With the new San Bernardino route, there will now be several individual timetables. One for weekdays and one for weekends. Until now, the timetable mode was a gimmick for me personally to see and choose from as many trains as possible in ONE timetable. Recently, however, more and more different timetables have been published for a single route. Earlier locomotive DLCs were mostly integrated into existing timetables. Yes, again it won't suit some, but that's what annoys me about TSW at the moment. Do you think it's good that more and more individual timetables are being added for individual routes?
I think DTG starts now with timetables the same way as for rolling stock. When a route gets new rolling stock, not only one timetable has to be adapted, but several at the same time in order to have the new DLC in each individual timetable. This costs more development time and more time to revise. Now you don't just have the same locomotive a thousand times, now you also have the same timetable a thousand times. I'm sure that's not the best idea for TSW.
I think it works for san bernardino because there isn't a ton of services. For other busier routes that have different weekend and weekday timetabes, you end up doubling development time and now you have 2 timetables to maintain separately
A weekday and weekend one for routes that has barely 30 trains a day. switching it up between passenger or freight focussed for me is fine. Great western express with both a modern and older (diesel legends) timetable or West somerset having a steam and diesel railtour is pretty great too. I don't like for example Arosaline with each dlc like the repaints and the agreggate wagons rivet copied the timetable and added a few formations and about 10 more services or however many it was. or for example all journey mode services for Cathcart Circle being on the old timetable. I really hope with the addition of optional layers and services we can move to no more of the reduced and normal timetables and let the players themselves choose if they want more services or more performance.
I never understood the timetable thing in TSW. DTG go to a lot of effort to create timetables in a game that is nearly impossible to finish. having said that I've completed GWE and done 1002 runs on SEHS and 500 on BML but surly the average player will never complete them all
most US routes have weekday and weekend service so for example let's say LIRR the services number are not the same at all so you would have to treat them as two separate timetables
I think for San Bernardino makes sense for it, as the Weekend Timetable is mainly created for both more freight, as well as to make use of the Auto Club Speedway station to simulate the services that Metrolink used to run for the NASCAR races at the track. You can't really do that on most other routes, as other routes would have less station stops without any other benefit. An example being CalTrain, who doesn't serve either College Park, or the Gilroy bound stations on the weekend.
It simulates what the railroad feels like. You aren't expected to finish it. Just treat it as a day in the life of this route
I much rather have 1000 services to do. each one something else to look out for. adverse signals, railtours, weather impeding your traction or seeing a special train because the CC livery and substitution gods have decided for that to happen. I remember once seeing a 204 on a container train in Dresden going towards Riesa. That loco doesn't even show in the timetable. The timetable makes the world feel alive if done well and with an even better dispatcher makes for some interesting scenes. I don't think anything needs to be said about the options you have in a route. sure you can complete SEHS if it were only 20 services on the high speed line with the javelin. but then you would've missed out on all those countless hours and 982 other services you could've played. For completion now I personally strife for the journeys first. a full timetable? maybe I did all 363 on RSN already yeah. but I am glad that even with that route having almost completed the journey. I still have a lot to go and enjoy on there.
I think it's great- like i said in the SBD article thread, weekend timetables are common here in the US, and will let DTG maybe do some more creative things with special services and allow us to use more existing stock in timetable mode.
It doesn't really take much more development if they're for different things. You don't have to layer everything into everything. For example a "newer" timetable and an "older" timetable....the newer stuff only goes in the newer timetable. You don't need to update the older one unless you have older stuff. If the freight is in the Weekend timetable for San Bernadino, then you just have to link to that for freight.... makes it easier for developers and programmers later. I think it's not only preferred, it's almost NECESSARY for the purists out there who will whine about things not being "100% accurate." For example... without doing a railtour timetable, they have already whined about seeing AI steam engines on their modern EMU route. It's less an issue now with layering controls, but sadly some still aren't satisfied even with that because it takes more work on their part to set up and they'd rather just keep others from having fun instead. =-) Specific timetables where they make sense are an improvement. It helps tailor specific times/events to a theme (rail tours, weekends, or even historical eras) Far from increasing workload, they actually reduce workload if utilized to tailor stock and layers to where they are appropriate. If freight runs on Weekends on San Bernadino, then it runs on weekends. And it's accurate to see lots of freight moving when you are doing freight. You don't have to worry about that freight on the Weekdays, which means the layering and "route hopping" is simplified too. It actually INCREASES playability of a route because you can always create slightly "fudged" tables that are a bit off the normal timeline, or with a semi-fictional (anachronistic) entry in it for players to have fun with. That way if the "purist" players don't want to run 1990s locos on the 1980s NTP line for example, they can stick to the "normal" timetable. Meanwhile players who DO enjoy a bit of "fudging" to see their 1975 or 1995 loco on a 1980s route can choose that separate one. It just opens up a lot more possibilities, especially for future expansions.
As for German content, weekday vs weekend does not bring anything but omitting large part services, but it would be interesting to see multiple timetables set to different years. Zusi is doing this very well, most routes offer multiple timetables that capture an interesting part of one day in different eras. Once you drive in a modern EMU timetable, another time it's twenty years back in declining IC consists pulled by BR 120. The scenery does not change (and usually is heavily mismatching, stations capturing state in year 2000 even for 2020 timetables), but that's a price to pay for interesting and varying gameplay. LFR is an obvious candidate for such treatment.
I don't mind how many there are, just as long as they are not half-arsed. I would prefer one good quality timetable as opposed to two shoddy timetables.
I like how it's being split between freight and passenger. I don't know the route, but if it's realistic, it's quite a nice addition.
