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Skybird · 08-31-20, 07:31 AM

Last night I failed terribly and had so much fun with failing that I could not stop laughing.

Did I mention the importance of energy management, momentum? Mass and weight in motion? Slippery wheels and friction?

I currently have only the license for the first and smallest loco, and the game mercilessly taught me why they call it a shunter, not so much a locomotive. Wanted to leave the station I ended up in on my last job with four waggons of scrap metal. Before this latest job, I had only had empty waggons: shunting jobs.

I set up preparation, I set up the loco and oriented it correctly on the turning wheel, and everything was nice so that I would not waste time once the job timer started ticking. I started the job, and slowly pulled the train out of the station. Sloooow gas setting, to avoid wheelslip, and there I went, creeping, but winning in speed slooowly. Half a kilometer out of the station, I slowed down, it became slightly elevated in terrain. I increased the gas, and the wheels started to slip (costs money, they wear down and you gotta fix them sooner or later), so I sanded, but I slowed down still, and the wheelspin had made it even worse, because even when reducing gas, there was no traction anymore, and the slowing down happened even faster. With an I expect somewhat unbelieving expression on my face I came to a standstill, and worse: I started to move backwards! And then it was too late: even while trying to bring the train to a standstill and having both brake systems set, the mass of the now loaded waggons mercilessly pulled me back on that mild elevation, and backwards I rolled, back into the station, almost as far, and I bumped into a stopper when setting a switch wrong.

I disconnected the loco, set it on a turntable and changed its orientation (so that it can move forward not backwards, cools the engine better), then navigated my way around the station and the many switches and tracks, and connected to the train from the other side, wantign topoull it out and get to my destination the other way. Ten minutes later, a níghtmare to drive, I had almost the same thing happening, this time I avoided wheelspin and at least could bring the train to a halt, just in time and shortly before the engine blew off in overheat. I sat still for some time, until the temp had dropped, and then wanted to start rolling again from a standstill. Did not work, no matter how careful I accelerated, the wheels spun and I slowly started to move backwards again

. I sanded, and slowly the train came to a stopp and then reversed movement direction and I slowly started to creep forward, in tiny baby steps.

And then i had run out of sand.

You can imagine what happened next. The train gained reverse momentum so that the brakes could not catch it in time, and once again I started rolling backwards and this time much longer than before.

I had tears in my eyes from laughing.

Its a quite reasonable physics simulation, I simply made the mistake to assume that I could use a shunter for also doing loaded waggon delivery, even if it were just four waggons. Yeah, four weaggons of scrap metal. Thats some more weight than four emtpy waggons, I assume. My fault, lack of knowledge. I need the next bigger loco and license.

You see, they hand you a map with several pages when you accept a job. I better start caring more for the small print.

So much fun was had. The game teaches you to manage energy and momentum (and diesel and sand and wear and tear), you can say goodby to money boni for staying below the maximum time intentioanlly, drive it safely and this way not risk to overspeed and derail, but then there are passages, depending on your loco and total train weight, that may pose difficult to overcome if not having build momentum by driving reasonably fast before reaching the next elevation. Or you must invest more Diesel and sand to compensate for lack of momentum when reaching that climb.

A little gem of a sim. The beauty is somewhat hidden under the surface. It seems to play reaosnmably well in 2 D as well, judging form the videos. It was designed for VR from scratch, the 2D interface was added later due to public demand. The game is very well received at Steam.

08-31-20, 07:31 AM	#6
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,487 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	Last night I failed terribly and had so much fun with failing that I could not stop laughing. Did I mention the importance of energy management, momentum? Mass and weight in motion? Slippery wheels and friction? I currently have only the license for the first and smallest loco, and the game mercilessly taught me why they call it a shunter, not so much a locomotive. Wanted to leave the station I ended up in on my last job with four waggons of scrap metal. Before this latest job, I had only had empty waggons: shunting jobs. I set up preparation, I set up the loco and oriented it correctly on the turning wheel, and everything was nice so that I would not waste time once the job timer started ticking. I started the job, and slowly pulled the train out of the station. Sloooow gas setting, to avoid wheelslip, and there I went, creeping, but winning in speed slooowly. Half a kilometer out of the station, I slowed down, it became slightly elevated in terrain. I increased the gas, and the wheels started to slip (costs money, they wear down and you gotta fix them sooner or later), so I sanded, but I slowed down still, and the wheelspin had made it even worse, because even when reducing gas, there was no traction anymore, and the slowing down happened even faster. With an I expect somewhat unbelieving expression on my face I came to a standstill, and worse: I started to move backwards! And then it was too late: even while trying to bring the train to a standstill and having both brake systems set, the mass of the now loaded waggons mercilessly pulled me back on that mild elevation, and backwards I rolled, back into the station, almost as far, and I bumped into a stopper when setting a switch wrong. I disconnected the loco, set it on a turntable and changed its orientation (so that it can move forward not backwards, cools the engine better), then navigated my way around the station and the many switches and tracks, and connected to the train from the other side, wantign topoull it out and get to my destination the other way. Ten minutes later, a níghtmare to drive, I had almost the same thing happening, this time I avoided wheelspin and at least could bring the train to a halt, just in time and shortly before the engine blew off in overheat. I sat still for some time, until the temp had dropped, and then wanted to start rolling again from a standstill. Did not work, no matter how careful I accelerated, the wheels spun and I slowly started to move backwards again . I sanded, and slowly the train came to a stopp and then reversed movement direction and I slowly started to creep forward, in tiny baby steps. And then i had run out of sand. You can imagine what happened next. The train gained reverse momentum so that the brakes could not catch it in time, and once again I started rolling backwards and this time much longer than before. I had tears in my eyes from laughing. Its a quite reasonable physics simulation, I simply made the mistake to assume that I could use a shunter for also doing loaded waggon delivery, even if it were just four waggons. Yeah, four weaggons of scrap metal. Thats some more weight than four emtpy waggons, I assume. My fault, lack of knowledge. I need the next bigger loco and license. You see, they hand you a map with several pages when you accept a job. I better start caring more for the small print. So much fun was had. The game teaches you to manage energy and momentum (and diesel and sand and wear and tear), you can say goodby to money boni for staying below the maximum time intentioanlly, drive it safely and this way not risk to overspeed and derail, but then there are passages, depending on your loco and total train weight, that may pose difficult to overcome if not having build momentum by driving reasonably fast before reaching the next elevation. Or you must invest more Diesel and sand to compensate for lack of momentum when reaching that climb. A little gem of a sim. The beauty is somewhat hidden under the surface. It seems to play reaosnmably well in 2 D as well, judging form the videos. It was designed for VR from scratch, the 2D interface was added later due to public demand. The game is very well received at Steam. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 08-31-20 at 07:56 AM.