I was playing the Bakerloo Line was was reminded of Geoff Marshall's new video on London Underground dwell times, and was wondering if it was possible to have different dwell times in TSW. Dwell times can be different per station - London Commuter has longer dwell times at bigger stations like Clapham Junction and shorter dwell times at smaller stations like Hassocks, but this is not what I am suggesting. Rather, every time you stop at any station, the dwell time may change. One day you might stop at Chatham for 45 seconds, but play that same service again and you will need to stop at Chatham for 53 seconds. Perhaps, the next time, you will only need to stop for 39 seconds. Obviously, it is important not to overdo the variations. Even better is if this could be implemented on AI trains as well! It is a small change, but one I think might have a noticeable impact on gameplay. 'If this causes late running, so be it.' - Paul Tyreman I haven't seen drivers or guards shut doors on passengers because they are late (normally there's another reason) but you normally would let everyone on and off before leaving, so I don't think timeliness would be too much of an issue from this. Of course, this may cause early running as well!
I see your point but ultimately however much of a simulator it is, it is ultimately still just a game. Personally, I don’t drive to the timetable. I drive to the conditions / situations. Like you said, in the real world safety takes unprecedented priority over timeliness. That being said, there is definitely quite a large ‘Casual’ player base who do focus more on the completion of objectives, scores, medals etc. If somebody was to play a service which did include this “Dynamic Dwell Time” that you have suggested, and it ultimately led to them being late or being unable to complete the service to a standard they are satisfied with because of a gameplay mechanic I imagine it would be really frustrating, and ultimately a lot of people would just give up and go elsewhere. It’s all about finding the right balance between “Simulator” and “Game.” As ideal and great as some features and mechanics may be, the unfortunate reality is that some aspects just aren’t practical for a video game. Maybe if this was included as an option which could be enabled or disabled?
I had not considered this! Indeed, dynamic dwell times would mess with scores. I'm not sure having it as an option would work though - I suspect it is too complicated to have it as a toggle. Perhaps this idea is not as good as I thought!
For the routes that have short dwell times, watching until the passengers stop getting on and only closing the doors then will sometimes make you late departing a station. That works as a dwell time randomiser based on your arrival time and the time it takes the passenger animation to get everyone on board and can make you quite late over a full run.
