Even PC gamer is taking note https://www.pcgamer.com/train-peopl...juSWW4NNrrN6GRZU6biqxXol3td8knc4Jfl0kQeDRUrbQ
I've watched a couple of gameplay videos a few days ago (with significantly increased replay speed, so not listened to what was said). Are there no any signals on the line? I haven't noticed any. In the videos I saw a couple of drivers in their own trains doing their thing without having any conflicts/collisions on single track sections, so I'm wondering how it works there.
There are signals, but you need to unlock them later. If you play in Sandbox mode you see them right away. I think a lot of gameplay is about the tutorials for single player and then you really don't need signals. Till so far, the game is fun to play but I have now idea how long this will last. I will see. it is not finished yet. I think the gameplay is well worked out, but the scenery needs a lot of improvement and additions.
Certainly at first you only have a couple of locos and with one pretty much captive on the logging run it's fairly easy to keep tabs on where things are. If in doubt I will keep a "train order" book beside me on the PC desk to note the moves that are being made by myself and AI.
Think I'm in the middle of my 10th day right now. -So far I have 4 locos, 2 passenger cars, and 20 spine cars. -My line goes from Whitter to Bryson with work on the bridge out of Bryson. -I have #2 stuck working the Sawmill and lumber line running 2 7 cars trains up to the end of Conleys Creek branch. -I recently bought the bigger 10 wheeler to handle freight between Whitter and Bryson. -I have a Pacific, though this locomotive has severe issues with wheelslip, so it's now handles passenger duties. This is mainly AI controlled with flares, with me only handling refueling duties at the end of the day. -I moved #3 to Byson to handle local freight out of there, it also runs the logging line with my remaining 6 cars when possible. (These cars are moved with the freight train to/from Whitter) I don't want to buy the mainline east of Whitter from the Class1 yet, as I don't feel like I have the equipment ready to handle that much more line.
Which with TSW is exactly the opposite, up to a point, boring, repetitive and senseless gameplay and also, the TSW world is almost as dead and empty as Railroader's is (for now), while TSW is 5 years underway and still many routes are in need of having the latest features added. Given the dedication of Railroader's small core team and their responsiveness on their Discord, more eye-candy, scenery and lifeforms can be added since the gameplay is quite solid already. For die hard hoggers, perhaps a more comprehensive and realistic footplate experience in the steam locomotives will also come?
Interesting to see how others are approaching it! I just started Day 9, having only unlocked Bryson on Day 8. Like you, I've been having #2 handle the Connelly logging run. I'm lazy lol and have only been using the closest loader, and just sticking with the 8 free spine cars they give you. Between the fusees and the yard orders, it's mostly AI handling that part. I've been driving #3 myself and as an RP thing not using any AI with it. Up to this point, i've just been running one mixed train per day, doing my pickups and setouts around the passenger stops. But, with Bryson in the mix now, i think i'm gonna have to buy a 3rd loco. Thinking of moving #3 to AI passenger duty (maybe with another Pullman car), and buying the GP9 as my personal loco to do the local freight. I'm a diesel guy at heart, though i've had more fun with the steamers in this game than i ever have before lol. After that, i'm debating whether to go for the CTC signalling between Whittier and Bryson ($10k though, ouch), expanding the map west of Bryson, or buying some more freight cars (spine cars probably make the most business sense). Has anyone figured out any captive service loops besides logging? Can i deliver the lumber from the sawmill locally instead of sending to the interchange? Anyway, just about 24 hours played since launch- there's always "just one more" thing to do, lol.
I haven’t really tried the AI yet, can’t quite get my head round how it works as you don’t seem to issue commands as you would (say) in Trainz. So I’ve been doing all the driving myself which given I’m only just starting to rebuild the Ela Bridge isn’t too onerous. However I can see eventually it could be useful to automate the passenger service. Edit (1). Been reading on another forum the game is causing some major hardware crashes. Not happened here yet but then I only tend to play for a maximum 60 minutes. Edit (2). The map needs some representation of the populated areas it serves. At the moment you have the rail infrastructure, some of the industry it serves (not all) but no town buildings - houses, commercial or industrial structures not directly connected to the railway. I mentioned this point on the Steam forum but the dev was a little vague. Hopefully will come in time.
