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Helpful hints on creating scenarios

I posted the thoughts below in another forum but, as usual, the useful stuff got lost in the angst so I thought I'd share my thoughts again here. I have

acquired a reputation as being a scenario 'expert' over at UKTrainsim; I think that's flattering my skills to say the least, but it's true to say I enjoy creating

challenging scenarios and I've picked up a few tips along the way.

As some have said with varying degrees of hysteria, the AI logic in RW is quite poor at times; but it's untrue to say that it prevents you from creating

interesting scenarios with lots of AI traffic. And then the MSTS AE used to crash if I blinked at it, and every few weeks I'd find myself having to reset all

the registry keys, and every time I used it I'd have to remember to switch my screen to 16-bit or the dern thing would crash. Oh, and did I mention that it

was prone to crashing? There are no secrets to scenario writing in RW, there are no secrets in any aspect of creating content for it - but there's a learning

curve and if you've been creating for MSTS for 8 years there's a very big temptation to say "y'know what? You can't teach an old dog new tricks, I'm

happy with what I've got."

A while after RS came out, I posted on another forum that I only started to enjoy RS once I stopped trying to see it as a replacement for MSTS. It's very

different, if anything the resemblance of many keyboard commands was a mistake because it misleads you into a mindset that says 'oh, it's MSTS but

newer (and therefore better?). Just see it as an entirely different game, it'll help a lot.

Here, entirely free and jp4712(R) guaranteed, are my steps to scenario heaven:

1. Place your driver service, and enter all its destination details etc. DON'T add any AI yet, just drive the route.

The reason for this is that you can find some pretty unexpected results, and you simply have to work with them. For example, I uploaded a scenario

called 'hopper test' It starts at the Eaglescliffe branch just north of Northallerton and I assigned a freight classification to the train; and made sure the

route included the slow line at Thirsk. All common sense and logic told me that the train would go via the underpass at Northallerton and on to the slow

line. But would it? Would it hell. NOTHING I did would make it do anything but go straight up that steep hill into the station and via the fast line as far as

Thirsk, where it crossed to the slow. At this point I had two choices, scrap the idea or work with it. So I added more and more hoppers until it was a real

struggle to get up the hill and added some scenery figures to block the slow line with workmen and ballast, and bingo! everyone says I made a

challenging brill scenario. Folks, take the credit where you can... the other point is that without running the scenario I'd no doubt screw up the AI because

I expected to be on the slow line all the way - so the moral, as per the tip, is 'run the player service' first to see what path it takes.

2. Be very, very careful with driver and AI service classifications

Those 'express passenger', 'stopping passenger' designations aren't to tell the electronic passengers which train to get on - they assign priority. So assign

your classifications with some thought, on the basis that if you want tyou train to wait while another crosses, assign a lower priority to your train. Also,

bear in mind that 'passenger' and 'freight' designations tell teh game what sort of track it should try to use for the service, depending on teh track type

the route builder has set. And NEVER, but NEVER use the 'special' classification in any scenario with AI. 'Special' locks the entire path from end to end for

that service, right at the start of the scenario, so ruins all AI interacting with that path.

3. Don't assume that the AI dispatcher or driver thinks the way you do

He might work out that instead of waiting at that red light behind the cunning blocker train you put in, he can get there ten seconds earlier by reversing a

couple of miles, reversing the train on a triangle and blasting down the other line backwards. Or to put it another way, the AI dispatcher in MSTS is

unbelievably stupid; in RW, hes unbelievably cunning.

4. Dont make AI trains too long

If you do, it seems to make them more prone to the crawl along at 0.1 mph bug. That must be a real PITA for colleagues in North America. Come to

think of it, I havent seen that bug manifest itself recently have I just learned to not make AI trains too long, or has it been fixed? If you do see an AI

train crawling along, take off a few trucks and try again - I've had success with this in the past.

