Motivation

[trainzguru1]

What keeps you motivated when building a route? I find i cant seem to keep motivated, I just look at the empty baseboard and put off by the amount of work. Not sure how to overcome it. Also i can imagine something really cool but when i try and put it into surveyor i struggle to picture it on the baseboard.

 

[Vern]

This thread touches on some issues relevant to what you're experiencing:-

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?123640-Building-realistic-routes-terrain

The single most important rule is not to bite off more than you can chew. You might have ambitions to build that 150 mile main line but if you only have an hour or two a day, it isn't going to happen.

Second, pick something you're really interested in, not a passing fad because you happened on a YouTube clip or similar. You need to have that something extra to provide the drive when things get bogged down.

Try and minimise distraction. Despite the proviso of Item 2 above it is all to easy to stumble on something else which lights a greater enthusiasm than the current project(s). This has a habit of being contagious and you end up with a string of half started, unfinished routes that usually end up deleted.

Consider having more than one project on the go so you can switch for a bit of variety. My current selection includes a long African mineral line (!) in MSTS, an Irish Narrow Gauge route and the Hull & Barnsley in TS12.

Finally, work on a small section at a time. The biggest killer of enthusiasm is laying all the track first then looking at 60 miles of scenery you need to do. Work 2 - 3 miles at a time, worst case is that might still give you a viable portion of the route to cut back to, if you can't finish the whole.

 

[JCitron]

Vern touches more than that, hits the issue right on the head.

Little bits and pieces will get you farther along on the route than a whole chunk at a time. What helps is setting a goal of a handful or so of baseboards to finish up. I find that I can handle 6 baseboards well per day or session in Trainz. After that I begin to make mistakes and things get messy and have to be done over.

What I do suggest when burn-out begins to come on, take a break from the building. Download someone else's route, drive that, go look at maps and photos, or even go out for a walk. The other scenery around you will inspire you to build and get you back into your route building mode again.

Remember route building like any creative process can become frustrating and even quite tiring. Breaks really are your best friend.

John

 

[ish6]

Hello -- :wave:

1. What type of layout would you like to see built by your hands?

Subway... Tram... Commute... freight.... etc ... Once decided, then ...

2. Theme; fall... summer... winter... spring... (this help you decided what type of trees, etc etc ... to use!

3. After, a bit of search: use the net for railroad modeling.... youtubes ... just to get a feel.... a plan.... a "starting point" ...

4. More important step -- Patience.... start small, and expand outwards each day ... It will get boring ... And if trainz crashes it will become a motivational killer ... so remember to save as often as possible ....

5. Wide card: there's module layouts and Routes that can be downloaded from the DLS that can be use as a start up point!

6. Do as much or as little as you can each day, etc ... sometime those creative juices will kick in, and you're on your way -- other times, that juices won't be there, so create something small, at least something... perhaps review what you have already done!

Good Luck in your endeavor! :wave:
Ish

 

[EverTrainz]

I gave up hours trying to build a route, but I found that I was too strict with laying track exactly _ feet from the platform, so I gave up.

What can't be stressed enough, though, is to set the mood, theme, and feel for the era/location you're pursuing. When I (very occasionally) try to build a part of my route, I always have 5 or 6 tabs open in Google images, each cover many aspects of what the build outcome should look like. Each picture is also an example of what I'm going for when building, and has a train or few on the lines, which is the final goal of every route builder: to get a train running up the lines.

Pictures, pictures, pictures, or else you don't know what you want, and you can't get it.

 

[mjolnir]

Before I even launch Trainz, I find it very useful to develop a reasonably detailed backstory. By the time I launch Trainz for the first time, I have a good idea who started the route, when, and for what immediate purpose the route was built to fulfill, and what the trajectory of the route was from the founding to the present day, or at least the present day to which I'm building the route. In creating the backstory, I also give some thought to where the route is located, to some degree of specificity, that is, the geological setting that the route is in. If I find a place where the backstory does not quite give enough information, I modify the backstory so that it provides answers to "what goes here, and why?".

ns

 

[butler57]

I agree with all of the above advice.
Most important have a plan of what you want to do - even sketch it out on paper - make a list of industries etc that you would like.
When it comes to covering huge areas use copy-paste-rotate this is great for grass, trees and housing estates.
Another little trick I use is to do a station area and copy it to other areas where you want a station then just change a few things to give the area a different look/feel.
And when you cannot think of what to do next - check out other routes or watch a few youtube clips. Happy trainzing!

