Help! Struggling as a newbie, and need instructions on spawning into route

[Strawberry Yogurt]

Hi all,


I've found Run8 to be extremely finnicky and frustrating. After sorting out some of the basics of operation on the California routes, I purchased the Mohawk subdivision.

At present, I'm only interested in single player, but cannot for the life of me figure out how to spawn into an area with trackage I own.

It seems the three default Extra Board scenarios put you into the Selkirk area, which is just empty for me. Please tell me there is a simple way to spawn into the world at a point in the route where you own trackage?

This simulator is kind of a mess from a UI perspective, why you can't just choose a starting location at the other end of the route is beyond me.

[seagoon]

..... why you can't just choose a starting location at the other end of the route is beyond me.

You can, but the documentation that comes with the product is amongst the most un-user-friendly collection of "how to" that I've come across......and I've been using R8 since its first release.

I'm not familiar with Mohawk (I don't own that DLC) but the following should help.

I think all Extra Boards are empty....no stock at all, so try this.....

Open up (F3) a despatcher's map.
Place your cursor over a switch...anywhere you choose.
Press "Space" and you will be transported to that locale.
Then use the "Train Maker-Upper (Ctrl+F1) to assemble a train, place it on the rails and then run it....or allocate AI to it and then go back to the despatcher's board, choose another location, make up another train or place 'stock or whatever.....and so on.

Then save the whole thing you've created as a WORLD.

Try it and see how you go.

[NorthernWarrior]

I think most routes come with some World saves which populate the map with various trains.

Sadly this is one of the issues with Run 8, as much as we all love it, there is little to nothing to guide the newcomer into the game in the way of tutorials or beginner scenarios. You really do end up learning the hard way.

[Leaf85]

The World saves (found under 'scenarios') are a good way to get a decent starting point. You can use any of the spawned consists (just fly to the signal block they occupy via the F3 dispatchers map- clic on the map, hit space bar and you should have arrived in the block where you may have to look around a bit to find the train you wanted) or spawn your own train and tag it. Once all the trains are loaded just enable Otto for all the maps and the world will start working. Later on you can go around to various industry areas and set out cars if there aren't any, or play the 'local' and deliver empty cars/full cars etc etc. Don't forget to hit F1 and save, call it what you will, then as you play save every once in awhile by overwriting your save.

Have fun!

[Strawberry Yogurt]

Thank you for the assistance, all!

I've been struggling to find my mojo for train sims lately. TSW has amazing graphics, but disappointing routes, sounds, and rolling stock, on top of just being a cash cow with no real incentive to improve.

TS Classic has more diversity but I find I like the vast libraries of content for Open Rails.

I'm trying to develop for Open Rails, and the team is doing good work, but things like Ambient Occlusion, lighting, and the lack of newer content can be discouraging.

Run8 gets the detail level I want, and long routes, but I really wish their payware P-42 didn't look so narrow and just... wrong dimensionally. As someone who uses the P-42 and Genesis units for almost everything, that and the texture quality is also extremely disappointing.

Right now, the Flight Sim world and the racing sim world enjoys vast competition where each game is generally pretty good. I find the train sim world, as its more niche and fragmented, pretty depressing in contrast. Hopefully I get sucked into Run8 operations and enjoy it. Thanks folks.

[NorthernWarrior]

All of the sims offer something, but none of them do everything well.
Run 8 really needs better graphics plus some sort of scenario and timetable editor. I mean it can be fun to set out with a local and serve industries along the route but it can still feel a bit abstract. And at least in Run 8 the save game works. You would probably have been living under a rock not to know that TSW3 which comes out in a few weeks has Cajon Pass as one of the new routes, but rather than fix the sometimes broken save game DTG have removed it from the game. So not much use if you can’t do the 2.5 or 3 hour run from San Bernadino to Barstow in one shot.

[seagoon]

Thank you for the assistance, all!.....

No worries...pleased to have helped.

Hopefully I get sucked into Run8 operations and enjoy it.

One thing you can say about R8 is that operationally it is arguably the most realistic of the bunch.

[TrainSimJack]

I know I am a bit late to this, but I wanted to post a few thoughts.

First, for your getting started woes, I created a quick start guide back when I used v2 and you might find some of the info there.
It was designed as kind of a "Start here" manual, something people could start with before they dug into the 20+ PDF's provided with the program. You can find it at run8guides.com (I've not updated it to v3, but most of what is in there still applies)

Second, for your starting woes, I found myself buried in all the different keyboards - control F12, Alt-this, shift-that.
Controls fall into 3 categories:
1) Driving the train (These controls are easy to remember if you have a 101key keyboard)
2) Moving around (these controls were hard to remember)
3) everything else

Since I spent most of my time moving around, and yet I could never remember if I needed to hit Shift F11 or Control F12, I rebound a few key movement keys and it made a world of difference in getting around the sim.

Here's a few ideas:
Change the Ground view from F12 to the letter G - Anyone can remember G=Ground.
Change flying mode from Shift F12 to the letter F - Anyone can remember F=Fly
Change the Engineer View from Control F11 to the letter R - this one might be harder to remember, I think of it as EngineeRRRRR, also look at where the R, F and G keys are on your keyboard, they are all right next to your left hand, and easy to reach.

If you like these there's a few more at run8guides.com.

[NorthernWarrior]

Useful information Jack. I keep intending to change some of the more important keys to something less non mnemonic. Ctrl F11 is kind of ingrained on my mind but I’m always struggling to remember the key to get into freecam view, especially if I’ve been playing TSC or TSW for a while. Not really sure of the history behind the strange choice of key commands and why they didn’t stick with a more conventional approach.

[TrainSimJack]

Is this the world famous Vern that the "Vernometer" was named after?

I'm envious of any person who can hit Control F11 with one hand, for me, it's a two handed operation which mean I have to take my hand off the mouse.