Railworks 5: Derailment

by **Truthseeker4449** 27th September 2013, 9:58 pm

Welcome to my Let's Play of Train Simulator 2014 (Unofficially called Railworks 5).

Here I drive trains and take screenshots along the way and comment on what's happening as I go. Nearly all of the images receive a comment/explanation when I take them since I have two laptops, one runs the program and takes the screenshots, the other is used to record the text side of the LP. These comments and explanations may be expanded on after playing. If I discover something fairly major after playing but before posting, I'll tack it on where it seems appropriate.

I also frequently change the title of the thread in relation to the latest part and part of this new LP is to also note when the title changes. At the time of this post it is/was "Now where did I park the locomotive?"

Unfortunately I do not have the time to do a scenario today, so this post is just my first impressions of the game. Also this is my first experimentation with spoilering the screenshots from the get-go.

Where's the control that starts the engine?:

First things first, my thoughts about the intro. If my computer wasn't below min spec (the game requires a 2.8 GHz processor, with a 3.2 being recommended, and I have a 1.333 GHz, an AMD Dual-Core Processor C60 with Turbo CORE Technology up to 1.333 GHz, according to the sticker anyway), it would absolutely fantastic, but the screen locks up for me when it plays. I still get the audio though, which leads me to believe it would be fantastic. If I can find a video of it, I will post here.

The first half of this video is the intro,the second half is some tips I didn't bother reading:

Last Minute Before Hitting Send Note: The game also requires 2.0 GB of RAM. My laptop has a 2 GB DDR3, according to the sticker.

Spoiler:

The menu got a complete overhual, far more fancier than before. Instead of train sounds being played in the background (such as hissing from air brakes, the sound of an locomotive passing, or the sound of a bell), music is played instead. The locomotives represent the routes included with the game (ICE 2, Hamburg Hanover; Southern Pacific Dash 9, Donner Pass; Southeastern Class 395 London Faversham High Speed, the last one is apparently able to run itself without the aid of the core program) if you bought the game instead of merely getting a free update to the new game engine. I currently have Railworks 5 through the latter, in fact the icon for Railworks 4 hasn't been updated to reflect the new name, it still says Train Simulator 2013. At the moment, I am considering purchasing the full game.

Now let's take a look at the first icon, Drive.

Spoiler:

First off, very fancy transition with previous buttons dropping off and then new buttons popping up.

And there are Tutorials Excited

*opens career mode*

Spoiler:

Stars?

A big feature about Railworks 5 is supposedly the revamped Career scoring.

*backs out and goes into Quick Drive*

Spoiler:

No major changes here.

*checks out the Tutorials*

Spoiler:

I already know what these would be teaching me, but that Horseshoe curve one would've come in handy.....

*checks standard*

Spoiler:

Why is there a star there?! I haven't released any scenarios into the public domain.... Is someone stalking me Scared

*free roam*

Spoiler:

What, just what do these stars mean?

*decides to check my settings*

Spoiler:

Menu doesn't look any different than before.

Spoiler:

?

There's a new option. Also note that TSX is what creates most of the special effects, such as fire box glow, headlights actually shining on the ground (there is a difference between headlights and the marker lights that appear on my British steam locomotives), water on the windows, and the textures looking good. Disable TSX and the game's quality drops by a lot. Some of my early experimentation may involve enabling TSX and other settings to truly show the quality of this game.

Spoiler:

I understand very little of this, but it's supposed to help with route building.

*backs out and checks the advanced settings*

Spoiler:

Head Light Flares is new, perhaps it's no longer tied to TSX? But that aside, you can see just how low my settings are for semi-decent framerate.

*turns the Texture Filtering up a notch to Anisotropic x 4*

*goes to my Gameplay Settings*

Spoiler:

Language warning isn't new, but I still don't know what it does. Score Career Scenarios does look new. Most of these should be self-explaitory, but Automatic Coupling means I have to manually connect certain types of cars, such as the type used in the UK. Some types of couplings, such as the couplings used in the US are unaffected by this since they are by nature "semi-automatic", meaning the connection between cars is made when the cars run into each other. Air lines still have to be connected manually, but I doubt this is simulated.

*backs out to the main menu*
Let's go to the career next.

Spoiler:

OH MY GOD, THEY ACTUALLY MADE IT COMPETIVE. Of course this likely takes date from just the Career scenarios. Having not done any driving in this version yet, the stats are from my previous LP of Railworks 4 (Train Simulator 2013).

TO COLLECTION

Spoiler:

Wow this also got a make over, and a big one at that. Most of these images are new and I think were taken in game.

Spoiler:

These are the routes I have. Cajon Pass, Isle of Wight, Sherman Hill, and Great Western Main Line all came with Train Simulator 2013 when I bought it from Amazon. At the time only three routes were included with the Steam version. I believe those were Sherman Hill, the only German route released at the time but I don't recall the name of, and the London to Faversham.

