My answers may sound like a boilerplate cutout from many of the others already posted. I'm mostly a Surveyor user, but will venture on more than one occasion to the other side and spend time in Driver, mostly to enjoy the fruits of my hard earned labor as I've built, merged, and reworked the routes, and to seek out and note where there are glaring mistakes that need repairs.
Recently I've done more merging than actual building. It's a challenging not only in getting things lined up realistically, but also blending scenery so there's little difference between the sections. I have a couple of extensive merged routes with one topping out at nearly 200 miles with the other at around 100 miles.
Is there a particular built-in session that you like? (and what makes this one special?)
None in particular. I've used them to see how things are done, but that's about it. The fact that we can't modify the routes to improve them, or use them as merger candidates, makes them very limited with what we can do with them. KSC is to me a testing route to test new locomotives and for beta testing.
Is there a session on the DLS that you enjoy?
Very few if any. If I have downloaded routes, I've mostly eyed them for merger and acquisition reasons or to see how something is done.
For routes and sessions, I prefer those I've created or purchased from Jointed Rail. Scratchy's latest creations truly set the standard that others should follow.
If you create your own sessions, what is a typical set-up? (e.g. do you use navigation points?)
I make extensive use of the Schedule Library and Copy Commands from to keep my AI scheduled commands organized. I wish there was a better interface for adding commands to the command bar because clicking and adding commands and track marks becomes tedious especially on extensive routes.
For commands, I use the bog standard: Drive To/Navigate To/ Drive to Trackmark/Navigate to Trackmark, Load, Instant Load, Instant Load Locomotives, Max Speed if needed (This makes big coal drags realistically slow), wait until, and a few others. I never use Navigation points because they’re difficult, clumsy perhaps is a better word, to setup, and they remind me of a game like Mario Brothers where the player has to collect coins for points.
Do you only ever drive a single train or do you like to jump from one to another?
My routes are setup with up to 25 AI drivers plus others visiting from time to time via portals. These through trains represent the line traffic with the setup AI running commuter trains, and other feeder traffic.
With the AI running, I'll do the local switching with the aim to keep the switcher and the local train out of the way of through traffic. When I'm done switching in one of the yards, I'll take over one of the through freights, uncouple the locomotives and send the AI drivers to the engine house for servicing while I switch out the freight wagons from the train. When I'm done, I have the AI driver couple to his newer consist, and continue on the way to the destination portal. There are times when I'll tag along for a ride and enjoy the scenery. It's great seeing the scenery and enjoying the ride, and other times when it’s necessary to take over an AI train to untangle a mess they’ve made.
Do you use CMTM (Car Movement and Traffic Management System) ? Or perhaps model railroad card systems?
I have used it, but need to delve into it a bit more.
Are there certain rules that you use when making your own gameplay?
Schedule Library
Trackview Rule
Quick Drive Rule (So I can set the time, and add consists, add drivers, etc. as needed)
and a few others I can't think of at the moment.
I believe in KISS
How do you use commodities in your sessions?
Yes. I use them to add weight to the trains but nothing in particular for any industries most of the time except for coal coming out of mines, which I either send off somewhere via the portals, or to the local power plants. Most of the tank cars and boxcars on my routes carry “stuff” which has no particular destination. I’ll spot hoppers on a siding near a grain elevator, or near a brewery, but they may or may not contain any commodities.
Do you only use Quickdrive? (and why?)
Not quick drive, I exit to the menu and enter Driver. This is perhaps an old habit from the TRS2004 days because I found QD to be very unstable. As it is now, I find it awkward and clumsy to use and missing the rules and commands I've added to my driver's sessions, and also because the full driver's session already has all my consists setup throughout the route and I don't need to add stuff all over again.
How much AI traffic do you like in your sessions?
As I mentioned above, I have up to 25 AI drivers running on the larger routes. The smaller ones may have about 6 or 8 AI drivers active with me doing some driving and switching. I have noticed that the additional drivers do begin to bog things down and then they become stupid, as if the AI are actually intelligent, and start running signals, ignoring track marks, and doing other idiot things, which ruing the operations.
Have you tried multiplayer? (What did you like/dislike?)
