Zusi 3 - Honest Opinions Please

[SurvivorSean]

RailSim yeah I had that was lots of fun back then. Amazing how far things have progressed. SimRail and Railroader are the ones I'm keeping my eye out for now. Though I may have to look into this again.

Thanks

Sean

[NorthernWarrior]

I'm pretty sure that, like myself, Vern dabbled with Z2.

Many hours spent running it Bruce. I even got to the point of trying to design timetables for some of the routes, though the route editor itself went over my pay grade. At the time it was essentially an upgrade to Jens Schubert's original Railsim in fact some of the routes from that were incorporated, if I recall.

[SurvivorSean]

As I mentioned I gave RailSim a try and then later RailSim US as there was at the time for some reason enough information (possibly through websites not YouTube as it wasn't a thing back then) to pick-up the program from Europe. I remember receiving the disk from Europe from Jens Shubert.

Now like SimRail (man it's easy to confuse that one with RailSim) Zusi 3 I'm having a hard time finding recent YouTube videos in English. In fact most are 3 years old which is not a good sign.

For someone like myself who actually enjoys streaming play throughs that makes me rather uncomfortable in considering it. The screenshots alone from 3 years ago (I don't know what has changed) doesn't look that great in my opinion. So if I can't tell what the game play is like this doesn't give me much confidense in considering.

At least SimRail has not released yet so I'll give that the benefit of doubt as hopefully some English content comes out for this soon. Railroader is of course the big one I'm keeping an eye on but when in 2023 this is going to release I really don't know.

Thanks

Sean

[seagoon]

Many hours spent running it Bruce. I even got to the point of trying to design timetables for some of the routes,.....

I was pretty sure you'd been keen on it...as was I, Vern.
Like you, I also tried my hand at creating a timetable but I think I was a bit underwhelmed by that....I tended to operate the trains more than any other aspect.

[mstsbe]

My trouble with Zusi (but which can also be passed as an advantage) is its too German-centric nature and closed architecture. There are some creators that want to create routes outside of D-A-CH, but eventually give up because they can't properly simulate it.

For now the only supported safety systems are the German ones (all forms of Indusi, ranging from the DB original version as well as the DR one, LZB etc) and ETCS in a somewhat limited fashion (used on the VDE8 i.e. Erfurt HSL route). There's a guy who wanted to make a route in Luxembourg and then just emulate the MEMOR2+ system (which is now not needed anymore, since Luxembourg has switched to all ETCS Level 1 operation in 2018) by using PZB..

Also my critical questions about future-proofing technologies (ditching DirectX9 for DX11, multi-threading operation etc) were poorly answered, or at least not by the people that should have been answering (Carsten himself).

Progress of Zusi 3, both in features and content has evolved in the same disappointing speed and wrong priorities as OpenRails, so I now rather stick to TS Classic than to venture in yet again another failed sim.

SimRail is going into the same trap if they don't start releasing a road map, a route/scenario editor, and customisation. They should have looked at ETS: even if it's already 10 years old, they keep making decent DLC and the architecture is open enough so anyone can make their own improvements if needed. Not so with Zusi, where his so-called Zusi-Prüfamt must put his stamp on it before it's released in the next add-on pack..

[NorthernWarrior]

This is why, despite the appeal, I'm reluctant to spend a lot of money on it - even with the likely sale price I've been having second thoughts. No save is still an issue for me and whichever way you look at it, Zusi 3 is now quite an old game. How much use will I really get out of it...?

SimRail seems a better bet overall. Obviously has some issues with multiplayer at present and we don't know exactly how polished (no pun intended) the final version will look. As discussed in the SimRail thread, the availability of a route editor might be negated by having to design and construct signalling interlocking and panels which is something for a specialised signalling engineer, not the average hobby builder.

[ex-railwayman]

According to my German dictionary Zusi means Company, unsure if that is keeping people company, or, a business, I guess we will never know.

Cheerz. Steve.