Hello. Here is a question for you on the German routes when playing tsw4 or tsw5 and the station staff announcements what train is coming in or when sat in the loco cab of the German locos or Austrian they speak in their language but a person like me who is a bit thick on what they are saying why can't it be translated into English it could work if we had sub titles then I would know what to do in setting up the train, I am at a loss at the moment on how to set up the locos and setting the sifa and pzb.
Localisation is indeed poorly. I don't think realism is a good argument to not implement full localisation in TSW. Most of the interesting routes are German but outside of Germany and some small parts of Europe nobody speaks German. Can't wait for the Dutch routes bringing even more gibberish to most players
Wouldn’t most long distance trains at least in Europe have pre-recorded announcements in several languages? And while not Germany, I remember years ago travelling in Norway where the on train conductors made announcements themselves in Norwegian, English and German - ad hoc too. Where it becomes a bit of a grey area are the various verbal messages in the cab, which are always in German. Yes that is authentic but there is maybe a need for some licence. If full regionalisation isn’t possible, how about a subtitle to explain what the PZB etc. is talking about?
On platforms, ICE announcements are done in german and english, basically all other are only in german. In trains, some prerecorded announcements are in both languages, but as it's still fairly standard for germany to only have announcements done live by driver/conductor, they don't usually bother either.
those ingame don't exist. it's a generic TTS saying either Zug fahrt rein... "a train is arriving/passing. don't stand too close to the platform" or Die Türen schließen automatisch. "The doors close automatically. don't block them" if I recall correctly. most stations that have an actual person say it or any delays, change in platform or any other information announcements are not ingame. in trains it depends on the service in what language. the ones to the netherlands for example are in german, english and dutch. but usually done by the conductor. I'm not sure about regional but as noir says. it's mainly done by a human that doesn't always bother to. in the train for older stock you will have a beep for some things or it tells you what the issue is. Zwangsbremsung: penalty brake. pretty much the most important. you did something wrong and for safety your train will be stopped. SiFa: deadmans protecytion. it repeats 2 or 3 times and then thinks you are unable to respond and stops the train. within those (4?) seconds you need to press q on your keyboard or whatever console key is for that. if you are too late it will apply a penalty brake and says so by repeating "Sifa Zwangsbremsung" press sifa and you can keep on driving after resetting the traction handle. AFB: automatic cruise control. Simplified. set a speed and your train will try and not go over this speed. going downhill with a heavy train and for braking you are not supposed to put the AFB speed lower than your actual speed and use the train brake to slow down. AFB only uses the electric power of your train. EMU's under LZB braking curves can use AFB to brake but a sudden change in speed will mean it fully brakes the train which is not very nice for the passengers. a loco hauled train might be unable to keep it's speed in control and needs your input to slow down. PZB: the normal safety system. pressing any button the train says "zugbeëinflussung" there's a bit to it. depending on the train you drive. I am not going to be able to explain all but the RSN manual has a great explanation on two of the most common signal types and PZB. from page 12 down it explains a lot. everything https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.c...eg_Nord_Driver's_Manual_-_EN.pdf?t=1663006360 LZB: adaptive cruise control. well yeah it's a safety system, but easily explained it's like adaptive cruise control. it looks an x amount of distance ahead of you on the cable for other trains, signals and speed limits. and because of that you get a longer response time and are thus able to drive faster than 160 km/h. it also calculates braking curves for you so you can brake more efficiently to be quicker than under PZB. Leaving LZB you press PZB release within 10 seconds of it showing LZB Ende and after it actually falls back to PZB you have to reset AFB and traction to continue going. GNT: Tilting. This lets the train tilt in corners making it more comfortable for the passengers to drive through corners at higher speeds. My best advice is to take a train you are comfortable with or just pick one you want to learn and take it on some trips, maybe watch an explanation video before if you want more certainty. there should be a LZB tutorial on Kassel - Würzburg and Frankfurt - Fulda too. I myself started with the ICE on Köln - Aachen learning both PZB and LZB. you'll get a few Zwangsbremsungen and fear anything yellow at first but that changes soon. I can advice Köln - Aachen and Frankfurt - Fulda for learning both PZB and LZB (GNT on Frankfurt too). For PZB action Dresden - Riesa and Ruhr-Sieg Nord are pretty good. Knowing the safety systems (and for freight if you want using the freight weight calculator) really improves and makes driving in germany and austria way easier and more exciting. PS: there is a safety system helper in the settings. I heard it's not always perfect but it might help learning to use them.
