Atomic Systems

I’ve deliberately put this post here and not under scenarios because it’s more about why than how.

Having tried to replace some items for a Scottish scenario (didn’t want to pay £38.00 to buy them) I had a go at replacing the stock used for my own, it didn’t work very well and took a long long time, I blame no-one but me, never tried it before.
It sort of reminded me of the perils of writing scenarios in the you have to second guess what stock people may have and even then you maybe as wrong as you are right.

In an ideal world if you wanted to change stock you would just pop around the scenery and change what isn’t there ! ? but of course if it’s not there, you cannot change it, if it were it would be very easy.

So it occurred to me if I write a scenario, why I don’t use stock that everyone will have by default, then, in the edit mode, they could quickly pop round and substitute it for their preferences.

Question, these days with users coming into the game are there any items of stock EVERY-ONE would have, by default, in the early days it was Black 5 and 2-8-0 steam at least now I don’t know.
Cheers
John

I would think that if you are making a scenario for a route you would use the default stock for that route
You can guarantee everyone would have all that stock - it might make it a little boring but people could swap out for something different.

The problems occur when you make a scenario that uses stock from a lot of other different routes - some people will have that stock and others won't.
So if you are going to use stock from another route keep it to the minimum

Same with locos - they should be currently available to attract a wider audience

IMHO

Peter

Peter, that is such a good answer I'm slightly annoyed at myself for not thinking of it !!!
As it appens like !! It’s the free routes that don’t come with any stock that give me the headache
I thought I would do a nice busy Scenario for the Suburban v6, a bit retro too 1970/80, as I’m not a fan of modern trains
37, 47,51,101,117 come to mind and the older HST, but the basic question still stands
Is their ANY stock that EVERYONE would have. i.e. came free.
John

You could create a survey but your answers would be based on who responds to it.

37, 47, 51? (55), 101 is ok but the 117 is not available apart from North Somerset route.

What you could do John is to make an all-singing and dancing version with whatever assets you have/want and throw it out there for the masses AND at the same time make a basic version using default route stock/US/Eur asset packs/freeware which most all will have or have access to. I did this on 2 scenarios for China Clay for Export and the take up was pretty much evens and twice as many got to play them
It doesn't take long to swop over stock once you've made your full version and you don't get criticised for being elitist
Happy Weekend,
G.

Depends on your tastes/preferences I guess, me, I use the prototypical stock for the era of the scenario, as far as is possible.

I often wished that scenario authors produced a "plain vanilla" version , using route standard and freeware stock, alongside the one with all the "bells and whistles", as Kernow 2 suggests. It is purely their choice of course.

Thanks for the advice, I think the idea of two versions is a good one indeed. BUT

It takes me back to my original question - Is there any stock that everyone has regardless of what version TS20XX came with ?

John

John,

You touched on this in your first post. For several years after first release you could guarantee that everyone would have the Black5, 7F, Classs 37 and Class 55 as these all came with the basic game/route combo. Some years ago they hived the locos off into the Euro pack so people who have picked up the game subsequently don't get 'em. With the advent of much improved versions like the BMG Black 5 it is very likely that a more recent steam-era fan positively won't have the old Kuju Black 5 as why would they get that when there is a better loco available. Ditto the diesels.

So sadly, I think the answer is that there is probably no single loco that you can guarantee that everyone will have. I can't say what the coaching stock situation is but probably similar (did the Mk1s get hived off to the Euro pack too I wonder?).

As mentioned in other threads on this topic, the situation actively works against an easy enjoyment of new routes (especially freeware ones) due to the messing about needed to get them working for 'your' stock. Personally I have given up trying to tailor for a lowest common denominator as the target is constantly moving! You can use just any stock that came with the route (if payware) or from a donor route (if freeware) but that gets very sad very quickly IMHO.

We need a utility that can make sensible swap-outs based on your owned stock - hint, hint to DTG (yes, I know the hint needs to be on their buglist).

Thank you that (cunningn » 21 Feb 2021 14:40 ) It's what I suspected good idea about DTG, so I think yours and the suggestion by (Kernow2 » 20 Feb 2021 08:54) is excellent advice and as others have also suggested use Vanilla & ideal stock.
Even if a route is freeware it is probebly linked to a sold route that came with stock, so use that in the sceneries scenarios, I dont mind swapping stock that is somewhere on the route, thats quiet easy, its changing whole consists in TS_Tools that has defeated me. It does single items really well but consists seem to require more skill than I have patience !
This is how "busy" my two screens became Cheers Thanks for the comments
John

A little workaround I sometimes did when making a more basic copy was to physically place the new assets wherever possible , next to the originals and just drag the 'driver' icon over to the new loco then delete the originals. No RWTools needed just some space and to know where your assets live
Was just looking at a new little scenario on Rail-sim.de for a favourite route of mine and did a little math to see that if you were having to buy all of the assets from scratch for this small scenario it would cost you 95Eur, which quite surprised me ! Swopping stock can be a chore but it can provide some decent free content to enjoy.

cunningn wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:40 pm We need a utility that can make sensible swap-outs based on your owned stock - hint, hint to DTG (yes, I know the hint needs to be on their buglist).

There is a dedicated utility called LocoSwap for swapping locos and stock in TS 20xx.
https://rail-sim.de/forum/thread/34356- ... /?pageNo=1
I have used it for a while now instead of TS Tools for swapping stock.

Thanks Skiddaw - I'll check it out. My hope is that it can do multiple regular swaps in one shot rather than lots of repetitive bits.

Hi Cunningn,
I think you will find it does what you want. It allows you to define "rules" for making multiple swaps which it remembers and you can apply the same rule to different scenarios and routes. It's all in the manual which helpfully is in English or German.

Kernow2 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 8:54 am What you could do John is to make an all-singing and dancing version with whatever assets you have/want and throw it out there for the masses AND at the same time make a basic version using default route stock/US/Eur asset packs/freeware which most all will have or have access to.

That definitely seems like the best approach. Ideally, in the readme you would also include a list of what stock you intended to have in the 'full' version so that those of us who have some of the requirements can choose whether to start with the 'vanilla' and 'upgrade' it; or start with the full version and 'downgrade' a few missing items.