After using it for a few weeks there's a few improvements I'd like to see specifically to facilitate personal passenger trains, although perhaps they'd be useful in general. There's mods that do some of this, and there's already UI for most of it, but this is a random list of nice-to-haves that I feel would make some of the actions I take most frequently more convenient.
If any of these are already in the UI and I just haven't discovered it yet, let me know!
Feature: Show station names in map on mouse over.
When station names are turned off, it would be handy if holding the mouse over a station on a map (e.g. world map and scheduler map) made the label for that station visible again. It's easy enough now to turn labels on for a moment or click the station, but I find myself wanting this a lot.
Feature: Allow disabling of a scheduled stop in the scheduler
I'd really like a little toggle button on each stop in the scheduler that I could use to ignore that stop (not disable the station itself, just ignore that stop in the schedule).
I have a set of passenger train stops but depending on where I'm working I don't want to keep them all in the schedule, just the couple that I'm currently using.
If I could disable them without removing them from the schedule this would be awesome, since it would eliminate the need to constantly be deleting unwanted stops then adding them back in later. I spend a lot of time removing and changing stops around, so this would be super convenient.
Feature: Don't enable automatic mode when moving to a stop from manual mode
So, this one is tricky. The process of switching a train to manual mode -> go to a stop (either with button in scheduler or ctrl-click temporary stop) -> immediately switch back to manual mode is about 98% of what I do in the scheduler. It would be great if, when the train is already in manual mode and you move it semi-automatically to a station / temporary stop, it switched backed to manual mode when it stopped.
The reason this is tricky is it's not always appropriate. Almost 100% of the time I deal with non-passenger trains, switching to automatic mode automatically is the desired behavior. So the only way I can see this really being feasible is if there were a checkbox or something somewhere to enable/disable this behavior on a per-train basis, with the default setting being the current behavior.
However, the reason I perform that action sequence so often is because I often change passenger train stops on the fly, and this particular request would be moot (for me) if the following changes were made instead:
Features:
- Remove temporary stop from schedule list automatically after arriving: The amount of times I actually keep a temporary stop in the list is literally 0%. I only speak for myself, but I'd like to see them go away on their own.
- Add ability to change a stop's station without modifying its existing wait conditions by clicking on the stop name in the schedule list: For passenger trains, especially when I am focusing on a new area of the map, I very frequently perform the sequence: Delete stop I don't need now, add new stop, select new station, set up passenger-appropriate wait conditions again (I use passenger present and 10s passed). If I could simply click the stop and set it to a new station, it would hugely streamline the workflow here.
Add ability to click on a station to add it as a stop:Was going to suggest shift+click; thought "wait that might be a thing already", and it's totally a thing already. Awesome.
Feature: Add "passenger enters train" as a wait condition
Currently I always use passenger present and 10 seconds passed as wait conditions for passenger stops. This lets the train stay put when I'm not on it, generally gets it moving again as soon as I board, and gives me enough time to get off the train without it going to the next stop immediately. I use this combo all the time.
I'd really like to see a new wait condition "passenger enters train", which is triggered by any of the following:
- When a player boards a train. Note that this is triggered by the actual action of getting on the train, not by simply already being on it.
- When the train is switched from manual to automatic mode while the player is already on it. This trigger is here because it's a) consistent with other condition behaviors in manual mode and b) it'd be a pain to have to jump off then on again after switching to automatic mode if you board a manual train.
Feature: Keyboard shortcut to toggle manual/automatic mode
I find myself doing the mode switch a lot, I think a keyboard shortcut to switch modes of the train you are currently on (without having to open the scheduler) would be super convenient, especially when making last minute stops that are en route to your destination, or when I'm diverting the train off its path for whatever other reason.
This should be coupled with some sort of feedback to let you be aware of what you just did, not sure what though. Perhaps info about the trains current mode in the mouse-over info window, or something like that. Dunno.
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I think this collection of features, as a complete set, would make the things I do most often in the train scheduler much more convenient and also not negatively affect the management of non-passenger trains.
Even though the overwhelming majority of trains on a map aren't passenger trains, I find that almost all of my non passenger trains are pretty much set-up-then-forget, and that most of my time spent in the scheduler UI is spent editing the schedule to get my personal train where it needs to be -- and this involves a lot of repetitive, common action sequences that I'd love to see improved. This is why I think there is value to UI improvements specific to this use of trains.
Also I think if I had to pick one from this list it would be "allow disabling of a scheduled stop in the scheduler". While I'd love to have them all, that one feels like it would streamline the most actions, albeit indirectly.
Anyways, just throwing this all out there.
Thanks!!
(Edit: Added the ones about a toggle button for ignoring train stop in the scheduler and the keyboard shortcut; forgot those.)