Note how I already own Donner Pass. Supposedly Donner Pass was upgraded to the new spec free of charge. If it was, then I should now have a Dash 9 and possibly a SD70M in Southern Pacific "Bloody Nose" livery.

Also speaking of extras like the SD70M, according to the offical website (http://www.railsimulator.com), the London Faversham route has a 7 seven mile branch line extension if you buy the "EXCLUSIVE Steam edition".

Spoiler:

Huh? What's this and why is it blank?

*returns to main menu*

Spoiler:

"Get Tutorials Here!"

Okay!

Spoiler:

Oh, it brings up my steam browser. And trust me on this, there is nothing worse than the in game steam browser, Internet Explorer is better than this shit. Also note that the Steam overlay has not reset my hours for the game, the broswer covers most of it up, but it says 810 hours in game.

*heads over to build*

Spoiler:

Familiar interface.

Spoiler:

Oh this is new, Quick Drive Scenarios.

Clearly there is a lot to do in this. I'll spend the next part exploring the editor.

Everybody loves prizes, right?:

by **Truthseeker4449** 28th September 2013, 10:36 pm

Title changed to "It's All Coming Back To Me Now"

First Drive, First Wreck, Second Drive:

So now as I load the game up, I'll take the time to mention my next route, Marias Pass. $16 off something normally $40 is just too good to pass up, plus I'm also using my coupons to get the related locomotive BNSF .

Click this link to see a preview

Spoiler:

We'll play around with the test track, a very small route I don't think I've shown before.

Spoiler:

I think I'll make a scenario with American stock, the other two came with the route, which came with the game.

Spoiler:

Let's make it a Free Roam

*hits create and enters "Free Roam: American stock" as the name*

Spoiler:

And there's the track, the grey being the railroad lines. It's basically two main ovals. Now has anything changed in the editor itself?

Spoiler:

This has a few more buttons. Force Cab Camera is the only one I care about.

*starts placing stock*

Spoiler:

This is interesting, a hump. These are usually used on a larger scale to sort cars by taking advantage of gravity. Now this method does have to completely override a very important safety feature (the full application of the brakes if there isn't any pressure in the brake pipeline) or the grade on the down side must be so steep that the e-brake's application doesn't manner. This would must likely mean the grade would have to be steeper than 4%, assuming the minimum is not much steeper. Hump yards are on the way out and this hump is more for demostration than for sorting due to its small size and the fact the sidings I'm going to place my stock in are not directly accessable by the hump, you would have to reverse into them.

Spoiler:

I don't remember the end of train devices flashing in the editor.

Also from left to right, Wood Chip car, Coal Gondola, and 4 Bay Hoppers.

Spoiler:

Maybe it's just the small size of the route, but things feel much smoother.

Spoiler:

Where's my UP passenger cars?

*tries seeing if the Challenger pack as it*

Spoiler:

That should do it. I'm curious just how long a tank of fuel will last at full throttle and because this track has a nice loop with decent speed limit, 125 mph if I remember correctly. The Amtrak train might go that fast, but the frieght diesels shouldn't, even if they are running light.

*as I save I'm debating if I should double up the road diesels*

Spoiler:

I doubled up.

Spoiler:

The font for the HUD has changed slightly and the game just feels really different. More 3 dimensional.

Spoiler:

Taking on passengers.

Spoiler:

Ready to go!

Spoiler:

Supposedly the locomotives are capiable of 110 mph. I have 1499 gallons of fuel and now I'm going run until I run out of gas.

Spoiler:

The comfort meter is going back in forth very rapidly.

And no I'm not keeping track of how many laps I complete. I'll base that on the my milage later. Also for this LP I'll try to log both hours and miles.

Spoiler:

When I change to certain views FOV is displayed briefly.

Spoiler:

There it is. It also appears when I zoom in and out in other views.

Spoiler:

My mom just returned from depositing $40 at the bank. Later today I'll purchase the Marias Pass route (this route frequently shows up in the Steam Workshop scenarios) and the GP38-2.

Spoiler:

I decided to change the route via the detour with a 100 mph speed limit on the grounds I traveling at a maximum of 95 mph and that was under that. Looks like a bad decision, or history simply repeating itself.

Spoiler:

Now let's play with the freighters.

Spoiler:

First up, the Switcher.

Spoiler:

I discovered a previously unknown feature to me in a downloaded scenario I tried after ending the previous LP.

Spoiler:

This switch activates

Spoiler:

This beacon.

*collects the caboose*

Spoiler:

Ah, that must be the language warning.

*now goes to couple the coal cars*

Spoiler:

There we go, now to drag this back so that I can get the road engines.

