More Roles/Jobs

[Berto La DK]

My initial thought
I've seen it mentioned a couple places and I think it could be a great addition to the game as long as it is kept related to the core of the game a Railway Simulator, which is what the game is, and its an important distinction to make, because I've seen people complain about certain roles which I think would fit, shouldn't be in the game because they refer to it as a train simulator, which yes its also that, but the name of the game it self implies more than just that, which we can also see because we do have other options than driving trains, we can dispatch and control junctions and signals.

 

So what roles am I thinking of?

The Ticket Inspector

When it comes to the roles, there's quite the obvious one that would fit into the cooperative part of the game, as a train driver you could have a friend join you on that train as a ticket inspector or what it is called, a role that would fit well into the aspect of the game.

 

Passenger (also available as a mode to the existing Roles/Jobs)

Another one I think would be interesting is the ability to just be a passenger, you join on a station and can travel using the trains going to and from it, either with or without a specific objective depending on implementation. This passenger feature could also be used together with other jobs where you would use the trains to travel between places, if you just terminated a freight train and have to drive another one from a different location you could use the passenger trains to get there for a more immersive experience instead of going through menus and magically appearing, all this would ofc be optional but I'd imagine it could be interesting for some. The travelling between jobs also applies to some of the next suggestions for jobs.

 

Railyard worker / Shunting work

Besides the two basic ones which I think could become a thing in the near future (within a year) depending on development plans and schedules, in the long term there's some other ideas, those freight trains have been driven from one place to another, but now what, maybe you could have a job doing shunting parking carts and assembling a train at the freight stations for the drivers to come and take over for the long ride. This is a job that would keep its work and premise well within the game's focus, which is Railway, driving the train from A to B is only one part of the whole Railway experience, and I think it would be awesome to have the possibilities to expand on that and do some other tasks related to railway operations such as shunting and in general readiness and such for the trains.

Railroad Maintenance Worker

Another job that might begin to wonder out of the game's general core idea, which would be railway maintenance, this is one where I could see it just not fit into how the game works, and that's totally fine, it is just a suggestion, just like the rest of the roles here. But it could be fun to have railroad works and other tasks where it also would challenge the dispatcher because one of the two lines between two stations might be out for a couple hours while work is being done or something like that.

 

 

Concerns

Relevancy

As I've said, I've seen a lot of concerns and complains in other threads and on other forums where people have suggested such things and one of the main concerns is one I hope I've already addressed with my descriptions, but that is that more roles are irrelevant and doesn't make sense, which I think is a false statement to make, because the Jobs I've mentioned is 100% related to the Railway which this is a simulator about, it is again a Railway Simulator and not only a Train Driving Simulator. It is of course fair if one does not think these jobs are that interesting or important, but there are people who would enjoy them, not everyone likes dispatching and only wants to drive trains and vice versa, adding more roles would just create more options for other people who might not have played in the first place or give people who already play more options so they can enjoy it for longer by switching between jobs.

But it would remove slots for drivers and dispatchers

Quite simply, that isn't the case, as far as I can see the current limits are only in place due to limits on the actual slots in the game, as in there's a limit to dispatchers at 24 because that's the number of available dispatching locations. In the same way, the number of available driver slots is dependent on the number of trains in service, and the reason they don't just increase it or make it higher is because the railways have a capacity and the restrictions are there to keep the number of trains within capacity, besides as of now there are barely any servers that are full with few exceptions. Adding more jobs would actually increase the number of players that can play on the same server because the slots for other jobs are not limited by the same measures, of course, some of the things mentioned have a significantly lower limit due to the limited amount of work available in those areas, but the ticket inspector and passenger, for instance, is only limited by the number of trains and their capacity.

 

Summary

I think it would be a great addition to the game to have more options of what to do besides driving and dispatching, to add more immersion and tasks that could create a bigger replayability cycle.

And remember this is a mere suggestion, any feedback, criticism or ideas to it would be greatly appreciated, all I wish is for this game to grow because I love it already.

