Train Customisation - Naming, Painting - Personalised Locomotive.. Dashboard toys.. Bobbleheads etc?

[Overland]

I come from a background of driving Kerbal Space Program Land Trains (diesel electric)
when I took on a challenge to circumnavigate the planet.. I never did.. in actual fact. I never made it more than 200km without something exploding horribly.. but it generated its own story, legend..

it was because the trains had class/names.. and with it grew a presence all their own


I bring this up because derail valley brings with it a similar feel.. each run could end horribly.. usually does.. but its a bit empty because you only lose money.. not anything your attached too.. might sound silly.. it did to me as well.. but . I discovered it matters :)

what we need is a way to customise our own locos, custom class numbers.. nameplates.. colours
even hangers dangling from the roof (a time-whale from Switchcars?) hood ornaments.. custom tone horns

Something to truly make locomotives our own rather than just a copy of a copy of a copy of the same shunter you find everywhere

its best discribed as.. emotional bond with ones train
one of the biggest factors I had with my land trains back in the day was every one of them had a custom class number and unique look.. when you name something.. its easier to attach a story. or even have it grow its own through all the trials you face

Derailing is common.. sure you can just spawn another loco.. but when its not the same loco.. theres a nicely heavy attachment to that

a sharp corners coming up. if you happen to be driving the locomotive thats your own.. then your damn well going to slow down.. take pride in success and nurse the poor thing home for repairs.. much like railway men in the past managed steamers.. pride of the railway kind of thing also

is it possible if we could have some sort of customisation in the future like this?
I truly believe because of derail valley's unique approach to railways.. it likewise has a very unique situation where this could all apply greatly.. increase game exposure.. generate healthy competition with drivers and trains and generally add to the wellbeing of the community and the game itself..

Thankyou :)

[Tark]

I know this isn't the point of this post (sorry) but what KSP mod do you use for trains?

I should also add that I totally agree with your points here, would make things more personal and memorable. Once they add re-railing, it could matter to you just a little more to go save your favorite locomotive.

[TheLostPenguin]

Owning locomotives and custom skins are already part of the end design goals for DV, the current mechanic of spawning/grabbing another one from a station is just a placeholder system to get the game playable for now. Whilst not explitcitly mentioned on the roadmap being able to name locos seems like a trivial feature to add if it's not already planned internally, and if we'll be able to reskin them then having nameplates seems like a minor addition to that if indeed they're not also already planned, so I think we can reasonably expect to see all of that added eventually.

Adding cab clutter is something personally I'd put in the 'would be neat, but not a core feature so maybe if there's time' category, especially since doing so 'properly' might actually have a surprising technical/performance cost in adding additional dynamic shadow sources, bearing in mind that IIRC the reason we don't have an internal cab light at present is due to issues getting lighting working nicely. So yeah could be kinda neat, but I wouldn't hold my breath too hard for it.

[Altfuture]

100% agreed with you Overland, we're definitely aiming for that. We plan to start work on locomotive customization after the Hazmat update rolls out, which already will lay some basis (saved locomotive resource statuses, service penalties, etc.).

Love the idea for a Switchcars time-whale hanger! :)

[Kimo]

Originally posted by Overland:

Something to truly make locomotives our own rather than just a copy of a copy of a copy of the same shunter you find everywhere

I completely agree. I try to maintain "my" baby as long as possibe, I'm emotional attached. Like my first car, a Land Rover S3 with an Mercedes Diesel engine, you know. I like to play that culture even in a game.

On the other hand, it is that: culture. Todays young people live more with a sharing culture, where stuff is not "mine". The interesting part here is a different behavior of "I give a sh"t because it's not mine" and "I make it mine for a period of time".

My guess is that it depends of how educated mirror neurons are. If you get your 5th f*cked up rent item, will you do the same or still care as if it's your own for short time? Because it's just the right thing to do?

Long speech in short: Maybe youngsters have a less urgency to own something, because it's not rare anymore. Just spawn new into the game after they died a ten thousand times.

But all is valuable. I'd like to rerail, tow and fix it! And pay for it. Becaus I made a mistake. :)

[ashjuk]

Until there are turntables at every station and/or double ended powerful diesel locos there is no point in 'owning' an engine as far as I am concerned.

I'm not interested in messing about with steam and the diesel-electric shunter is not up to hauling the majority of jobs on its own.

So until we have the above the need to spawn multiple shunters facing the right way is a necessity for me.

[horvatha4]

Originally posted by ashjuk:

Until there are turntables at every station and/or double ended powerful diesel locos there is no point in 'owning' an engine as far as I am concerned.

I'm not interested in messing about with steam and the diesel-electric shunter is not up to hauling the majority of jobs on its own.

So until we have the above the need to spawn multiple shunters facing the right way is a necessity for me.

Me too...

[KT]

would be cool if we can make own map so i can build own tracks and warehouses where i want. it can be part of freemode and there you have unlimited money. and freemode with multiplayer would be so sick.

[SpiritFire]

what if.. they had a train car with a crane on it.. so it was like spin tires with a winch.. and you had to try to work the engine back up to the track off a hill to get it loaded to pull, or work on, or put on a flat car to haul back...
just crazy thoughts..

[Cedar]

I really like the idea of getting attached to your own personalized loco and therefore putting more effort into being successful and taking care of 'your precious'! +1 from me! : )