Well That Was A Watse Of 40 F***ing Minutes.

My understanding in real life is that from the moment the train is despatched from the station it has its "path"? Platform x of one station to platform y of the other? So that all the signallers know what train is doing what?
There is no fuzzy logic or variation? Train will go on this route?
My understanding of the red light bug is that an AI train tends to randomly stop somewhere blocking the whole route?

 

This isn't strictly true. With the length of those trains, one assumes that the sidings that the stop marker is located on (where sidings are the terminus) would be of such a length that the consist was built so that it could entirely exist on the siding without having the last wagon hanging over the points at the rear. In such case, it's entirely expected that the train would be in the correct place (ie. the stop marker) to within probably no more than a couple of feet. Same goes for any timetable that (theoretically) could end at something like a weigh station, or some such contraption that requires wagon x to be located at a very specific point

In real life if a train is running late to its timetable, then while they may take the odd liberty on a long straight bit of track regarding speed, a real driver is never going to prioritise speed over safety when it comes to arriving/departing stations or slow sections of track. If people are being "encouraged" to stick to line speed when they should be slowing down, then that is a user problem, not a game problem. TSW is a sim of real life, and I believe expects you to play the sim like one would drive a train in real life. If users choose to play it like a game, then that's on them, not TSW

Re scoring, while it could do with some polish, it does encourage in some ways. Insomuch as points are never deducted, but are rewarded for observing speed limits and arriving at the specific location required. If Mr real life train driver stopped with 100 yards of train hanging off the back of the platform, I'm sure that he'd suffer more than a points deduction

 

It's just a case of learning the routes, this is what real train drivers do. As you get to know the route you know what to expect up ahead. You remember that braking is heavily reduced due to low adhesion in the wet, you know that the next signal is likely to be red because of another service etc...

Drive to the conditions not to the schedule.

Trains sometimes run late, for whatever reasons but a train being late is better than a train being on time only to run a red light and cause a major disaster.

 

I've experienced the before, but never the after in what you describe (not to say that it can't happen of course); but what I have found is that where the target is the single arrow marker, as long as some portion of the loco is on top of it (after the player position) then it triggers. With the yellow markers that have the wagon/carriage outlines on the track, as long as some portion of the entire consist is within them, it will trigger. But yes, it is inconsistent even in the same scenario at times

 

An easy fix would be tolerance of passing a red signal marginally say by half a car length. Maybe throw in a massive ap penalty (for the few who care about APs.

Either that or move the stop markers back a cars length instead. Sometimes you can't even see the signal from the cab because the marker is so close to a signal and I doubt drivers would aim to stop so they can't see the signal

 

This would be ideal but I doubt dtg would spend weeks moving all the markers.

On some routes you get a tolerance when stopping at a marker then on others you have got to stop bang on the marker. Maybe in future dtg could give us a tolerance of 30yrds or something.

 

Well, yeah, also in real life you'd have to worry about things like splatting the blood and guts of some idiot who tried to beat the train. But much like how in TSW you never have think about pedestrians or cars, Clinchfield's train lengths are well within the siding lengths, and thus aren't really something you should be needing to think about.

Strongly disagree, it's just as much the fault of the sim for not penalizing the player when it should. For example US routes tend to display max track speed, and penalize based on that. This would give the impression to a new player that they should always stick to this speed. However it should often be lower after passing through caution signals, yet there's nothing in-game that indicates this to you. Add the tight scheduling on top of that and I don't see how it's the fault of a new player for not realizing they should slow down when the game makes no indication they should be doing so.

I might know everything you've said, but that's because I've spent years of my life looking up info on trains in their operation. A noob isn't gonna now that the timing aren't realistic. For all they know real drivers very well could've had to remain on the schedule down to the minute. Hell, in Japan their Shinkansen's have penalties for being seconds off, so it wouldn't be completely unreasonable for a new player to think that.

