Reading the recent discussions over new routes, such as the teased Crewe route and what era would be most popular https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/all-aboard-speculation-thread.90544/page-3 Or the upcoming German 1980s retro set https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...d-new-timetable-discussion.90587/#post-985884 Plus regular discussions over a modern WCMLOS timetable or the creation of more packs similar to the Diesel Legends of the Great Western. The main problem is that you end up with the route and stock not matching, so you get Paddington with Westerns and OHLE or Pendolinos in Carlisle with old platform details. Got me wondering if a future TSW build could find a way to incorporate a timetable with 'mods' to the route itself - there are some very good mods on PC, which change posters, buildings and textures to effectively back or forward date a route to suit different eras, but obviously only for PC users and rely on volunteers to produce in their own time. If a DLC could include a 'mod' that was activated by choosing a specific timetable or scenario, it would allow developers to take advantage of the many well built routes that haven't changed much in terms of basic scenery and trackwork, add some scenic detail changes and focus on new stock instead. Since you would still need to buy the original route, it wouldn't hurt the developers if people sold DLC over the top. Think, 1980s ECML and Edinburgh to Glasgow with classic diesel traction. 1990s WCMLS and OS with Intercity stock. Modern WCMLOS, NTP and TVL etc. Even something relatively small like making Cardiff pre-wires for the new JT 142 pack would add extra value to that timetable. What are people's thoughts?
A weekend timetable featuring some mods to add, for example, different passenger styles - families, football fans etc. would make a weekend timetable more interesting and worthwhile to play - otherwise on many routes it would just be a quieter timetable with less AI that I can't imagine many people would choose to run.
I don't think it would be possible to change routes under a specific timetable, not with mods at least. The modern network is simplified in comparison to how it was back in the BR Blue era, and the BR Blue era wasn't as complex as the steam era when there was even more trackwork. I suppose one way you could do something similar is having the routes in different eras selectable on the UI, then you pick the era. I'll make GWE our hypothetical example here. So on the route menu, you pick your route, in this case Great Western Express. Then you get an option of route era: - Great Western Glory: Steam of the Great Western (1930)* - Diesel Legends of the Great Western (1970) - Great Western Express (2015) So they're still sold as individual routes, but on the menu, they would all fall under GWE and you get the option to pick an era before going into the normal Tutorials, Scenarios and Timetable selections. *Hypothetical GWR steam route. Come on, make this happen!
Very true, I don't think trackwork can be changed easily by a mod - but I was envisaging these as light route flavour changes rather than a fully modelled era, to permit quicker and easier timetable expansions. Developers could work off the trackwork and scenery of a route builder and focus on timetables and new stock/schemes.
It depends how far you want to go between eras, say you had a route set in 1970, you could make some small changes to fast forward to to 1990s depending on the route. I've done a lot of back dating and modernisation of routes on tsc and as mentioned, if you go from a 1950s route to a modern route and vice versa, there is a lot of track that will need adding or removing, a lot of stations back in the days of steam, with 4 or more platforms will only have 2 platforms present day. A lot of stations have had all the buildings demolished over the years and look completely different. Stations that no longer exist or now have different names or have been relocated. Then there's the track textures, wooden sleepers or concrete, signalling changes, semaphore to colour light signalling to the modern led signals. The classic signal boxes then are replaced with modern signal boxes then no signal boxes. New roads and bridges. Areas that a few decades ago was open country, now transformed into giant housing estates. Sometimes changing the era of a route will take just as long as creating one from scratch. Sometimes a lot longer. Take Blackpool branches for example, rewind several years into the past and the route is completely transformed.
True, it wouldn't work on every route and would only be a rough modernisation or retro conversion, but better than at the moment trying to do vintage stock on modern looking lines.
