Gazz292

yes thats it, EB / Electronic timetable u / and La / Speed restrictions Basically an electronic version of the timetable book, with your speed limits, station / freight stops and other things you need to know along the route, but it auto updates your position as you drive via GPS (in the real train) and shows the hectometers etc, so you can look out the window at the hectometer boards as they pass, and think 'in 5Km i will be routed to a different line and there's a speed restriction of xxKph'

Awesome, I imagine over time we will get these for all services, and we can have them as a PDF and open them on a 2nd monitor / tablet next to out main screen, Or print them out and have them on a clipboard. Now. do the modern trains (ELF, traxx, pendulino) have the polish equivalent of an EBuLa screen in a German loco?

i get a banner across the middle top of the screen saying 'you can stop now' this tells me the rear of my train is fully in the platforms, and no need to keep going right to the end of the platform when you only have 3 carriages behind you.

oh yes, i know when i first started SimRail and other train driving sims, it seems so daunting, there's so much to do and little time to do it in before things go wrong. but after a week or so of driving, things are becoming natural, i know how to operate the basics of the train, looking at and reacting to the in cab gauges rather than the HUD, I start to learn the signal meanings and watch and react to the signals on the track side rather than the HUD, i know when to expect the in cab alerter / signal warning alarms, and the driving experience is enjoyable, I even begin to start to learn the route (tho that is always the hardest part for me, as in real life i need the help of a sat nav to get to the local supermarket) I slowly begin to learn the braking points and stop entering a platform at ~30 Kph (that's partly due to tsw and it's crap brake simulation, where applying more brakes when slowing down seems to do nothing and you overshoot, i've not overshot a platform in SimRail yet.... ok i likely knocked every one in the train to the ground by slamming on the brakes harder, but the brakes in SimRail seem to operate how i'd expect them to, from experience of traveling on the old class 101 DMU's for 3 years to and from school being able to see the driver operating the controls... many years ago now) Then i start to crave more realism, more things i need to do respond to whilst driving.. like the neutral sections, panto down sections and so on. A gradient overlay on the HUD would be good too as you say, as long as it's optional, like how the current 'next signal' hud element could do with the option to turn the signal aspect off, but still show the distance to the next signal, as thats the hardest part of route learning, I do like how the trackspeed in the bottom right corner applies to the speed of the train, and not just the track speed of the line (again a common complaint on that tsw.. along with how that game measures distance as the crow flies and not along the track!)

What do you plan to do when you are up there? That's access to the signals for the maintenance people, not train drivers or signalers.... tho maybe if it was set in the 1960's when oil lamps lit the signals at night, you could climb up to re-light a lamp in stormy weather.

i have seen things moving on the map, Awesome work there 👍

One of the problems that tsw suffers from is having one global set of controls that is supposed to cover every train, the railworks / tsc that came previous to that did have a separate set of controls that could be changed for every different train (by editing the control file for each train) Of course the main basic controls can be shared between all trains, the keys / joystick controls for power, brakes, doors, main lights etc, But as more and more trains are added, especially from different countries, we are going to end up with either a massive long list of every control like it was in omsi, and having to spend ages searching that list for the control that's applicable to the train you are currently setting up to work with your keyboard or controller, Or we will have a limited list of only the main controls operable via keybinding / joystick buttons, and the others have to be operated by mouse (like it is now, with no key bind for the wipers, washers or the motor overload reset button in the EU07, i.e controls that are used fairly often and would be nice to have a key to press to operate them) Not sure if this is planned for the release version, or when joystick control is added? Also, have a FOV that's adjustable per train, as i like to have it set for 55 for the EU07, as it allows me to see the gauges better, and all the controls are still visible, but it's a bit too close for the EN96 / ELF, so i'd need to keep resetting it manually each time i drive a different train.

yeah, unfortunately a lot of serial griefers are people who have no life and disposable income (or a mummy who buys them any game they demand just so she can have a quiet life) They generally don't have the skills to complete games the correct way, so always buy every upgrade via micro transactions so they can grief the new players immediately. They make it a 'career' of causing misery to others, they literally have nothing better to do. And even worse, there are groups of people on facebook and similar who band together to perform a 'Total Take Over' going after forums and games they think are lame and full of people who deserve to be bullied, A train driving / signalling simulator falls right into their 'we are better than them, they deserve to be bullied' category, Or the little kids who think they are making the game/sim more fun for everyone by arsing around, setting up races and sending trains on head on collisions etc.

i thought i'd figured out that the Scenario Duration is how long you get to drive the train for, certanly if i take over one of the trains on the other part of the line with 6 minutes left, that how long i get to drive for. Also, the servers reset every 3 hours, so you may take over a train with a 1 hour 40 minute drive time, but the server is going to restart and boot you in 20 minutes (hence why people are asking for a 'time to next server restart' clock on the train selection page) But as for getting to drive for more than the 'duration' time, i dunno, i havent had that happen to me yet, i've driven for 1 hour 45 minutes as the longest so far, and the service i chose said it had about that time left... tho being held at a red signal for 10 minutes can alter the 'duration time' ? As for the departure time, you'd think that's the time the train departed from it's originating station, but i have seen departure times as an hour in the future compared to the server time. so i'm really not sure on that one.

yeah, maybe add a warning to the HUD as an optional feature, and have a page of realism check boxes to set if you want to have an experience like a real driver, where driving under power over a neutral section can damage your loco / the OLE, Same with panto down signs etc, OR have a more 'game like' experience where you are just operating power and brakes. Having all these extra things optional would be best, as if the driving experience is too realistic right from the start, people are going to give up saying it's too hard, So let people start with optional features off and get used to just controlling the train, then start adding the other features as they get used to the train, and it will become second nature for you to be looking at the signs along the track and reacting to them, just like a real train driver does.

