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Single player, save game, checkpoints etc... At least you're not wasting resources doing Thomas The Bloody Tank Engine! Thank you for that... 🙂

Thought I would fire up the steam loco for a quick run. First of all, just one single player scenario, no tutorial? And that two and a half hours long with no means of saving the run to resume later. All stations run with a short train doesn't provide much opportunity to test the loco in fast running. Can't find any key commands in the Settings menu for the loco. Figured out the reverser eventually (it's the / and * keys on the keypad) but no idea how to close the cylinder cocks. Sound definitely needs work. Pull away seems very synthesised and once moving, if you shut the regulator there is hardly any track run sound at all. going through points and crossings also sounds rather tinny. So while it's something different IMHO a bit arcadey and not much better than what DTG did with steam in TSW (which they subsequently abandoned). I do like the animated fireman though he keeps shouting something at me and haven't got a clue what he's saying. Needs an English subtitle(s) if possible please.

Further to the above, started a single player scenario on the new Krakow route and credit where it's due, looks very nice - on a par with the new Just Trains route in TSW. But straight away I hit the problem - doing an all stations run with the EN57, I had to come off after about 40 minutes so unable to complete the secnario. ***SimRail Devs, you have created a magnificent long route for us to enjoy along with some superb trains, which is why it's so frustrating you leave the single player game without the means to save progress. Please make implementing this a priority before doing anything else.***

Exactly why it needs a decent single player game with full timetable, ability to work the signalboxes and of course a save game.

Been reading some of the comments on the Steam forum itself and it does look as if the transition to full release has been a bit of a disaster. Going to take a quick look shortly and see what's what but I had real hopes they would finally come through with a better single player experience and save game. I just want to drive a train end to end, on the route in multiple sessions (not everyone can spend 4 hours at a time on the PC) saving and loading as I go. Such as I can do in TSC, Run 8, TSW - even Derail Valley and Diesel Railcar Simulator which are also Unity games support a save. The only other big train game which doesn't is Zusi 3, which is why I don't play it very much.

Think this would need to go hand in hand with a save game and checkpoint system, or the ability to jump to where you left off.

I guess your occupancy time might be less if you had a curry the night before... yeesh.

Good for some that they have that amount of time to sit in front of the PC in one go, but most of us don't (or want to). So back to my original assertion that the scenarios could br broken into smaller chunks or, like Zusi and the Japanese video clip sim, allow you to jump forward to a particular station or event.

Agree Mike. And as you say tutorials are no use if you get stuck in the actual game, maybe there needs to be some form of interactive help or manual you can call up to help out in that situation.

Guess that's where a save game or checkpoint would come in handy... 😁

Well I relented and repurchased the ET22 along with a reinstall of SimRail. If the devs are taking their time over the SP and save game still better than the contempt DTG seem to show for the TSW customer base.

Having invested in the ET22 and Cargo Pack, as expected a very elusive item to find on many of the servers. Even the quiet ones (and it doesn't help that some of the servers seem to be permanently offline now). Best I've been able to manage so far is a couple of runs around the Lazy area which is painfully slow and doesn't give any opportunity to use the loco to its full potential. Yesterday evening I managed to cover 15km in 35 minutes, staggering from one signal check or 20km/h goods line to another. So the suggestion is, please increase the percentage of trains worked by the ET22, maybe even consider adding a couple of extra fast freights to the hourly service pattern. This is also why (dare I say it) we need a much improved single player timetable (preferably with the save game 🙂 ) which would avoid this angst. Or the ability to drop a free roam/quick drive consist into the single player game, so we can actually use the content we paid for...

Agree Mike. I bought the ET22 pack to show good faith but I would still like something that improves the SP game. Either as already suggested an easy to use scenario editor (i.e. not scripting) so you can chain the run into smaller sections. Or some sort of Quick Drive or Free Roam mode where you can put down a consist of your choice and drive it as far as you can towards a specific destination. As regards the save game, still can't really understand what the problem is. Apart from Zusi 3 every other train game on the market allows you to save a run in progress even if there is some compromise, like Run 8 having all trains restart from a stand or TSW sometimes not reinitialising the signalling properly. But most of the time it works and that's a chance worth taking.

The devs are still tight lipped about when (or even if) the single player game wil get much needed improvements including a save feature or checkpoints, or an editor to create our own scenarios. However with the update and EN57 etc. we once again get SP scenarios for which the unbroken running time is in excess of two hours. Some of us simply do not have the time to sit at the PC and do that in one hit. So could the devs please look at breaking some or all of the scenarios into multi parts of 30 - 45 minutes or thereabouts so at least we can do the whole run over a few sessions. Obviously the full length scenario can also stay for those who are lucky enough to not have other distractions that require attention.

The one thing puzzling me after the update is what appears to be the little telephone icon next to some (but not all) of the ph station stops. I'm guessing this has something to do with keeping the departure signal at red until ready, but during the little bit of driving I've done so far, whether AI or player despatched the signal has always been cleared without asking.

I do think with the scenarios the train should be "prepped" ready to go, either that or the introduction which tells you to do a radio check should also remind you to bring it up from cold and dark.

It's not obvious how you flip the pages and I only found out by accident that Tab closes it. Cool feature, though.

I thought it was just the EN57 etc that had this feature missed off. Hopefully the devs will add this back in otherwise if I want "bounce" the Class 142 on the TSW Blackpool route will need to be brought out to play!

Excellent!

That I wasn't aware of. Probably explains why a couple of times when I tried that method it didn't work.

Reading through the server issues, maybe downgrade slightly from fantastic... And agree about the cab sway, shame the devs seem to have forgotten to include that bit. Anyhow deep breath and see if I can find a server with an available EN57 that doesn't crash, hang or restart after 15 mins.

This just serves to highlight why we need a decent single player game ASAP, as a fall back position.

Or temporarily enable the bot. 10 seconds should sort it.

I had trouble finding an EN57 too Mike. Obviously in high demand. First two I looked at only had about five minutes left to run. Third sat at a red signal under AI signalman area for 10 minutes so I gave up. Fourth I finally got going but after running for about 15 minutes the server rebooted. So a little bit frustrating and I will probably leave it until the player numbers drop back a bit. Either that or we need more services in the timetable substituted with EN57, maybe some of the longer distance trains too? And yes I agree. The problem tonight highlights the need for a much expanded single player game, full timetable and a save game.

Actually that threw me a bit, actually had to do some lateral thinking (quite hard at my age!). The on screen direction probably needs to be a bit bolder. Also the instruction to "Go to second cabin" is a bit contradictory when you have gone to the rear cab then get the message to return to the front. Should probably say "Go to ther cab", as otherwise my thought was, I'm already here. Of course the tutorial is a bit moot until we get a more extended single player experience as in MP will be taking over a train in service, not cold and dark and if you get stuck, 10 seconds of bot normally puts everything back as it should be. Anyhow about to dive in and see if I can find an available EN57 on one of the servers.