PC The Ultimate Diorama Thread. What 5 Would You Like To See In Game?

Good morning Railfans.

Dioramas, they’re still here and we’re steadily beginning to see more. The portrayal of life beyond passengers, the movement which is not plane train or car, the selling point of immersion beyond the train.

With the release of the railfans which was requested and implemented I thought it would be a good idea to build a list of ideas that may throw up some new thought paths for the devs. Be open minded, consider passenger routes, freight and non stopping services.

What 5 dioramas would you like to see in game?
What will they be doing?

 

To keep separate from original post….these are some of my initial thoughts.

1. A selection of bands or buskers or musicians playing at stations (royalty free music to begin)
2. People working on laptops, pulling cases etc
3. Station staff near ticket gates or on platforms, cleaners.
4. Rail staff carrying out tasks in yards.
5. Food stalls and people working at them.

I’ll have a think of some more

 

-Somebody searching for a missing object in their luggage.
-A passenger arguing with station staff over a ticket.
-someone with an umbrella up when it’s raining. And next to them another trying to shelter under a folded newspaper and looking cross with themselves for forgetting theirs.
-Dog owner with a couple of dogs on leads, talking to staff or friend.
- a cluster of hoody wearing teens sharing earphones from a mobile.

 

Old people - as in pensioners, people with walking sticks or "walkers"
Young people - teens listening to music or looking like they're up to no good
Younger people - smaller children, either with parents or in a small group maybe running around away from the platform, maybe outside the fenceline
Engineers / cleaners / station staff - Could be fixing something, cleaning a sign, sweeping up leaves in autumn, tending a flower bed...
People "with a vehicle" - could be a parent with a pram, a worker with wheelbarrow, someone in a wheelchair

 

I think movement in the dioramas is key, not just static.

 

I agree. Don't get me wrong, static workers are better than no workers and I love their inclusion, but I wish I had as much break time as they seem to have
Something "simple" (in quotation marks since I don't know how easy that is to do in the game) like a worker (or other station staff) walking along a platform perhaps to a different one, or a worker pushing a wheelbarrow along would be nice.

Apart from that, I'd love to have some more realism for dioramas. For modern routes, I'd love to see people

• with headphones
• checking their smartphones
• with luggage

as well as generally

• more/different staff (not just workers, also engineers and guards for example)
• workers/switching crews in yards

 

I'm struggling to think of 5 but one thing that spoils things a bit for me is the complete lack of staff at depots and locations which aren't stations. Lackenby steelworks for example or the coal loading/unloading facilities at Redcar. Completely deserted. Tees Yard, Thornaby depot, Newton Heath and Holbeck on the Trans Pennine, also completely bereft of life. It wouldn't take much, just a few people in appropriate clothing walking about. Nothing like the rugby scrum of passengers that turn up at stations.

 

I would like to see:
People with umbrellas when it is raining/ snowing
People in appropriate clothes to suit the weather (e.g. winter clothes).
Cyclists
Station staff
some movement from the existing animals used in the game

Additionally I'd like them to do at least 3 different models for each tree, that should reduce the monotony of the landscape with the same trees grouped together..

 

Watering of Train flower beds on Cathcart (perhaps every third stop or something)
Workmen using (and moving) with pneumatic drills.
Spg, someone throwing the switches in the yards.
More rail fans on routes similar/ like WSR at crossing gates perhaps
Crews working (and walking around) train in engine sheds.
Trains being refuelled.
Trains having graffiti cleaned from them

(I have a feeling we’ll next see the railfans make an appearance near visitor centre on horseshoe)

 

I want a station manager on platforms who comes out when a train arrives to stand on the platform. Then when you close the doors and are given the instruction to depart they wave their board (or flag in period routes) and blow their whistle. In busy times they may be permanently on the platform in quieter places they may return to the office (or just de-spawn).

It would also be cool to see drivers waiting to take over or other train crew. Where there are static locos there could be diaramas placed around them - fixing them, cleaning them etc.

Maybe a police officer, transport police etc, or maybe some mail wagons and PO staff.

 

Not necessarily diaramas, but I'd like to see more variety in the people themselves - not jsut the colour of their clothes. It looks like we've wiped out the entire population apart from specifically people in their late 30s.