They deffo need to do something about it when driving, i've mostly been driving the EU07, and i seem to get the czuwak lights pretty rarely, but every 2Km or so i am responding to the SHP as i approach a signal, what should be the time interval between getting the czuwak lights? Googling shows it to be about 5 minutes, other people say 1 minute (does it differ by loco / EMU type?) I've got no problem resetting the czuwak every minute if that's prototypical for this loco, i was used to the 30 second reset for the SIFA in German trains. But the problem is when stopped waiting at a signal for other train movements before your route is clear, the czuwak is paused in the real train then (it activates when you are driving over about 5Kph i believe) But in the sim, the vigilance timer is running and needing input every minute no matter what. I think we could do with something like the 'are you still alive' message is paused when you are stopped at a signal, as you not being there makes no difference really, you are not blocking a server as you are not permitted to move. When the signal changes to a proceed aspect, a timer starts, if you havent started moving the train when it runs down the AI takes over and drives the train, preventing holdups to other trains. You then have a minute or so to take back control or you are kicked back to the train selection screen on the server (rather than all the way back to the server select screen... giving you chance to take your train back if someone else hasn't taken it over)

i must say one of the things i enjoy about driving a new locomotive to me, is learning all it's controls and indicators, The instruction on how to set up and drive the EU07 on this forum taught me which gauges are for what, and mostly what the indicator lights are for, The ones i was unsure of i looked up online, i see this as part of my 'driver training' Kinda like when you get a new car and read the handbook to familiarize yourself with what features it has and what the lights on the dash and switches mean and do .....except that nowadays some people prefer to ask on facebook what a certain light means rather than read the cars handbook, i knew of one person who was selling his car and buying a new one, because the new one had a feature he really wanted.... his old car had that feature too, just he had never read the handbook to learn how to turn it on!!!

Ditto, the brake is now usable with the keyboard, before i resorted to dragging it with the mouse (something i hate doing) The separate key for rapidly moving the handle to the release position is great, i've been using it already for a few days (i have my own key binds slightly different to the stock ones, but i do prefer the original idea of having all the driving levers on the number pad, much better than the tsw /tsc thing with side by side keys operating levers that move up and down all over the keyboard.

i drive these 'games / sims' to be as accurate a driver as possible, German trains have the SIFA thing where you need to release and reapply a pedal every 30 seconds, English modern trains have the DSD button, The polish trains seem to rely more on the drivers training than computers watching their every move (well, the EU07 does anyway, that's why i love that train) But if having to press an alerter button every minute or so is part of driving the real train, then i will do that. Otherwise where do you go with making the sim more arcade like? a button to press when you can't be bothered to manually operate the brake lever to stop at the station, so the train auto brakes and stops in the right place for you. The same for starting and driving? Do that and you now have a modern london underground driving simulator, where the 'drivers' job is to select from 4 buttons, To start the train you press 2 buttons together, and off the train goes, adjusting it's speed automatically, stopping and re-starting at signals, and stopping in exactly the right place in the next station, You then press the door open button (don't worry about opening the wrong side, the CDSE prevents that) Then about 30 seconds later, you press the door close button, And press the 2 'start' buttons, and away the train drives it's self to the nest station.

That's good they have that kind of thing in place to slow the trains down, Where i live in the UK, there is a level crossing about 50 meters past the town station, and the barriers are closed before the train enters the station no matter which direction it's coming in from, So when the train has the platforms before the crossing, the crossing gates are closed and stay closed until the train has stopped at the station, picked up passengers and moved off again over the crossing, Sometimes it's down for almost 10 minutes, due to the rules that say that the crossing must be secured before the train enters the station, in-case it dosent stop in time. Well i think it still does that, i have taken the longer route into town for the past few years just to avoid that darn crossing.

Yes that is a good idea, I've only had roughly 40 minute drives tops before today, i got on the server just after a reboot (19:00 UK time, it was EN2 american server, so that was it's midday reboot) I had my best run ever of 1 hour and 45 minutes, and got to a part of the map i am sure i'd not been to before.

i just posted in another similar post , that in the train selection screen, there is a 'Required Level' bit at the bottom : I checked the dispatcher selection, and that isnt there, makes sense that it needs to be in the dispatcher role more than the driver role?

