I just wanted to put my thoughts out there on this and hope others do too. This was one of the new tools I was very interested in. With too many routes and DLC the game can become a bit like netflix whereby you spend your gaming time surfing for something to play. I really love the quick play tool as this opens these up a lot more randomising them. With time as of late I've used the sub 30min tool a lot more (I do prefer longer routes but work and study is a ballache at the moment) and I've found some nice little runs as a result. I would however like to make some proposals which I hope could be introduced in the very near rather than two year future. Filter for region or country More time filters - 15min, 30min, 45 min, More than an hour, More than 90min. Passenger or Freight. DTG JD just a tag as I think this is a bleeding good feature!
Hey - thanks for the feedback. I believe when Sam and Matt were initially describing it, we wanted to see how many players were using it and build out additional functionalities from there. The toggle to remove tutorials from QP was the first amendment to the tool. Those filters all sound reasonable though, and would be where I imagine we'd look to go next if we were to add on additional filters.
Like DTG Protagonist said, however, it must be quick to play. It is no good if you have to toggle all these settings and click through many screens. I too like the idea of quick play (and am jealous of those who have TSW3 because of it), but we must be careful to not overload the user with too many options.
I used it last night now that the tutorials can be eliminated and it put me in a scenario in the BR425, a train I haven’t driven for a long time, on HRR, a route I haven’t driven in a long time, and it was quite the challenge having not played much German stuff since the PS5 DLC limit made me uninstall it all in TSW2. I also used the opportunity to check out the PZB helpers and successfully completed the scenario without a brake application. The feature helped me break out of my usual playing pattern when I had a half hour slot to fill and couldn’t decide what to do. It’s still a bit limited due to the small number of routes I have installed due to the DLC limit but even with that it put me in a service I wouldn’t have chosen myself at that time. I agree that more time periods would be a good addition (as just a half hour cutoff is very restrictive if you have a bit longer than that to spare but don’t want a 2 hour session to pop up) and possibly a country filter but as a tool for putting you in something you haven’t done and maybe wouldn’t choose, too many options would likely negate the best thing about it, the randomness.
The more filters you want, the more you can choose your service yourself... What I choose for myself are tutorials, scenarios and journeys. Why? They are specific, so I choose them specifically! A pool of random services from the timetable remains! That should be the intention of this feature imho. All it needs is a quick skip function. Then you can skip and choose!
Now I had three scenarios in a row again! They are specific, so I choose them! Please take them out too. It's called "Quick Play" not make a random scenario! There are hundreds, thousands, over tens of thousands of timetables! Longer or shorter. If you can still skip that, it doesn't need anything else. Please... I have >10,000 timetables and 300 scenarios here! And now I'm getting four in a row! Is that coincidence or on purpose? For me, this great feature is becoming increasingly useless and uninteresting!
I really like it. Maybe because I'm often too lazy to make a decision! But also, as Chief mentioned above, it puts me back in cabs or on routes which I have neglected or avoided, and brings out the variety on tap in TSW. Agree with more granular time filters being desirable. Also agree that the weighting in favor of scenarios should be taken out.
There are services, especially on US freight routes, that go well over an hour. So I think it would be good if you could choose between short, middle and long time. So >30min, up to 60min, <60min. And a skip option. It doesn't have to cover more. The choice between passenger and freight, especially US, does not occur to me here. If you don't like that, you don't own this DLC anyway...
A skip option would be nice actually. Perhaps the tool could choose the service etc, show you it and enable you to skip. Perhaps that takes the quick play randomness back a step mind you
I didn't use it at first as it was always a training run it would put me in but now that has been sorted I've used it over a dozen times over the past few days. It's fantastic and I love how random it is. It's a great addition to the game and I personally hope it's kept as it is.
I think a double ended duration slider would be a very useful addition, with minimum and maximum settings (something like the margin setup in word processors or dead zone adjustments for controllers). A sensible default pair of limits (for me) might be something like 20-70 mins. I agree that country, route and journey type (eg high speed/commuter/freight/shunting) should be selectable, I often know what kind of train I want to drive but not where or when. I agree that the entry screen should not be over cluttered, but every available setting could default to random and therefore have no impact on rapid game start. Ideally a player's preferred settings would be stored for future use (perhaps a tick box for overwriting preferred options). Another possibility would be a "throw me in at the deep end" randomize button to temporarily reset stored preferences. I think more filtering options would be more efficient than potentially repeatedly skipping a random game.
