I'm not sure if this was an issue until the more recent service packs, but perhaps I wasn't aware of the problem prior as I wasn't doing as much driving.
This is truly frustrating. When an AI driver has control of a train, he (it?) changes the direction of the cab. There is no indication anywhere that the train direction has changed until you climb in the cab to take over. You put the train in drive, notch one, forward, only to have it go in reverse and run through the buffers or switch at the end! The only way to determine what direction the AI was driving, is to cheat if you're in Cab mode and switch to DCC mode. There you can change the engine/train direction and the red and green arrows appear over the locomotive, otherwise, it's a big guess.
Junction settings too shouldn't go back to the default when the player takes over. Again, an AI driver can't find its way out of a paper bag and gets stuck at a yard throat. You take over and the junction levers have now changed. Unknowingly, you try to untangle the mess, only to find the levers are now wrong. Being a yard throat, the junction levers are really, really, really, close together, making their setup more complicated. Oh by the time you've got stuff untangled, another AI driver has come along, flipped junctions another way, locked them and blocked the way!
Why do we need curve balls thrown at us? Driving should be as easy as Surveyor. Default junction directions and train direction should apply to AI only and not to the player-controlled trains.
John
This is truly frustrating. When an AI driver has control of a train, he (it?) changes the direction of the cab. There is no indication anywhere that the train direction has changed until you climb in the cab to take over. You put the train in drive, notch one, forward, only to have it go in reverse and run through the buffers or switch at the end! The only way to determine what direction the AI was driving, is to cheat if you're in Cab mode and switch to DCC mode. There you can change the engine/train direction and the red and green arrows appear over the locomotive, otherwise, it's a big guess.
Junction settings too shouldn't go back to the default when the player takes over. Again, an AI driver can't find its way out of a paper bag and gets stuck at a yard throat. You take over and the junction levers have now changed. Unknowingly, you try to untangle the mess, only to find the levers are now wrong. Being a yard throat, the junction levers are really, really, really, close together, making their setup more complicated. Oh by the time you've got stuff untangled, another AI driver has come along, flipped junctions another way, locked them and blocked the way!
Why do we need curve balls thrown at us? Driving should be as easy as Surveyor. Default junction directions and train direction should apply to AI only and not to the player-controlled trains.
John
