Just saw this Japanese train sim about to come out and it looks pretty kino. Got me thinking about other vidyas that might appeal to regulars here.Some that I enjoy>American/Euro truck simulator>OpenTTD>SimRail>Flight Simulator>Bus boundI never found any cycling games that really scratched the itch, either too arcadey or boring race team management stuff. Would quite like an open world to cycle around, with ability to spec bikes, train avatar fitness and maybe set up some touring or bike packing trips.Feel free to share any more
Here are some Japanese train sims on Steam you may not have heard of:https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111630/JR_EAST_Train_Simulator/FMV sim by the venerable Ongakukan. Expensive and DLC heavy, but with highly realistic sounds and physics. I also personally consider the use of FMV a plus because of the detail and accuracy it offers but your opinion may vary.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1618290/TRAIN_CREW/3D train sim with simplistic graphics based on a fictional route. Good gameplay with a lot of options, a scoring system, and a conductor mode.https://store.steampowered.com/app/2614000/TRAMCITY_HAKODATE/Only English-language Japanese tram sim out there. Offers very different experience.
basically any factory logistics game will teach you that trains are not just Hard, Actually, but also that last-mile transit does exist and does not invalidate the utility of trains
>>2074057basically any factory logistics game will teach you that developers are too unintelligent to do anything but rip off transport tycoon's over three decade-old train mechanics
>>2074037Cheers, will check them out.Bought Running train, it's early access and there's not a lot of content, but what's there is beautifully put together.
>>2074034Simutrans has two paksets set in Japan.
>>2074057I liked it when I was a yardmaster. Far more fulfilling than any game you could play.
>>2074067how so
>>2074297The graphics and care put into recreating Japanese rural rail in this game is astounding. Honestly sometimes indistinguishable from the front view videos I watch.
>>2074320i mean just fucking look at them, the mechanics are invariably identical
>>2074337Indeed, solo dev too. Proper labour of love.
>>2074346it's trains. there's not much room for innovation on mechanics when 99% of the game is managing junctions and track reservations and even TTD did it based on how real life rail signals work
Obligatory shilling for Cities in Motion 2, not the best but the most underrated transport management sim. Has definitely the most elaborate and complex public transportation management, with>buses>trolleybuses>trams>metros>ferriesWhich you manage as lines (not individual vehicles) following schedules.There's some odd things like metros needing turning loops at one end or schedules working out to max 1 service per hour due to how time progresses (there's day and night cycles). But overall I find it by far the most satisfying and realistic public transit management sim.
Grand Theft Auto V unironically because San Andreas has a wide variety of pastiche of public transport infrastructure from airliners to a commuter train you can actually ride in the city to taxis to freight trains to boats and yes, even bicycles that you can store in your garage and ride if you want to. I'm not going to say it's the most in-depth or realistic (I'm sure some youtuber has already nitpicked the transport options in the game) but it's just a good variety of multiple things that make it a good /n/ game in my opinion.
>>2074407yes there is room for innovation of mechanics when ttd mechanics encourage building nonsensical layouts and don't reward realistic operationwhere are my fucking unit diagramswhere are my fucking realistic signalsWHERE ARE MY FUCKING TIMETABLES
>>2074434>where are my fucking realistic signalssuch as>WHERE ARE MY FUCKING TIMETABLESsatisfactory has it
>>2074439>such asfucking anything beyond shit like "path signals"?>satisfactory has itoh great, the one game that doesn't need timetables has them
>>2074446>fucking anything beyond shit like "path signals"?like what>doesn't need timetablesyeah satisfactory trains are pretty fully featured but the game is really not designed around use of trains
>>2074447>like whatwell, have you ever heard a real life signal engineer mention path signals?
>>2074434>where are my fucking realistic signalsThis is a major limitation of rail sims because the people making them have little to no understanding of how they work. And desu, it is hard to understand unless you've spent time working for a railroad. At least in the US, each railroad has its own signalling scheme and rules.>>2074446>>2074459>fucking anything beyond shit like "path signals"?I've never understood what this really entails but I've seen it in NIMBYrails. Never really worked realistically. Certainly isn't based on anything irl.
>>2074459i have never heard a real life signal engineer and from what little i understand, modern signalling is more to say "I'm on time for the section of track my company reserved 8 months ago" than "I am reserving this section of track right now"also dont quote me on it but i *think* satisfactory trains will run even without signals and happily collide with eachother if you fuck up the timing. BUT they are also very hands-off and will pathfind on their own with no way to override unless you build extra train stops and add them to their timetable. i dont know much about satisfactory trains because they are basically never necessary and dont really fit the scale of the game very well. the devs themselves have basically admitted that they only added them due to complaints from autists and never planned anything around them, and have been more recently showing more love to truck transport (even the title screen for this Experimental build is a lavishly decorated city street type scene instead of the usual 'nature spoiled by a big prison-orange machine' vibe they used until now)
>>2074462>At least in the US, each railroad has its own signalling scheme and rules.They really don't. There are two methods: speed signals and route signals. Speed signals are being phased out.
