Just wondering since most people are into trains. Are there also people that are into buses here? Just wondering since I lately also into buses, well, sort of. I was first into buses (around 2017?), but it was boring so I went on with trains. But I recently has a interest back to buses along with trains (trains is still my main interest).
Can't stand them, has been further reenforced by another nightmare bus trip on Tuesday. I try to use them as little as often.
I was getting a bit of an enthusiastic thing for them a long time ago now but not now as far on that front. I was more about age 13 then. I use them quite often where I live and go, trains aren’t very efficient where I live. I’ve been on a couple (6) 28 hour rides in my life on a coach. (Between Northern England & Catalonia, Spain) and not so far but separately to Paris and London. Game wise, I play a bit of Bus Sim 21 and Fernbus.
I have a small interest in Buses, very specifically the Devon General bus company. These were the buses I used to travel around on as a child. I have quite a few models and recently got a book on the history of the company. I also enjoy my morning coffee from a Devon General mug. That’s the limit of my interest though. Here in Zürich there are buses everywhere and I catch one most days. They don’t really interest me that much though.
In the real world, buses (usually city buses) just get me to a train or after leaving a train to destination that is a couple of kilometers away from a train/metro station, and for some longer distances I take buses only where trains don't go, or in the cases when "buses replace trains". For the games, I have some bus games (from searching for "bus" in Steam library - I may have some more if there are bus games not having "bus" in their title, but I don't have OMSI2), like: Bus Driver, Bus Simulator 2012, New York Bus Simulator, Bus Driver Simulator, Bus Simulator 16, Bus Simulator 18, Bus World, Fernbus Simulator, but some of them I've never played and most have the play time under 6 hours, a couple not more than 2 hours. None so far have had play time over 30 hours. I've also played Bus Simulator 21 for a few hours on a free weekend some time ago, but I didn't get it, as I knew I probably wouldn't play it much afterwards, either.
Due to the BT Fibre people blocking our driveway several days last week (and I CBA to ask them to move all the barriers) we used the bus to do a couple of our afternoon walks. Mixed experience, mainly same as trains - if crowded it can get noisy and smelly, especially if the person in front is still breathing out last nights spicy dinner. Modern buses especially the ones in Swindon have sacrificed seating for disabled and pushchair “walk in” passengers so unlike buses of old there aren’t that many normal seats. The roads around here are pretty dire so bus suspension picks up every ridge and pothole. We took the Stagecoach 55 over to Wootton Bassett on Wednesday. At least it was a double decker but was rolling and pitching around like one of those old Blackpool trams at speed on the reserved track north of Cabin. And trying to walk down the stairs while in motion is quite a challenge. Though at least we don’t have rear open platform buses, which would give today’s H&S a nightmare. Glad to get back in the car this week! As regards simulation. Well I own OMSI2 but it’s horrendously buggy, now abandoned by the developer and publisher and I can only control it with the mouse, which doesn’t go well with my neuropathy. There are quite a few UK add ons but like TSW, seems to focus on modern rather than more traditional buses. I also bought “The Bus” but a typical Aerosoft game, buggy and unfinished. So rarely touched. Driving games are best left to trucks (ATS and ETS2) which are generally good, or the rally games where you can just rag the cars around and have a bit of fun.
Another thing is that I rarely take buses (aside from my school bus, to which I hate). I always prefer to take the train, but I don’t mind a couple of bus trips every now and then, as long as they don’t get stuck in traffic too much.
Although my city, Boston, has a pretty unique trolley bus line that actually goes underground like a subway. I’ve never ridden it, but I’d like to someday
Sounds like living hell to me Vern! I must admit the people who do our local buses are alright and an independent, family run company (I believe one off the oldest independent bus companies) but the only snag is that to get to the closest bus stop includes a 4.5 mile walk/bike ride to get there. I did have an experience with a cheapo, Stagecoach or First, bus on Tuesday which is what has sent me into this rage! They are horrible things and very, very dirty as well. The Mrs loves buses though so I am thankful when she only asks me to drive her to the bus stop rather than into the middle of Stamford myself, apart from that we might as well get rid off them! No I haven't though I can certainly imagine!
