What Makes A Good Activity

[ebensoussan]

Hi
Hi,

very interesting subject. I have not yet the Mid East nor the CC4, but a good route with many branches, numerous industries, some siding yards, a well devised economic and social background, and, icing on the cake, a lovely scenery is not necessary a good value for realize an activity. At several times, I put many hopes in such superb routes and was discouraged while building an activity with insoluble problems of signals ever red or points which never moved to the opposite way.

Considering the limited possibilities of the AE, I had often to give up most of my scenarios.

What remains then ? Some freight activities where you pick up cars in some places and drop them off in others, or where you run an heavy train and a poor engine (a mix of the two is perfect) Some passenger activities where you must arrive on time despite a lot of unexpected events (once a time I realized an activity in Paris suburbs where all the traffic was desorganized by a suicide)

There are as much activities than persons which can be pleased by them. My experience of french forums is, that people there prefer a basic passenger activity, where they are able to see a lot of traffic coming from the opposite way

I hope to learn here more about the British train-simmers likings

[Easilyconfused]

I agree with Kevarc - write what you enjoy driving and then it becomes a more enjoyable pastime rather than trying to please everyone else

Personally, I like activities where you can not run flat out or you hit yellows and reds. I also find that including some slack is helpful - if the activity assumes you will hit the times and you lag behind only to get screwed up by AI traffic is not my idea of fun.

A great example of my ideal activity is the Mid East - "I need a drink". Loads of unexpected happenings and a real challenge. I never did thank the author (note to self - send email or PM).

[XPTE]

I like activities which totally surprises the driver of the player train, i.e. you get diverted to the slow line or have to take a diverted route(if it is possible, depending on the route) or you get stuck at a red light or whatever for some reason. In one activity I created(you'll have to find it for youself else that will spoil the surprise) about half way into the journey the conductor calls you and advises you to stop the train at the next station so that you can let a very drunk passenger off the train! These sorts of events though should be unmentioned in the activity description page/briefing as this ruin the surprise element of the activity, as if you were a driver of a real train you'd hardly know that some incident would happen before it actually happened!

Most of my activities are just run of the mill(straight forward a-b passenger with no incidents or delays or anything as most journeys are), but I like to throw in a surprise or two in some of the activities.

Realistic travel levels is also good.If I'm driving the London-Brighton route for instance I like to see plenty of A1 traffic enroute. You'd see at least 25 A1 trains if you were driving the full route on a weekday daytime for example, whereas on the Cambrian Coast route you'd probably only see 1 or 2 other A1 trains at the most during a 56 mile run. But these A1 trains need not necessarily be set to real timetables. Not everyone likes studying timetables like I do!

Any freight based activities are also welcome, especially as I don't have the imagination to create anything other than passenger activites!