Zusi 3 - Honest Opinions

[BigVern]

Trying not to give DTG any more of my money this year (they have already had far too much), looking at finally biting the bullet and buying Zusi 3 assuming it attracts a reasonable discount in the Steam Xmas sale. The other title I'm interested in is Simrail, but that doesn't release until late January.

Still a bit on the fence though. Obviously graphics wise not up there with TSC or TSW but how good really is the actual driving experience? Is the English localisation good enough to get by with a bit of pigeon German? How many routes are now in the base package? How about the sounds?

The elephant in the room is that you can't save a run in progress which effectively limits you to the time available on the PC.

However assuming it comes in at around £45 as previous sales, that's only the equivalent of 1.5 TSW DLC's at DTG's new price so, as I say, very tempted.

[CuzImMaximus]

There is not a real base package like in dtgs sims. All routes, aviable in the sim, are included in the sim. Around 20 Routes. The sounds are directly recorded from the original vehicles. Its hard at start, especially for those who know nothing about the german railway. Its a lot of reading the manual.

[Chris_2502]

ZUSI is differnt than TSW or Train Simulator. It has much more realistic physics and signals, train control systems like SIFA, PZB etc. There are also versions of ZUSI wich are used for trainig real train drivers. You can also connect controllers and Joystics. Some people have even build their own train cab dashboards for ZUSI.
Its made by a small developer so the price is of course higher as the DTG games.
ZUSI is more focussed on real physics and train operations than fancy graphcis.
For more Information just visit https://www.zusi.de/

[schmusegewürzkatze621]

There is a fairly detailed manual available both in English and in German. The English version has a few minor mistranslations, but it’s generally fine; see this forum post and the following.

I’d recommend starting with ICEs and ICs on one of the Hamburg–Kassel or Köln–Düsseldorf timetables.

[SnakeShit]

some people beeing put off because of the "lousy" graphics. But normaly once you get a grip on how to properly use the sim, it has much to offer. Sifa, PZB, LZB, ETCS, Tons of Locos and Cars. And all that as realistic as it can be in terms of physics and appearance.
regardless of the graphics beeing below average from a modern standpoint, you can be assured that the whole tracklayout, positioning of signals and catenary, prominent buildings along the routes etc. are placed exactly where they are -or have been- standing in the real world (since it depends on the era the route is set in)


Updates/New Content:
Everything comes from the community. Cars, Locos, routes, Timetables, etc.
There are a few Teams working on new routes all around germany and recently also in eastern France directed to the german border.
These People are doing their stuff, releasing it in the forum for others to beta test it
and every now and then (it is planned to be every 4 to 6 weeks but rn due to complications within the update-submitting system its 3 to 5 Months in general) the Developer is ringing a bell in the forum and collects all the new created content to release it in a new update for everyone.
These Updates are free of charge.



https://zusi-sk.eu/ <- there you can check which routes are available to drive (green) which are beeing build (orange) and which are in a phase of planning (blue).

This map gets updated every now and then by a community member.

Support:
the official forum can be found here: forum.zusi.de
There the main developer, named Carsten , is online almost every day, often responding directly to any questions asked. He also is very responsive to any changes that may be suitable to make it an even better simulation.
If there are some things he cant do by himself (since he is not only responsible for this zusi hobby version, but even more for the professional Training Version) he askes if someone in the community knows how to handle this topic and he then integrates it later on in the software if it deems worthy.

Normaly if you have a question or a problem, it only takes 30 minutes tops to get a decent answer from the community.

[spoon66]

True but its is a steep learning curve , but now a little less because there is now an English Manuel in place , I was one of the original Hobby USB stick buyers when there was very limited English going on. having found Zusi 3 while looking for something to replace TSW or Rail sim as it was back then after getting banned from their forums along with several other members.

I set out to find other Rail sims. Zusi was one of them.
Yes once you get passed the Low Fi Graphics it proves to be a very good Train sim.
the steep learning curve of course is from having to learn the various German signals systems and safety operations.

again things have improve since the early days of Zusi 3 and now you can find a few sights dealing with the German rail signals and their meanings also a few Youtube video's can be found one the subject.

If you live in Germany as I have since moving here in 2009 then then you can buy books containing all the signals used by the the German Rail network both old and new.

But the sim will take up a lots of time currently to much for myself but I will return to it at some point or maybe when Zusi 4 arrives.