Deffo, those asshats need moving to a server kept aside just for the trouble makers, where they think they are causing mayhem to others who want to operate the railway properly, but they are really just harassing each other, Then when they finish the session, tell them this is what they have been controlling for the past few hours:

When selecting a train to drive there is a bit at the bottom for 'Required Level' i had a quick look at what you get when selecting a dispatcher role, and 'Required Level' is missing. Maybe it will be added in the final release? Seems to make more sense that a level requirement is needed to operate certain signal boxes more than to drive certain trains, tho i do like the virtual 'drivers license' idea, you don't get given the control key for the fastest train in the country on your first day on the job, you get handed the reversing handle for a shunter round the back of the sheds (well you used to in the olden days, before you 'learnt to drive' trains in a classroom) Same with signal box work, you'd start out as a time keeping lad/lass in a quiet box, and work your way up.

That's just what i have done, about an hour ago i finished a lovely 1 hour 45 minute run, traveling maybe 140Km? From just before Łazy Łc to just after Opoczno Południe station. i was on the EN2 server, driving 41120, an EU07 EC train, i took over at 17:17 my time (12:17 server time, American server i must have got it just after a reset?) and finished at 19:09 my time (14:09 server time) Shortly after starting i was held at a red signal for about 8 minutes, but that was because the AI had been running that much early when i took over, but instead of exiting the server thinking i was held at a red signal by mistake, i waited a little, and a few trains went past then i was routed into Zawiercie station, and then carried on for the next hour and a half. This run had a mixture of AI and manned signal boxes, i passed one human driver on the route... and there were between 8 and 10 others on the server over the trip,

I've been noticing this quite often, not sure if it's intentional or a bug. You are nearing a station to stop at, or a timing point, the distance to the stop / point will count down to about 2.5Km away, then suddenly jump to just over 4Km away. The picture below shows this happening, I'm approaching the station, and as the distance to the station is counting down, at just after 1.90Km it jumps to 4.01Km to the station. As you can see with the distance to the signal, i've traveled forwards 126 Meters... but the distance to the station has increased by 2 kilometers. I've noticed when the distance jumps depends on your speed, when doing 125 Kph it jumps at about 2.5Km from the station / timing point, It did the jump at 1.9Km here, as i was doing about 80 Kph to keep to schedule by deliberately going slower than line speed to try and arrive at the station on time, rather than early.

the thing about a play test is you are supposed to play the same bit over and over again, you are supposed to try and break things, this is how the dev's know what to fix, I know a lot of people think being a full time play tester must be great, thinking you get early access to a game for free. the reality is you'd get a small section of the game, and you are to play it over and over until you have found every possible way to break it, then you play over and over again to be sure all fixes work, At least with these play tests open to the public, we get 40 to 50 minutes of driving time, and unlimited time as a dispatcher, sure it can get frustrating at times, but that's the idea, work out the bugs before it's released to the paying public. I've been mostly driving the EU07 on the EN servers, and have been doing full 40+ minute runs about 75% of the time, Last night i did a run where i was held at a red signal for almost 20 minutes in a freight train (not on a scheduled layover) but i held out as i could see other trains being routed past me, and eventually my signal cleared and i was on my way as the dispatchers worked through the backlog. It's also fun to be 'chasing yellows' where i am driving just a little faster than the dispatchers want me to, so i am constantly being slowed down by the signals, this is the kind of thing other train driving 'games' don't do, sure there are scenario's where you get yellow signals all the way, but that is all scripted in advance, here it's because the dispatchers are busy and each train takes it's turn.

The idea of a playtest is to find as many problems and issues before release, and find out how people can break things. What is the biggest issue all releases have.... people not reading the manual or bothering with tutorials, just spamming all the buttons hoping to figure it out. That is what's happening now it seems, along with the trolls who just want to mess things up deliberately, or 'have races' etc. So this is all good data being collected to work out ways to weed out the asshats who wants to spoil things, and correct deliberate locking up of the system etc.

oh it was pretty much all working electronically, the levers have mechanical notches (that can be changed to suit different trains) and they turn potentiometers to send the position 'signal' and all the switches work similar to the real things. i was running it on an arduino due, which was seen by the computer as a multi axis joystick, I even had a colour oled in the controller that showed the train selected (as i had to do all the control changes onboard, as tsw only has one global set of control for all trains via the raildriver hack) But it became more and more obvious that tsw was not intended to be used as a simulator, it was aimed mostly at console users as a game, hence the very restrictive control inputs.

i think the playtests are pretty realistic... you can guarantee that when the sim is fully released, people are just going to load it up and start spamming all the buttons, So how it's happening now is showing how people can break the system, intentionally or not, so safeguards can be put in place to try and recover from that kind of thing. Few people read manuals nowadays, and a lot of people skip the tutorials, or don't take in what they are being taught in the tutorial.... look at tsw, they made it so that every new DLC you got, first time you started it you had to run the tutorial runs for each of the train types (even tho you already have 6 copies of the dosto and know it off by heart) People moaned that they didn't like that, ok half of it was how to put up a missing timetable, poster or fix a broken monitor by walking over to it and 'bing' that was it, the poster magically appeared or the monitor was working' of course all that crap was to show you how to earn medals and points, something they put ahead of the actual gameplay,