Never tried it. I'm not interested in this and would rather "play" by myself and not deal with others buggering me.
Anything else you'd like to throw in to the discussion.
The inability, or at least I'm unaware of how, to setup an actual driver schedule based on time is a big detriment driving, and having this as a goal-seeking thing is not what I'm interested in either. I hate the goal-seeking scenarios because that reminds me of the old cartridge games for the Atari 800. The same with navigation points, which remind me of little coins floating in space to grab as we whiz along. (Nothing personal and I hope I don't offend those session creators that use them). I will say they are useful for learning a route or session operations and tutorials, but for regular operations, it's annoying, and for that reason I turn them off after I've learned the route and operations on routes that use them.
Having drivers moving about as if they're moving at will, is not how real railroads operate. What we need is something where we can add in consists, and simply assign a start time and destination stations. The distance to the destination stations, determines the arrival time and everything else fits in between that. If there is more than one driver, these additional drivers will automatically be offset behind the first so that they don't conflict. What happens when other non-scheduled traffic, such as a manifest freight that runs as needed, is introduced is another story and that can bring up a whole different operations variable.
Related to this is drivers switching their own junction levers as the drivers approach them is also not how real railroads work with exceptions of switching lines, small branch line operations, and tram lines where manual switching is used.
Great strides have been made with interlocking towers, which require an advanced CS degree to configure, however, all said and done, the true answer is the ability to configure a real dispatcher operation with a secondary panel open showing the track setup as a dispatcher panel would for a section or division of a route.
In driver I hate it when I click on an AI driver and end up in space floating above the AI consist and always facing the back end of the locomotive. Instead we should face the locomotive, but at an angle we've chosen. Let's say for example, we have an AI driver moving along. We have a close, but not on top of view of the train moving along. If we click on that train, we should remain at that viewing angle and distance instead of being sent off to space above. This viewing is critical to such things such as switching and coupling operations. Related to this is changing the camera to a tracking or trackside camera? If we're in free roaming mode, we should remain in free roaming camera regardless of what consist we click on. This is critical too for the same reasons mentioned as well as untangling multiple drivers if that situation occurs.
T:ANE has come a long way and in many cases is light years ahead of where Trainz was in the TRS2004 days, yet in many ways even with all the improvements, we're still running the same program from 14 years or more ago.
Recently I've done more merging than actual building. It's a challenging not only in getting things lined up realistically, but also blending scenery so there's little difference between the sections. I have a couple of extensive merged routes with one topping out at nearly 200 miles with the other at around 100 miles.
Is there a particular built-in session that you like? (and what makes this one special?)
None in particular. I've used them to see how things are done, but that's about it. The fact that we can't modify the routes to improve them, or use them as merger candidates, makes them very limited with what we can do with them. KSC is to me a testing route to test new locomotives and for beta testing.
Is there a session on the DLS that you enjoy?
Very few if any. If I have downloaded routes, I've mostly eyed them for merger and acquisition reasons or to see how something is done.
For routes and sessions, I prefer those I've created or purchased from Jointed Rail. Scratchy's latest creations truly set the standard that others should follow.
If you create your own sessions, what is a typical set-up? (e.g. do you use navigation points?)
I make extensive use of the Schedule Library and Copy Commands from to keep my AI scheduled commands organized. I wish there was a better interface for adding commands to the command bar because clicking and adding commands and track marks becomes tedious especially on extensive routes.
For commands, I use the bog standard: Drive To/Navigate To/ Drive to Trackmark/Navigate to Trackmark, Load, Instant Load, Instant Load Locomotives, Max Speed if needed (This makes big coal drags realistically slow), wait until, and a few others. I never use Navigation points because they’re difficult, clumsy perhaps is a better word, to setup, and they remind me of a game like Mario Brothers where the player has to collect coins for points.
Do you only ever drive a single train or do you like to jump from one to another?
My routes are setup with up to 25 AI drivers plus others visiting from time to time via portals. These through trains represent the line traffic with the setup AI running commuter trains, and other feeder traffic.
