The post card to dear founders of game « RAIL SIMULATOR »

[LocomotivBL85]

The post card to dear founders of game « RAIL SIMULATOR » « Kuju Entertainment Ltd » from the Russian admirers of a railway transportation and railway simulators.

Dear « Kuju Entertainment Ltd » if you have undertaken to do a good railway simulator so it we shall do it together. The Russian Federation possesses the biggest railway network, an example: the Transsiberian highway, and also construction of a century: a Baikal-Amur highway. Our railway factories let out one of the most powerful electric locomotives and diesel locomotives. The army of the Russian admirers of a railway transportation is not easier laymans gamers whom all the same, it is how much realistic game works, they are people much knowing and understanding in railway business. And this army offers you cooperation!
At present in the market of railway simulators there is nothing, that it would be possible to name the present, realistic railway simulator. At you developers are a huge opportunity to earn huge quantity of means and благодарностей from admirers of a railway transportation, but only under condition of creation realistic railway game - and the given letter is devoted to it!

Offers on creation of game.

1. The main mistake modern railway simulators it that the player is in game not the person, and machine. It needs to be corrected! For example: the beginning of game, you operate an electric locomotive (diesel locomotive) come for work to depot, to you appoint the assistant, give a routing leaf, the document with preventions and restrictions of speed on the given route, appoint to you the locomotive. Further you from assistants go (as for example in GTA) get through a door into the locomotive. Further all as under the instruction, check of autobrakes, systems of the locomotive, sandboxes, light. Further you contact persons on duty on station or from dispatchers, you request the sanction, and under indications of the light signal system you begin movement on a route.
2. Creation of a real rolling stock. That is creation of a railway transportation from accounts of all drawings, characteristics and other data.
3. Creation of the present railroad tracks. It is necessary to make real rails, not simply flat structures, and real rails with the traced joints and each cross tie. Arrows, should be traced from accuracy up to millimeter, the mobile funnymen, animated drives, it is not necessary simply crossings of two structures!
4. Passengers: it is necessary to create real people, the whole population for the given territory which have desires and needs and which in connection with these needs will use a railway transportation. That is the real passenger turnover with the suburban and distant message should be realized!
5. The player should have an opportunity not only drive trains, but also in days of rest from work to have an opportunity to come the course on station, to buy the ticket, to wait trains, to come into completely animated car, and to reach there where it is necessary to it. And thus had an opportunity to pass from the car in the car, to open and be put out from a window, to observe the locomotive on curve sites. And also to ask for the locomotive, and to observe from work of a locomotive brigade
6. Routes: It is necessary to create the whole world, the country. It is necessary that the length of the main course could be compared to real distances of work of locomotive brigades. It is necessary to create the whole world with the infrastructure and economy. For example, there is an oil refining factory, hence, it is necessary to deliver to it about oil from bulk-oil station. But be made it should on the present: the shunting locomotive delivers tanks to bulk station, occurs заливка oil. Then the shunting locomotive delivers cars to sorting ways where by means of a hump yard there is a sorting of cars, formation of cargo structures. Then these structures also are delivered by shunting movement to dispatch ways where there is a clothespin of locomotives, and the structure under the schedule sends on a route. Similar procedures should be carried out and on all other industrial targets!
7. It is necessary to create real passenger movement. In passenger depot sorting of passenger structures with the certain route should be realized, their complete set bed бельём, water, coal and other accessories should be made. The conductor which should carry out the duties should be attached to each car: opening of doors at station, check of tickets, cleaning in interior, and so on. Baggage cars should be accordingly loaded by luggage or mail on loading regions of station.
8. Management of the locomotive should be the present! Any simplifications! As it is written in a management on management of the given locomotive, and should be. Also it is impossible to forget and about breakages of locomotives. It is not necessary to be afraid, that management will be too complex, and the knowledge of management will cost that!
9. Sound: It is necessary to make the present sound, not simply in advance written down sounds, and real sounds are dynamically generated. Sound of fight of wheel pairs not simply written down in advance about joints of a rail cloth, and sounds really dependent on an arrangement of joints, sound insulation of the given rolling stock, and also from the wheel formula of the locomotive or the car.
10. It is necessary to realize all trades of a railway transportation. That the player could feel not only in a role of management of a train, but also in a role of its assistant, on duty on station, the dispatcher, the composer, the switchman, a conductor, the chief of station, and so on down to the yard keeper!
11. Stations. It is necessary to create not only small travel under control of one person on duty, but also huge passenger and switchyards, with a lot of the attendants, several cargo or the car yards working under control of the corresponding virtual or real person!
12. World around. All should be as much as possible present. The present people with the ideas, needs and desires, machines animals.
13. Management movement. It is necessary to create persons on duty on station and поездных dispatchers, it is obligatory that their actions were generated by means of technologies of an artificial intellect depending on the given situation. It is necessary to create the present system of negotiations of brigades among themselves, and also negotiations with persons on duty and dispatchers.
14. Physics of game. It is necessary to try and create as much as possible realistic cursor of game! The physics of movement of a railway transportation should be present!
15. Architecture of game. It is necessary to create game with as much as possible open architecture. That all who wants, could change parameters of game and it was as much as possible easy to create additions.
16. The traffic. It is necessary to create the traffic both in advance created by the player, and automatically generated casually or according to the schedule on the given site. The traffic should be the present, have an artificial intellect that it was felt, that behind management there is not a computer, and the person!
17. It is necessary to create the editor of game. To make its as much as possible simple and convenient, that like the editor of the world « AURAN TRAINZ » and the editor of scripts from « Microsoft Train Simulator ». It is necessary to create the convenient editor of a landscape, also to include an option of automatic generation of a landscape, and also an opportunity of loading of landscapes according to from space. Creation of a rail cloth should be as much as possible convenient: should be used a principle creation of a rail cloth as, for example in « AURAN TRAINZ », and also should be present available speed up ways, arrows translations of kinds by all and marks a cross, it is necessary to create also ready typical travelling outcomes (mouth) of station. The opportunity of installation, both separate details of the world, and their complexes (as ready, and created in the special editor the user) is necessary. For example: ready breadboard models of stations, cities, settlements, industrial terminals and so on.
18. The editor on creation of a rolling stock is necessary.
19. The locomotive - should be the present both outside, and inside. The player should not be fixed to one place in a cabin of management, it should have absolute freedom of actions, down to a jump from the locomotive for the speed, but this freedom should be supervised by organizations specially created for it. For example, it is necessary that the player could rise from an armchair of management, pass in an engine room to look behind work of units and so on.
20. Rail cloth. Should not be ideally equal, it is necessary that all roughnesses were generated automatically. Hence, the locomotive should not go exactly, the real system of jolting and rocking of the locomotive and people in it (as well in cars) which should be not any, but put in dependence on a rail cloth should be worked!

