Add post-museum uses for the DM1U/Utility Rail Vehicle/Railbus

[Inspecteur Jacob]

So I've played this game for a while now and I've enjoyed my time in the recent B99 update driving around in the DM1U hauling new parts to the museum.
And I love the thing to bits, it's fun to drive around in, sitting in between the other diesels (DE2, DH4, DE6) which are mostly "set the direction and pull the vroom vroom stick" and the DM3 and steam engines which are much more involved in getting to run, it's a simplified and more forgiving version of the DM3 with one exact purpose.

The problem lies in what do do with it after you have done all the museum hauls as it doesn't really serve any purpose besides those.
Sure it does work well for personal transport; but so does teleporting with the map or any other engine in the game and hauling around the engine just so you have it as transport (and not have to pay the summoning fee) kind of defeats the whole purpose of this.
This specificity and ties to the museum with no alternative makes getting it feel like a bit of a waste when you could just grab an engine (either your own restored one or one lying around) and the little flatcar and possibly even complete a job on the way.

I wish the DM1U had any other purpose, however small, to give it long-term gameplay functionality, especially when it is one of the most enjoyable engines to drive.
For this I already have a couple ideas (although more are very much welcome).

• Repeatable utility cargo.
  This can be done by either adding new cargo you would have to move around, maybe fixing part of the museum itself, deliveries for the DVRT company (sending train parts to stations so the company can repair their engines, could even be used to do unlocks for advanced locomotives at some industries), move MOW equipment for track workers, maybe even electrification infrastructure for mainlines who knows.
  Or you could make it so when you seriously wreck an engine (blow up a boiler, kill a diesel engine, overrev a gearbox to death, ...) you have to order and deliver replacements to the repair shed if you want to get it back to running (sort of like restoring the demonstrators; but as an extra cost for your own failure, would likely be a difficulty setting).
  You could still use the flatcar for this; but the DM1U would be the easy and dedicated option for these hauls.
  
• Make the DM1U act like a simple portable home base of sorts.
  This would kind of overlap with the caboose; but it still has some use.
  The bench could be used/refitted into a bed (although you would only be able to sleep for a smaller amount of time).
  The little room could act as a portable tool shed where you can store various items (maybe one or two shelves with a railing, hangers for your tools, ...
  The idea here is to augment the DM1U with some handy tools like the caboose; but to limit the amount of overlap (no charger/career manager/extended range) so you don't end up towing it instead of the caboose.
  
• Allow us to change out certain parts of the DM1U
  This would be the biggest overhaul; but also the wildest one, allowing us to swap out pieces of the DM1U when in a servicing track or the museum.
  A great example would be swapping out the utility cargo space for a small railbed to put an engine on (probably no larger than a DE2), the main use for this would be to quickly and cheaply move the BE2 without the risk of blowing the traction motors (thanks to @trucksarenoisy on discord for the idea).
  Maybe allow us to drive more axles for traction so we can put down more power at the cost of worse fuel efficiency or speed.
  Allow us to extend the cab for certain "home base" functions like mentioned above.

Right now the use of the DM1U is limited and specific, you will use it 6 times (as of B99) at most to restore your engines and after that just have it to scoot around the map, it feels a bit wasted to have an engine just for something you are given a flatcar for and are only going to do when restoring your engines, it feels illegally fun to drive for something that has no long-term use.

[PlutoProductions]

Actually, you can use the DM1U as little as three times if you bring the Utility Flatbed with you and pick up two parts at once.

And if you wanted to, you coulde "Use*" it Zero times by leaving it in neutral and towing it behind another locomotive.

[Knsgf]

Originally posted by Inspecteur Jacob:

The little room could act as a portable tool shed where you can store various items (maybe one or two shelves with a railing, hangers for your tools, ...

It's already possible to do this. You can buy shelves at GF and install them anywhere on the vehicle, including the closet. This is how I use it.

[Inspecteur Jacob]

Originally posted by Knsgf:

Originally posted by Inspecteur Jacob:

The little room could act as a portable tool shed where you can store various items (maybe one or two shelves with a railing, hangers for your tools, ...

It's already possible to do this. You can buy shelves at GF and install them anywhere on the vehicle, including the closet. This is how I use it.

yes, but those shelves are tiny and the moment you bump into something lightly the items on them fall off, what I thought of would be slaves around 2 to 3 times that width with a little railing around it to prevent things from falling off unless you topple over.

[Mooshbear_the_first]

all that and maybe put in a service deck that replaces the flat bed in case you were not paying attention to your fuel gauge or other train malfunctions

[Tiretracker]

I think repeatable cargo delivery would be a good start, mail deliveries perhaps? Though the incentive would be isolated since I can imagine only getting pocket change for that small a cargo. Suppose if you just wanted to vibe and say you're working instead of joyriding, pay for the gas money that kinda thing.

Another use could be for your museum pieces, in relation to something I suggested somewhere on granting the ability to return the rust paint to the locos. If you crash and blow up your Museum locomotives, you could have to repeat the restoration steps, granting more use out of the Utility car and keep paint upkeep relevant.

[Knsgf]

Originally posted by The Philosophers Legacy:

Worth noting that each loco has a max storage limit which you can see in the vehicle handbook, I think DMU has 6 slots anything over that will return the 7th+ items back to lost and found.

The closet of my utility bus right after summoning via comms radio:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3414113289
There is no so-called "max storage limit". The only limits are total amount you can buy at stores and available physical space.

[Matt]

Anything parked inside the Museum shouldn't depawn. That would be a great use for the museum! They could make it so you have to first restore the demo version before loaned locos stay

[Inspecteur Jacob]

Originally posted by The Philosophers Legacy:

Originally posted by Matt:

Anything parked inside the Museum shouldn't depawn. That would be a great use for the museum! They could make it so you have to first restore the demo version before loaned locos stay

There is mod called "loco ownership" which I highly recommend, this solves the issue you speak of at a cost ofc because you have to buy the Loco first but you can't buy a loco which you have not yet restored. It allows the ownership of an extra 16 locos.

I play with LocoOwnership (and PersistentJobs because I hate myself), definitely worth checking out; you can increase the ownership cap in the config if you need/want to although the default should be high enough for most unless you're doing multiplayer shenanigans.

To bring things back to the thread topic, I'd love to see a version of LocoOwnership that has you restore abandoned/broken DVRT locomotives that the company wrote off.