Gazz292

Yup... the English servers are named EN, German ones DE, Polish PL, French FR, Italian IT, Czech CZ, Spanish ES, Portuguese PT, Chinese CN, and there's a UA one, but i am an uncultured swine that can't read that language as it's not using the latin alphabet) So type the 2 letters for the language you'd like, for the english ones there are then european, american and australian ones, that can be selected via the drop down box to the right of the text box you typed the servers letters into, perhaps other localization's for the other servers exist... but being a dumb brit i haven't looked. I drive mostly on EN9, so i type that in the box, and wait for the server list to populate fully, and off i go driving.

i've only heard english announcements so far, and they are in an american accent 😕 I've got to find the announcement files and delete the 'english' ones asap 🤠

take a long freight train over a junction, and go to the outside camera, lots n lots of lovely squealing flanges from each wagon as their wheels go over the points, that i'm sure are different to the loco's flange squeel sounds, and that bounce you get when going over a junction in the loco, simply amazing.

My favorite way to operate the ELF / traxx's control levers is to use the mouses scroll wheel. Hold left click on the lever in the cab (the pop up helper box will apear that shows you what notch it is in, to help when dragging with the mouse) but instead of dragging the lever with the mouse: You can move the lever by rolling the scroll wheel. Usually one click on the scroll wheel moves the lever one notch forwards or backwards, so it is a bit like having a mini lever in your hand from the way it moves with the scroll wheel (assuming you have a notched scroll wheel that moves in indents, and not a smooth one that some gaming mice have) i even set up autohotkey to have a keyboard button i can hold down that is the same as left click on the mouse, so my left hand is over the left shift key that i use for czuark / SHP reset, and the '\' (backslash) key is my 'extra' left mouse click key, so i can have it held down and still reset the alerter without taking my hands off the mouse or keyboard. I've yet to figure out how to set this autohotkey thing up so it's only active when SimRail is active, it's script based, so you can do pretty much anything with it, if you know how to write code, but i've never needed to use the blackslash key yet, and a simple click turns the autohotkey thing off if i do need it (actually i did need to do that to type the symbol above 🤔)

I think all you can do to get a long run at the moment is chose a train with the longest 'Duration' left in the menu: i've seen some with over 2 hours showing as the time you'll get to drive the train for (i got kicked off it well before the end of that time when the servers reset) but i think i have only once spawned into a train that was stopped at a station, every other time i'm taking over a moving train. I've logged into a server just after it had reset a few times, chose a long duration left train, and still was put in a moving train, so i'm not sure there are any trains to chose yet that we start at the 'first' station, and none that we take over as a dead train that needs setting up, as far as i know. The servers seem to be on 6 hour resets now, they show on that map app when they are resetting by the server names going red, the PL ones start off resetting first, then each one after that, so it can be nearing18:15 before the last server is reset (if the reset started at 18:00 CET) So thats the best time to grab a train that you can drive for a long time, Sorry it's not the answer you are looking for, and that i use too many words to describe things. I too would like to walk to a train in the depot, set it up / prepare it, go and couple up to my coaches, then drive to the first station and do the whole run, maybe even taking the coaches to the sidings and parking the train up and shutting it down and securing it. But i hope that's something to look forwards to in the full release.

Just stop all input to the sim, wait about a minute or so, and autopilot will take over, Tho i noticed it's been tweeted with the latest release, driving a passenger train at 120Km/h i had zero warnings about being idle, I noticed the czuwak was going off a lot more in the EU07, so i was pretty much having input at least once a minute even when going slower and having 2Km between signals.

i really hope that if SimRail is not ready for release in January, they hold off releasing it, please please don't do a dovetail and release on a date just to keep the people who can't wait happy, Those kinds of people will never be happy, once they have the full version they will get bored and be looking for the next new thing to demand be released early, but the damage will be done with their bad reviews like: 'this release is years late and its rubbish, it's got too many bugs, it's too hard to drive the trains, and i have to learn what the buttons say in Polish to operate a signal box, it's not ready for release, don't buy' Thankfully some of us can see the huge potential this simulator has, and are looking forwards to it's future. But there have been a lot of toxic/entitled people suddenly on the Sim, more playtest slots opened up the other day, and i think a lot of them had just clicked to join because they thought it was a way to get a game for free (some have no interest in railways and it really shows) There's already people moaning there are not enough different trains to drive and the route is boring, it's a simulator not a game (not to mention it's a playtest) you are supposed to drive the same train over the same route again and again, but the beauty of multiplayer is no 2 drives will be the same due to real people controlling the signal boxes, and driving other trains around you, plus the random event thing built into the sim... seen with things like dead signals etc.