 

[JCitron]

To add a bit more on the backstory...

The backstory or history of your railroad will not only help you achieve a working goal, it will also give you something to stay consistent with and prevent odd things such as coal mines in a city or things that would be out of place for your landscape and route period.

I have a backstory for every route I've built with one of them being quite complex as the route evolved over time.

 

[DWBennett55]

As the above shows, there's a whole bunch of ways to go about route creation. Heck, I stopped building for three years! Then T:ANE came out and looked interesting so I got back into Trainz. The route has progressed maybe 15% the last four months and is probably only 30% complete with all that work. Lots and lots of work to go.

So how do I stay motivated? I work on different parts of the route. I build assets (VERY basic but I keep my CAD skills up and I'm learning gMax) and when I get sick of that, I build some sessions for the AI drivers to work on what I have completed. That session building has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about the various rules and scripts (still pretty lame with them but I am learning). When sessions become boring and/or frustating, I work on scenery which can be pretty relaxing on my route (southwest WY can be pretty stark with a bunch of sagebrush). So, luckily, I have a bunch of aspects of the route I can work on to keep the variety going.

Then there's the opportunity to work on other routes and drive other routes. I do that also, again, for variety. I also go out and watch and photograph real trains just to get away from the computer for a bit. It's good to see and hear the real thing going past to remind me what I'm trying to simulate.

But most of all . . . have fun! If the game isn't fun, quit! Don't torture yourself. Figure out what's fun and go for it. If it's a Trainz route, great! If not, that's fine also.

Take care,

 

[rjhowie]

Well I am aware of a dedicated and very competent Trainzer who has admitted the challenge of never finishing a route and he will not be alone. Equally others who perhaps do get a wee bitty ambitious. In my routine life I was always a bit of a challenger in my job and in the wide voluntary community work especially in youth organuisations. It certainly inspired others and even though now i get health interruptions, Trainz is seeing me still with a touch of Julius Caesar. Several years ago i took on to building part of an extensive tramway system closed here in Glasgow back in 1962. I walked every single former route and over 125 miles all told and took me three years off and on. It is done but needs some sorting. What I did think at one time was I would never be able to do the whole city system but did. What I will do is get it looked at so probs can be sorted then uploaded.

In mire recent times i took on another challenge and have built the whole of the Northern Ireland Railway system. When I got to the Border I mused off an on about another mountain and after arguing with myself extended the track all the way down to where Dublin would be. Again should I extend the ambition and after some delayed thought started building from central Dublin to the the Border. So to date I have scenery as far as Drogheda and done the branch to Howth with scenery. Central Dublin is in place and start of lines radiating out. My thinking was that if I started up north and worked south I would perhaps be more put off so the hard bit attempted first!

What I can agree with it is of course a normal thing for people to try and go beyond things and is perfectly understandably abut being part of life. In my case I always took on a challenge as that is part of my personality. When this project is completed it will have a large modern build of the Emerald Isle and both the NIR and IR which in turn gives ample opportunity to anyone to extend further as I have the starting tracks in place at Dublin suburbs. So although it does make sense in general not to be too Caesarian there are always the occasional eccentrics like me who are harmlessly different. My reason for admitting this is that I recently met a long married owman wwhom I went with years ago when she was single and she introduced me to her grown up daughter. Ellen pointed to me and told her lass that I was the most eccentric man she had ever went with (my late mother added that description to someone once).

So having always been ambitious in a nice way it is producing hundreds of miles of Trainz for the island of Ireland. Hail!

ps. Apart from my NI Railway website I will be putting up a temporary show of dozens of pictures of my Irish Rail efforts. Now onward from Drogheda to Dundalk and the link with the NIR at the Border! :Y: