OTHER THEN SAND PATCH, NOTHING IS WORKING !!!!!!-THEY SAID I COULD NOT GET A REFUND BECAUSE I PLAYED 3 HOURS-2 OF THOSE 3 HOURS WAS TRYING TO GET THIS DAMN GAME TO WORK- MAKING THIS UNFAIR The second thing is, set auto journey mode default to off. For new players lead them to the journey menu, add some explanation there and make eventually a button to turn auto journey mode on.
Natalie is one of TSW's Community Managers; she hosts many streams, posts the Railfan TV schedule, and is now the Roadmap's Head Cartographer. Her list of useful lnks is here.
conniethunder has compiled a pretty extensive list of manuals and guides: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/available-manuals-for-the-main-games-and-dlcs.42397/ Also check out Rudolf's website: https://www.hollandhiking.nl/trainsimulator/tsw-tsw2020
Brand new GNT safety system introduced for the DB 612.....and no in-game tutorial and no manual, so, good luck i guess?? PZB......no in-game tutorials, but at least you can find some info in the old manuals, but it's not an intuitive system. ATC/ACSES....same deal as PZB AWS.....same, though it's a much simpler system LZB- this at least was part of the tutorial in SKA, and there were tutorials for the new systems in LGV and SEHS. MU/DPU setup for US Freight routes- the issues are more in the systems themselves not being fully simulated, but again the in-game explanation can be a little inconsistent. While i understand there's a limited budget, why for just recent examples: Railpool 185- tutorial goes through a cold startup process, which will never actually be used in-game (this applies to a LOT of the locos fwiw)- why not use this time to explain PZB and brake modes, which actually make a huge difference in gameplay? DB612- tutorial does an emergency brake test and recovery- why not incorporate that into a PZB penalty application and recovery instead? Also it tells you about it having 2 engines to start, but only makes you start one of them- being completely unfamiliar with this train, i assumed the second was only used in certain circumstances....i figured it out pretty quickly, but a new player might not and get quite frustrated. Tl;dr- the manuals/tutorials are in a dire state, and have been for a long time.
The introductory manual that DTG needs is already out there; it’s your Starters Guide. This is perhaps the single best resource I’ve ever seen for this game and a fantastic place for people to begin the TSW adventure. DTG should come to an agreement with you such that it is available in game. They should also have an in game link to the forum.
If they want, they can use it for free. I do not work for money, but I just want to help the community as a thank you for all inspiring conversations and tips about this game and its predecessors.
The only way to learn about the new GNT safety system is watching the first pre-release stream (maybe the release one, I haven't watched that). If you didn't watch it, tough cookies. No GNT for you. Or trial/error. ATC/ACSES is a system I've given up on and not learning it. No resources in game as far as I know and I'm not so big on US trains. The system is active in the cab on Boston Sprinter for example, but I have no clue how to use it. Instead, I rely on the HUD since I don't know American signalling. I don't understand why the tutorials explain the cold start of every loco when it's used only in Scenarios - where it once again walks you step-by-step. The DB612 tutorial teaches you how to start the engines (never used in the timetable mode as there are no cold starts) and recovery from emergency brake (= release the brakes and continue in the same way as you would from a normal stop, this requires a tutorial?), but has nothing about GNT. I've tried one scenario so far and that at least tells you to switch GNT on in-cab, but not the switch next to the PZB/Sifa in the hallway. British tutorials could at least cover AWS as it is a pretty basic safety system and would actually help new players if it were explained properly. I understand the tutorials are for everyone to get the train moving, but if I wasn't experienced already, I would be perplexed by some tutorials.