>>2074484I meant that each US railroad sets its own signal rules. A larger authority didn't make them all adhere to a master signalling plan. It's further complicated by the signalling mechanisms and rules of the predecessor railroads that make up modern carriers; e.g. ex-Southern territories have different signals and rules applicable to them than ex-PRR territories at NS; ex-Frisco lines have slightly different rules than ex-ATSF lines at BNSF. Over time they've been standardized or changed to be more similar within their own company.
>>2074496Those are nice platitudes that you have, but do you have any facts supporting them? Do you know how to read any signal system?
>>2074498Yes, I worked for BNSF on ex-ATSF/SLSF/CB&Q lines and did interchanges onto the NS, CSX, UP, and KCS (before it was taken over). Within BNSF each division can have its own slight variations of signal rules because of legacy signaling from the predecessor lines, all of that was in the rulebook.
https://youtu.be/PiNg3pG_pPE
>>2074462Sweden has a very intersting speed signaling system where the signlas represent the aspects that the old semaphores used to show. One green = 80 km/hTwo greens = 40 km/hTree greens = 40 km/h short routeOne green and two blinking greens 80 km/h and expect 40 km/hOne green and one blinking green 80 km/h and expect stop.One green and one blinking white 80 km/h and expect 80km/hetc.All of this is already kind of obsolete, and singlas are going away completely when tracks are migrated to EMTS. But it's still very interesting for a nostalgic perspective.Norway has a similar scheme, but they use yellow instead of white, and cross boarder trains of course need to follow both standards.
>>2074337And it's, what, 2GB? Outstanding.
>>2074034Omsi 2 is pretty in depth for bus simulation but just learning curve because of the mechanics
>>2078588Tokyo Bus Guide 2 on the PS2 is good if you want an arcadey bus sim.
>>2074434Simutrans Extended tries it's best to make more realistic tracks be the good choice. Slopes and turns really matter. Passenger comfort vs trip length and others. I'm pretty sure it's also heavily expands on signals but can't speak for ultimate realism about that.But they do complicate even basic operation. >TimetablesAt least it has a scheduling tool if finicky to use. Based on departures per line, wait times and offsets.Also it has graphs galore. Seeing actual statistics on passenger vs seat kilometres and shit.
>>2074417>From Airliners to commuter trains you can rideThis is flat out incorrect: the only public transit you can ride in GTA V is the LS Red Line LRT (in your pic)GTA San Andreas has airline flights and intercity commuter rail.Another honorable mention is Mafia 1 which has fully functional Elevated Metro and Tram networks.
>>2074434You can mod to do these things. In particular it's possible to get VERY autistic with timetables, in fact they're part of the game now by default but you can choose to ignore them. The problem is to have all these things and have it still be a GAME and not virtual model trains. People love their simutrans like >>2078958 says but there is something about it that keeps me from getting behind it 100%, it doesn't have the same level of comfy or somethingI think openTTD is just so good it takes up all the oxygen, but there are some things that it just can't do; some people go all in with the high res graphics packs but it winds up looking really cursed without actual curves. Right now I think the last best hope is that open loco turns out really well and takes off once they can expand the maps and stuff, because locomotion has so much potential to be that game visually but it's so kneecapped. It's like how there has never been a better city builder game than simcity 3k or 4 but they were limited by their era
>>2078981>The problem is to have all these things and have it still be a GAME and not virtual model trainsbut those things encourage it being a game by making operating an efficient system more difficult and interesting
>>2078995I don't disagree, what I mean is that the way the game is now, you can choose to ignore it, and if you do all that it will make your company perform slightly worse if anything. I would love to see a patch of the game where you had to do all these things to get trains moving
nothing like working in a polish signal box at night
>>2079080Are there any good train dispatcher sims?
Strictly speaking it's transportation, isn't it?>>2079080NiceLandscapes/atmosphere is important, game mechanics don't decide 100%
>>2079086my pic is simrail, i can't speak to its realism but i enjoy it and it's multiplayermost of the other stuff out there is hyperautist shit with no graphics and high prices
>>2079103>most of the other stuff out there is hyperautist shit with no graphics and high pricesPerfect, I don't care about the graphics, just moving trains across a CTC screen is fine
>>2079086Rail Route is a game about dispatching, also MetroSimulator beta has very realistic dispatching simulation
>>2078980What I mean is that you can fly the planes yourself, including the airliners
>>2079131I should have been more specific, I'm looking for sims based on US rail dispatching, I presume there's nothing out there for that. I think both of those cater toward European enthusiasts and use their methods of operation. I'm not shitting on them but offhand I don't think they'd appeal to me. Thank you though
Is Subway Builder nice? I like that it’s GNU+Linux compatible but it seems expensive for how immature the features and dev are
>>2079184>I should have been more specific, I'm looking for sims based on US rail dispatching, I presume there's nothing out there for that. I think both of those cater toward European enthusiasts and use their methods of operation. I'm not shitting on them but offhand I don't think they'd appeal to me. Thank you thoughTrain Dispatcher 3.5 is what you want. Used IRL by BNSF. Author still sells it on eBay. https://tomlevine.wixsite.com/train-dispatcher
>>2079315There's something utterly fascinating about real simulator being used for leisure. I've seen similar recommendations for power plant sims on I think /g/
