Ideas and Suggestions for the Attention of Kuju

[johncard]

The beauty of consoles is that all games made for a console are always compatible with all models of that console. I know I'm stating the obvious, but with the problems that arise with incompatibility in PCs I think it would be nice if there was a console that was sophisticated enough to play a Train Sim like MSTS upon, as well as developing routes/stock etc. within a modelling package. If you have been experiencing the problems I have with MSTS you'll know where I'm coming from.

John

[buffy500]

The beauty of consoles is that all games made for a console are always compatible with all models of that console.

Not so good for Word Processing though !

[XPTE]

I'd like to see inclusion with the package, routes that are fairly accurate to their real world counterparts. Noticed in MSTS that the Settle-Carlisle route the speed limits of 105mph were a little too high. Also, on the North East Corridor route, some speed limit innacuracies and also quite a number of stations and adjoining lines missing apparantly! I hope in the new sim we get some routes which are fairly accurate. Not asking for 100% photo accuracy scenery, just reasonably accurate on the speed limits, track layout, and stations present front. Don't think I've read exactly how many default routes will be included in the package. But I'd like to see the emphasis on quality and not quantity for the routes. Though a minimum of 4 great routes would be good.

Also, "dynamic weather" which was to have been a feature of MSTS 2. In that for instance a driver could start their journey in clear sunshine, then a little later on in the journey there'd be a downpour, then maybe it becomes dry again. Also, a good transition from daylight to darkness and vice versa.

Apart from that, can't think of anything else. Good luck with the new sim. With it featuring just UK and European routes I'm sure I'll probably buy it!

[LCMXD11]

Just a few more ideas for the wish list, basics really:

Activity Editor:
Dynamic Paths, if the user could set the destination and origin of a service (as well as station stops etc), and let the computer work out the most efficent route dependent on the traffic density. This would hopefully prevent any irratating standoff between AI traffic.
Timetables should be input manually and trains then adhear, MSTS automatically calculated timings were impossible to adhear to.
Allow a user defined timetable, with stock generated randomly from a designated pool.
AI trains not vanishing when they reach their destination, unless instructed otherwise.
Non-railway events such as weather changes, road traffic density, people, passing air craft, water height (eg tides or bloated rivers) etc, allowing scenic changes unique to a particular activity.

Route editor:
Signal placement should be as simple as possible, preferably using a track plan (similar to that displayed in MSTS activity editor). Positioning and appearance could then be fine tuned in the 3D mode.
A tool for carving river beds, and water height defined by depth at the deepest point. Maybe the option to define a river channel/water body as an object with a flow direction. This would make it easier to create river and canals etc and also allow multiple water/tile heights.
More than one water effect/surface type. Deep standing water should look very different to a fast mountain stream.
Splines for fences, power lines and other repetative scenary.
A system to measure and record distances, little and large, to assisting building models that fit the landscape seamlessly.
Ability to mark specific locations and add to a favourites list, allowing rapid movement to any point the route.
Catenary on specified track only, and at variable heights.
More options for road traffic. Motorway traffic faster than country roads for example, with multiple lanes at different speeds. Roundabouts and traffic lights. Regional variations in road traffic types within one route.

In game:
I've said it before, let the driver get off the train and stand on the platform. Something to do during a five minute station stop.

Regards

[markw]

Hello again,

I would really appreciate a more flexible approach to locomotive/unit sound configurations. How many times have people asked about the difficulties in trying to recreate 1st Generation DMU sounds? The characteristic rise in the gearbox whine in each gear is totally missing in MSTS, despite there having been vast improvements over the default Kiha sounds.

Very Best Wishes,
Bob.

I think the lack of first generation DMU sounds is partly due to the inability of second/third power cars to have throttle controlled sounds, but mainly due to a lack of decent, clean source sound recordings. In theory it is possible to script the first generation DMU sounds now with multiple channels, cross fading and pitch bending for a lead driving car given decent source material. I know it was that lack of good source material that hadn't got background rail joints, wind or chattering numpties in the background that stopped my experiments. That and restrictions on the distribution of the sounds I could use.

[bristolian]

Hello Mark,

I have a very decent, albeit non-digital cassette recording of a Class 117 in the Bristol area during the '80s. The car is the now preserved W51372. Unfortunately, I'm in the US until September, so don't have access to the tape.
If on my return, somebody would like to have a try...

Very Best Wishes,
Bob.

[bravedan]

A relatively simple modification that will help reskinners and those who like to change cabs and sounds will be to use the Flight Simulator apporach to aircraft files, of the core config file referring to other livery folders, which allow people to upload reskins without having to bother reloading the sounds, cockpit or the like. It also means that if you change a cockpit or sounds it's done for all colour schemes which relate to that file without the need for aliasing or common sound/cab folders. All that is needed to add a colour scheme is the livery folder and an additional piece of script for the config. file, usually supplied in the readme.

YES YES YES!!!

A lot of the well honed processes developed for Flight Sims over the years are equally desirable (needed!) in a Train Sim too.........like:-

Slew mode to move quickly to a particular point in the route, then run the consist. (not just at points previously set by activities and paths)

Ability to change locos to a comparable type "on the fly" (or better to be able to leave the player loco, use another one and then return to the original)

Dave

[ForburyLion]

Gran Turismo 4 on the playstation (It's a driving game for all those not in the know) has two modes - A Spec and B Spec.

