Delay the Release?

[Bravura Lion]

 

Hello team and community,

I have now had enough time to try out Simrail as a dispatcher as well as a driver. Accordingly, I have reported here most of what I noticed as a bug or suggestions of what could be improved. That's also what the whole community has been doing, testing the game. Overall you can say that Simrail has a solid base and can be a game with a lot of potential, but there are still some teething problems that need to be solved before the release. It would be really bad to release Simrail without fixing the most important bugs, otherwise it would hurt the reputation of the game. At this point it should be said that the team is working very actively to solve the problems but there are things where I would say that would be a MUST FIX before the game comes out:

1. the dispatcher AI:

The dispatcher AI really needs to be reworked. Regardless of the station, the AI needs to be able to handle the trains,Regardless  if they were routed wrong etc. maybe for example the trains are getting deleted or something similar. Another case would be when the AI has to turn around etc. The forum is full of examples. Overall, the topic has already been discussed enough here in the forum and the developers are on it. At this point already my first concern: We currently see only a part of the route, how is it with the other stations? Are the fixes of the AI global or on the stations? @Devs this would be for you to say how you see it with the AI adjustments and how that affects the rest of the route.

2. introduction for new players:

It definitely needs a tutorial for the drivers and for the dispatchers. I have already seen that there are driver only servers, but the game does not take the player by the hand and shows you what to do. If not already planned, I would suggest an interactive tutorial where the drivers or dispatchers are instructed. This should be accompanied by a wiki that goes into more detail. I have seen that you at least work with the stations with degrees of difficulty, perhaps it would be worth considering to introduce a level system similar to TD2 so that dispatchers without experience do not take over a large station and do not know how to handle it. Furthermore I think it would be good to make guides for the individual stations AND station types. Maybe you can build something similar to an academy here where players can learn the station and more? Also here @Dev your feedback asked how you want to deal with it. 

3. the userinterface

The interface certainly needs some work and it should be more understandable for the driver as well as the dispatcher. Here we have already seen improvements within the playtest and I think this will be adapted accordingly. 

4. summary

At the moment I see it very sportive to release Simrail at the beginning of january. The team should think about if they really can fix the most important things until the release and then release the game to the public. I think we should really test all parts of Simrail in the playtest (editor, singeplayer and co) and clean up the roughest things before a release is aimed. I guess that early February would be more likely than early January. Better to let time than to publish a game in a hurry which could lead to frustration. This is of course also an estimation of the team of Simrail as they see the progress in bugfixing and adjustments.  

 

[BigVern]

It would be a shame for the game to release to a wider audience with bugs and gameplay elements that need improving or changing (that are within the developer's desire and ability to do so). However it may well be the publisher has dictated the release date and scope to change will limit the ability to vary at. We know from DTG that stuff gets pushed out to make a deadline then patched (or not) subsequently.

My biggest concern is with the AI Dispatcher, it may be improvements are already in hand. In fact this is more so for the single player game - which has even less time for testing before release - as all the signalling is being done by the AI.

[kadigeN]

introduction for new players is very important without some guide rails this great sim will be flooded with bad reviews. there needs to be some feedback to the player about what he is doing wrong and how to fix it. more casual players will not understand why the eu07 doesnt move if they dont stay in postion 1 for a second for example. also maybe force people to gain a level or two in singleplayer before letting them play online.

[hyzwar]

AI fix for sure, for the game to be playable & enjoable.

[alegalga98]

Introduction to new player have already been discussed in the Q&A, at minute 56:25

In full version, before a player can take part in a multiplayer session, have to spend a certain amount of time in single player missions to learn how regulations and things works, in playtests is better to directly test things out in the server to see how good it handles the players 

[hyzwar]

Except no ds mode in sp but ds-only servers are probably comming, so win-win 🙂

[Christophe]

Note also, that many features are deactivted for the Playtest, they are concentrating on major Features/System Tests... How stable are the Server? How the AI is handling much of players, etc.

[TheShotte]

On 12/13/2022 at 6:15 AM, Christophe said:

Note also, that many features are deactivted for the Playtest, they are concentrating on major Features/System Tests... How stable are the Server? How the AI is handling much of players, etc.

Exactly. We are playing a "Playtest" build. We have essentially a build that has most of it's actual functionality stripped, sans multiplayer. It's impossible for us to say anything about the state of the actual game build. We are simply to provide multiplayer feedback. I'm fairly confident that they have other testers testing other facets of the game.

[Wonderbadger]

I wonder if some type of licence system could be implemented where a player could learn the ropes of driving and dispatch in the single player mode.  Once they've had a succesful X amount of time playing without causing the system to grind to a halt they get a rating for that type of dispatch board or train and are then able to play it in multiplayer.  Having people learning while on a multiplayer server is the path to the dark side and bad reviews.

[TheShotte]

7 hours ago, Wonderbadger said:

I wonder if some type of licence system could be implemented where a player could learn the ropes of driving and dispatch in the single player mode.  Once they've had a succesful X amount of time playing without causing the system to grind to a halt they get a rating for that type of dispatch board or train and are then able to play it in multiplayer.  Having people learning while on a multiplayer server is the path to the dark side and bad reviews.

I'm pretty sure that's the exact way it will be implemented. Not sure about the actual licenses, but a player will have to have a certain amount of hours in SP before they will be allowed to play in MP.