Hey all. I was thinking, and one of the things that bother me that I thought I'd suggest here is how empty some lines seem due to the only trains that are actually being simulated are from actual drivable parts of the route. First of all, in Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr there's this service RB33 Essen-Duisburg which carries the destination RB33 Aachen. In my honest opinion it should only be logical that if one has the HRR route, in the Schnellfahrstrecke route a BR425 should show up every hour at station Aachen in timetable. I don't mind that the BR425 is not actually a drivable service on Schnellfahrstrecke timetable mode, but just having that RB33 actually show up at Aachen just makes the world feel more alive, and the stations like they're actually used. I really hate how some routes have this huge Hbf station, and only 3 or 4 of its 11 or so platforms are actually ever used. (looking at you, Hagen Hbf & Aschaffenburg Hbf) Again, I really don't mind that all those "drive by services", are not actually accessible and only spawn in to stop at a station before driving straight out of map again. Adding that would really make the world feel so much more alive. Also, as more rolling stock becomes available, it's entirely ok in my opinion to then change some of those "drive by" trains with a more realistic train so the map becomes more real and the kinds of trains used more diverse. Another minor detail could be how now that we have ICE's, a drive by on the small part of the MSB route that in reality hosts ICE services could occur every 2 hours like in reality to make it feel real. With the addition of more and more routes, it has gotten better, but it's still far off from actually feeling real. TLDR; routes should be more busy, even if the trains only exist to fill up an otherwise unused station platform for a minute before driving off into the sunset. Also, assuming you have both routes installed, if a train has a destination that is represented in multiple maps (Hagen Hbf), the same services should come and go on both maps. And if a train has a destination that appears on another map (RB33 Aachen (Sfs) - Essen (HRR)), that same train should appear on both maps, even if it's not actually drivable in timetable mode on that other map. It's these minor details that really make the game and make it feel like you're in an actual world, and I think that although it's a small thing, it makes a really big difference and just makes it all so much better. Thank you for reading. Like if you agree
It’s a great idea but there may be technical reasons why it might not happen any time soon. Aside from all the extra timetable layers and such that need dev time to add these atmosphere trains, TSW routes tend to suffer poor performance when there are more than a couple of trains around. Adding all these extra trains would seriously affect the framerate and stability when playing. It’s one reason why TSW aren’t busier in the first place. There’s a section on the Köln Aachen route where, depending on how closely you hug the speed limits when you drive the ICE train, you may pass the ICE going in the opposite direction at a point where there are several other trains parked up. If the two trains pass there the game struggles to cope with it, and that’s just with some static trains causing the issue. You get a fairly long stutter in your train’s flow and the graphics of the parked up trains struggle to load. Until major improvements in the optimisation of the routes or a less resource hungry methods are used, TSW is always going to be an empty feeling simulator. Things may be moving in that direction so fingers crossed.
On the one hand I'd agree with you. However, East Coastway does seem to be able to do this just fine and I haven't noticed any lag when approaching Brighton station. Given, Brighton station isn't as big as some of those German stations but it still feels busy cause it feels like pretty much every track and platform is used at any time, even if the service is not accessible to the player. Also regarding to your comment on Köln Aachen, I know what moment you mean, and although it doesn't really lag for me personally at that specific instance, I have this feeling that what's causing most lag in that instance is simulating the speeds you and the opposing ICE are going at which also means it has to generate terrain as well as the other ICE at speed as well as the trains standing at the yard. I'm basing this on the fact that as previously mentioned, turning into Brighton station does not cause me any lag, even if it's packed with 'filler' trains, as well as how on other busy moments on other routes it does seem to be doing fine too, also with those bulky American freight trains present. Also I'm not proposing you have all those 'filler' trains moving at the same time, nor to have large stations packed at all times. Just let them sit around at the station for a while if it's a big station so there's always another train present and it feels like it's actually in use by other services than yourself. I do acknowledge though that although I personally do not experience any real trouble with lag, people with a less powerful computer may have a somewhat different experience. Either way, thank you for responding to my post
This is one of the reasons I love East Coastway. It's much more immersive to come into a stations that's full of trains coming and going every few minutes. Compare Brighton to Paddington and the difference is night and day, Paddington is pretty lifeless which for me always feels strange while Brighton bustling and feels alive (even if all the trains are 377s). Like you say, I never experience any performance issues at Brighton, but that may be because East Coastway is a relatively new route that's well built so DTG may have learnt how to build a busy route without performance issues. This might be an issue with older routes that have been built in inefficient ways compared to newer routes, so making Paddington busy might just make it unplayable.
I think the 377 must have a low resource footprint compared to a lot of other trains in TSW as it seems to operate very smoothly, and maybe that’s why they can afford to have so many of them coming and going at Brighton without affecting the smooth running of the game.
