PlayStation I Am A Noob With Questions

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by morph147, Feb 21, 2021.

  1. morph147

    morph147 Active Member

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    Hey all, bought this game to play with my 4 year old because he is obsessed with trains. It’s over his head but I been enjoying it and he likes watching. So after about 3 hrs of game play had some general questions.

    1) what is the mu-42 switch do? Found something online that fixed my issue of being able to go in reverse pulling stuff but don’t understand why what I did did what I did.

    2) what does the cutoff switch do. Saw something when I had issues about putting it in freight mode but don’t understand what I use it for.

    3) how do I know what I need to do for gold on regular missions

    4) is there a way to go more at a constant speed? Feel like half of what I did was keep flipping throttle and break to random places to keep at a steady pace under speed limit but don’t know why or if what I did was good.

    5) there are a lot of add ons for this game and they are pricey and almost the same cost of the game. Can someone explain to me what is in them that makes it worth it? My son is already pointing at ones he thinks looks cool and I am already seein it being a nice chump of change for investment so trying to get an idea of what I am getting myself into or cut him off with the 3 that come with base game.

    thank you all in advance for the help with this
     
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  2. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    4 - Driving a train is much like driving a car in that you have to monitor your speed and balance the throttle and other controls to maintain speed. Unlike a car which often has one smooth power control trains tend to be "notched" or have some other way of having limited power settings so moving between notches (or feathering) is common to maintain a certain speed. Of course you can also set the power to 0 and coast
    This is one of the challenges of driving a train, maintaining the best speed for the route, and remembering that you may have to slow down for reasons that may not be known to you

    5 - There are a lot of addons, but you don't need to buy them all, there is no "end game" as such. The idea is to buy the routes and locos that you want and build up a collection. Think of it as a hobby where you can drive trains rather than a game where there's an end goal. My nephew (11 next month) loves trains and often gets train related stuff, and TSW or TSx DLC as birthday gifts...
     
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  3. TinTin_57

    TinTin_57 Well-Known Member

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    1) MU-42 put it in Lead or Dead if your are the front engine of the train, trail 26 if you are at the back pushing (I think)
    2) Cutoff switch can be freight or passenger. Choose the correct one for the type of service you are running
    3) You get Gold by attaining the number of points for that requirement. If you go to Explore then Scenarios within the menu, you can see the points requirement for Bronze/Silver Gold
     
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  4. morph147

    morph147 Active Member

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    1) I think I got this on the mu-a2 or whatever it is called switch, still slightly confused though what the difference is or why a train needs it.

    2) this makes sense. What is the third option for then?

    3) makes sense. How do you find it in story mode though or just play through story and then go to scenario later.

    5) this is good. I guess my question needs to be rephrased. What exactly is the new content in these add ons compared to the base game?
     
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  5. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    The MU and cutout valves are there to allow for Muliple Unit (MU) operation, two or more locomotives coupled together, all controlled from the lead unit. Both set up the combined air brake systems.

    the lead unit (the one you are driving) should have the cutout valve set to Freight- this activates the brake lever, otherwise it won't work! By contrast , the trail unit(s) should have it cut out, giving the lead unit control of the brakes.

    Similarly, the lead cab's MU2A valve should be set to Lead and the rest to Trail 26 (Trail 24 isn't used to date in the game). This allows all the locomotives' brakes ro operate together, controlled from the lead,
     
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  6. morph147

    morph147 Active Member

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    So the MU2A has nothing to do with the number of cars and which ever one I am driving sHould be set to lead and everything else to trail. Nothing set to dead?
     
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  7. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Correct. Dead is for a shut down engine being towed
     
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  8. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Common misconception. There IS no base game content. There is a bundled DLC pack which you get when you buy TSW2 but they're not "integral to the game", they're just this year's bundle. Next year's will be different
    So what do you get in new packs?
    Different routes, different locos, depending on what you have and what you buy those new locos might be in scenarios or as AI (computer driven trains) on the routes you have etc etc
    An example would be if you have Northern Transpenine it adds some new services to the newest route Southeastern Highspeed. If you don't have NTP you don't see those trains and can't drive them
    With the scenario planner (especially in free roam mode) you can drive anything on anything...
     
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  9. Doomotron

    Doomotron Well-Known Member

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    RANT: DLC never should cost the same as the base game, and in TSW2's case not one route DLC is worth the price. Some are complete cons. If you do want more routes, wait for a sale when their price is acceptable for the amount of content in the route.
     
