What makes a route good?

[GokuMK]

What makes a route good?

Good nature.

[tooltroll]

Ok, so visual realism and detail seems to be a major point for many, especially as it pertains to the right-of-way and vegetation, which is one of my priorities personally, so no worries there. How about operational choices? Where do you folks come down on the following:

Mainline running<->Switching?
Flat<->Hilly<->Mountainous?
Rural<->Urban?

While I plan to have 'a little bit of everything', the community's preferences will help me determine how much of what to include.

Bob

[eric]

There's a reason there are few urban routes --- it takes a minimum of 20X more effort to do urban scenery than it does rural.

As for the rest.... figure out your story, and the terrain & mode of operation should follow. I personally love switching more than running at track speed on the mainline. It's a lot more challenging. But some people just like to look out the window...

[tooltroll]

There's a reason there are few urban routes --- it takes a minimum of 20X more effort to do urban scenery than it does rural.

As for the rest.... figure out your story, and the terrain & mode of operation should follow. I personally love switching more than running at track speed on the mainline. It's a lot more challenging. But some people just like to look out the window...

Agreed, but as a former N scale 'real' modeller, I've got a pretty good handle on the details needed for decent urban scenery, and a big part of the problem with urban simming is the dearth of appropriate urban details, especially clutter items, available for free use. Luckily, I'm a fair hand at Blender and Photoshop, and I intend to make the items I can't find elsewhere.
As for figuring out the story, I have the broad strokes, but getting the community's input will help me fill in the details in such a way that, with very little extra work, I can incorporate those things that people find the most appealing and enjoyable.

Bob

[eric]

Good luck. I've built over 1,000 custom objects for my Chicago route, and that covers about a quarter of what I need to completely fill in the or the 50+ miles of suburban and urban area it traverses...

[tooltroll]

An uphill struggle, for sure. It'll take a few years. Being fictional, though, I'm not going to need 'custom' objects so much as generic objects that don't yet exist. If nothing else, the FL will get a wider range of detail objects that others can use and build on.

Bob