Some newbie tips (cheats?) to drive on time

[J van E]

Here are some tips I came up with while driving the GWE's 166.

Tip 1: do not wait for the Objective complete message to come up and disappear again before you do your next move. That costs valuable seconds. So when for instance you arrive at a station do not wait with unlocking the doors until the Objective complete message has disappeared but unlock them right away, as if that Objective message isn't there. The same goes for when you have to leave: don't wait after locking the doors again until the Objective complete message is gone before you apply throttle: start driving already (unless you are on time and have to wait).

Tip 2: to save even more seconds, let's take it even further than tip 1. (I think you could call the following a cheat but maybe this is how it works in real life too. ;) ) The thing is: you can already press the Unlock doors option while you are still driving: the doors won't open until you are standing still.
So if you are almost at a station, unlock the doors already and they will actually unlock as soon as you've come to a halt. This may save a second or so and it will certainly save more seconds if you were used to waiting for the Objective completed message. The doors will open while you see that message.

Tip 3: I think you could also call this a cheat and it's in fact a follow up of tip 2. The things is: you can already set the throttle while the doors are still open! The train won't move until the doors are locked again.
So when you see the passengers loading time is almost up, set throttle already, and as soon as you see the Lock doors command, lock the doors, and then the train will start moving as soon as the doors are locked. It will start moving while you see the next Objective complete message!

Tip 4: while I myself do use tips 1, 2 and 3 to save time without losing peace of mind ;) I don't use this 4th tip but well, if you are really running late... This REALLY is cheating btw. The thing is: the game doesn't care if you depart too early. As a test I did a service where I would leave as soon as I could and in the end I got all greens, so even when I was told to WAIT after closing the doors! During the test I arrived 5 minutes early and left two stations immediately after loading the passengers and locking the doors and even though the message windows showed WAIT the game didn't mind at all that I drove on. And the final result screen showed all green icons!

Now obviously you can also cheat by ignoring signs and speed limits but well... I wouldn't do that. That would REALLY ruin the entire (purpose of) the game. ;)

[OldAlaskaGuy]

You do not need to "cheat". Saving these few "valueable" seconds will not help you that much. There are a few scenarios that have issues as to completeing them on time and these little tricks will not help you. Again this is a simulator not a raceing game like Dirt 3. Relax and enjoy, plan your moves and think "down the line" anticipate the next signal.

[LeadCatcher]

It is a simulator — the few times I have ridden different services in the UK when visiting — they were rarely on-time anyway - :-) (mostly in the old Southern region of Kent, Dover to London etc0

That is why I detest career scenarios in TS2017 - they teach and enforce poor driving habits for the sake of a score that really reflects nothing in the real world. TS2017 did try to take into passenger comfort - braking, acceleration etc into the equation but this differed so drastically between routes and DLC’s is was more of a hinderance than an improvement. I would much rather have a complex switching (shunting) scenario where you must use logical to build a consist or working a heavy freight up or moderate to steep gradients over a mash the accelerator- slam the brakes - open the doors - close the doors, repeat type scenario.

Those are my personal preferences - knowing others have differences and find what I like boring — i am hoping that TSW will continue to develop to support all players preferences sufficiently.