A Scary Experience!

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by phil.elliott, Sep 6, 2022.

  1. phil.elliott

    phil.elliott Well-Known Member

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    So I'm driving the Javelin north from Faversham, starting on DC on a rainy winter afternoon. The sky is mostly grey with a few tinges of pink forming around the underside of some clouds. All is going well, and I'm looking forward to a bacon roll once I finish up at St Pancras.

    But just as I pull into Ebbsfleet the windscreen wipers stop working... I'd gotten used to their steady rhythmic squeaking, but then... silence. I was too absorbed changing power supply to the overhead wires to notice right away, but as I pulled away from the platform it was clear the intermittent pattern had stopped.

    I changed the frequency of the wipers. Nothing. As a last resort I manually switched them to park left, then park right, giving me a few seconds of visibility before heading into a tunnel, and getting properly up to speed.

    Of course, there's no rain in the tunnel, and not a lot of visibility to obscure, so I relaxed back into the journey... but upon exiting the tunnel at over 200km/h the squall hit the front of the train and the world became a darkening mess of wind-driven rain. Travelling at that speed with no visibility - even being on rails - is mildly terrifying!

    A few more manual swipes didn't improve anything, so I sat back to ponder whether I should report the fault now and terminate at Stratford - annoying all the poor passengers in the process. Or... tough it out, especially since once I'm in the tunnels it should be fine.

    And besides, there's a bacon roll to think of.
     
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  2. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    Have DTG introduced random failures and not told us?! I had this happen to me in a old Renault 5 once and it is quite scary when travelling at speed and your windscreen wiper fails!
     
  3. phil.elliott

    phil.elliott Well-Known Member

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    Haha indeed! No, I think it's just a small bug, but I thought I'd make it into something more interesting :D
     
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  4. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    Well it is one excuse West Midlands Railway haven't used yet!

    I got the feeling the bacon roll was the main attraction on your mind :)
     
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  5. SonicScott91

    SonicScott91 Well-Known Member

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    I've had this happen numerous times in TSW2, there's no indication what causes it and how to fix it besides restarting your run. Fortunately, it's an extremely rare occurrence in my experience.
     
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  6. raretrack

    raretrack Well-Known Member

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    When it's happened to me in other DLC I've found that toggling to an external view and then back again will sometimes (but not always) clear the windscreen of water. Doesn't solve the core problem, but it can at least help you to see at key moments!
     
  7. DTG Matt

    DTG Matt Executive Producer Staff Member

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    The randomly stopping wipers bug is one of those that's been there for a while, and every time we spend some time to try and reproduce it so we can fix it - it scurries off into a corner and nobody sees it again until we've definitely all moved our focus elsewhere. Intensely frustrating :)

    Not forgotten however. We'll stamp on the so-and-so one day its not expecting it before it can hide.
     
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  8. BeastyBill88

    BeastyBill88 Well-Known Member

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    I had it happen to me while driving the HST, I was 500 odd yards from entering Paddington in the middle of a rain storm, they had been working no problems all the way since Reading only to fail as I get into the terminus, I did half sh*t myself as I couldn't see anything at all and had the HUD turned off so I wasn't sure how close to the end of the platform I was.

    Also had it happen on the West Cornwall Local while in the 150 that failed at Hayle, yet I had to get all the way to St. Austell.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2022
  9. March Hare

    March Hare Well-Known Member

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    In a way, though, even though it definitely needs to be resolved as a bug (when you can catch it), it hints at the possibilities for random system/power failures as a game option. Dynamic weather is a great step towards making things more interesting and dynamic, so could the future bring power and system failures as a toggle in settings...?
     
  10. DTG Matt

    DTG Matt Executive Producer Staff Member

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    As exciting as failures are, they must never wipe out your game and make it so you just have a random end-point, nothing would be more disheartening. All failures must be recoverable or work-around-able (its a word, just trust me). This means they require an ounce of thought and some extra systems put in place etc - would love to do it, but need to factor it in carefully.
     
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  11. March Hare

    March Hare Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely. Otherwise it's just the same as having a random UE crash, or a red light bug. I'd rather bugs get squashed first. Let what we have settle in, shine and refine.
     
  12. redrev1917

    redrev1917 Well-Known Member

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    Avanti West Coast has used this excuse before on a trip to Glasgow, due to faulty wipers at the driving end we trundled along from just North of Carlisle at 30mph until we could use the junction at Carstairs (Ithink it was Carstairs) as a triangle and turn the train 180 degrees and continue a very late service to Glasgow. So a faulty service doesn't necessarily mean game over, and the above could be really fun in TSW.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2022
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  13. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I think it would be great it faults like this could be set to happen as often discussed in the past.

    The oddest excuse I have ever heard was a Smethwick waiting for a very delayed London Midland service, which according to the automated announcement was delayed due to livestock on the line at the Hawthorns! Last time there were any livestock in that area would have been 200 years ago, unless it was an insult aimed at WBA supporters!
     

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