 

No, I meant that literally. I didn't even realise it could be taken as referring to the game crashing until you pointed it out.

 

Agree it’s important to stay true to the prototype. Red means red unless you get permission to pass it from the dispatcher. If the prototype has a signal and stop close together then more real is better than less real imo.

 

Disagreeing is absolutely fine, I have no problem with it! The only thing i dislike about these forums is the constant negativity, but a robust discussion is always entertaining to participate in.

Your POV is interesting, but will still disagree on the following points:
1. I haven't looked into how snugly the consists fit in the sidings, rather I was just observing certain scenarios where stopping on a sixpence would be not just expected, but required in real life. If they don't exist such as that in TSW, fair enough. Agree that the target logic needs to be improved, but I still wouldn't expect any more than a couple of feet either way, since if you're approaching a stop point you should be at a crawling speed anyway (clarifying edit: I mean when you're bearing down on the target, not when you're half a mile away of course)

2. Disagree again, negative reinforcement is a proven (probably, don't ask me for citations...) method by which to enhance any learning experience, gaming or otherwise, even if it is only make believe action points. Humans like positive acknowledgement and dislike being told directly or indirectly that they're doing LOVE

3. Re the US track speeds, I don't know enough about US rail to confirm or deny, but if true then absolutely agree it should be something DTG to add in, since we have the UK signs showing freight and passenger train limits (though only passenger is enforced on shared lines)

4. Shinkansen - Agreed they are scheduled to seconds, but all of those times have been calculated for the maximum safety of both the trains and its passengers, and if it does run late there will be penalties (depending on circumstance one assumes), but no driver who knows he is late is going to exceed posted limits especially on Japanese rail

 

I do like how you interpreted my er, interpretation correctly without me even typing a word, well done sir (not even the slightest bit sarcastic, actually impressed)

 

US routes have track speed markers. You may be having trouble noticing them because they look completely different than UK signs.

 

A thought while I was writing my previous posts. As I said before there are two types of target; the single pointer one and the yellow? one with outlines of the wagons/carriages. It seems the single target ones are the ones with issues, so perhaps they should be eliminated in favour of the carriage outline ones? Some of the front of the consists would still be inches away from a red, but if the train is anywhere in the yellow (and for the US freight routes those markers are going to be loooooong) when it stops, then the task will be fulfilled

 

I was more referring to Mich 's comment of "However it should often be lower after passing through caution signals, yet there's nothing in-game that indicates this to you.", I have seen the regular speed signs but do signs for this scenario exist either in real life or in game? Or is it a set of training that the engineer would be expected to know?

 

They're also much smaller and harder to read than the UK/DE ones IMO.

IRL, this is all route knowledge for the engineer and you will learn it in-game as well, but there is a lot of unnecessary frustration for new players.

Some routes implement speed control signalling, which makes it easier, but really every route should come with a basic track schematic indicating track speed limits at the very minimum.

TSW3 saw the return of manuals, so maybe there's hope.

 

Agree, the TSW3 manual is very good, its just a shame that for console (which I imagine attracts more noobs than PC does) there's no longer an easy, indeed for PS5 completely missing, way to access the digital manual. I forget how X1 handled it, but many times on PS4 the manual for a game was instantly accessible from the home screen (press down on the game tile). Wii u had a fantastic digital manual system as did the Vita, but apparently noone needs them anymore according to Sony/Nintendo

 

I cant understand why the manual isnt located within the training center section of game. A notable ommission IMO

 

I wouldn’t want to waste console storage space for something I can google on my phone or laptop

 

I was thinking more about opening a web broswer and viewing the manual that way, much like what theyve done with the video tutorials rather than being store locally.

 

Crikey, embedded videos in the game at 4k quality would be even more of a hit to the 64gb DLC limit...Correct decision there!

 

That’s a really good idea. I wonder what app that would open on a console

 

What app does the video tutorials open?

 

It would just open the browser and play (I assume) embedded YT videos