the play-test does track your distance you have driven tho, one of the 'did you know' messages on the loading screen will be something like '... you have traveled over xxxxKm already' Mine showed a very low number for the first few days of testing, slowly increased to about 150km, but last night it jumped to over 1000Km, which is roughly what i think i've really traveled... i've only really been driving one or 2 trains a day, but trying to get ~2 hour drives.

i think the HUD timetable is okay... gives you the absolute basics, but a paper schedule will give you more info like speed restrictions and where they change based on the hectometer boards that are along the route, Having the ability to show a PDF of your schedule on a 2nd monitor, a phone or a tablet would be even better, clears the main screen thats showing the view out the cab windscreen and adds to immersion greatly, especially if you drive with a raildriver or other controller instead of the keyboard / mouse. and on the modern trains the polish equivalent of an EBuLa screen... if that can be made to work like TS-MDF* does with train simulator, it'd be amazing (you use tablets or extra monitors to display working versions of the EBuLa and MFD screens from the trains dashboard.. as SimRail will have a SDK, hopefully stuff like that can be made) *https://www.ts-mfd.de/

the points mean nothing, you will lose them all when the playtest ends, and start again when you buy the full simulator.

https://panel.simrail.eu/main/map.html Remember the servers are running already when you are on the selection screen, so it depends on the time you are selecting a train to where it is on the route... and it can be running early or late etc. So if you want to drive from the start to finish of the the route... first you need to wait for the full simulator to be released, as we only have about 140 kms of the full 500Km of tracks available in these tests. then you need to be on the server at the time the train actually starts, the servers auto reset atm, i'm not sure if we are still on 3 hour resets or 6 hour resets, it was every 3 hours starting from midnight they reset... LOCAL CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME, so i'm in the Uk so the servers reset starting from 01:00, that also means you can be driving a train and get booted as the servers restart... this is a playtest after all.

ahh yes, have it as an option, I forget that i'm likely the odd one out who likes learning the 'local' words in the country i am driving in, and i want to have an experience as if i am actually in that country, hearing the local language.

i think SimRail and tsw will have their places tsw is a game, they even admit the naming is just a play on words... usually about the 'world' bit when people ask them why this train sim WORLD only covers england, Germany and america. pretty much anyone can drive a train in tsw, tho if thats too hard they can try train simulator (Classic) aka Railworks reinvented, as that has a 'simple mode' where you drag a tonka toy style lever on the HUD, up to go, down to stop, and ignore everything else. and apparently that's all some people want. Hell, some people want to stand on a virtual platform and watch virtual trains go by, so they want a trainspotting game, not my idea of fun, but it obviously is others. : You then get hardcore simulators like Zusi, crap graphics, but the actual driving experience is brutal, as it's as real as you get (it's used as real train driver training in some places) Forget to set one switch correctly in the engine room and you aint going nowhere, and you have to figure it out yourself like a real train driver would, going through your check list of how to start the train up. : SimRail i believe is aimed at being an actual simulator too (i think they say it's used by a rail company for training) from what i've seen this may be the holy grail some have been looking for, Zusi with amazing graphics. Obviousely this is going to make it too hardcore for some people, but there is a market out there of people who will pay a good price for a realistic simulator, as they want more than tsw or zusi can give them. i just hope they don't dumb it down too much just to chase after a few players who will get bored of it within a few weeks... some people are already moaning on discord about 'driving the same loco over the same track' and they want more than the 6 or 7 trains that SimRail will release with. i've been happy driving the EU07 for 95% of my time, as in MP it's always a different journey, even things like 10Kms of dead signals which is a scripted thing, but it's great there is this variety.

