Train Sim World 3 has all the core ingredients to make up one of the most breathtakingly beautiful travel simulators in the world. That is, providing you can wrap your head around the plethora of controls, routes, and various types of locomotives that it employs. To anyone who hasn’t stepped foot aboard the simulation series, learning the ins and outs of these things can be a little daunting, and can often cause potential conductors to flee for the hills before even embracing the throttle.
Fortunately, Train Sim World 3 also has its fair share of tutorials and basic stepping stones, which means you can get a feel for the rails before you embark on any form of long-distance journey. But what else do you need to know before climbing aboard and sounding the whistle?
Visit The Training Center First
As tempting as it may be to go railing around Europe from the moment you boot up the game, there really isn’t much point unless you already know the train you’ll be using to make the journey. Specifically, its controls, layouts, and the knobs and gears that make it, you know, move. The easiest way to get a basic level of knowledge on the trains and their myriad of mechanisms is to visit the Training Center, which can be accessed from the Main Menu.
The Training Center serves as your basic tutorial, and will walk you through just about every crucial step you’ll need to know before hitting the open rail. Thanks to its in-depth training session, you’ll have the chance to try out various locomotives, learn their instruments, and experiment in a variety of unique environments.
Lastly, you can also spool through an archive of online training videos, which will help give you a clearer image of the world you’ll soon be traveling. It goes without saying that you should definitely brush up on these sections of the Training Center before going any further.
Always Start With A Quick Play Game
When you boot up Train Sim World 3, you’ll be presented with four options: Train Depot, Choose a Route, Quick Play, and Rail Journeys. The go-to mode that you’ll be shooting for after brushing up on the basics will be Choose a Route. Until then, though, you should aim to start with a Quick Play session, as this will introduce you to a number of in-game mechanics and walk you through your first steps. Selecting this option will also bypass a lot of the preliminary menus, which can be something of a headache for newcomers on their own.
If you’re itching for a longer journey, then you’ll need to take into account that a typical route can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, depending on a lot of factors, including skill level, task difficulty, and the terrain you’ll be driving on. A Quick Play session, on the other hand, is compressed into a much shorter experience, giving you a slight taste of what’s to come once you grasp the fundamentals.
Always Take The Time To Walk The Tracks
It may sound like a bit of a slog, but the fact is, you can actually carry out any journey from outside the train. By walking the tracks and taking in the various sights, you can get a feel for the route and its objectives before taking to the rails for real. You can also learn the bends, the stops, and the tunnels, giving you a complete picture for when you eventually take to the throttle in one of the tougher missions.
Train Sim World 3 is broken down into a number of Route Tasks, which all come with individual difficulty levels, locomotives, and objectives. If you’re able to master each respective route before onboarding each Route Task, then you’ll essentially be able to power through the maps and complete more objectives in a fraction of the time it would usually take you. It may seem a little dull, but it’s definitely worth doing for the sake of acquiring a mental blueprint.
Customize Your Locomotive In The Livery Designer
Given the fact that Route Tasks can take you upwards of 30 minutes to complete, it is worth considering the idea of switching up your locomotives with a custom paint job, if only to give you something more to look at when traversing the barren hills. You can do this in the Livery Designer, which basically serves as a custom suite for players to unlock their inner creatives.
The Livery Designer can be used for a number of things. At its heart, though, it’s used for adding a fresh lick of paint to drab and colorless locomotives. And luckily, Train Sim World 3 employs plenty of customizable elements for you to toy around with, including paint jobs, patterns, and personalized parts. You can upload any of your favorite designs to the Creators Club, an area that also serves as the communal hub for both offline and online players.
You can also download a wide selection of custom locomotives for your own game via the Livery Designer. To access the Livery Designer, simply navigate through the Main Menu and select the relevant tab. From here, you will be able to scroll through some of the most trending and popular skins, as well as search for any design, in particular.
Avoid The Ice
It’s no secret that navigating the rails can be pretty dangerous, especially if you don’t take the necessary precautions before departing the station. Taking into account that chilly climates can also greatly impact your journeys and even cause you to derail, you should definitely try and steer clear of the icy locales, if only for the first few hours of play.
As you’ll eventually come to learn when working through the Route Tasks, ice is a part of the game whether you like it or not, and it can take a lot just to tackle it in a timely fashion. Learning how to accelerate and brake effectively will be the key to navigating the colder courses, so be sure to spend enough time in the Training Center getting used to the levers, dials, buttons, and switches beforehand.
Try Your Hand At The Scenario Planner Mode
While Train Sim World 3 does boast a huge selection of scenes, challenges, and routes for you to onboard, there’s still nothing quite like making your own scenario. As luck would have it, the game employs a Scenario Planner mode, which basically lets you forge your own routes and embellish them with a number of cosmetics. By doing this, you can add a little extra spice to an otherwise pre-prepared adventure, which of course gives you another incentive to return.
Like the Livery Designer, custom scenarios can be uploaded to the Creators Club, from which other users can view, play, and share their thoughts on them. You can also download other players’ scenarios and get a feel for their creations, which can also give you an insight into the features that you may or may not have missed when building your own scenario. Therefore, it’s definitely worth spending some time with, if only to inspire you later down the line.