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by Berto La DK

[Gazz292]

keep that kind of crap for the games like tsw.

 

SimRail is based on the actual simulator used to train real drivers in Poland, it's a train driving and signalling simulator,  not a 'life simulator' 

[Berto La DK]

16 minutes ago, Gazz292 said:

keep that kind of crap for the games like tsw.

SimRail is based on the actual simulator used to train real drivers in Poland, it's a train driving and signalling simulator,  not a 'life simulator' 

This is the exact type of response I was trying to address... how is any of it relevant to TSW more than SimRail. SimRail is a Railway Simulator, Maintenance, Tickets and shunting are all part of the railway... 
My suggestions are all reasonably within the area of a Railway Simulator which this is. Besides just because it's based on a real simulator doesn't mean it needs to mimic that, if so the dispatching shouldn't have been here either. With how the game already has roles I think it would fit in well to have some more to add to the game, other simulators like farming simulator also cater to many aspects of farming not just driving the tractor on the field.

Why is it that there are people in this community that likes to gate keep it to only the parts they like and not have the game be improved in ways for people to enjoy it more?

[Andrew13]

1 hour ago, Gazz292 said:

keep that kind of crap for the games like tsw.

SimRail is based on the actual simulator used to train real drivers in Poland, it's a train driving and signalling simulator,  not a 'life simulator' 

You didn't even bother to read the whole post before entirely dismissing it in your elitist way...

2 out of 4 suggestions are already planned to be added to the game in one form or another: Passenger Mode & Shunting Work.

 

Then the Maintenance Driver/Worker is well suited for scenarios where lines are closed / events between stations that require some kind of intervention.

[Gazz292]

many people before you have bought SimRail and posted that they want to do things like walk the tracks and perform other jobs on the railway, do a search on past posts and you will see plenty of them, same on the discord servers. 

SimRail does something no other train sim or game has managed to get working properly so far.... a multiplayer co-op where people can drive the trains or man the signal boxes and set the routes up and ensure the right trains pass their section smoothly. 

This takes a lot of hard work from the developers, and *most* people do not want to see developers pulled off their current jobs of improving the sis and creating new routes and trains to turn SimRail into a railway based version of the sims, 

SimRail has 2 roles, train driver or dispatcher, this is based on how the simulator used for training real drivers that the parent company makes does things, 

 

Some of us have been waiting over 10 years for something like this to come along, we finally have it and people want to dilute it and turn it into 'yet another train game' 

you may want to be a ticket inspector, or a guard, but then what about the person who wants to be a toilet cleaner? or a vandal throwing bricks at the trains? or a car driver waiting to cross the tracks as your train passes, or a soft toy collector, or a poster guy, or a trackside telephone replacer, or a drunk that harasses people on the stations, or the catering staff in the reiterant car, or a ... and so on. 

[Berto La DK]

16 minutes ago, Gazz292 said:

many people before you have bought SimRail and posted that they want to do things like walk the tracks and perform other jobs on the railway, do a search on past posts and you will see plenty of them, same on the discord servers. 

SimRail does something no other train sim or game has managed to get working properly so far.... a multiplayer co-op where people can drive the trains or man the signal boxes and set the routes up and ensure the right trains pass their section smoothly. 

This takes a lot of hard work from the developers, and *most* people do not want to see developers pulled off their current jobs of improving the sis and creating new routes and trains to turn SimRail into a railway based version of the sims, 

SimRail has 2 roles, train driver or dispatcher, this is based on how the simulator used for training real drivers that the parent company makes does things, 

Some of us have been waiting over 10 years for something like this to come along, we finally have it and people want to dilute it and turn it into 'yet another train game' 

you may want to be a ticket inspector, or a guard, but then what about the person who wants to be a toilet cleaner? or a vandal throwing bricks at the trains? or a car driver waiting to cross the tracks as your train passes, or a soft toy collector, or a poster guy, or a trackside telephone replacer, or a drunk that harasses people on the stations, or the catering staff in the reiterant car, or a ... and so on. 

