Now we are used to the TSW3 UI, which is a big improvement over TSW2, it is time to discuss what can be improved. In the previous article on this topic: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/ui-improvements-part-1-mastery.69983/ I discussed the screens for mastery. In this article I would like to focus on Journeys. I think this is working reasonably well. Starting off from "To The Trains"sect the Journey "button"and then you can select a route: This screen works OK, there is a filter, which makes it possible to reduce the selection with a few characters. You need to select a journey here, but you also can select to continue the journey, which dumps you right away into the next service. personally I never youse this, probably because it is not showing any information what you are going to do and how long it will take. This is a bit weird into my opinion and should be added here.Sometimes I just press the wrong button and I happen to land in something I do not want to do. It may be nice to have a button that brings you to the last chapter you played, or once it is completed to the next chapter. I am not sure how this turns out on consoles, if you do not have a keyboard. The only comment: it may an idea to preserve your last filter, but I am not sure if this is really helpful, because we already have the latest played route at the top left corner. A nice detail is that it also shows for which routes you completed the journeys. This includes journeys coupled to loco DLC. Once you have selected a route, you need to select a journey chapter: You can do this by clicking at the image. I noticed a bug here. The upper screenshot does not show the locos involved in this chapter, the lower one does however. Here you can see for each chapter the completion status. Not very important, but it is a nice addition. Once you have chosen a chapter, you see this: A nice and informative screen, but it has three deficiencies: 1. You cannot click directly on an activity to start it. Having a double click here would be a nice addition. 2. The details part of the screen is not always in sync when you select a task to do . Sometimes you need to select another one first and switch back then. 3. For freight trains it does not show the duration properly. This is a bug. It would be better to show both duration and departure time. Both are minor annoyances.If you press the Get Started button, your gameplay starts. I will cover the pause screen and HUD later. Once you have completed the activity, you return to this screen: Here you can go on to the next activity/chapter, do a replay or go to the main menu. What is missing here? - The exit game button definitely should be here. Why am I forced to return to the main menu first? - I also would like to have shortcuts to the route journey screen or to the chapter screen or to the chapter page to choose another activity. Room enough at this page for these buttons! I do not like the long mouse clicking way around the main menu, to the trains, select a route, select a journey, select a chapter, select a service ... This really makes me tired. That's all for this one. It cannot be a huge task to implement these improvements. This will be continued. I think the next one will be the timetable .
Your suggestion thread series is a really interesting read. And I hope the right people watch them! With not many hours yet, I´m getting used to this GUI. But how does one get rid of those yellow "NEW" banners on top of the route tiles?
Rudolf Would you have a hint on how to get rid of those yellow "NEW" banners? I see you got, but mine are still there. Quite annoying.
No, I do not see any at the moment, also not for Niddertalbahn. They should be visible during a specific period of time (1 month?) If they remain visible, I suggest you to make a helpdesk ticket and report it as a bug in the Technical reports section of this forum.
I love your work on the UI, and even with the massive improvements we have in TSW3 work is always needed I also made a suggestion about an addition to the UI in the suggestions subforum, but I think it also fits here. ------------------------------------------------------The Below Text Is Directly Copied From My Suggestion------------------------------------------------------- Hi all, I don't make them often, but I want to suggest a quality of life improvement. I think TSW could really use a timetable overview for each route, where you can see all the services on the route at once, listed in order of departure time. This would be a seperate timetable overview and service selection screen from the one that is loco specific, and would thus not replace the current selection order, but just add another option. That also means that an additional column with information about what trains are usable on this service would be needed, it would end up looking like the example below, be it in TSW's HUD style. An example of the entire timetable overview. Services are fictional, I chose Stuttgart-Ulm for locations because I just watched an update video on Stuttgart 21. This means that you can see all the (playable) services that operate at a given time, regardless of the service type or the trains you can use on them. The usual selection screen for which train you want to use will be placed after this timetable selection screen, limited to the options listed in the 'usable trains' column of course. Here you can select the train and livery you want to use from the options for that service. In this overview, you would ideally also be able to filter by start locations, and perhaps even by service duration timeframes. The latter would mean you can filter on services which have a duration of (for example) between 20 and 45 minutes, if you're looking for something shorter, but already know on which route you want to play, but are yet undecided about the train/service type. This actually happens a lot to me Having an overview like this would have a few advantages in my eyes: If you want to drive at a specific time of day (say sunset for example), you can see all the services at this time of day at once, instead of needing to look through all the seperate locos to get this information. This overview also clearly shows where services operated by different trains are driving behind eachother with just a short time inbetween. This would probably mean that the service that is following the other train has some adverse signals, especially if it's a faster service. In the above example the ICE at 07:35 would probably be stuck behind the DGS (freight) service that departs just 5 minutes ahead, or forced to overtake it at one of the inbetween stations. This bigger overview might therefore help in identifying unique and/or challenging service, aided by the comparison of service durations (which is already in game). If you're looking for a service with a lot of AI traffic coming the other way, this timetable overview can also give a good indication of that. The IC departing at 07:20 in the above example will encounter at least 3 uncoming services. During preview streams this overview can also give a good insight in the amount of services, and their distribution throughout the day, helping inform the viewers. It might even be able to be included as a screenshot in the store page, so that consumers know how much gameplay there is. It can help with bug reporting and the identification of problematic services. If a player gets stuck behind a service, they can more easily see which one that probably is, and thus add more details to their reports, or even try to play the service they're stuck behind. It's just fun to look at all the services and think about how they may interact. I hope I have somewhat clearly described my idea, and gotten across why I think if would make a good enhancement to the service selection process. I want to clarify one last time that this would not replace any of the current service selection processes, just add another option. Please let me know your thoughts on this, and on what functionality filtering/oversight wise you might wish for. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------End Of Copied Text----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought these ideas might also fit here, as they do relate to the UI. I'd love to hear some more thoughts about them. Also, they should only show up until you played on the route I believe, so I would also definetely suggest making a ticket and reporting it as a bug. I don't have any of the same issues. You can always try wether verifying your game files (if you're on PC) helps.