[Easilyconfused]

Welcome to the forums.

That is a very comprehensive post that will take me some time to digest but on first reading there are some very good ideas / points there.

Kindest regards

John
Member of the UKTS forum moderator team.

[LocomotivBL85]

Thanks for kind words! I express huge gratitude to everyone who will not regret time and will seriously concern to the given letter!
Dear developers concern with understanding!!!

[LocomotivBL85]

What it would be much desirable from a railway simulator?: - full realism!!! For an example it is necessary for me to go for a drive not simply on locomotives, but also simultaneously to prepare for the future trade! It is necessary to create not easier toy for children, and the present simulator of the railway that it was we shall apply at training young railwaymen!

[simuk]

Certainly some good ideas/points, but I feel they're be more suited to a totally new product at the planning stages, rather than one which has been in development for some time.

The risk with wanting lots of things in any game, is that it'll suffer from "feature creep" where there's always something else to add. Some of the points unfortunately seem somewhat unlikely (due to being unrealistic in what we can honestly expect from a railway simulator - it is a railway simulator, rather than a real-life simulator. If someone wants to experience every single aspect of a real railway, they'd probably be better off being a member of staff working on a real railway. A "game" isn't ever going to be able to achieve quite the same level of detail with regards to individual passengers all being 100% unique and having their own thoughts - they may well have 100's or 1000's of characters in a game each programmed to act differently and have different wants and desires, but you can't really expect every aspect of real life to be simulated). It would be totally unreasonable to model ~60,000,000 individual unique people, each with their own thoughts and actions, for UK routes alone, yet alone any others.

I also feel that expectations of measurements down to the millimeter might be setting your sights a little too high. I'm sure everyone wants accuracy, but there has to be a trade off for being reasonable about it all. If you're going to ask for the whole world to be simulated, then it simply can't be done down to the mm!

Unfortunately I think a lot of the wishes listed are going to have to remain somewhat of a dream, no matter what the simulator/game.

[LocomotivBL85]

Ideally equal rail cloth is the heaviest lack of existing railway simulators! Dear developers take into account a rail cloth not probably to lay ideally exactly! It is necessary to realize not a static suspension bracket of locomotives, and dynamic that it could bend around these roughnesses! At management from a cabin it is necessary to realize rockings of the locomotive at passage of such roughnesses and joints a rail!

[LocomotivBL85]

Pliz express your opinion on problems lifted in the letter, and the attitude to the Russian railways!!!

[Easilyconfused]

I would suggest that the majority of the active forum members haven't even read the post yet since it is still mid-afternoon in the UK and most people will be working or at college / school / out for the day. Not everyone has the luxury of internet access during the day at work etc.

I am still working so I haven't really had time to fully digest all the points since things got busy this afternoon.

Kindest regards

John

[166Driver]

Ideally equal rail cloth is the heaviest lack of existing railway simulators! Dear developers take into account a rail cloth not probably to lay ideally exactly! It is necessary to realize not a static suspension bracket of locomotives, and dynamic that it could bend around these roughnesses! At management from a cabin it is necessary to realize rockings of the locomotive at passage of such roughnesses and joints a rail!

If you mean the actual physics of the simulation, you're right. I really hope Kuju get it right this time, if it is anything like MSTS I'll be saving my cash for other things.