I'm well aware of the other posts, if you had read my original post you would know, but I also disagree with them, because as you say they try to add more roles that are less relevant, my point is that there are roles that can be added and still be a Railway simulator, we shouldn't add all those random non-railway specific jobs, but as another guy mentioned, they are already planning to add some of it (I just figured out) and the remaining are also well within a scope that would be realistic.

And none of the other train games I've played have had anything but trains, this one does, which is why it makes sense to expand on the idea of there being more than just drivers involved in the running of a railway. Nobody want to dilute it, we want to have more options within railway work, because of this multiplayer experience it makes sense for you to be able to work together with dispatchers and drivers as a shunting worker or as a ticket inspector.

As mentioned it could be a coop system where your friend or a random person could be the driver while you walk through the train checking tickets.
And again, just because you don't want to do rail maintenance or shunting work doesn't mean others don't want to, you can keep driving your trains or dispatching while others do the other jobs.

[GoppelPL]

To be precise:
SimRail is a train driver and signaller simulator. No conductor, shunter, restaurant car attendant or toilet cleaner modes are planned. The shunting we're all waiting for means you'll be able to drive to a side track, uncouple a few cars, couple another ones, go to another track, leave other cars etc. You won't be able to become the shunter-person standing at the end of the last car and direct the driver who's pushing the train backwards.

[Berto La DK]

7 minutes ago, GoppelPL said:

To be precise:
SimRail is a train driver and signaller simulator. No conductor, shunter, restaurant car attendant or toilet cleaner modes are planned. The shunting we're all waiting for means you'll be able to drive to a side track, uncouple a few cars, couple another ones, go to another track, leave other cars etc. You won't be able to become the shunter-person standing at the end of the last car and direct the driver who's pushing the train backwards.

So is it completely off the table that there at some point in the distant future could become roles for Maintenance, Conducting and Shunting in the way described? If so will there be modding available in the future?
The whole restaurant car attendant and toilet cleaner is also not something I'd like to see added, it was something brought up by another. I just thought that Conductors and Maintenace workers could be an interesting addition.

[GoppelPL]

It is completely off the table, we stick to driving and signalling. Modding will be added in the future, bringing you tools to create your own rolling stock (and liveries), routes and signal boxes.

[Berto La DK]

Well as sad as it is, I understand you want to focus on the current core aspects of the game, which is also great and I enjoy it very much, it was just suggestions I made because I could see a lot of potential. Hopefully one day it may be possible to implement through mods. Anyway thanks for the reply.

[the810]

I understand the reasons why we won't have playable conductors (though it would be a lot of fun!), but I wonder whether there's a plan to add AI conductors. Their absense drastically reduces the realism for me when driving - departing with a TLK or EC just because some timer told me so, without the proper dispatch from the train crew just doesn't feel "right". In Poland, the dispatch is normally done via the radio, so that should be fairly easy to implement (ideally with some randomness as to when does conductor give the signal), in most other countries in Europe by hand signals.

Edited July 10, 2023 by the810

[loonies_bus]

Some of the bigger boxes a second person to assist might be something that could work... either assisting in setting or keeping the timetable up to date and contacting other boxes...  

[DazT]

I've stopped bothering to update the timetable as it just keeps crashing 

[Deadlost]

On 7/4/2023 at 7:38 PM, GoppelPL said:

Modding will be added in the future, bringing you tools to create your own rolling stock (and liveries), routes and signal boxes.

Question regarding custom servers is triggered when reading signal boxes. I have early plans for a route(and possible extensions) but is there plans for allowing us to make servers for our 3rd party routes? Either through simkol/simrail servers or our own? Only way we could use the custom signal boxes today would be if we could make servers for the routes. Or is singleplayer signal boxes planned as well? 

