To save or not to save, that is the question!

Tony_Hilliam

Trainz Plus - enjoy Trainz from just 20 cents a da
Load edit session do some work and save. ctrl+F2 into driver and run session. So far so good, flick to surveyor alter something and go back to driver, problem solved. This is where I am confused because if you want to save the alteration to the route or session when do you do it? Do you go back to surveyor first and save, if so will the consists be in the new location or as they where when you loaded the route? or click exit driver and don't save the driver session? I seem to find myself back at the session screen and the alteration is lost.

To save or not to save, that is the question!

The decision of when to save or not is all about your objectives.

1. If you are building a route, and don't care where the trains are on the track, then you can save pretty much any time. If you have made any edits that affect the route, you will be prompted to save the route and session. In your case, you want to save the route and not save the session.

2. If you are running a session where you want to save your progress and save the position of every train, the state of signals, junctions and the commodities in the industries etc, then you want to save the route AND session. If you haven't made any route changes, then you'll only be prompted to save the session.

3. If you are in Driver and haven't made any route or session edits, then when you save you'll be prompted to save a Save Game. This is a snapshot of the session as it stands right now. If you then edit the underlying route or edit, when you come to load the savegame you will be told that things have changed since it was saved. Depending on what was changed, things could be fine or could be bad (e.g. if you deleted all the tracks, then it will be bad news for all your trains in the session).

4. To save the session with all your rolling stock in the location where you started the session, ensure your rolling stock is all in the Session Layer (then Save Session). Ensure any changes are then made in the Route Layer only. When you save, choose Overwrite Route, and Do not save session. When you restart (Driver Session) your route changes will appear, and your session will be in the same state as when you last saved it.

5. If you do need to make a change in the session layer, then load your session using Edit Session and make the changes, then save the session again. (Of course you can edit the route at this time too and save that, but the point is don't start driving anything then save, or the new locations will be saved (along with their current velocity).

6. If you have trains in the route layer, then obviously any save of the route will save the current position of the train.
 
I only put what is absolutely necessary in a route: tracks, terrain, industries that have attached track, and a few others. Everything else I add and edit in session: trains, trackmarks, signals, and so on. If I am editing and decide to save, then Trainz lets me know if I have done something that requires a route save. If you are editing for your own creations and do not intend to upload, then it probably doesn't matter. If you are creating a session to run on an uploaded route, then you cannot commit the changes to the route because it is not yours. I therefore save often so that I can backtrack and not save if I have somehow moved a track or done something that requires a route save.

If route creators would follow this schema (e.g upload the route with one session), it would be a lot easier for others to write sessions. For example, I cannot move an engine out of the way when it is on a track in the route, or the session I am attempting to write will no longer be usable with the route.
 
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