[steampsi]

My Russian is rusty but благодарностей means 'appreciation'.

бельём means linen.

поездных is train.

A big market, Russia...

добро пожаловать русско друзья

[AndiS]

Ideally equal rail cloth is the heaviest lack of existing railway simulators! Dear developers take into account a rail cloth not probably to lay ideally exactly! It is necessary to realize not a static suspension bracket of locomotives, and dynamic that it could bend around these roughnesses! At management from a cabin it is necessary to realize rockings of the locomotive at passage of such roughnesses and joints a rail!

If you mean the actual physics of the simulation, you're right. I really hope Kuju get it right this time, if it is anything like MSTS I'll be saving my cash for other things.

I would say he means uneven track. May I supply my interpretation of the list?

1. Human interaction is important. The whole duty of the driver should be modelled: picking the orders at the depot, entering and starting the engine, checking the brakes (and other systems). Also the interaction with the train master/station controller, who give their permission for departure, should be modelled.
2. Realistic/prototypical rolling stock.
3. Prototypical switches with all details (moving frog etc.)
4. Passengers with individual targets/routes, some being on a local trip, some on a longer journey.
5. The player should be able to take the role of a passenger too, walking around in the train, looking out of the window (incl. head-out), even going to the engine to watch the crew at work.
6. The whole surrounding of the route should be modelled and the length of the routes should match the typical driver's shift. The industries along the route and their production should be modelled, or form the foundation of activities (modelling all the steps from bringing empty wagons, fetching loaded ones, making up trains, assigning route engines to them, ...)
7. Realistic movement of passengers. (No idea about possible meanings of the second sentence.) Also the conductor should be modelled, as he opens the doors, checks the tickets, cleans the compartments. Baggage cars should be loaded with luggage and mail (and the loading process should be modelled, it should be able to watch it.)
8. The handling of the engine should be exactly as in the manual. How could they forget about engine brakes (referring MSTS, I suppose)? Don't worry that it will be too complex.
9. Dynamically created sounds, depending on the actual position of rail joints and wheel arrangements/dimensions (and wheel slip or scratching of flanges in curves, however you translate "fight of wheel pairs").
10. The player should be able to roles other than driver: Conductor, signaller, etc.
11. It should be able to create big stations with several yards under control of different persons (player or game-controlled).
12. All the details of the surroundings should be modelled, too. The people with their aims, the machines, and the animals.
13. The organisation of the station should be modelled. There must be station masters and dispatchers (AI controlled) who hand out orders. Also the communications between different shunting teams and engine crews should be modelled.
14. Prototypical physics.
15. Open game architecture, which allows third-party additions.
16. The traffic should consist of predefined services plus dynamically created ones. Its control should be clever enough to make you think that there is human thought behind it, not only a machine.
17. An in-game world editor is needed. I should allow the integration of previously defined modules into a new route.
18. An editor for rolling stock creation is necessary.
19. The engines should be prototypically outside and inside. The driver should be able to freely move around in the engine, checking the engines operation, even jumping out of the door at full speed!
20. The rail surface is not even, the movements of the engines and cars when going over bad track should be modelled.

Of course, this is not a faithful translation or rewrite, I shortened some of the issues which have been discussed at length here and focussed on the less frequently seen suggestions.
Plus I hope that this somewhat shortened overview makes the original a bit more accessible.

[OTTODAD]

Much has been mentioned in connection with designing and creating a new Train Simulator, some of a complexity difficult to program for and still release a reasonably priced product.

When MSTS-2 was still on the cards I suggested various versions of it, a basic one for the average enthusiast and others for more specific uses, multi-user, multi-monitor, traffic control and for prototypists, expecting it to function as I imagine professional versions like TRAINMASTER do ?

Don't know whether the market for the later is large enough to warrant the cost and probable minimal return, also having to support such a highly technical product ?

O t t o

[saddletank]

I certainly would like to see uneven track simulated so the trains rattle and roll and not travel perfectly smoothly as MSTS trains did. However this is probably a complex thing to do for a relatively small return in user immersion. If the rattle and roll effect could be added cosmetically and NOT be a function of the train actually following an uneven path that would be simpler to code and probably just as effective as a simulation.

[OTTODAD]

BVE has a very realistic swaying motion of locos riding on their suspension, but some will have be careful not to get seasick watching it !

I seem to remember a South African or was it a Polish train sim route which did something to that effect, but would be a bit unrealistic running trains on welded high speed tracks.

Perhaps something like this can be based on tracks where joints in them are a certain distance in between, rattling things in the cab views ? But it going on and on would be a bit distracting, I think !

O t t o

[saddletank]

If rolling stock can be made to sway, perhaps the swaying could be dictated by a set of parameters. You could have 'modern welded' track (very little motion), 'high speed older track' (slight motion), 'lower quality or older second class route' track (fairly uneven ride) and 'sidings, light railways or pooor condition' track (very uneven and unstable ride). By classifying sections of track the amont of rattle and roll induced in the wagons is varied.