[Sean the Sheep]

On 7/4/2023 at 4:38 PM, Gazz292 said:

you may want to be a ticket inspector, or a guard, but then what about the person who wants to be a toilet cleaner? or a vandal throwing bricks at the trains? or a car driver waiting to cross the tracks as your train passes, or a soft toy collector, or a poster guy, or a trackside telephone replacer, or a drunk that harasses people on the stations, or the catering staff in the reiterant car, or a ... and so on. 

...or the person who wants to be a train driving sheep that met the Polish Railway Minister while he was climbing Mount Snowdon and also does dispatching...

[Loongeron]

W dniu 4.07.2023 o 20:23, GoppelPL napisał(a):

To be precise:
SimRail is a train driver and signaller simulator. No conductor, shunter, restaurant car attendant or toilet cleaner modes are planned. The shunting we're all waiting for means you'll be able to drive to a side track, uncouple a few cars, couple another ones, go to another track, leave other cars etc. You won't be able to become the shunter-person standing at the end of the last car and direct the driver who's pushing the train backwards.

The shunting and the editor are two of the most anticipated and desired updates. I think many people will support me.

Thank you for such an answer and hope 🙂

[Gazz292]

Everyone's different, 

 

I couldn't care less about shunting, or the editors,  but i am eagerly waiting for the I/O system that will allow a replica train cab to operate it's controls, gauges and lights in sync with the sim.
and each update i hope for more keybinds to get away from using the mouse to operate controls in the trains. 

[the810]

On 7/11/2023 at 10:01 PM, DazT said:

I've stopped bothering to update the timetable as it just keeps crashing 

It crashes sometimes, but when you reload it, the data is still there. Confirming departure is very important for signallers further down the line.

[DazT]

12 hours ago, the810 said:

It crashes sometimes, but when you reload it, the data is still there. Confirming departure is very important for signallers further down the line.

It was the crashing that was getting on my nerves, when you're on a busy panel/workstation I haven't got time to faff around refreshing timetable.  The other reason I stopped using it is because the UI it uses is horrid having to manually use up and down arrows just to insert a time, surely a button marked "Now" would have sufficed to input a time??

As for other knowing where trains are just do what I do and use virtracks.stelltis.ch which tells you exactly where every train is (last report) automatically with its depart/arrive time at that location and its current delay.

Edited July 15, 2023 by DazT

[the810]

9 hours ago, DazT said:

It was the crashing that was getting on my nerves, when you're on a busy panel/workstation I haven't got time to faff around refreshing timetable.  The other reason I stopped using it is because the UI it uses is horrid having to manually use up and down arrows just to insert a time, surely a button marked "Now" would have sufficed to input a time??

But how do you run a signalbox without using the timetable at all?

There is "now" option of course - it's called confirm arrival/departure. The entire point of the large "enter time" dialog is to input another time than the current time.

[DazT]

3 hours ago, the810 said:

But how do you run a signalbox without using the timetable at all?

There is "now" option of course - it's called confirm arrival/departure. The entire point of the large "enter time" dialog is to input another time than the current time.

As stated in the first message, by using virtracks.stelltis.ch, that's my timetable, my EDR which is 1000 times better than the ingame one. I used to use the official in-game one popped out on a second screen so I'm not fannying around going in and out of different screens (believe me, if you're on
Sosnowiec Główny, going into one screen, out of that and into another one gets a tad tedious after an hour), but the input is clunky using the pop out version (there is no confirm time on the popout version, you can only input manually because right-clicking brings up a standard Google Chrome right click and not the confirm times option) and it doesn't give me the information I need/like so I use virtracks which allows me to have what columns I need, in the order I need.

The 'Last Position' column and the vMax column are the most useful of the lot that the official EDR doesn't offer. The trains in green are within your station area, trains above that have already gone, trains below the green (in grey) are what are upcoming, in the expected arrival time order, crossed out trains are the ghost (never entered) or derailed enroute trains.

As for running a signal box without a timetable, there are at least two that I can think of that you actually can, Juliusz and Dąbrowa Górnicza (and at a push even Będzin if you know the time of the only freight that's booked to be held) as what comes, goes in the same order.

Edited July 15, 2023 by DazT