Hello all, Very simple thread, I will start playing Boston Sprinter for the first time this week, however am well aware of the issues this route has had with the in cab signalling system. Have these been resolved? I don't want to use them unless they function as per real life. Thanks in advance.
This route came out last September iirc. And this is how long we've had to wait for the route to be properly playable (at least with safety systems). I don't know whether DTG are lazy, incompetent, or just too driven by money from new products to care at this point. Perhaps all three. Never trust them when they say a fix is being worked on.
I have now made several northbound, timetable east, runs with Amtrak and have to say the signals are working just like I would expect them to. Just did the Amtrak 172 Providence to Boston and all was well until I was almost at South Station when I got a red, and expected it since there was another train occupying my platform. It did not move, so went into free roam and to its locomotive and set up the cab, which wasn't. The signal in the cab showed restricted and once I finished, the train began to move and cleared the platform for my train. Was a few minutes late, but this kind of thing happens all the time on the NEC with trains departing late for many reasons. It did not bother me, since I was able to correct this issue. Will now try some west bound ones to Providence.
There are still problems, but compared to release, I find it much improved. The F40, which was basically undrivable with safety systems, now works much better. There are still some services getting stuck and backing everything up. Usually, if I spawn in instead of using timetable, this can be overcome. As indicated, you can also try to get out and fix the backup yourself, though this doesn't always work. More specifically to in-cab signals, the biggest problem now seems to be ATC holding the speed too low, and sometimes not agreeing with lineside aspects. I usually just turn off ATC to get through these parts. AMTK services do seem to work better. But I would still recommend it. It's not crazy bad like it was. I also don't think it's too likely that whatever is left to fix will be fixed very soon. But, if it's still a game breaker, then I would recommend the Harlem Line, ATC and ACSES work very well there.
Thank you for your responses, NateDogg7a you mentioned spawning in/timetable mode, what about Journey Mode? I like to play through that and complete it before I decide whether the route is enjoyable enough to play via timetable mode.
It's not too bad. I've driven the Amtrak and MBTA without any noticeable problems. Though I do agree that their ratio of new paid DLC releases to perfecting (reasonably) is suspicious. I've discussed this before at length, but I think their developers and designers do a fine job with the environments and trains, but are pressured to keep releasing new paid content at the expense of fixing and improving existing releases. So it's frustrating, to keep seeing constant ads for new stuff, when there is still 5% more that should be done with releases. But that's what it is. Guess it's a balance of how much people are willing to accept and pay. I recently got 2 new DLCs after a bit of a break from this game, so maybe their strategy is good, though a bit unpleasant.
Unfortunately, you can't spawn in and get credit for completing a service in Journey mode. Of course, Journey mode is just a collection of services that you could play on the timetable anyways, with customized weather. I do understand what you're saying though; I like to complete the journies too. That being said, I was able to complete the NEC-BP Journey. There are a few tricky parts, like where you can't drive a train into a shed and instead have to do a convoluted yard move. But, it is not impossible, unlike some of the timetable services.
Ha I remember that shed move. The cars go through the door but the loco derails. I went around instead. Had to get a little creative.. Get the job done!