Railworks America

This is something I've never encountered before: a scenario I'm working on begins with the player train located on a siding that slopes downward toward the train's rear. When the scenario starts, the train begins rolling slowly but surely down that slope because its brakes are not applied. I've examined all of the available instructions in the scenario editor without finding anything that sets brakes, so for now I've settled for an opening instruction that tells the driver to set them, but I'm hoping that a better solution is available.

Just for the record, the engine I'm using is the DB BR261 Voith Gravita and the route for this scenario is Munich-Augsburg.

Thanks!

OldProf wrote:This is something I've never encountered before: a scenario I'm working on begins with the player train located on a siding that slopes downward toward the train's rear. When the scenario starts, the train begins rolling slowly but surely down that slope because its brakes are not applied. I've examined all of the available instructions in the scenario editor without finding anything that sets brakes, so for now I've settled for an opening instruction that tells the driver to set them, but I'm hoping that a better solution is available.

Just for the record, the engine I'm using is the DB BR261 Voith Gravita and the route for this scenario is Munich-Augsburg.

Thanks!

This is a common problem, even for DTG's own scenarios, and as far as I know, there are only two solutions - the one you pointed out (tell the player to apply the brakes) or a change to the engine script and/or blueprint to set the brakes as soon it becomes a player-driven train. Nevertheless, it can take a little while for the brakes to set (even if the default position for the brake handle is in Apply), so in the meantime, the train rolls backwards. There's also the problem with the game's physics, where the train will very, very slowly and inexorably slide backwards without the wheels turning (despite the brakes being fully applied, because that "creeping" movement has nothing to do with the brakes).

mrennie wrote:

OldProf wrote:This is something I've never encountered before: a scenario I'm working on begins with the player train located on a siding that slopes downward toward the train's rear. When the scenario starts, the train begins rolling slowly but surely down that slope because its brakes are not applied. I've examined all of the available instructions in the scenario editor without finding anything that sets brakes, so for now I've settled for an opening instruction that tells the driver to set them, but I'm hoping that a better solution is available.

Just for the record, the engine I'm using is the DB BR261 Voith Gravita and the route for this scenario is Munich-Augsburg.

Thanks!

This is a common problem, even for DTG's own scenarios, and as far as I know, there are only two solutions - the one you pointed out (tell the player to apply the brakes) or a change to the engine script and/or blueprint to set the brakes as soon it becomes a player-driven train. Nevertheless, it can take a little while for the brakes to set (even if the default position for the brake handle is in Apply), so in the meantime, the train rolls backwards. There's also the problem with the game's physics, where the train will very, very slowly and inexorably slide backwards without the wheels turning (despite the brakes being fully applied, because that "creeping" movement has nothing to do with the brakes).

The train creeps while standing still because of coupler physics. I believe it has to do with the target distance not being zero?

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:
The train creeps while standing still because of coupler physics. I believe it has to do with the target distance not being zero?

I thin it's a combination of couplers, pivot points, collision boxes (maybe?) and possibly other things in the core code. It might be worth investigating more deeply, although I just ignore it now.

Isn't there a way to apply brakes via scenario scripting?
Can't check now, I'm at work.

Chacal wrote:Isn't there a way to apply brakes via scenario scripting?
Can't check now, I'm at work.

Sometimes I have the impression certain control values are saved in the scenario.
However, it isn't properly documented, so one should probably experiment.

Or change the default brake handle position in the engine.bin, which like Mike said, still takes some time for the brakes to set.

I believe I have a solution- a really simple solution for the rollback problem. Set up the scenario for a rolling start. After the scenario loads up, apply the brakes as much as you need as long as you do not go into emergency. Then do a rolling start save-(Ctrl+F2). That's it! Then restart. I have tried this and found that it works.

=ATSFFAN=

ATSFFAN wrote:I believe I have a solution- a really simple solution for the rollback problem. Set up the scenario for a rolling start. After the scenario loads up, apply the brakes as much as you need as long as you do not go into emergency. Then do a rolling start save-(Ctrl+F2). That's it! Then restart. I have tried this and found that it works.

=ATSFFAN=

That's an interesting idea, but in the meantime I've completed work on the scenario and uploaded it to Steam Workshop. Despite that, I may just test this rolling start notion on a clone. Just a little bit of braking is enough to hold the player's train until the throttle takes effect and I'd rather follow your suggestion than have to mess around with engine scripting that might work only on my TS installation.

By the way, your instructions begin with, "Set up the scenario for a rolling start". How is that accomplished?

OldProf wrote:

ATSFFAN wrote:I believe I have a solution- a really simple solution for the rollback problem. Set up the scenario for a rolling start. After the scenario loads up, apply the brakes as much as you need as long as you do not go into emergency. Then do a rolling start save-(Ctrl+F2). That's it! Then restart. I have tried this and found that it works.

=ATSFFAN=

That's an interesting idea, but in the meantime I've completed work on the scenario and uploaded it to Steam Workshop. Despite that, I may just test this rolling start notion on a clone. Just a little bit of braking is enough to hold the player's train until the throttle takes effect and I'd rather follow your suggestion than have to mess around with engine scripting that might work only on my TS installation.

By the way, your instructions begin with, "Set up the scenario for a rolling start". How is that accomplished?

To set up your scenario for a "rolling start" mode, when you first log in to a scenario to edit, look at the window on the right that has the date, time, author, etc.-on the very bottom on the left you will see a box that has the number 30 by it and another number behind it that you can't read all the way, check that box and save. That's it. Follow the instructions that I posted earlier and try it out. I hope it works out for you, it did for me.

=ATSFFAN=

Thank you ATSFFAN! The method you suggested works perfectly.

Just to recap, here's what I did:
1) In the editor, cloned my scenario and saved it; quit TS2016.
2) Opened TS again, opened cloned scenario for editing.
3) In the Scenario Marker Fly-out, checked the box (lower-left corner) and used F2 to save scenario.
4) Started scenario by clicking on big yellow arrow, set the engine's brake just enough to hold the train on the slope, pressed Ctrl+F2, acknowledged "Save Rolling Start" message, quit scenario.
5) After shutting down TS and restarting it, tested scenario: success! Scenario opened with brakes set.

Glad it worked out for you.

=ATSFFAN=