Designing an activity

[michelouim]

I would like to know, from all the experience people here, what is the best way to design an activity? Is the Activity generator included in MSTS the best utility to use? I not only want to do some freight activities, but passenger as well. And also to add some AI traffic, both passenger and freights.

I have the 6 original routes and some free from the net...

[BNSF1959]

http://msts.steam4me.net/tutorials/i...tml#activities

[motormaster532]

Also check this site under "Articles".Proceed to page 2 and you will have two excellent tutorials about Activity creation.Brian

[michelouim]

Thanks for the tips to both of you...

I will be looking...

[michelouim]

that article, is it in a pdf format somewhere so i can print it?

[oakpalms]

No they have never had .pdf files. Just copy from the screen and paste it into a processing file like Microsoft Word. I would suggest that you read, read more, and read more in the articles provided here and other forums before trying to start an activity. Passenger activities are a little bit more difficult. Yes, you need to include AI traffic to make your activity feel real unless you are doing an activity where no oncoming trains would normally be encountered. You can also place a consist as a "loose consist" at a location where it can be seen from the player train. It will not move, but it will be seen as an engine that is operating.

Bob Edwards

[longiron]

Beyond the technical aspects of designing an activity, which has been covered, I suggest you think about the activity 'story'. Having a story line always makes activities more interesting to the players - whether its getting a time freight over a crowded mainline, keeping a passenger train on schedule in the face of traffic, or just a simple switching activity that blocks cars for pickup.

Keep the first one simple. As you get more experienced, your activities can be more complicated.

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Agree with Chris - some of my favorite activities were done by Andre for his V-Scale creations - some good story lines - mixed with a generous helping of that - homespun - deep south - Arkansas - charm... Now if we could only get OR to stop pausing the sim every time an activity posts a text message...

[michelouim]

Thank you all for your help...definetly i will copy and paste...writing an activity and toggling from one screen to the other is not the best way...

As for story telling, that is a very good idea...never saw it from that side, but thinking of it, i think it should be always like that...

[ramnathpurmanjunath]

while creating a activity...when I check for " verify Starting State" or " play" in Editor tools the train is not visible...but signal keeps on changing.....