Atomic Systems

It is good that the glitch with the trailing car facing the wrong way was fixed by a small update. I noticed some other odd stuff though.

Are there supposed to be AI trains on these quick drives? I've seen it mentioned in some topics here. Only on the Newcastle - York route have I seen AI trains. Incidentally it is on that route that most of the trouble occurs. Depending on the stations selected a 'Game Over Error' appears due to a train derailment, either the player or AI train. Sometimes the error comes as soon as the game loads, other times it appears after a few minutes. Also the points are set against the train in one of York's platforms (edit: might be Newcastle). The Class 55 that is located there in free roam is unusable because the game ends as soon as any attempt is made to drive it.

On Oxford - Paddington, Didcot is not a selectable destination in Quick Drive. Seriously?

Is there any way of having more than one destination in the same trip without having to make a proper scenario? If not then that is a good feature to add in the next update.

Some of the routes aren't even selectable, such as Seebergbahn, Test TraK, and Hedborough. The Hitachi isn't available in Quick Drive either.

Where do the 'Quick Drive' locomotive thumbnails hide?

Thought they were in a LocoInformation folder but that certainly isn't the case for the Class 390/Pendolinos yet they have one in the QD menu!!

I gotta be honest... the whole Quick Drive thing is next to useless and does nothing for me...

From what little i've played with it, one thing i've discovered about AI is... it doesn't seem to matter the route, you only get about 5 AI trains... so choose a short route and you'll see quite a few loco's, choose a long route and you'll see next to none until you reach a bigger station towards the end... although this isn't a rule by any means, and plenty often you see absolutely nothing at all

I did initially start to create a bunch of QD consists for some of my favourite loco's... but got so bored of QD so quick, that i actually can't be bothered with it now, let alone waste time making new consists for it

firstborn wrote:I gotta be honest... the whole Quick Drive thing is next to useless and does nothing for me...

From what little i've played with it, one thing i've discovered about AI is... it doesn't seem to matter the route, you only get about 5 AI trains... so choose a short route and you'll see quite a few loco's, choose a long route and you'll see next to none until you reach a bigger station towards the end... although this isn't a rule by any means, and plenty often you see absolutely nothing at all

I did initially start to create a bunch of QD consists for some of my favourite loco's... but got so bored of QD so quick, that i actually can't be bothered with it now, let alone waste time making new consists for it

Agreed, I thought QD was going to be rubbish before the release of TS2013 and sadly I was proven correct, in my own mind at least! It is next to useless. I tried it only once and ran from a deserted Paddington through to a deserted Slough without seeing a single AI train the whole way. No better than free roam, which I never used either.

QD has got the spark of possibility but so much more needs to be done to it to make it of any use or appeal. It needs to feature lots of AI stock, it needs to feature appropriate AI stock for the location and era and finally it needs to feature varied AI stock. All the things that a normal scenario does in other words!

Sadly, I can't see this ever happening as RSC are unable to embrace and make use of 3rd party creations which are what make normal scenarios so engaging and realistic.

I agree with the last two posts; QD shows promise and for a newcomer to the game makes for a slightly easier introduction to getting a train on the tracks but it does need some work.

I'm on the bench with this one.
Quick Drive is great in my view as it let's me jump straight into a game without needing to faff around. However, it is limited which is where it drops. The main aim of Quick Drive is to do what it says on tin. It let's you jump straight into driving a train on a set course, this is easier than free roam and it gives you AI.
One thing some of you may want to take note on is that Quick Drive takes into account what time it is. If you go on London to Brighton at 1700 you see a lot more AI than you would at 2200. Whilst you still may not see half the prototypical levels you will pass a large amount of trains.
Some routes that have Quick Drive don't (yet) have the markers set up for AI to 'spawn', but you can still use Quick Drive. The only thing it can do though is set you a path.
I look forward to see how this progresses myself, and I personally think it is a very nice addition - especially for a fairly quick route learning session.

whiterider wrote:I look forward to see how this progresses myself, and I personally think it is a very nice addition - especially for a fairly quick route learning session.

Certainly, anything that enables a new user to drive his/her trains without a lot of messing about has to be welcomed---after all that new user who hasn't a clue may turn into the best scenariuo creator we'll ever see as long as they start off with being able to use the game without a lot of head scratching.