We Need Written Manuals For The Trains! (2024)

Hi DTG Harry and DTG Matt,

we really need some written train manuals describing all buttons, lights and modes a train has. Take a look at the feedback and troubleshooting forum, especially with Desiro 642, Vectron 193 and of course 218. I hope the expert 101 and cab car will have one...

There are so many systems and features build into the trains by DTG and 3rd party devs which no one knows about

I don't know about those specific trains, but there are brief manuals for some trains (BCC 323, ECML 801 come to mind). Though I agree full detailed manuals would be good and helpful.

Haven’t found any manuals for both Desiro 642 and the BR 218 but if you want, from page 114 you can found some details about the Vectron:

https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/2362300/manuals/TSW4_Manual_ENG.pdf?t=1698408429

In the old days, there used to be manuals included for the routes. These covered the routes and trains included. Even signalling in some cases. Then, they suddenly stopped.

I would love detailed manuals... as I have said a couple times in various threads, for those who dont drive trains IRL, or dont have superextensive and detailed knowledge of trains etc, it can be sometimes very hard to know if something weird is a bug or a real feature... like, if it is the game doing weird stuff or if this or that loco behaves like that IRL... a good manual detailing stuff that could happen in-game would go a long way

since we dont have that, we are lucky there are guys on this forum/community like Maik, CactusJuice, Lamplight and others who help us train-peasants with detailed explanations/advice, but they cant be here all the time and for everything

I tend to prefer manuals rather than videos myself.

Not wanting to create any panic by saying "use AI" but this sounds to me like something AI could do. No human seems to wanna do it or has the time for it. Enter AI.

I doubt AI could help what sources would it even use? It would probably just make a lot of stuff up

Internal sources? I'm not saying players should make their own manual with AI. DTG should integrate AI so it can make manuals easily.

I like the fact as player you get "dropped" into the cold water.

My opinion is, its not DTGs problem if players are too comfortable to do the slightest effort by them self. They deliver the proper sim, everything is up to you.

Documentation is a very time consuming thing, which fair to be dropped and spent ressources on creating the dlc instead.

Here the 101 manual. You get an expert line dlc, so you can use directly the DB manual.
Also included checklists for preparation in double traction, the cab car or sandwich.

https://vdoc.pub/download/richtlinie-4930101-triebfahrzeuge-bedienen-baureihe-101-3sv9o8v3ohp0

This is nonsensical. Real drivers are not dropped into the cab with no preparation.
You do realise that DTG has to know what everything does to implement it, right?

German, oh German, why German will download immediately tho

German manuals for German locos do tend to be in German, I’m afraid

yeah, thats the usual catch lol ... they dont want outsiders to drive their trains ... safety precautions against the English!

I get your point, but there is a lot of material available to study in the internet. Fact is, if a player has no background knowledge of trains at all, a manual provided by dtg wont make the difference anyway.., except maybe the player wont get flooded by all possible additional informations.

Im sure they have reference material, but usualy its legaly protected and they would have to rewrite everything. They cant just upload the original docu.

Also most buttons are explained by them self without even activating hud. And on top most procedures in tsw are heavy simplified to a point every player can figure out by his own.

The only thing which would be worth in my opinion making a manual, is about the train brake systems, since its the one important thing have all trains in common.

You can use Google Translate. I used it to translate the doc to English, seems to have a done a good job of it.

it is kinda nicely explained in Cajon Pass / BNSF tutorial, at least thats where I understood the difference between loco/individual brake, train/automatic brake and dynamic/e-brake

kinda sucks tho that it is very hard to get to sth more tangible where you can learn by yourself... and if you love German/Austrian machines and your German sucks (which is my case), it sucks 2x ... lets say that BR101 manual is great, wish I could read it without Google Translate help

Good question but the source is the person inputting the information into chatgpt and prompting it to create a training manual. I’m responsible for training vendors and clients at work, and I use it to create personalized manuals for each party I’m dealing with. It’s gotten to the point where it takes me 10-15 minutes to make multiple page manual- there’s an initial time investment but once you have a template set up it makes things a lot easier. It actually takes me longer to proofread these than to create them now…

The difference is that my training manuals directly impact financial reporting for my clients to a degree. DTG would more or less just be doing us a favor, it’d be nice but I have no expectations here. It doesn’t impact revenue or anything really- might slightly improve experience for 0.001% of users.

My company also has the advantage of having an internal gpt available. This way we’re not inputting secure company info into some unsecure system…

Imagine if Train Sims came with a manual like the old Falcon Flight sim did.

*last seen a week ago, clutching a copy of BR 101 manual

Now that’s awesome

Good point, is it worth doing it with AI because you will indeed need someone to proofread them. Extra resources that are not needed when not publishing manuals.

Br 218 loco - dlc, just 99.90 Euro and a 250 pages manual on top.

There are already tutorials in the game for the completely new to trains.
Yeah, tell me how a player is supposed to figure out the tilt system in the BR612 - something that is unexplained in the tutorials - on their own.