Some Input for the Future

[pschlik]

I’ve been thinking about the potential of Train Fever and of possible ways for a future American expansion pack to be made, so I decided to give some (most) of my input on that potential pack. Hopefully some of the Train Fever team will think about bits of this, as it will become important. I know you guys probably haven’t even started research on American stuff, so you probably won’t understand some terminology as it, literally and metaphorically, could get lost in translation.

Firstly, the American portion of Transport Tycooners will have very high expectations for a potential American pack. Many times, the included portion of American content is fairly small. I trust that keeping a good quality standard will be no problem for you guys, but do not underestimate the quantity and time that will be required to perfect such a pack; you will definitely need to provide a full expansion (different houses, terrain types, signals, railroad crossings, bridge and tunnel styles, roads, and such) with a very good variety of vehicles.

Secondly, choosing locomotives and locomotive styles, especially with steam locomotives, will be pretty complicated. Each kind of steam locomotive in the US has had many styles, and each person will have their own preferences. For example, I like Lima Locomotive Works’s styles, but other people might prefer a different company for the same kind of locomotive. As for diesels, there are tons of them, but you don’t need to include them all, no way. Luckily, though, you can’t go wrong with including a diesel locomotive (but you can go wrong with not including one) as long as the model is good quality and accurate, it will be fine as diesel locomotives have much more specific designations than steam locomotives. For example, instead of including every F-Series locomotive created, just make a generic ‘F-Series’ locomotive, and it should satisfy the needs for an F-Series locomotive (don’t forget the B unit). So, as with everything, you will need to trust your choices and stick to them, if somebody is too stubborn to use the pack just because of one locomotive they don’t like, that’s their fault, and they will need to wait for somebody to make a mod.

Thirdly, KEEP THINGS GENERIC! I cannot stress this enough, you have to keep everything in the potential American pack generic, no real railroads, no consistent paint schemes between all locomotives (unless we can change them at that point in time). To keep the most people pleased and satisfied, keep the paint jobs generic. For example, theses blue engines are exactly what I’m thinking of:

Now, I’m not saying that all diesels should be blue, but that they should all be colorful; maybe a red one here, a green one there, etc. Another specific thing to note is that those blue locomotives are new EPA Tier 4 compliant ES44s, and I must specifically request that you include the GE Dash-9 (1993) GE ES44 (2005) and the new GE ES44 (2014); although the Dash-9 and ES44DC are fairly close to each other and locomotives like the EMD SD70ACe (2003), both MUST be included as each one is extremely ubiquitous and extremely revolutionary to the railroad industry. The new EPA Tier 4 compliant ES44 is also important to include since there have literally been no large locomotives since 2005, so it would be nice to include the new ES44 to refresh your railroad of aging ES44s.

Fourthly, you must stress freight transport in the American pack, especially in the late-game. Freight transport is most of the railroad traffic today in America, so the game must be able to demonstrate that. As for passenger transport, I advise that you do include various commuter train locomotives on busy commuter lines like the Northeast Corridor and the  F59PHI used in the west. Of course, you should also include larger passenger locomotives, but do not slack out on the freight locomotive selection.

Fifthly, engine sounds. Sounds will be hard, but they are very important to many American rail fans, so  please try hard to keep the sounds accurate to real life and not repetitive and used on multiple locomotives. I’m not asking that you make each and every single locomotive sound set different, but that you keep them at least remotely accurate. EMD engines sound a lot different than GE engines, but big sets of each of those companies engines come in groups that sound quite similar to each other. Simply put (and this applies to everything) do your research on everything, everything! Also, don’t be biased, things are different and bigger on American railroads over German and Swiss railroads, so they might seem extreme to you, but that is normal to us, so keeping a big selection of ‘abnormally powerful’ locomotives is actually realistic.

So, I hope somebody at the Train Fever team can take a look at this and consider it for the future, I would really appreciate it. still, this is a rant, so I would not be surprised if nobody listens. Also, this is not a discussion, don’t make it one!

• This topic was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by pschlik. Reason: Fixed Picture
• This topic was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by pschlik.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by pschlik.

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