From what i can see, the AI has two "modes", that you can choose from in the inspector window, "Road", and "yard". "Road" is very simple, you can choose forwards/backwards, and set a speed limit. The AI will run the train in the direction you pick, at the speed you pick until it reaches the end of track, or an obstacle it can't navigate (misaligned switch, fusee, etc). You place fusees with Ctrl-F, and they essentially work as a "stop marker"- so you can place one at the station in Ela, for example, and have the AI run a passenger train from Whittier, and it'll stop at the station and discharge passengers. Pick up the fusee, place it at the next station, rinse and repeat. "Yard" is very useful for switching. you again choose forward/reverse, but this time you also choose a distance in car-lengths (0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, or 20), and the AI will run the train as directed at 15mph, and will also couple to any other trains/rolling stock in its path. You still have to manage the gladhands and anglec*kcs , but it's a pretty big timesaver.
Still really liking this sim. Noticed a comment in another post (can't remember where) saying that the physics in this sim aren't great, and the gauges don't work. I don't agree, the braking and acceleration physics seem very good to me, so far. Definitely noticable when hauling that heavy train, and I even noticed a locked up wheel when observing from outside when I applied the brake too harshly, - nice touch. The guages seem to operate fine for me as well.
I've been playing this game quite a bit in between my finals for university. I gotta say that this game really scratches an itch. I feel like my issue with a lot of the train sim games I've tried is they're all focused on driving the train, more so than the railroad as a whole. I love the tycoon aspect of the game. It makes it easy to set goals for expansions and such, and not just drive back and forth. I think the only problem that I can see happening is that it is kinda difficult to play this game solo once the railroad gets big enough. I have my line from Whittier to Bryson and it's not too bad with the AI, but I can see where expanding the line might be difficult. I hope the AI get continued improvement so that we can do things like setup timetables for AI to follow or something similar.
that's what multiplayer is for, and a CTC panel under dispatcher control but atm I doubt the Railroader devs will go this far, as the simulation needs to mature a bit first because, as usual, it will be horses for courses with the players having different interest so far, the devs' responses to problems and bugs is good, and fixes are put out
I am at day 8 and find two engines is enough. When one of them was in repair, I could easily run all tasks with one singe loco. As probably most people, I use the ten wheeler for logging mainly, which runs mostly unattended. The Mogul does both freight and passenger services. I run the passenger service 2-3 times a day, but now I want to move the source of the passenger train to Bryson, because it has far more space to store the coaches. Still thinking on how to do this in the best way, because all activities in the morning start at Whittier. This may be a reason to get a dedicated loco for the passenger services.
Must admit I have been distracted by the Japanese stuff but will have to find time to progress this a bit more. Certainly I have had no issue with just two locos, the 10 wheeler captive on the log train with the Mogul doing everything else. Once funds permit, I might invest in the tank engine and allocate it on the passenger job.
Still having a great time with this sim, so much playability. Didn't realise the Japanese sim was 12 quid, going to have to purchase, no brainer really.
I asm enjoying Railroader a great deal, but it isn't a direct competitor to TSW. I would say it occupies an intermediate niche between throttle-and-brake simulators like TSW, TSC, Run-8 etcetera, and games like Railroad Tycoon. In other words, the focus here is operations, transporting Stuff where it needs to go, and managing the assets needed to get that done. For example, figuring out how to feed a sawmill contract that demands 15 cars of logs a day, but whose siding only holds 11. A great niche, and one not AFAIK done before. (Also, the setting, the RL Southern RR Murphy Branch in western NC, is an area I know pretty well)
Loaded this up briefly on Saturday evening but could hear the GPU fan really spooling up, unlike anything else I’m currently playing. Will wait and see if more optimisation arrives in due course.
Recently bought RR and actually quite enjoy it. There’s quite a way to go in terms of sounds and some gameplay bits I think could be improved, but it’s a good start. The multiplayer aspect is brilliant.
Seems like the proper attitude towards the player/customer. And only a single person or very small team developing this simulation game?
So, todays update has made it where AI engineers can now properly whistle for crossings, another +1 to the devs for that.
It's a nice game,e specially if you like the gameplay. There is a lot of shunting involved and there is some progress, starting with a small railroad company with 1.5 locomotive. You gradually unlock more track and more work to keep you busy. I am not sure how long I will like to play this, at some point it will be more repetitive of similar tasks, but till now every day is different with slightly different challenges and you really need to think about the best approach.