For actual dioramas, it would be nice to see the p-way gang dioramas at places that aren't stations - even without TSRs etc it would work well IMO. A trainspotter diorama (OK, sort of implemented on the Rivet routes) would be nice - again, not limited to stations (but also not everywhere) - even just people standing around on their phone waiting for someone to come off a train.


I think we should make a poll on this, personally.

 

I'd love to see more staff on the platforms, umbrella's is a good shout also that is if DTG can sort the pathing out. I don't know if it is possible but when driving the slam door trains it would be great if the passengers could open the doors and Railway staff closing them rather that using a button. The immersion would be good. And then have the stationmaster give the all clear whistle/green flag.

 

On LIRR and Harlem: passengers being mugged.

 

Pickpocketing on the Tube!

 

Oh come on. New York City and the outskirts of the city aren't that unsafe. Muggings on the LIRR and MNRR are rare to nonexistent.

All crime jokes aside though, I don't see dtg adding crimes into the game. Would it be interesting to see someone pushed onto the tracks potentially hitting someone with your train or robberies happening in stations? Personally yes but things like stealing someone purse would be argued that it isn't neeeded for a game in which the main purpose is to drive trains

 

This was, um, a joke.

Absolutely no way MTA or any other licensor would tolerate having their line portrayed negatively.

 

If the likes of small children and people with headphones/smartphones are ever added, please add them with NO sound, it's bad enough in real life!!

 

Ik. That's why I said "all crime jokes"

 

What's the matter if they had some sort of sound? Frankly it would add some immersion. Who doesn't like the hear a baby crying

 

Its in DTG company values or something - no violence. It's a non starter and joke only

 

If they added babies crying/screaming I'd actually ask steam to remove TSW from my library. That's not even a joke.

 

I think dogs barking occasionally in ambience is used in some places, perhaps could be used in more.
Cyclists perhaps could be a good one, not sure how easy it would be to animate something that looked representative decently but even if it was someone trying to find their bike among the 37 grey ones.

Hen parties (scheduled as evening service dioramas)
Stag parties (scheduled as evening service dioramas)
Football crowds - we all remember the cathcart football pick up with hardly anyone on the train.
Someone unfolding a bike
Grandma saving Grandkid




I personally still wish as a player you could sit at stations.

 

On appropriate routes like ECW, WCL and perhaps WSR, a family headed for the beach with hamper, beach umbrella, inflatable toys etc.

 

1. Broken down cars being lifted onto a flatbed lorry - could fit any country, could equally be parking enforcement towing illegally parked vehicles for US routes. Could also include traffic jams on surrounding roads.
2.Graffitii artists - obviously to appease license holders etc this would have to be on the "public" side of the fence. Mostly for any inner-city routes.
3. Hikers waving at passing trains for any mountainous routes/rural routes.
4. [Peaceful] protest marches along city centre streets - thinking Dresden would be ideal for this.
5. Visible security/police presence on certain routes. Amtrak Police with a K9 unit standing on platforms for example - if it could possible that they enter the train through the front carriage and exit again at the rear prior to doors closing even better. At places like Dresden and Aachen these could be border guards.

The last one would really suit a random dispatcher event, one where your service is delayed departing due to a potential security situation, even one which turned out to be a false alarm.

 

We have heard this many times from DTG but I find it strange that they allowed Sam a stream to 'have a bit of fun' where I think he derailed trains, 4 in a row. Doesn't bother me in the slightest as I am getting quite good telling a game from reality (lol) but what does DTG think happens when you derail a train?

 

tbf tho he wasn't making it the main thing and didn't seem to be intentionally derailing.

 

Once or twice maybe but four in a row? The speed he was going I think he knew the outcome. Again it doesn't bother me it was 'nonsense' sort of stream but it is a bit Ironic no with DTG's policy?

 

I don't think crashing vehicles is generally classed as violence.

Should I start a poll?

 

People talking on the cellphone, people using the ticket machine at the station, people holding an umbrella when its raining, people eating at the terminal one handed. People ordering food from a working kiosk or vending machine, people sitting at a table eating, people running with their suitcase to catch a train, people communicating with other people on the platform. People looking at their watches. People talking photo of other people. So far these are the only thing i can come up with

 

Every station needs a cat.

