Coming Soon Rio Grande’s legendary Soldier Summit

[ex-railwayman]

Now I have seen everything, getting three routes for the price of one and someone having an issue with that. Get a life, seriously, bigger issues in the real world.

I agree with your last sentence, however, I think the problem is that the Brits are feeling miffed because the Faversham route was included with TS2014, which the vast majority of us obtained when it came out, so, why should we have to have it again in this pack, surely, they could have given us another UK layout, such as Bedford-St.Pancras, or, Ipswich-London Liverpool Streeet, etc, which has never been included as a default route with any version of the game.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[ex-railwayman]

I got a mention
Matt's revealed what I've been working on for the last several weeks ... the new, advanced brake scripting (and some tweaking of the associated sounds).
The new script is based on the FEF-3, but makes the brake physics even more advanced (in the proper meaning of the word, not the mis-use in "Advanced" Preview) than what I did for the FEF-3 and Connie, by improving considerably the simulation of the train brakes and auxiliary reservoirs. It also, of course, simulates the way the 26-L brake equipment works (instead of the older equipment in the steam locos). I hope to retrofit the more advanced physics into the FEF-3 and Connie when I have time (at the same time as I do some more small improvements to them both).
By the way, for my money, the FEF-3 still pips the SD40T-2 to the post as far as brakes are concerned, because the FEF-3 has the detailed animation of the brake rigging and the fact that bailing off the engine brakes does actually prevent wheel skid.

Good for you Mike, deserved recognition for all your hard work. My only thought was that they should have run a scenario showing the new brake physics, which would have been educational, however, they showed a scenario by Gary Dolzall set in the Autumn, by the look of it, showing horrible looking pea yellow trees and orange bushes, which didn't showcase the route off to its full potential.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[ElphabaWS]

however, they showed a scenario by Gary Dolzall set in the Autumn, by the look of it, showing horrible looking pea yellow trees and orange bushes, which didn't showcase the route off to its full potential

Having been to Soldier Summit in autumn on several occasions, I felt DTG got it quite right with the foliage ....

[Griphos]

I was impressed, as I said, with the new vegetation for the route, very geographically appropraite....cottonwood trees, sagebrush, even chamisa.

I do wish the mountains looked a bit more like the picture above, though, rather than monocolor green shapes that I saw in the video. But, again, perhaps that was the settings of the machine running the video rather than the route at full detail.

[buzz456]

The only real question right now is what's the holdup?

[UPSD70ACe]

Yes same here on why it's taking so long

[mrennie]

The new brake physics (actually, not just the physics, but the way the brake controls themselves work) will, hopefully, make it clearer why experienced engineers are needed to handle those long, heavy consists, especially on long downhill runs :)

[buzz456]

The new brake physics (actually, not just the physics, but the way the brake controls themselves work) will, hopefully, make it clearer why experienced engineers are needed to handle those long, heavy consists, especially on long downhill runs :)

So all the rookies can just give up in disgust unable to run the scenarios? Doesn't necessarily sound like a good plan to me even though the purists will still complain that it's not good enough.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

The new brake physics (actually, not just the physics, but the way the brake controls themselves work) will, hopefully, make it clearer why experienced engineers are needed to handle those long, heavy consists, especially on long downhill runs :)

So all the rookies can just give up in disgust unable to run the scenarios? Doesn't necessarily sound like a good plan to me even though the purists will still complain that it's not good enough.

Not necessarily: for piglets there is always simple mode, while old hoggers use expert mode.
Or do some scenarios not play in simple mode?

BTW: what happened to intermediate mode?

[ElphabaWS]

So all the rookies can just give up in disgust unable to run the scenarios? Doesn't necessarily sound like a good plan to me even though the purists will still complain that it's not good enough.

Actually the difficulty level of Mike's superb brakes will be adjustable during gameplay (similar to as they are in Canadian Mountain Passes), so anyone can choose to operate with brakes much like those found on most current DLC or with highly realistic (and challenging) braking features.

[buzz456]

Now I'm confused. Are we talking the brakes on the FEF or for the Soldier Summit route?

[ex-railwayman]

You obviously didn't watch the Twitch episode young Mr. Buzz, otherwise, you would have known that we are talking about the new brake physics adorned on the SD40T-2 diesel locomotives that will come included with the Soldier Summit route, which Mike Rennie has assisted in developing especially for this engine.

Cheerz. ex.

[mrennie]

Now I'm confused. Are we talking the brakes on the FEF or for the Soldier Summit route?

I've scripted the brakes in the SD40T-2 for Soldier Summit, taking as a starting point the physics I did for the FEF-3. However, the brake physics for the SD40T-2 are even better than in the FEF-3.

One of the differences between the FEF-3 and the diesel is that the FEF-3 has older types of brake stand and its handles work differently (the FEF-3 has an 8-ET automatic brake and S-6 engine brake, whereas the diesel has more modern 26-L equipment).

So for the diesel, I had to modify the way the brakes work (for example, in the diesel, the automatic can do graduated self-lapping applications to set the amount of brake pressure according to the position of the handle, while in the FEF-3 you put it into Service to control the rate of applying the brakes and then return the handle to the lap position to hold the reduction you reached).

I want to retrofit the FEF-3 and Consolidation with the improved brake physics (which includes a much more accurate simulation of the auxiliary reservoirs and the way that the brakes release along the train), together with some other small enhacements (one is a more accurate modelling of the feedwater pump gauge). However, that'll have to wait until I've finished another little project (which I can't reveal).

[ex-railwayman]

Having been to Soldier Summit in autumn on several occasions, I felt DTG got it quite right with the foliage ....

Hmmm, well, Gary, you're lucky in having seen the full route already and the personal knowledge of Fall in Utah, I don't, I will only have the interpretation by DTG's developers, and as it hasn't been released just yet, I'm hoping it'll be tomorrow, we'll just have to wait and see.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[hertsbob]

However, the brake physics for the SD40T-2 are even better than in the FEF-3...

Just so you know I've seen you say that.

Very much looking forward to this route coming out.

Cheers

Bob