With the AI running, I'll do the local switching with the aim to keep the switcher and the local train out of the way of through traffic. When I'm done switching in one of the yards, I'll take over one of the through freights, uncouple the locomotives and send the AI drivers to the engine house for servicing while I switch out the freight wagons from the train. When I'm done, I have the AI driver couple to his newer consist, and continue on the way to the destination portal. There are times when I'll tag along for a ride and enjoy the scenery. It's great seeing the scenery and enjoying the ride, and other times when it’s necessary to take over an AI train to untangle a mess they’ve made.
Do you use CMTM (Car Movement and Traffic Management System) ? Or perhaps model railroad card systems?
I have used it, but need to delve into it a bit more.
Are there certain rules that you use when making your own gameplay?
Schedule Library
Trackview Rule
Quick Drive Rule (So I can set the time, and add consists, add drivers, etc. as needed)
and a few others I can't think of at the moment.
I believe in KISS
How do you use commodities in your sessions?
Yes. I use them to add weight to the trains but nothing in particular for any industries most of the time except for coal coming out of mines, which I either send off somewhere via the portals, or to the local power plants. Most of the tank cars and boxcars on my routes carry “stuff” which has no particular destination. I’ll spot hoppers on a siding near a grain elevator, or near a brewery, but they may or may not contain any commodities.
Do you only use Quickdrive? (and why?)
Not quick drive, I exit to the menu and enter Driver. This is perhaps an old habit from the TRS2004 days because I found QD to be very unstable. As it is now, I find it awkward and clumsy to use and missing the rules and commands I've added to my driver's sessions, and also because the full driver's session already has all my consists setup throughout the route and I don't need to add stuff all over again.
How much AI traffic do you like in your sessions?
As I mentioned above, I have up to 25 AI drivers running on the larger routes. The smaller ones may have about 6 or 8 AI drivers active with me doing some driving and switching. I have noticed that the additional drivers do begin to bog things down and then they become stupid, as if the AI are actually intelligent, and start running signals, ignoring track marks, and doing other idiot things, which ruing the operations.
Have you tried multiplayer? (What did you like/dislike?)
Never tried it. I'm not interested in this and would rather "play" by myself and not deal with others buggering me.
Anything else you'd like to throw in to the discussion.
The inability, or at least I'm unaware of how, to setup an actual driver schedule based on time is a big detriment driving, and having this as a goal-seeking thing is not what I'm interested in either. I hate the goal-seeking scenarios because that reminds me of the old cartridge games for the Atari 800. The same with navigation points, which remind me of little coins floating in space to grab as we whiz along. (Nothing personal and I hope I don't offend those session creators that use them). I will say they are useful for learning a route or session operations and tutorials, but for regular operations, it's annoying, and for that reason I turn them off after I've learned the route and operations on routes that use them.
Having drivers moving about as if they're moving at will, is not how real railroads operate. What we need is something where we can add in consists, and simply assign a start time and destination stations. The distance to the destination stations, determines the arrival time and everything else fits in between that. If there is more than one driver, these additional drivers will automatically be offset behind the first so that they don't conflict. What happens when other non-scheduled traffic, such as a manifest freight that runs as needed, is introduced is another story and that can bring up a whole different operations variable.
Related to this is drivers switching their own junction levers as the drivers approach them is also not how real railroads work with exceptions of switching lines, small branch line operations, and tram lines where manual switching is used.
Great strides have been made with interlocking towers, which require an advanced CS degree to configure, however, all said and done, the true answer is the ability to configure a real dispatcher operation with a secondary panel open showing the track setup as a dispatcher panel would for a section or division of a route.
In driver I hate it when I click on an AI driver and end up in space floating above the AI consist and always facing the back end of the locomotive. Instead we should face the locomotive, but at an angle we've chosen. Let's say for example, we have an AI driver moving along. We have a close, but not on top of view of the train moving along. If we click on that train, we should remain at that viewing angle and distance instead of being sent off to space above. This viewing is critical to such things such as switching and coupling operations. Related to this is changing the camera to a tracking or trackside camera? If we're in free roaming mode, we should remain in free roaming camera regardless of what consist we click on. This is critical too for the same reasons mentioned as well as untangling multiple drivers if that situation occurs.
T:ANE has come a long way and in many cases is light years ahead of where Trainz was in the TRS2004 days, yet in many ways even with all the improvements, we're still running the same program from 14 years or more ago.