Let’s say it’s a melting pot with on one side distinguish gentlemen and on the other side the scum of the earth .
Regardless of OMSI2 having a 32bit engine -using the 4GB RAM patch- it performs and works flawlessly with my G29 and the nutty bit about a 10 year old game with MENSA programming, you can alt+tab to enable TrackIR, go back in the game, press Alt and switch it on/off at will along with pressing 'O' switches wheel off and mouse steering/acceleration on/off. With zero issue. The ONLY game i have ever owned that has this feature, without having a stroke like games of today. It's either TrackIR/G29 started before or close the game and restart after launching TrackIR/G29 OMSI2 had this 10 years ago!! Lets take an I280 ( Ikarus Bus), which requires glow plug heating at -15 and the floor boards removed to gain access to the (fully moving gearbox linkage, driveshaft,engine pulleys) to turn on the water valve from engine to the matrix in the cab, which then requires several switches and pumps to be turned on and of course a realistic heating time and a manual gearbox (6 speed) Not to mention the thousands of miles of driving on the umpteen varying country maps and routes, inc different current (real money used) and genuine spoken languages per DLC. The funniest thing i came across yesterday was giving a passenger lots of loose change -they gave me a large not for a small fare- so i thought 'here you go' lol Then they remarked that 'this will put a hole in their pocket' I was astonished. Apart from the 'The bus is too hot/cold' you get the 'where the bloody hell have you been' when late amongst a plethora of dialogue. This inc passengers that will get up and open the hopper windows if it's too cold, are what will always separate OMSI2 from the rest of the genre. Those that say otherwise are not true simmers and haven't played it. I've conversed with people playing OMSI2 on high end RTXs and Win11 and it works perfectly fine. Beauty has nothing to do with realism. The Bus is the exact same as Fernbus or Tourbus. Same engine, same interiors and same functions, same UE5 -apart from a ticket machine. Everything else is identical in function just modified to represent and olde model of bus. The passengers are the same crossover between games. It is after all TML. What I’m talking about, which you clearly never got with OMSI2 and more than likely never got working, is the realism side. Manuals gears, glow plug heating, internal heating, add blu. The biggest and monumental difference is the amount of routes in one DLC inc around the world with correctly speaking passengers and currency used. Then couple that with the hundreds of buses that the sim now has. Anyway, I’m not into ‘candy graphics’. It’s gameplay I want. Give a passenger in OMSI2 a pile of coins as change and you’ll get a terse reply! OMSI 2 was built from the ground up to simulate, not only buses, but the job of a bus driver. Having to LEARN how to operate your bus, how to manage the climate controls so your passengers don't freeze, having to learn how to set a route in the buses that have on-board route systems (voice comments for passengers). Some buses even require some reading to learn how to even start! Driving most buses in OMSI is a serious experience an it is more realistic than in ETS2 / ATS. Yes, it requires some dedication and some reading (I printed out the manuals for base and dlc I would use)... ...but, that "hard work" pays off in so many ways; even the sounds of driving the buses, from the clinks and claks to the sound of the engine, to creaks and gears... What a delight! Now, if the devs would/could keep on tweaking their game over the long run, Iight be inclined to keep supporting them. But every game that comes out is barebones like base OMSI, release as many DLC as OMSI, but offer none of the level of "simulation" OMSI offers. Then the game gets "abandonned" for a new game that is simply barely the same as the previous one, cycle repeats, with only slight graphical improvements. The buses modelled in the base game are from the 80s to the 90s and the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the other hand, play the London, Rheinhausen or Hamburg DLC you have hybrid and bendy buses of today. Couple that With a fully electric bus, daylight running lights, auto rain sensors, charging at the garage with With more features and detail than you will ever see on anything made today, inc The Bus. Playing something like The Bus or Bus Sim # with absolutely zero realism, no real bus computers, heaters, gearbox overheating using retarder, passengers that OPEN or CLOSE windows if it’s hot or cold, failures of full engine, hydraulic and air systems, full realistic engine startup in cold, real aircon or internal heaters for passengers, steaming up/ misting windows, mirrors, dirt than sticks to the windows or outside (it has jet washers on the wipers) snow that builds up on external parts of the windows,tyres and bus. Do we have people walking about ALL the streets? Do we have