Railworks America

When I am loading 2016 Which I bought (Not up graded) I now see a couple screenshots that say something about a new "Rail Fan Mode" and a new "Driver Assist Mode" while the program is loading. Does anyone know what these modes do; or where I can find more information about them?

Thanks
Dave

Railfan mode is a new scenario type (arguably) which is basically non-interactive scenes where you launch outside any loco. You can do train spotting and screenshots from what is normaly the 8-key view. Not much of a new feature as train spotting scenarios already existed within the community. Evidently there are easter eggs in the railfan scenarios but I'm yet to hear what they are. You'll find the railfan scenarios under the career tab for the TSS2016 routes. They are also listen in the manuals for the routes.

Driver Assist is a new loco feature, so only exists for some new content. The Riviera in the 50s steam locos feature it. To turn on/off driver assist hit Ctrl-A. The AI will move the camera to controls you should adjust, hilight them and tell you what to do with them. (You can pause the simulation when driver assist messages appear with ctrl-shift-A.) Basically it will nag you if you are doing something obviously wrong, but the better you get at driving steam the less it will pop up to annoy you. Despite finding it highly irritating it was actually helpful for me learning.

Driver assist is mentioned in the TS2016 User Guide in your manuals folder. (You may have missed it as it wasn't included in the initial Steam download so only appeared in a patch a few days ago.)

Thanks for the information "pavig" it was very helpful to me. I'll have to get the manual out and go through it again because I missed it.

That's nothing new for me.

Thanks again for the great help.
Dave

The "new" railfan mode is nothing special. It's basically a scenario with AI trains setup to pass by with you spawned in an invisible vehicle on an invisible track so it seems like you are just watching. In actuality, because you are technically assigned to a locomotive, you have a limited area of space you can move from your spawn point. This was made for people who don't know how to setup a free roam scenario with AI trains (although you have free range of moving in free roam). Again, it's nothing new. It's simply a scenario with AI trains and you spawn into an invisible vehicle on an invisible track so it looks like you're standing.

The driver assist actually is a new feature. The only thing I can say against it is just how annoying it is when you're trying to get good out-of-cab views and it moves your camera back to the cab to show you what to do. I'd personally love to see this feature on Mike's FEF-3, since... well, you know.

StrategyFirst wrote:The "new" railfan mode is nothing special. It's basically a scenario with AI trains setup to pass by with you spawned in an invisible vehicle on an invisible track so it seems like you are just watching. In actuality, because you are technically assigned to a locomotive, you have a limited area of space you can move from your spawn point. This was made for people who don't know how to setup a free roam scenario with AI trains (although you have free range of moving in free roam). Again, it's nothing new. It's simply a scenario with AI trains and you spawn into an invisible vehicle on an invisible track so it looks like you're standing.

The driver assist actually is a new feature. The only thing I can say against it is just how annoying it is when you're trying to get good out-of-cab views and it moves your camera back to the cab to show you what to do. I'd personally love to see this feature on Mike's FEF-3, since... well, you know.

I think" Ted" already assists the driver quite a lot

Has anyone figured out how to write railfan scenarios.
It is a kind of scenario where all trains are AI.
And it seems a railfan scenario will displace your point of view from one spot to another according to the scenario design.
It would be a sort of roam scenario where you do not have the option to ride any locomotive.

jalsina wrote:Has anyone figured out how to write railfan scenarios.
It is a kind of scenario where all trains are AI.
And it seems a railfan scenario will displace your point of view from one spot to another according to the scenario design.
It would be a sort of roam scenario where you do not have the option to ride any locomotive.

Yes, like this one I did 4 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9IiFXKitUY

It was a free roam scenario with lots of AI. The camera starts off, in 8 mode, where the scenario marker is and then you can move it about. I used to move about inside the signal box, walk down the stairs, along the platform ...

I really can't see anything new in Railfan "mode" other than that they've made them as Career scenarios so you can get XP as a trainspotter ... sorry, railfan.

mrennie wrote:Yes, like this one I did 4 years ago.
...........
I really can't see anything new in Railfan "mode" other than that they've made them as Career scenarios so you can get XP as a trainspotter ... sorry, railfan.

You do not stop amazing me!
4 years! That had to be some sort of roaming scenario or there was a stopped train somewhere?

Figuring out how to make those railfan scenarios would make them start appearing in Workshop. Otherwise the very concept will be dead before it is born

jalsina wrote:

mrennie wrote:Yes, like this one I did 4 years ago.
...........
I really can't see anything new in Railfan "mode" other than that they've made them as Career scenarios so you can get XP as a trainspotter ... sorry, railfan.

You do not stop amazing me!
4 years! That had to be some sort of roaming scenario or there was a stopped train somewhere?

Figuring out how to make those railfan scenarios would make them start appearing in Workshop. Otherwise the very concept will be dead before it is born

It was just an ordinary Free Roam scenario with the scenario marker placed inside the signal box for convenience (to save me the bother of moving the camera at the start of the scenario).

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there might have been a loco, with a driver icon stuck to it (but not as a player train), placed in a nearby siding, to avoid problems associated with the camera being too far from a train.

jalsina wrote:Has anyone figured out how to write railfan scenarios.
It is a kind of scenario where all trains are AI.
And it seems a railfan scenario will displace your point of view from one spot to another according to the scenario design.
It would be a sort of roam scenario where you do not have the option to ride any locomotive.

I recently uploaded a video on my YouTube channel railfanning at San Juan Capistrano in-game. Same idea.

StrategyFirst wrote:I recently uploaded a video on my YouTube channel railfanning at San Juan Capistrano in-game. Same idea.

Oh yes! I loved your video.
But is that a real railfan scenario, as those in TS2016 career mode, or is it an edited video based on a Standard or Roam scenario?

As a matter of fact, I have spent many hours looking at real life railfan videos in YouTube (when I have the time).
Be assured that I will keep watching and enjoying your videos.

In railfan mode, I see this dummy locomotive placed on an invisible stub of track. It appears as a diesel on the HUD and is seen parked on the stub mentioned. The track is listed with a speed limit of 1mph. I don't get why railfan scenarios in career mode and have an invisible loco, why couldn't they put it in standard mode or free roam, without the dummy loco.

jalsina wrote:

StrategyFirst wrote:I recently uploaded a video on my YouTube channel railfanning at San Juan Capistrano in-game. Same idea.

Oh yes! I loved your video.
But is that a real railfan scenario, as those in TS2016 career mode, or is it an edited video based on a Standard or Roam scenario?

As a matter of fact, I have spent many hours looking at real life railfan videos in YouTube (when I have the time).
Be assured that I will keep watching and enjoying your videos.

It was free-roam.

And thanks for watching what I upload. It's nice to know people enjoy the videos.

OpenRailer90 wrote:....I don't get why railfan scenarios in career mode and have an invisible loco, why couldn't they put it in standard mode or free roam, without the dummy loco.

With new core code?

StrategyFirst wrote:And thanks for watching what I upload. It's nice to know people enjoy the videos.

Thanks for taking the time to do the video and upload it.
Those BNSF trains coming from the dark in a passenger station, is one of the nice attractions of that S.J.Capistrano video.