Same with the volt and ammeter for the batteries in the EU07, notice how it fluctuates when the compressor starts and stops, and as you drive the battery voltage rises and the current lowers, just as in real life when batteries are charged up. Most train games they just use a fixed graphic for the meters for stuff like that, as they figure no ones interested in that kind of detail (they are more interested in collecting medals 🤐)

depends on what the rules say for the Polish railways, In some countries, if you overshoot more than 1 carriage, you carry on to the next station, then get a bollocking when you get back to the depot, reversing a loco hauled train along a platform is not usually something that's taken lightly.

the dead flies on the windows is a great thing i think, you can wash them off using the wipers AND the washers you know?

but this is a playtest, you do not have access to the full route / map, all the trains, and all of the scenarios and services, or all of the signal boxes etc. In the MP tests we get to drive less than a quarter of the full route... driving a full route is going to take many hours... just like in real life... this is a simulator rather than a game after all, we can already drive for almost 2 hours in a row in multiplayer... and as it's live with other drivers and dispatchers on the servers, you need to allow that time to yourself to do this. Usually in MP when we reach the end of the part of the route we can drive we just get kicked out... thats if you make it to the end before server reboots. The single player thing is really just about teaching people who have not played the Prologue or demo versions of Simrail from earlier this year and last year how to operate the trains, i imagine the results from the multiplayer testing also covers most of the single player stuff,

I used to drive recovery trucks through the night, in summer in europe it gets properly dark after 22:00 hours, and gets light again at around 03:00 hours, thats just how it is, The date of the playtest simulation is around the 22nd of June, The 21st of June is the summer solstice... i.e. the longest day of the year. Before you were disconnected from the server it was raining... i.e. heavy cloud cover. After the server reconnect the rain has gone (it's dynamic weather, so i guess the weather cycle reset) and with no rain there's no heavy clouds blocking the moon light and twighlight.

yuck, you mean make SimRail more game like?

As above... If you want to earn loads of useless points, get awarded pictures of medals for pressing buttons in the train cab, and even play a pokemon like game where you have to stop the train mid section and get out and search for items to collect, basically do a bunch of stuff a train driver doesn't do... like fix monitors and telephones, put up posters etc (which you do just by standing next to them, no animations, just 'ping' and it's fixed) Then maybe tsw is a better choice. Thats about as arcade and game like as you can get where you drive trains* It treats you like a 5 years old, 'oh well done, you've just used the wipers, uncle matt is so proud of you, here have a virtual sweetie for being such a good boy' : pffft, sod that, i want to learn to drive a train in a professional and realistic manner, and i'll improve myself by setting my own goals, like learning the braking points for stations at different speeds, so i enter the platforms at a reasonable speed and brake in a manner that's comfortable for the passengers, not trundle in at 10Kph, or shoot in at 100 and use emergency brakes to stop. I'll also be learning the signalling, and the rules and regulations, and learning a little Polish along the way. That's all the reward i need, : : : *Part of the reason for needing to release tsw3 is 'allegedly' because they had ran out of medals / awards on the playstation platforms, they can only be issued once per game, so they needed a new game to reset the medals!!

Exactly, This is a SIMULATOR for POLISH railways, Treat it as a simulator and not a game, pretend you have moved to Poland and got a job as a dispatcher or train driver there, they are not going to re-label the locomotives controls or signalling equipment to a non native language just for you. I'm having fun learning to pronounce things in Polish, just like i am learning the Polish signalling rules and way they operate their railways. Listen to the station announcements for how the station names sound in Polish, or use a translator that allows you to search for Polish words using an english keyboard, and reads them out to you: https://forvo.com/languages/pl/

That was it... Doh! i was reading about Czech railways for some reason and remembered the thing about different flashing signal speeds. the bottom row of signals on the page below shows this. https://www.sh1.org/osshd/s.htm

at 03:30 in Europe in summer time it does indeed get light then, Just like it doesn't get really dark until well gone 22:00, the sun sets earlier, but it's this twilight thing. When i was a kid i lived in Germany, and can remember going to bed at 22:00 and complaining as it was still light out, and i'd wake up at about 03:00 and watch the night sky getting brighter and brighter... by 04:00 it was pretty much daytime brightness, so i would then sneak out the house and go roaming around the town of Krefeld whilst it was deserted.

is that the thing where you are seeing the top half of the trains carriages in the monitors? as thats been reported a few times before

this is a TEST remember, i was level 8 at one time, and been level 1 ever since, once the playtests end all your scores will be meaningless i'd imagine. do i care about points, not one bit... i don't really give 2 hoots about point scoring, i want to drive the trains in a realistic matter, not be constantly worrying that i'm going to lose 1000 points because the dispatcher didn't put my freight train into a siding for 15 minutes as was in my timetable, and instead found me a route that meant i could go straight through. thats part of what i hate about tsw.... where it's been turned into an arcade style high score game, with those bloody collectables... great, a game of pokemon added to a train game, Imagine that in SimRail multiplayer, people stopping their train on the mainline to get out and hunt for a toy dinosaur.