I already got a bit bored with it and haven't even finished building the first bridge yet. Was also put off by the reports of CTD's potentially harming your system. I know when I fired it up a few evenings ago it was still sending my GPU fan into a frenzy so I promptly exited the game...
I think the biggest issue I have is how daunting the workload becomes when you have at least half the map unlocked, and you are playing single player. Trying to manage the Fusees for AI trains on top of keeping everything else moving takes awhile. I find it hard to finish 1 days worth of work in one sitting now. (Even have to change the time to 1:1) On top of that, losing Interchange space to cars to expand your route also gets annoying, as I'm pretty much at max capacity at Silva, and it forces my incoming cars to come in at 2 different times.
Yes I think they need to get some sort of semi intelligent route and task order in there for AI. Just dropping fusees everywhere is not a very efficient way of controlling things.
How is the multiplayer experience? Opening your server and hosting a session with friends to spread the workload?
I've been running into this issue as well. I have contracts with almost every company and I'm also building the Alarka branch, it's screwed up my usual scheduling of trains. I've also started to have a hard time keeping up with the different AI trains too. I've had more road freights end up in the round house than I care to admit. I think something to help the interchange issue would be to add an upgrade in the milestones to expand it. As far as the AI trains, I think it would be nice to be able to see how switches are throw and where fusees are on the map. Of course I would really like to see the AI fleshed out as a whole, but that could help mitigate sending trains where they shouldn't be going for the time being.
From one of Schnauz' livestreams I've learned there are some nice mods available already for Railroader: https://railroader.stelltis.ch which need to be enabled by adding a command to the Steam start up parameter box. Everything explained on the website and in the zip files. The serial port/tcp mod is interesting, for it allows an interface to a hardware CTC machine or software external dispatcher? Perhaps an adaptation of the Bakersfield Sub CTC machine from Run8?
The above posting has a link to Zuma's stuff. Modding community has picked up this game, which is good, and the devs are supportive of good mods, perhaps incorporating them in future releases. So far, I haven't got the external CTC program working, but the other mods are useful too. Save slots etc, so AI automation. You can customise your locomotives and rolling stock in the game, road name, road number and body and lettering colours. But inside the .json, you can also change other stuff, like position of the lettering decals to give your rolling stock a personal touch. Have been playing in Sandbox so far, and the standard key bindings gotten my fingers and brain all confused, used to TSC, TSW, etc. I've changed the movement keys to the arrows and reverser and throttle to the customary WSAD, and the train brake to ;', independend to []. I still find the view selection confusing, must think about that a little more and change more key binds. No RailDriver support, nor joystick support? Game should look good in VR, but needs further optimisation first, as perhaps does the multi player. Physics seem OK to me for a game, acceleration and braking, train handling in general, it feels allright. You can derail and break stuff and repairs are costly and damaging to your reputation. AI generally behaves intelligently, whistles and rings the bell at crossings, stops for lit fusees, turnouts not lined and obeys the signals, but I'd like to see a 15 MpH through turnouts into the siding. World is still mostly empty and completely lifeless. The are trees, lots of them, in those lush SC hills. But the little shrubs grow perpendicular to the surface and have candlestick stems sticking out, which looks odd on slopes and embankments. I don't like the trestles, too spindly, on real trestles the legs are wider apart at the bottom for better lateral stability. Locomotives and rolling stock seem OK to me, lot of detail like moving springs and brake rigging, and you can change the visual condition easily to get that run-down look on older stock. Steam locomotives seem really thirsty and hungry, so make sure to plan those coaling and even more important regular watering stops. General speed are 35 MpH, so no need for high drivered passenger locomotives? Must try double heading and pushing heavy loaded trains and try to find the locomotives most suitable for the tasks. You can set your private backwoods Appalachian railroad in any era from early 20th century to the 1950's steam/Diesel transition era. So, for an early access game with a different kind of railroad transport simulation, not bad, not bad at all. Reviews are mostly very positive, so the game has found it's niche. There are lots of gameplay videos on YT, also with rowdy mp sessions between a bunch of friends. Practicing dangerous practices like kicking and slipping occupied passenger cars, LOL.
