What makes a route a "keeper?"

I've downloaded many routes from the file library, but I've only kept a few. I was wondering what makes those in this forum decide that a route is a keeper, and what makes a route one for your computer's Recycle Bin?I'm hoping to avoid some of the things in my route that makes others decide it's not worth keeping on the hard drive.

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LAST EDITED ON Jun-03-04 AT 03:51 PM (EDT)

Hi Mitgarand,of course, tastes vary a lot, so there is no general answer everybody would subscribe to. For example, some prefer prototypical routes over free-lance routes, some even prefer modern day prototypical routes over recreations of the old days, others prefer trolley routes, others want short "pocket routes" or time-saver routes which offer a lot of switching opportunities in a relatively small area, and so on. First and foremost: If you have downloaded a lot of routes and kept only a few, then have a look at those keepers of yours as a first indicator. What makes you keep or trash a route? Here's half of your answer.Secondly, on more general terms, I'd say there are a few things that are a must, and a few others to avoid.Musts:- Try to give the route your "flavour", so that it feels right to run it. Often a small item can make a big change. As an example, I remember how much the raise-plow signs on every single bridge and grade crossing along the Kootenai River (Whitefish-Sandpoint II) impressed me in terms of making the route look more realistic (that's this blue hockey-stick like trackside sign I refer to here). - Make sure that interactive objects are placed where required and work properly:
-- Avoid grade crossings where the cars stop in the middle of your train's path.
-- Place absolute and permissive signals logically, for example make sure that spurs and sidings can be accessed without the player being held by a red absolute signal after the drop-off or pick-up.
-- To make meets smooth, observe the "number of signals clear ahead" setting in your sigcfg.dat so that the number of signals inbetween passing sidings matches this number-1 (by sticking to the settings you can avoid unrealsitically long waits as well as cornfield meets).
-- Place a siding or platform name to every spur/siding where the user is supposed to pick-up or dump cars otherwise activity authors will have a pain of a time creating work orders.
-- For a more realsitic feeling, use sound regions for your track (different sounds for the rolling train over bridges, in tunnels etc.)
-- Use environment sounds for a more lively impression (bird songs, mountain streams, industry noise, whatever your engineer is supposed to hear whenever he sticks his head out of the cab...)- Spend some time on detailing the route with an icing of eye-candy, but don't overdo it. A few bystanders here, a patrol car hiding behind a billboard along the highway there, and users are happy whenever they discover one of these goodies.- Use a variety of terrtex files for the ground, not just the default MSTS green, and also place a few rocks here and there. Have different shades of green to yellow for your grass, create a few different textures for freshly plowed fields, corn fields, etc. Variety is the spice here...- Make your track layout interesting for trains to operate on: Build industries and sidings in such a way as the user does not get "stuck" and can switch around his train, do some work with his cars, and spend some time exploring. On the other hand I'd recommend to avoid "dead ends": Ideally each branch line or spur turning off the main takes the user somewhere, say to an industry 2-5 miles upstream, with a wye and a few loading docks for shunting (see Robert Reedy's ADFRR, for example, or Ohio Rail). I personally hate it when a branch line just ends at the edge of a cliff or in the midst of an empty field. A grain elevator and two switches to run my engine around would not be asking for too much, would it? These dead-ends always look like a missed opportunity to me...- Keep a keen eye on your fps. Low end users still exist... And when building detailed areas (i.e. yards, towns), manually adjust the detail level of poly-hungry objects (such as highly detailed 3d-shape files, or scenery items using several large skins) to level 7 or higher by right clicking on the object while placing it. Personally, this is what I find the hardest, as I like the very detailed looking routes...Things to avoid- releasing a route which has not been checked for errors by route riter, and compacted by the very same tool (removal of all unused files, compressing of .w and .s files - saves users dowloading tons of unneeded files).- poor documentation, - an unfinished look, or a look of hasty work (e.g. trees, buildings floating)- an "all default" look- releasing routes with major bugs and errors in it (corrupt .tdb etc), hoping that it will be easy to iron out in a soon-to-be-released update (this is your invitation to lots of users e-mailing you with route related problems).- Avoid frustration by track layouts or interactive objects that make the route "not playable", e.g. absolute signals locking you out of sidings when occupied by cuts waiting for your pick-up, missing wyes to turn the engine around at key "destinations" of your route, unrealsitically tight curves or S-curves in which half of a users' equipment gets stuck, unrealsitic grades in which any train consisting in more than two 40ft AAR standard boxcars and an unloaded flat stall...Just a couple of ideas, others will certainly come forward with more.Lukas a.k.a Swissie

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Lukas, you are a very welcome wealth of information. Not to 'steal the thread' but maybe just side track it for a moment (although I think it would be in keeping with the original question), could you elaborate on two of the items you mentioned above. (I'm working on an update and signalling is one of the major items I'm trying to improve.)"- Avoid frustration by track layouts or interactive objects that make the route "not playable", e.g. absolute signals locking you out of sidings when occupied by cuts waiting for your pick-up," .."-- Place absolute and permissive signals logically, for example make sure that spurs and sidings can be accessed without the player being held by a red absolute signal after the drop-off or pick-up. "Is this in fact a suggestion to use either permissives (or no signals at all) at siding junctions as opposed to absolutes? Seems to make sense, but not sure I'm understanding correctly"-- To make meets smooth, observe the "number of signals clear ahead" setting in your sigcfg.dat so that the number of signals inbetween passing sidings matches this number-1 (by sticking to the settings you can avoid unrealsitically long waits as well as cornfield meets)."Absolute at both ends of passing sidings, with average 3 permissives in between would then call for a "number of signals clear ahead" to be 2. Is that correct?It's amazing after working with the RE all this time, I've never heard these issues put that way and always wondered how each different route author decided how to set it up. I guess you answered the 'unasked questions without even knowing it. And thanks, btw.RobertR .. ADF-M&RM at http://www.adfrr.com

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As only a user of MSTS, but a programmer by trade, I will add that documentation is important for sucess of a route. If someone trys installing any software, and the docs are out of date, or just plain wrong, that decreases the enjoyment of the overall experience. The very first thing we do is install a route, if that goes badly would you keep it? Documentation is not romantic, but necessary.Plan to maintain your creation. Don't quit making it better. Encourage activity developement by others, if there aren't any activities, the average guy will get bored.Create interesting scenery. Long trips can get boring, both in life and sims. I particularly like the scenery in North Coast RR.Lots of luck.

Andy

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Having created 3 routes and working on a 4th, I agree with all that has been said here. On my KP sub., I failed to put in station markers etc., and thus it has not been as well received as the BR sub., or the RMD-2. None the less, I feel that each of my routes has improved on those before - learning curve you know, and at 65, mine is flatter than you young folks.
My own preference is prototype routes, especially routes that no longer exist, or routes that exist, but no longer have passenger service, making it unlikely that I will ever ride over the. Someone did Seattle-Leavenworth route, and I enjoy it yet, because I rode over that line in 1/99 and recognise some of the vignettes.
Having said that, one of the neater routes I have is the "Cliffhanger" which was an early route of M.Vone's I believe, and certainly his Albula-2 is in a class by itself. Cliffhanger is fictitious, The Albula definitely is real.
For sheer train-handling pleasure, it is very hard to beat John STanford's Crawford Hill.J. H. Sullivan

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