A Spec is your typical game whereby you are the driver

B Spec is the newly created mode whereby you are the team manager watching the driver race and you issue commands such as speed up, overtake, slow down, pull into the pits and... er that's about it, You also decide on fuel and tyre strategy.

Now, transfering this concept to a trainsim may work.

A Spec - Your standard activity wherby you drive and operate the
train

B Spec - Your watching the train, driven by the computer and you maybe give simple commands.

B Spec would either be like a screen saver mode where you watch the activity being completed by the computer or a trainset mode where you literally play trains as opposed to driving them.

[leezer3]

Something that the new sim MUST have is a proper scripting system. Possible uses for this include:
*A script that reads how late/ early you are, and adjusts AI trains to suit.
*Implemenation of safety systems such as TPWS etc- I don't expect you to program all possible safety systems into the sim, but it would be great if we were able to write a script for a route defining the safety system etc.
*Random AI trains.

My second thought is mainly aimed at newbies, and those not comfortable with editing files- If a sound/ cab file is not present, then the sim should be able to detect this, and replace it with a default automatically rather than simply complaining that it can't find it, and the same with stock.

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

[scorpion71]

Random AI trains!!???

Eeeeek Nooooo!!!!

That's any sense of realism well and truly gone!!! Unless they make a Spec a, Spec b version as mentioned in an early post

[leezer3]

Well, the random AI trains were just an idea as to how a scripting system could be put to use
Besides, many users would like random AI trains in explore mode; As long as the trains conform to the railway 'rules' etc, which could be specified in the script (Eg. frequency of freight trains, 'special' trains etc), then I actually thinl that they could make it much better.

Chris Lees

http://www.bvecornwall.co.uk

[brocky]

depends on definition of 'random'
if trains set in time periods it may be good ie. 10 year periods however if it was trully random you could end up going on, say the tallyllyn and whilst waiting at abergynolwyn in sir hadyn unloading passengers ..........a sprinter flies past
great

[scorpion71]

Fair point, they would deffo be welcomed in Explore route, but to be honest, it would be the only place for random traffic!

[supergoods]

*A script that reads how late/ early you are, and adjusts AI trains to suit.

Why would the simulator do that since the controllers don't seem to be able to do that themselves with last connections etc.

[NeutronIC]

I'm definitely a big fan of the scripting idea. It's one of the aspects I most admire in Trainz (bet nobody thought they would hear that from me ). You can use scripting to affect activities so they aren't precisely the same each time - maybe the characteristics of an AI driver are different to where one always drives as fast as possible, another is very gentle and hence slower. Maybe particular trains are set, but the consists used for those trains might be randomisable if the activity author wants, e.g. does it matter if it's a freight train of cars or a freight train of grain that shoots past you; maybe it does, but in that case you don't randomise it - and that's also not to say randomisation should be completely random, it might be random in a particular set.

I spent a lot of time with Trainz scripting back when it was first introduced for Service Pack 3 and did quite a bit with it. One of the things I was most pleased with (but sadly couldn't complete due to limitations at the time) was my automatic signal box. I had a complex 10 platform through station with about 5 possible routes in and a subset of possible destination platforms for each route - e.g. perhaps route one could only get to platforms 1 thru 4 for example. When a train (AI *OR* player) hit a trigger at some point identifying it was coming in to the station, the automatic signal box would look at what platforms were available and if one could be found it would route them in, if not, it would hold you on a red until it could get you in. This meant that when running an activity, if you were running late or early you could be sent in to different platforms rather than being held up because your path mandates you are going to platform 5. Sadly that couldn't be completed due to bugs in the sim when it came to trying to reserve paths and points (it just hung it every time, despite being reported several times as a bug in SP3 beta (I was a beta tester) it didn't get fixed, no idea if it ever was).

One of my favourite activities in Trainz was a very simple 1 tile layout that was entirely randomly scripted (Proteus) - you didn't know what was going to happen or when and every time was different. Was it prototypical? Probably not, but it was sure fun. You're sitting in a yard, you have receiving lines and a number of businesses interested in wagons. You receive word from the signal box that a train is on its way in, moments later it rounds the corner, uncouples its wagons and heads out. You have a time limit to get those wagons in to your receiving lines. Once there you must shunt them around and get them in to the appropriate businesses. Probably while you're at the depths of the yard you'll get a note that another train is due in - so now it's a frantic run back to the receiving lines and on to the main line to get those wagons in. Later on, you might receive word that the train coming in as failed and now you've not only got to get to the main line but you've also got to go out and rescue the train and THEN still have to do its wagons. Further on, a fire breaks out in a building near the receiving lines and suddenly you lose a line or two, possibly right when you don't need to be losing lines. Brilliant stuff. I'm sure with more work and more stock available, it would be possible to write something very similar but very prototypical.

The scripting system should be linked in to the various cores of the whole simulation and graphics engines, that way anyone can add in anything they like that isn't already there.

The biggest warning to get from Trainz however is that it shouldn't be the ONLY way to make anything, it should just be the way to do extra bits or get that extra mile - the lack of a proper scenario editor (and no I don't count that 'keep the industries going' thing) meant that only those proficient in programming Trainz Script (which also required some understanding of OO; not that OO is bad but it does raise the bar a bit) could actually make something as simple as an activity!

100% vote for Scripting here

Matt.