I can still handle it. But it is getting harder, I am about half way unlocking parts of the route. It takes me now 2-3 days of gameplay to run one single day, starting at 6 AM and I am done round 20:00 PM now, but skipping a few hours during day time. I find that I am still gaining experience and I am at the point of getting a bigger loco, with far more tender capacity. This should make life easier if I want to unlock the hills.
Got the external CTC working thanks to Zuma's plugin that opens a tcp port and another of his programs that is capable of serving a webpage into your LAN with the CTC panel fully working so you can open it in a browser window on your laptop. No nifty train magnets you can push around like on the DS panel in Bryson, but still better than having to jump into the DS' office and back to your train. Waiting how the game will develop further, there are lots of suggestions made on the Discord, and people doing and.creating interesting things with what's available, including providing full documentation like an awesome track map. Schnauz is having as much fun as me blowing the awesome whistle mod: you can quill the 57! whistes like a pro to make your train go hooting, quailing and wailing through the remote valleys of the AS&DW railroad, the Zamu 'visual condition' mod are a must have too. So far, for me, this game is a hit and a keeper. Still trying to get the keymap and mouse handling more like in TSC, getting there, and you can change the Employee Timetable to have your new keys show. There is no inputmapper file AFAIK.
I gather it is a default Unity asset, probably like many of the vegetation assets also. The devs are working on making the environment more life-like and lively. At least you can have cool avatar already, in proper railroad attire, bib, hat, bandana, glasses and gloves and all.
Want to add in my Youtube recommendation. This guy, Professor Oleander, is a real railroader, technical advisor to some TSC steamers by Smokebox, and I like his way of presenting games, always providing a lot of background information. He's the one that introduced me to Run 8 years ago (and his CSX:Heavy Haul test is hilarious).
Railroader got another mod GP38 locomotives! Heavyweight passenger cars are close to release, as are several steam locomotives. Plus there is already a plethora of track mods, some useful, others less so. IMO of course.
Unfortunately, repainting the provided locomotives and rolling stock is impossible still. Only changing the solid colours is possible. Unless, of course, you're the author of a locomotive model. The GP38 has a snazzy paint scheme available: https://www.nexusmods.com/railroader/mods/146
Schnauz checks the new GP38 out: It is a slight pity the native Southern high hood version wasn't modelled
Railroader got its first articulated. Modeled after C&O's H6 class of 2-6-6-2 compound mallet: its not yet perfect, since the game engine doesn't cater for articulated locomotives yet bur for starters, and for free; it is an excellent start and very welcome addition to the roster
Schnauz takes a ride on the H6: the v1.1 cures a lot of the teething problems, like the wheelslip in AI mode Another video:
Also the GP38 got a spectacular update. It is now customizable with already quite a lot of options, SP style headlight clusters and a high short hood are in the works.
Another few mods have arrived: a model of Western Maryland's super heavy H-9 class 2-8-0 locomotive, and a B&O "wagon top" bay window caboose. Very welcome free additions to the sim, also a AAR design flatcar. Schnauz takes notice: regarding the 'outdated model' designation by its author, I hardly noticed. An updated model is in the works, ETA unknown
Railroader goes Japan, an intrepid user has created some mods to add JNR rolling stock, steam locomotives, Diesel railcars and a few buildings to the sim: Ste's MOD Uploader | uploader.jp (getuploader.com) use your online auto translator On a sidenote: the amount of track mods has grown to such a level, the authors are competing and sometimes fighting. Since the sim is still in Early Access, there is no modding standard, and some items like signals, signs and support infrastructure still remains fixed in place.
We have an ALCo in the game! The RS-3 has arrived. It is still in a somewhat rudimentary form, but the author has promised improvements, including the unique ALCo sound. But will we also get that characteristic ALCo greasy black smoke exhaust, since the emitters seem to be fixed? PS; there is also a 'hammerhead' passenger version: Alco RS3 at Railroader Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com)
Railroader might be going Release soon. A beta has appeared with lots of improvements and enhancements. It broke some mods, since the official modding standard still hasn't been declared. Railroader - Experimental: Railroader 2024.6.0 - Steam News The SIM is looking better and better and still is both fun and challenging to play and also excellent value for money. Schnauz gives the experimental version a look over:
I haven’t touched this for several months, but should take a look really. How is it performance wise now as I recall some issues previously when it was hitting hardware quite severely. Much as I need to burn out my current PC so I can convince the wife I need a new one, it needs to be done in a controlled manner!