 

Well, who plays at that stadium?

From.......?

 

I'd mostly like to see station staff doing their jobs. People doing their daily routines, checking tickets, helping customers find the right platform, doing security checks, cleaning etc.

I've been working retail at train stations for the past couple months and there's always so much going on that most of us don't really pay attention to but in a sim like this seeing these things happening in game would add a whole new level to immersion at stations.

 

If that were the case, Mario Kart would get a PEGI-18.

 

Well, Newton United don't have much of a fanbase.

 

Absolutely. I'm from the country (and it shows in what I'm going to say ) and the first time I was in Hamburg Hbf many years ago, I was amazed at how much was going on. Every platform packed full of people coming and going, shops everywhere with people queueing up, police patrolling, families desperately trying to get all of their luggage down a staircase, people asking staff for directions, ...
There's a feeling of (big) stations being alive that TSW doesn't quite replicate. To be fair, it'll never be as busy in TSW as in real life, but a lot of the suggestions people have come up with in this thread would help a great deal.

 

Would be great to have a loco workshop you are able to walk into with a loco in the middle of maintenance/overhaul.

 

If such dioramas ever get put into the game, it'll most likely be a PC/9th gen console exclusive, unless they end up figuring out a way to prevent a crash happening seconds after loading into a service with dioramas enabled on a last gen console.

 

Luggage Cart some are food carts that are being loaded into the Wrmz Restaurant carriages. IN TSW2 these are only seen with DB BR406 DB BR403. To make that feasible have the Wrmz ICE3M DB BR406 ICE3 DB BR403 doors openable then load these carts into the trains
based it off this ARD ZDF Hessen video

 

Too add on perhaps the station staff can be the one who puts up the route maps, posters and other collectables as they would do in real life. Last time i checked, train operators don't put up posters and maps in stations as far as I know

 

Who's to say it wouldn't crash on 9th gen either to be honest. Some Xbox Series S users have experienced memory crashes of their own

 

Perhaps with steam we could have groups of railfans or as part of service modes some small rolling stock moves with the bbc filming them, it was after all a transitional time in the new dlc area.

Perhaps station staff could be interviewed on platform about conversion to diesel.
Link to show old cameras.

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-cader-idris-talyllyn-1957-online

We could also have working NPCs filling up steam trains with water at depot, complete process

 

I would like passenger with big suitcases coming out of stations with airports and putting their luggage in the overhead compartment things. Also when they anounced rush hour I remember them saying something about passengers with suitcases coming out of Gatwick and putting them in the overhead compartments

 

Life is not just for platforms.

We need some static characters in the streets.
They don’t have to been moving or highly detailed.
They could be chatting, standing by their car, at a bus stop or answering a phone.
Behind a warehouse having a smoke or just leaning on a fence watching the trains go by.
Like blue cement lorries or yellow diggers, people are everywhere.

 

I could t agree more. Without seeing other trains, at times you could be driving through a photograph, a snapshot in time. There needs to be more ambience around the the world

 

Watching a stream from a youtuber a couple of days ago said about something he found really annoying but I did not take any notice until now and that is Passengers did not rush to get on the trains, even when the beeps sound passengers would just plod along without a care in the world.

When I used to take trains regularly especially on the longer trips you would see people rushing or even sprinting sometimes, some occasions the staff would hold the passenger back if it were too late. There is probably some excuse somewhere for why it can't be done but a change of pace when the train is picking up passengers would be good.

 

This would be good provided they had a different animation rather than just a faster speed.

 

The only thing I've seen in evidence of this is when you pull into a station the passengers continue to mill about, but then when you open the doors they all head to the train. Other than that there's no urgency per se.

Obviously I would be discouraging running towards any large machine but I get your point

 

Sorry if already mentioned, but PW and S&T staff working lineside, complete with acknowledgment wave if you spot them and sound the horn. Maybe some Action Points for doing so, too. Need an algorithm to generate randomly and at different locations too, each time you do a run.

 

Stabbings in Croydon...

 

People fishing
People playing sport on the pitches
Occasional hot air balloon (not the 100s you see in Forza)
Fireworks in November
Trainspotters at station ends.
Tractors working fields
Animated construction areas