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  10. Alex_m30x#7297

    Alex_m30x#7297 Well-Known Member

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    Where abouts are you from, and are there any routes that are near you, an before buying always look at different youtube videos showing them off, i would watch parts of the dovetail release stream, and some other people to get a good opinion. Also what is your favourite type of route, freight, high speed or commuter. Have a good investigate and dont rush!
    An questions about this i can point you in the right direction.
     
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  11. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    The base game is free, so they don't cost the same
    All cost is in the DLC, and what people call "the base game" is a bundle of three DLC included with the game engine (which has no actual content)

    In your opinion, fine
    In my opinion they're about right given they are self contained, inclusive packages in their own right; you can run any of the DLC with no other DLC installed and they still work as expected. That doesn't mean glitch free or without bugs, but as expected
     
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  12. Rudolf

    Rudolf Well-Known Member

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    Additional DLC give you more variety, engines that feel different when driving, a landscape that may be very different from what you are used to. They also may cover other periods in history. Wait for a good sale, maybe buy the collectors edition when it is in sale and give it a try. You also may watch eh dev streams to find out more about additional content.
     
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  13. DTG Matt

    DTG Matt Executive Producer Staff Member

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    morph147 I'd suggest if you have ideas of things you or your lad have seen that you could just post up here - tell me about x - and then you can get some specifics. I.e. if you're used to bakerloo line and wanting more UK trains, what does Southeastern do that's different to Bakerloo, what about Northern Transpennine - people will here will be happy to outline that types of things you can do and then you can try and make a decision on whether that would be fun to do. Fundamentally it's all about driving trains, but different trains on different routes doing different things all lead up to a very different experience.

    Don't forget we have railfan TV streams on Twitch and YouTube as well where we showcase all sorts of different content, particularly the new releases but also older content as well regularly, there's also an endless supply of videos on YouTube and streamers on Twitch who play all the different routes and trains so again, you can watch them for a bit and see it for yourself rather than just reading a bunch of peoples views on here (as valuable as they are, nothing beats just seeing it for yourself I think).

    Enjoy TSW !
     
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  14. TinTin_57

    TinTin_57 Well-Known Member

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    Good shout Matt, gameplay videos are very helpful both when learning but also to decide if a new route is for you or not. I also have quite a bit available on my channel running on PS4 and PS5, Cutting Closure for the class 66 is one of my most popular videos. I can only assume that is because of the EM2000 settings that have to be done. Which reminds me TrainSim-Matt if you could ask the marketing team to check the Keymailer requests they have please I would be grateful :)
     
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  15. morph147

    morph147 Active Member

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    Thanks everyone for the help with this.

    we are in the states so trains he is familiar with is good like the CSX ones. I really think he would enjoy a classic engine or two though like the classic steam engine one. Grew up near the town that had the first tanker car explosion in the United States and leveled part of the town so older trains are fun. plus my son he enjoys seein the old threshers and trains at the old shows and so the older trains have always been fascinating to him but ultimately he just wants to see the cool lookin ones.

    for me I am looking more for ones that I can just cruise around on. I been doing the one with the CSX trains on TWS2 and my big thing that I haven’t enjoyed with that is most of the levels I have done have been back up and go forward for several hours to dock with different train cars. I am going through it to hopefully get something else that is beyond this on the sim and can go look at rest of track or something different.
     
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  16. Lamplight

    Lamplight Well-Known Member

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    Sounds to me like you‘ve only been doing the switching services with the GP38-2 or SD40-2. You should check out the services for the AC4400CW to find most mainline runs. The SD40-2 has them as well. Just head to the timetable mode, select one of these locos and check the descriptions for the individual services to find out what they‘ll have you do.
     
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  17. RynoHawk

    RynoHawk Member

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    What they said.

    There’s no rule that says you have to complete the journeys in order or before you pick timetable services. You can move about at your leisure if you get tired of doing one thing and do something else.
     
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  18. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Caveat: some mainline services are too heavy for the SD40 to handle
     
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  19. formulabee#1362

    formulabee#1362 Well-Known Member

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    Gold medals are determined by not speeding and completing objectives. This gives up the maximum amount of action points, which at the end determines the medal you receive
     
  20. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    You didn't watch the four way Bakerloo challenge I presume
    There ARE penalties for speeding, but there are much harsher ones for being behind time on passenger services so sometimes caning the "back end" off the engine is a good tactic to keeping to time and making sure you don't drop hundreds of points at every stop
     
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  21. Alex_m30x#7297

    Alex_m30x#7297 Well-Known Member

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    you dont get points taken away, u just dont get as meny
     
  22. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    If you have a phone or a tablet, the App Store has a lot of very simple train simulators which are ideal for children.

