One of the reasons that there aren’t features to cause accidents, derail etc. is that the train companies who DTG have to get licenses for to use their liveries don’t like videos of ‘their trains’ having accidents. So I don’t think you’re going to see any ‘disaster’ features.
As Medellinexpat has said is correct DTG has signed licenses with the rail companies and one of the rules were no derailments. As playing this simulation you're not supposed to be derailing a train anyways.
I'm sad about this decision, there is a lack of danger along the routes, the driver's responsiveness to address situations that simulate emergencies
This is just a bug that sometimes happens when coupling which can basically launch rolling stock into space.
Simulating emergencies is one thing; enabling crashes is another, but then I have to consider your handle. Your wish led me to remember a long-time-ago friendship that arose when I first started making scenarios for TS (then RS), who told me about his dyslexic son whose idea of a good scenario always ended in a horrific crash with rolling stock flying all over the place, as can still happen in the latest TS release. Perhaps you would get more enjoyment out of DTG's other train simulator?
And TSW does neither of those. I have been travelling the Sand Patch at 75 mph in 35mph sections. Or the WSR at 50-60 mph in 25 mph sections. A train has never ever derailed on me. Not once in 180 hours of gameplay. It can't be that I am a careful driver, because I am not. I ran into a buffer once by accident. My class 66 bounced back and just shut down. I left the loco and picked up some other train and that was it. Had I remembered the class 66's startup sequence I'm pretty sure I could just power it on again and drive away. There simply isn't any sense of danger so half the immersion is gone. Safetywise an engineer's most important duty is not to derail and not to SPAD. And the derailments are just missing. The only thing you can screw up in TSW to be penalized with a game over is SPADing. I've seen a video on Youtube from someone who managed to derail a train in TSW. Just the usual Red warning, only that time it said "You derailed" instead of the usual "Passed signal at danger". Everything just froze in place and then black screen and then the Menu. That was it. In my opinion even this is too little. Too half-assed. There needs to be a visual representation of the mess you caused. It's not about getting pleasure from causing trainwrecks. It's about looking at what happened and getting the feeling of "I screwed up, I must be more careful". It is supposed to be a simulator after all. Sure, there are people who derail trains deliberately. So what? My immersion shouldn't be punished because some kids like derailing trains "for the lulz". And besides, the TS trainwrecks aren't that brutal as people here and in the Steam Forums make them out to be. Locos and wagons bounce arround intact and then settle somewhere. Nothing like a real life trainwreck where debris (and usually death) is all over the place. Now, I know that some licensors don't want to see their brand on a derailed train in TSW Maybe because the UE4 graphics are "too real" compared to other simulators (e.g. TS) and screenshots from TSW might be really bad publicity or something. I don't really know what they are thinking I'm just speculating. Still, there sould be some middle ground. Something like, when the train derails, show the complete animation but hide the logos on the locomotives and wagons. That way everyone is happy. But DTG just chose to turn their backs on us entirely by just disabling the whole thing all together in one fell swoop.
MarkL i don’t agree with the comment ‘There simply isn’t any sense of danger so half the immersion is gone’. The game is intended to be simulating driving a train. In real life there’s a huge amount of process involved in ensuring that the train does not get into danger. Day to day a driver isn’t battling danger. He has a responsible job but following the process is meant to eliminate any danger to the extent possible. The same incidentally is true of aviation and flight simulation. Each time a commercial pilot settles into the cockpit his thought isn’t ‘will we get there?’ it’s ‘where will I go eat when we get there?’ Yes, this is a simulation but there are other things - and more fundamental things - missing from the experience. For example if it’s a winter’s day when you climb into your cab on TSW it isn’t cold is it? When you peer under the train you don’t smell diesel do you? So it’s a simulation, but it’s limited. Even what people describe as ‘full simulation’ has many missing elements. Not having ‘danger’ in the simulation seems to be something that most users accept, or accept as a reasonable trade off to the issue of having good relations with the real world train companies. So, you are entitled to you opinion but I don’t think most feel that DTG are ‘turning their back’ here.
I also do agree that there is a lot of process involved in not getting into danger. But I also believe that if you fail to follow the procedures you should see what happens. That's why the procedures exist; If you don't follow them something bad happens. The plane crashes. Or the train derails. I would be really disappointed in a flight simulator that would bounce my plane back in the air if I hit the ground or a mountain, which is more or less the equivalent of TSW having derailments really really limited, almost nonexistent. The result is that I don't really feel the need to follow even the most basic of the procedures: The speed limits. If it was just me it would count as anecdotal evidence but as far as I have seen arround here and in the steam forums, I am not the only one. I don't need to follow the speed limits. 99% of the time I do because it's the "right thing to do". But this is not the simulation equivalent of a train engineer who must obey the speed restriction or else he gets penalised by the company or causes an accident. Also, comparing the absence of diesel smell or the cold like you mentioned isn't really equivalent to missing or dumbed down physics like derailments (or bad adhesion but that's another story). The first is impossible while the second is a normal feature already impemented in other simulators (TS immediattely comes to mind), which for some reasons didn't seem to have that big of a problem with licensors (only BNSF and some others i think? but definitely not with all of them). Anyway, maybe users really are willing to make the tradeoff, who knows. I am just really really dissappointed in the decisions DTG makes to dumb down a simulator that has a great potential. Throwing derailments out the window (essentially) is one of them.
MarkL well from my experience you’re going to be disappointed with most flight simulators in the way they represent crashes, at least the non-combat ones. I’ve never seen one that represents the thousand pieces of debris that occur in the real world. As to the problem being limited to only a few train companies I’m not sure that’s true. You also have to take into account that DTG will likely have represented to the companies that the simulator won’t allow crashes, so modifying the sim now would be an issue. All it needs is some links to some YouTube videos of ‘their’ rolling stock landing in the email of someone senior in the company and there will be a witch hunt in the company to find out ‘who approved it’ and ‘why they are never going to do it again’. In suggesting that my examples of the cold and smell aren’t relevant that was in response to your assertion that ‘half of the immersion is gone’. Not being able to crash the train is 50% of the immersion? You might get me (with a push) to 5% but half? Not having basic senses (cold and smell) are far bigger detractors from any concept of total immersion no matter how impossible they might be.
Please don't twist my words. Like I said above, I expect basic animations, as we have already come to expect from previous train simulators. Neither debris nor destruction. Admittedly I have only ever tried BMS Falcon so I don't really know what's up in the greater world of flight simulation. Maybe I am indeed in for a disappointment. I'm talking about the immersion technically possible with current technology available to a video game played on a PC or a console. Unfortunately sense of temperature or smell is not part of said technology so this is a moot point. Showing derailments, however, is technically possible. I even offered a middle ground solution that may or may not be attractive to DTG themselves (It probably isn't unfortunately for the reasons you said). Anyway I am not going to go into percentages and the 50% or 5% reduction in immersion. We 'll start nitpicking. I understand that you don't mind the absence of derailment mechanisms and this is fine. Like you said, you are entitled to your opinion. However derailments is a feature that exists elsewhere but not here. And this is a pity.
I propose that if deliberate derailments & so on were ever allowed, they would come with a severe subtraction from the driver's earned points, medals, goodies, etc.