Spoiler:

Now gotta back up to drop off the switcher and get to the loop.

Spoiler:

Let's roll!

Spoiler:

That doesn't look good.

Spoiler:

I believe the speed limit is certainly intended for trains that can lean.

Spoiler:

Leaning is down the entire length of the train.

Spoiler:

MUST STOP NOW BECAUSE I WANT TO STOP

Spoiler:

I'd say the stop went well.

Spoiler:

I was going to switch to another set of locomotives, but I wanna play with that hump.

Spoiler:

Went up and over it with ease.

*attempts to get the train to run away from the locomotives, but fails*

Spoiler:

Well there's a fuck up on my part, I accelerated forward into the buffers.

Spoiler:

That doesn't give me the milage I want...

Also to be on the safe side, I've decided to purchase Marias Pass tomorrow to ensure that the funds (which was deposited as cash, so it should techicially clear immediately) clear.

I was scared that I would lose this entire segment when my Netbook (the text recorder) froze up.

by **Truthseeker4449** 30th September 2013, 7:24 am

For all my driving yesterday, I earned my remaining card drops. I got the BR 421 "4CIG", International Roundhouse, and Southeastern Class 395.

The Empire Builder:

by **Truthseeker4449** 1st October 2013, 7:08 am

Title changed to "Technical Difficulties"

Back to School:

by **Truthseeker4449** 2nd October 2013, 8:03 am

The netbook is charging again, but an update likely won't be out for a few days due to how I'm experimenting with some new engine repaints and the new features of the steam workshop, namely how you can now share routes. I've got to test the repaints one at a time and the route is a whole another matter that'll get wrapped up in one part.

by **Truthseeker4449** 4th October 2013, 9:38 pm

Title changed to "Mad Scientist"

Testy, Testy, Testy:

by **Truthseeker4449** 5th October 2013, 6:35 pm

Scenario Backlog:

by **Truthseeker4449** 6th October 2013, 1:20 pm

Does this look familiar?:

by **Truthseeker4449** 6th October 2013, 8:16 pm

Early Morning Race Against the clock:

by **Truthseeker4449** 8th October 2013, 5:44 pm

Fancy Motherfucker:

by **Truthseeker4449** 11th October 2013, 5:46 pm

Title changed to Scenario Insanity.

Back to training school:

You know of late, these segements are double the length of most of my previous LP's segments.

by **Truthseeker4449** 12th October 2013, 10:36 am

New Locomotives:

The SW1500 pack was on sale today (Friday, October 11) so I picked it up because I want to get some official Norfolk Southern locomotives. Norfolk Southern and CSX (officially CSX Transportation) are the main US Railroads east of the Mississippi River, BNSF and Union Pacific are the really big one's west of the M. River. Those make up the Big 4 of US Railroading, though their are also a few others in the same tier.

Anyways, the SW1500 pack is much different from what I've been getting in that it's a whole bunch of repaints (and a few remodels) of the SW1500 I've already used (I had Southern Pacific, though never driven, and Burlington Northern).

Spoiler:

The first is the Burlington Northern I used in my previous segment.

Spoiler:

Well that's interesting, the fan continues to run well after the engine has been shut down.

Spoiler:

Idenitical modelwise is the BNSF locomotive.

Spoiler:

This belongs to one of the other North American Class 1 Railroads, Canadian National. As you can see, it is a slightly different model with covers over the exhaust (perhaps for snow?) and different highlight placement. It also has ditchlights, number boards, and a differently modeled horn. Not completely sure if it has a different sound to go with it.

*has to restart my little free roam due to TS2014 not wanting to let me change locomotives*

Spoiler:

Continuing on, is this one using the default model. I'm not sure what railroad it's from but seems to be have Frisco in the name.

*looks it up*

Ah, it was a railroad officially called St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad that is now part of the BNSF network. It ran over Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas and operated from 1876 to 1980. That's a little sad it couldn't make 100 years.

Spoiler:

Now we have the ones I really wanted, the Norfolk Southerns.The closest one has ditch lights and those don't seem to be lights on the corners of the hood.

Spoiler:

This belonged to the Southern Railway, which later merged with the Norfolk and Western, along with half of Conrail to produce Norfolk Southern. Thus it can be decently placed it to a Norfolk and Southern scenario.

Spoiler:

Southern Pacific, later merged with Union Pacific. Of interesting note, one paper it was Union Pacific that was absorbed into Southern Pacific and the resulting company named itself Union Pacific.

Spoiler:

Union Pacific.

Spoiler:

And the Western Pacific. I know very little about this railroad and don't feel like researching it.

As the sales cycle on, I'll get some more packs like this one, only they will have the modern road locomotives like the Dash 9.