    They are very unrealistic and the graphics are crude but for a 4 year old this does not matter and the choice to choose from loads of trains and routes may appeal. Best of all it’s free.
    There’s one just called ‘Train Sim’ which is very simple.

    Then you can spend your own money on a DLC that will make yourself happy.
     
  23. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    If you're late at a stop you can get hundreds of points taken away... it may not be a minus on the score you have but it's certainly a minus on the score you would otherwise have had
     
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  24. mclitke

    mclitke Well-Known Member

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    Cutoff valve regulates the brake pressure depending on what wagons you pull I believe. So if you set that valve to passenger it won't trigger brakes on goods wagons and the other way around, since they use different settings.

    Regarding other content, from what I read you might be interested in the upcoming Clinchfield route, which also comes with older locos. This is not released yet though and will of course be full price. Other than that, if you like passenger services as well, the long Island railroad (electric multiple unit) and the Peninsula Corridor (diesel train with gallery cars, optional additional dlc for this route with baby bullet and mp15 shunter) will be for you.
    Or, try something completely different and explore other nations!
    I will advice to wait for a sale though - these come very regularly.
     
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  25. Olaf the Snowman

    Olaf the Snowman Well-Known Member

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    That’s not correct. The brakes will work in passenger or freight mode. All it changes is the brake pipe pressure- 110 psi or 90 psi which is used for passenger and freight respectively but there’s no reason why you couldn’t have a passenger train use 90 psi or freight using 110 psi in theory.

    If you change from freight to passenger, you won’t get a brake application on the wagons until you reduce brake pipe to below 90psi unless you follow this procedure: put the train into emergency and then recharge the brake pipe to 110psi and then the brakes would work normally. Of course, this wouldn’t be (usually) done for operational reasons.

    The opposite is true so if brake pipe was changed to 110psi and you changed it to 90psi, you would get dragging brakes even if the brake controller was in the release position because the wagons think there is a 20psi reduction in brake pipe. So again, if you want to change brake pipe pressure to 90psi, you need to put train into emergency first and then recharge brake pipe.
     
  26. mclitke

    mclitke Well-Known Member

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    Thank you very much for the correction! It is good to learn how these functions actually work to understand why you are pushing buttons.
    Maybe I got confused with the old British locos, isn't it the case there that you have to apply the correct brake pressure setting for them to work?
    Also I just remembered, the class 66 is set to passenger break timing as well and it works with goods...
     
  27. Olaf the Snowman

    Olaf the Snowman Well-Known Member

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    No problem. The reasons for having 2 different modes is to do with operational reasons:

    1. The higher the brake pipe pressure, the higher the full service brake application. If brake pipe pressure is 90psi, a full service brake application in theory would be 64 psi. With 110psi, a full service brake application in theory would be 79 psi.

    2. The higher the brake pipe pressure, the less likely you’re going to run out of air. This is quite difficult to explain but the gist of it is you could fan the brake more with a 110 psi brake pipe before running out of air.

    3. So the higher the brake pipe pressure, the better it is for the driver in terms of braking abilities. So why does freight use 90psi? The issue with high brake pipe pressure, the better the condition of the brake pipes and connections need to be. You can imagine on freight wagons, they aren’t going to be maintained in as a good condition compared to passenger trains. So there’s a high change of brake pipe bursting on freight wagons which is why brake pipe pressure is lower.

    Just remember if you wish to switch between the two, you’ll need to put the train into emergency and then recharge brake pipe. Otherwise the brakes are going to act odd.

    In the U.K, passenger mode and goods mode doesn’t change the brake pipe pressure. It just changes the speed of application and release. I timed how long it took for brake cylinder pressure to go to maximum and how long it took brakes for release in both modes on a Class 66 in TSW:

    Passenger mode
    Brakes to apply to full service: 15 seconds
    Brakes to release: 12 seconds


    Goods mode
    Brakes to apply to full service: 23 seconds
    Brakes to release: 40 seconds

    Brake pipe is charged at 5 bar (72 psi) in both modes

    The reason for longer delay in application and release of brakes in goods mode is to do with slack (coupling) action to avoid snatches between wagons. The reason why it’s set to passenger on TSW instead of goods is because the length/weight of wagons isn’t particularly long. So slack action isn’t really an issue and it can run at passenger mode with faster brake timings. It used to be that if maximum speed of freight train was 60mph below (so headcodes 6xxx which means train will usually be longer/heavier), it would use goods mode. And if it was higher than 60mph (headcodes 4xxx), it would use passenger mode.
     
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  28. mclitke

    mclitke Well-Known Member

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    Awesome post, really. Thank you very much for the details, much appreciated! And sorry for opening a side discussion in this topic!
     
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