configurable numbers of passengers because it’s the weekend or rush hour? Do wehave variable traffic? More taxis on the road at weekends or more cars during the week or bucket lorries doing early morning runs? The answer to that is a resounding NO. There’s nothing, no people, no variation in traffic on any given day. Just the same empty voids and the same generic people at bus stops. No mixed languages; German,French,English, Asian etc. which I can have throughout entire maps a mix of what I want inc the currency that that country uses. deutsche mark To euro or dollar to yen. That says enough about todays shallow Bus Sims. They may have modern UE5 ( Fernbus and Tourist Bus) underneath, they are empty shells - aside from realistic rain (not gameplay) I rapidly got bored of non existent sounds, LOVE road sounds, acceleration like an F1 car etc. Plus a biggy, you can drive MANUAL buses on OMSI inc engine braking, proper real clutch bite and - get this- bump start a bus in gear going downhill! Nothing out there does that alone!!! Every inch of detail has been recreated in many buses. There **isn’t even a manual with ‘The Bus’** that about sums up the realism and work put into it…. Do you think real buses and cars don’t come with manuals! OMSI 2 has a steep, steep learning curve which is pretty much beyond today’s average gamer.
Since we’re talking OMSI 2, it was a title I once picked up & promptly refunded a few years ago, after not being at all impressed by its performance, woeful accessibility & generally being quite dated. After trying to find something else to satisfy that itch, things such as bus simulator were far too arcadey, the Bus IMO is terrible & doesn’t appear to be making much progress over the years, and then finally trying to cobble together some sort of experience in ETS2, but being left dissatisfied by that approach - I did find myself going back to OMSI 2, to do much more research & time investment into getting it setup. Boy was that a good decision, the biggest things I did for OMSI was getting the 4GB patch & using Nvidia Control Panel to force AA. Initially I started off with using my PS5 Dualsense controller, combined with a stream deck for controls, but these days I’m running a Moza R5 base with their truck wheel & it’s been great. The controller was causing some issues with acceleration & breaking, and whilst some tweaking did get around the accelerator issues, the break was still pretty rough, so moving to a Moza Rig was in part a solution to that. Overall, after a good few hours of messing about with settings & mods, I’ve now not only got a half decent bus sim, but generally a good driving sim all round. To top it off, if you’re looking for UK bus simulation, you practically have no other choice anyway. It’s not to say it doesn’t have problems, it really struggles with frames & night time is basically unplayable since it really does not play well with all the lights, it still has a crash every once in a few hours, but overall it’s very much playable & even more important - enjoyable. Personally I’m looking to get it running on my steam deck, but I’ve seen quite a few issues reported regarding Linux compatibility, particularly with custom content which I would use quite a lot of, so that project remains on the back burner.
I live in a countryside area and there is only one bus line to the next bigger city (around 18km away). The route wasn't even build for that sort of traffic (a road build for small cars in the 60s or 70s) and consists of some sections with deep hangs, almost no security measurements and thin sections including curves with no insight what's going on behind the corner. I had to take this bus service for some necessary trips in the past and for the last time traveled on it on December 1st. Some experiened bus driver of those who regularly got swapped out (don't know what reason of this decision from the company is) apply the horn before these curves and with that avoid incidents. But there are others which drive absolutely irresponsible and fast through these hillside serpentines. Just saying travelling this route on rush hour times preferably 6 am in the moring when everything is dark, is an even better experience for your nerves. Thereotically this route should be forbidden by the operator and the local government, but the those are only about to save more money and the citizens are forced to use it because there is nothing else here. Mark my words to say, it's only a matter of time until something bad happens there. This route should be really awarded as "the trip to death". I will feel very happy for the moment once I can move away from here to not being exposed to use it anymore and it stops giving me nightmares. But these experiences are really enough to say "No" to buses for my whole life time and only would move to a place again with a stable railway connection again. But apart of this circumstance it's quite a lovely town I live in, even has fiber optic connection, but infrastucture is dieing here, which is bad.
