Trains In Timetable Mode Using Free Roam Features

Initial I didn’t find this mode appealing but after I found out it was available in timetable mode, now is a different ball game. A feature that I will probably use often. DTG Matt question. For example:If I spawn in 700 on the ECML at Peterborough for charter service to Doncaster, once I get there what happens to it. Does it just sit there blocking traffic? Does it keep going off to a portal? Are you able to despawn it at any time?.

 

Thanks Matt much appreciated the quick response. You and JD were delirious at the end of the stream yesterday. It was hilarious to watch.

 

Actually this might be a game changer and feature that kind of went under the radar during the launch. Great feature

 

Its a great new feature. Just a shame there is no 'off the rails' capability.

 

Ah so engineers now have bags of holding as standard issue. That must be some union they got to get the company to shell out on interdimenensional bags to hold locomotives! But seriously the whole spawn trains in and choose your path is going to be huge for me when I get around to getting tsw4.

 

I’m really looking forward to Freeroam; I think it fills the gap I’ve had, where you’re kinda dependent on creators club, which itself is awesome. Im never going to create my own stuff and the timetable; not for me

As a relatively casual player, I’ve often wanted to just drive the GWR HST on Penzance for example… I don’t care about the rest of the AI content being out of date…

I think this is a really cool addition and that I can just drop into timetable mode with the loco (broadly) of my choice… very happy

 

And that is now a disappointment, I wanna spawn a detoured freight on Antelope behind an existing Metrolink Service.

 

Is there anyway to have passengers get on and off the train during free roam? Would be awesome if you could stop at the stations you want, and have people get on/off.

 

From what I understand you will still be able to spawn anything you want, wherever you want. The comment about "off the rails" not being enabled means you cant spawn an ACS-64 on Cajon Pass and expect it to work, because there will be no catenary or way to power it. So you could spawn it, but not make it go. Thus spawning another diesel on the AVL should be fine, if I have understood correctly.

 

Yeah that's how I understood it as well. If the track has no OHLE, trains that need it won't work. Same with Third rail.
Diesels and Steam trains should work everywhere.

 

I think it was a feature that was glance over and overlooked. But being able to spawn a 387 or 700 on the ECML for some charter service to Doncaster try to follow and 801 LNER is going to be great. That’s is a good question about the passengers . Would really hope passengers would get off/on your train

 

Except Arosa, since it's narrow-gauge. And Bakerloo because of the loading gauge.

I wonder about incompatible voltages, like German trains on UK routes?

 

It was actually the announcement of free roam quite late into the Live Stream Launch announcement along with the reveal of the PC Editor That convinced me to pre-order on day one!

 

Hopefully Matt can come in tomorrow and clarify, would suck if we can only spawn everything in regular free roam and not with the timetable.

 

Matt, how will this work on PS with add-on manager? As we know, the manager only mounts the appropriate content for a route when the map loads (I think?) so for argument's sake would I be able to spawn an ICE into ECML on the fly, or will it only be locos with layers/subs/homed for the route loaded? (power requirements notwithstanding)

 

Great to hear. I'm so taking the SD40 on Bakerloo again IN TIMETABLE FREEROAM

 

And another one Matt - assuming collectables will be obtainable in free roam, which will be a much more fun experience being able to spawn trains on the fly, is there any chance of getting the jeep from Holiday Express as a spawnable vehicle in free roam? (or something similar)

Or maybe even...

 

Hope to see it for sure! My reasoning is that obviously free roam is designed to encourage exploration as well as train spawning as you like, and although I'm likely in the minority here one of my favourite things in any open world game is to go off the beaten track, and walking in TSW3 is slow if you're doing anything beyond changing cabs. Perhaps an interim option could be to have a toggle to increase "walking" speed to match that of accelerated flying cam in free roam only? Could open up areas of exploration too and expansion of where collectables could be placed, eg. the town I forgot the name of in Cajon Pass seems to be fully modelled, perhaps something like opening that up for exploration (ie. removing the invisible walls) and plopping collectibles in areas away from the immediate vicinity of the tracks?

(I know that's unlikely for Cajon, more a possibility in future routes where stuff away from the rails is modelled)

 

Understood, still fun to explore though! Is the town in Cajon pass "solid" beyond the boundary? Model wise it looks complete, at least as far as the camera allows visibility of it

 

So for example this is where the Vectron become handy because it can go on a lot of different voltages ? (If it is the MS version)

 

Just wondering, If I spawn a slow goods train into timetable mode will the dispatcher route me into a passing loop to allow an express passenger through?

 

Maybe you could set a route to the siding. Perhaps the dispatcher will automatically notice you’re in the siding, have not ”reserved” the mainline up ahead and give AI trains behind you the green signal to pass you.

 

Would passengers get off and on the trains you spawn in on free roam timetable mode?

 

Will the game have a save function from the off this time (crucial for making your long term free roam scenario's) and would it be possible to have multiple save slots?

 

Thanks for the quick response Matt,
I gotta say I've been hoping for a proper "free roam" since day one almost, really looking forward to taking my Class 66 with a rake of 12 coaches on it's inaugural world tour

 

So we can manage our path on the fly as it were?

 

Brilliant!

 

I must say I this free roam is looking rather enticing. I think I will be taking a Peak with a good rake of MKIIs on a good thrash from Donny to Posh once the existing TSW routes can be downloaded after early access.

 

This free roam stuff seems like the best thing since sliced bread. Definitely worth it.

 

Would definitely love for this to be added in the future.
Is it possible to fill/empty wagons on routes like Tees Valley Line/Peak forest? Would love that implemented too if at all possible.
Things like refueling trains as well.

 

This will be great for creating on the fly 'trip workings' - a bit like that wonderful scenario on Peak Forest. We should be able to do that sort of stuff on Tees Valley

My question; is there anything to try to protect the dispatcher from using the left tracks on German routes? I noticed when spawning and setting a destination using console commands on routes such as DCZ it likes to do that a lot, lol!

 

Is there an option that once you spawned the loco and set where you want to go ,ican you have the AI drive it ?

 

No pre-set paths available to pick from? Would really like a feature that'd able to me to do a regular timetable service in any train I'd like without the need to manually set destinations.

 

True, I'm kinda exploring the possibilities of this Free Roam mode to see if it can do what TSC Quick Drive could do, but I realize Free Roam isn't intended to do that.

 

dreaming about my Taurus with TGV coaches behind it which I put together with godmode before being a formation now woo
and I saw from a few gameplay previews that you also can chose CC liveries woo im excited

 

This does sound very interesting, especially with timetable mode. But, what I really think needs implementing is being able to have and choose which stations you want to make passenger stops along the way (passenger loading/unloading), otherwise it will feel the immersion is ruined if, for example, just having an empty passenger train driving from A to B which seems to kind of defeat the whole objective, especially in timetable mode.