[P Escue]

Greetings,

A question on modes in Open Rails. If you just want to look at a route or try out things, Open Rails gives you two options, - Explore Route - and + Explore in Activity Mode +. In the manual, the description between the two is limited. Basically, Explore Route, has fewer options, such as not having Autopilot and randomized weather. The other difference is that Explore in Activity Mode creates an activity around the train that will give you an evaluation of what you did. As far as I can tell, these are the major differences between the two. The question is, what additional differences are there between them?

Now, why am I asking the question? Long story short, I’ve been using MSTS since it came out. Had to go to another train simulator when MSTS II never came out after a long wait. A while back I was doing some searches and came across Herbert B. Kelsey, Et al’s RGS V4. Fired up my old version of MSTS, and installed OR, come here and download the RGS, and had a great deal of fun. Recently I was trying to test some switching moves at Dolores and came across a problem with the 3-way switch. If you are not familiar with the 3-way switch, it has two zones of control, a small area near the switch stand that controls if you can go down the center (mainline) or use one of the diverging paths. The second area is around the switch points and controls which diverging path you take if active by the first zone (the points will indicate the diverging path that is active, and this part of the switch is a wye). The problem was that when I clear the switch on one of the diverging paths and use the mouse to click on the area near the switch stand so that the 3-way is back to the mainline (the center path), it did nothing (the diverging path was still active and if you back out to the mainline the first area is still set to do the diverging path). I could click on the second area and change the path from one divergent to another, but not the first area (which acts like you cannot click it). My first thought was, “oh, I missed clicking the spot” but after some testing, the next thought was “I’m pretty sure I could do this in the past, is this a bug with the new release of OR?’. The only way I could get the first area to work is if the locomotive was beside the switch stand. After more testing, I found my problem. I use both Explore Route and Explore in Activity Mode. It appears that in the past when I used the 3-way switch I was in Explore in Activity Mode (it works there), but in Explore Route it only works as described.

So back to my question (different wording), what is it about Explore Route that would keep the first area of the 3-way switch not to work, but in Expore In Activity Mode works?

Thank you for the response

[Weter]

Maybe, pre-defined path?

If my guess is right, in simple explore mode, player operates the train in Manual mode only, while in activity-like one, Auto-mode is default, so it's possible to switch between these two.

[Laci1959]

Hello

+ Explore in Activity Mode +

The biggest difference is in the way the flags are handled. In Explore mode, the beacons don't really work, or rather don't work at all. This caused a lot of problems in the past. Basically a further development of the Explore mode.

In addition there is Activity mode, and Timetable mode.
In Activity mode, it performs a downloaded task for a given track.
The Timetable mode is similar to the Activity mode, only there you can choose from several trains. A better Timetable can contain 200-300 trains. Any one can be selected and driven. The rest are run by the computer, of course.
For both, you can create dynamically changing weather.


Sincerely Laci1959

[ebnertra000]

Explore in Activity is more or less letting you choose any path and any train, but in Activity Mode instead of Explore Mode (which is just free-roam). This means that in order to leave the chosen path (via a switch), you have to go into Manual mode, and all signals off said path are set to their most restrictive aspect

[P Escue]

Thanks for the response. I had a feeling that it had something to do with being in activity mode.

[commec61]

How is AI traffic added into + Explore in Activity Mode +. The manual states that you can have AI traffic but I don't see how to do it.

Thanks,
Steve

[Weter]

Hello.
I've read in manual, that it will be an "activity" with only one player's train, but with activities features, as autopilot, randomization, auto signaling mode, etc.

[tonestones68]

That really doesn't seem to answer the question though,as is this route specific,and that only some routes provide AI traffic in activity mode?Or is there some setting to enable the AI traffic within any given route? Im still a little confused lol!! Any clarification would be greatly appreciated :)

[Csantucci]

Explore in activity mode can't have AI traffic.