5. Beware, here be portals

I can make trains disappear into portals fine, but making AI trains originate in portals seems buggy and often simply doesntwork. So I just dont start AI

trains in portals, theres plenty of bits of track to put em on.

6. Immersion is not just about hot water heaters

What a few people have alluded to is that the graphics (or call it eye candy if you like) in RW is great. So, play to that! The scenario objects function is RW

is brilliant, it all helps you feel like its a dynamic environment. I bought the Stanier 8F pack and in the first scenario I tr ied that came with it, the aim was

to create the last day of the Bath - Templacombe line in 1966 and so the platform end and track were covered in animated people, just like the photos

Ive seen. Plus mark for RS.com there. In a similar vein my next scenario will feature an very heavy steam freight train with a helper at the rear and with

the guards van/caboose in the 8F pack having a passenger view, dropping off the helper whilst still on the move just past the summit looks the business

from the guards position, though I say it myself. So in other words, get people feeling involved in the scenarioif its just blast at full speed from point A

to point B then the eye candy is all you have and its not making the best use of RWs strong points.

http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=443&sid=b9afcffa23ba8808be3b34c67ab8bba0http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=443&sid=b9afcffa23ba8808be3b34c67ab8bba0http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=443&sid=b9afcffa23ba8808be3b34c67ab8bba0

7/29/2019 Helpful Hints on Creating Scenarios

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7. Learn the cheats and short cuts

Youre creating a scenario that starts in Paddington and ends at Oxford. Do you click on destination then shift-left click ALL the way to the platform at

Oxford, then shift-left click ALL the way back again? I did. Then I found that if you click on destination; then RIGHT CLICK somewhere innocuous on the

screen; then press 9; then LEFT CLICK on the coloured bit of track at the desired location; setting a destination reduced in time from an average of five

minutes to five seconds. There are other cheats too

8. Logmate and Driver List are your friends

If creating a scenario, click these two options in the, er, whatever the menu thing is called before you fire up the main game. They help tell you whichservices have failed to run properly, and occasionally you get a very good clue why. Sometimes, be patient with the driver list button in fact, after you

press it give the game a few seconds to check things over and then check it again.

9. Be careful how you use the VCR button

This is one I learned the hard way that VCR button is great for finding out how your scenario plays out, but it seems to play havoc with your edits during

that session. Im not 100% sure whether youre safe if you save THEN play the VCR, but as belt-and-braces Ive got into the habit of saving, coming out

back to the menu, going back in just to play the VCR, then coming back out to the menu before going back in yet again to carry out further edits. Thats a

bit extreme but the VCR doesnt muck about with my edits any more.

10. Dont try and do what the program isnt designed for

All games have reasonable limitations (whaddaya mean, my CFS3 B17 isn't supposed to be able to use laser guns and neutron force fields? Well that's

just NO GOOD FOR ME!). For example if you place eight AI services to leave a portal one minute apart, you should expect trouble. Real-world railways

don't despatch trains from a fixed point at one minute intervals, even the badly- run ones, nor should RW. Similarly free roam scenarios and AI dont

really mix well together. RW isnt designed for it, thats what standard scenarios are for. It's n ice to potter around doing what you want while AI thunders

past, but in real life pretty much every train movement is agreed in advance and teh instructions are followed: which is basically a standard scenario.

11. Get someone else to test it before you upload to a file library

Just because you drive with both brake and throttle on, and just because it works on your machine, doesnt mean it will on everyone elses and have the

same results. Of course, thats not a comment thats exclusive to RW

Now, as a scenario writer what would I like to see? Well, I think for me the two priorities are more routes and a good variety of freeware. There are only

so many times I can write a scenario for the default routes before I get bored and the routes I like are a particular kind, of course: same for all of us, so

it needs enough variety to keep us all sweet.

I hope the above helps - I'm no guru but hopefully the above will inspire a couple of people to try the scenario editor again. And once you're in, that'll be

it - you'll be a member of the Scenario Writer's Guild...

Paul