DTG Alex DTG Harry DTG Jamie DTG Matt Why are bugs in DLC seldom repaired? I’ve been on the Mildmay line and haven’t had one passenger board the service, there’s a floating forest on WCMLs to name a few. Why is DLC released and bugs completely forgotten about and left unfixed? I understand you can’t foresee every issue but why are patches rarely, if ever, released? Can we expect the same from TSW6?
Good point. The roadmap used to include detailed information on fixes being worked on. The preservation crew worked really hard to fix bugs across dlc and reported their progress to the community. Now, very little is mentioned.
I think as collectors and customers, as our collections grow and money invested increases, I’d like to know, when issues are going to be fixed or if they’ll continue to be ignored post release patch? Will DTG hold creators to commit to multiple patches and to fix issues within a reasonable timeframe?
I think that's fair. Nearly a year after the release of tsw5, I am still unable to enjoy some of the core routes because of texture blurring, and there is no mention of this being resolved. I'd like some assurances moving forwards that existing issues that have existed for a year or longer (and these aren't minor issues either) are going to be addressed instead of ignored in the release of a new game.
I don't know. It's a serious and frankly unacceptable failing of DTG: their release and forget practice (not always, but it's allowed to happen). One serious example is the route with the logging scenario – and it's a curated scenario in the journey mode – that is impossible to complete. I can't remember which DLC it is now, but you have to move logging wagons from one place to another, with the major issue being that the automatic track switches don't switch so it's impossible to complete the scenario. Matt responded on a thread about it a long time ago and claimed it was fixed. It wasn't. We told him so. This was ignored and it remains broken.
It seems the difficult questions are quite often ignored by DTG people. I’ve asked multiple times if there’s going to be any improvement and fixes for the erratic and teleporting passenger behaviour. I haven’t seen any acknowledgment that it’s not up to scratch, nor if TSW6 will have the same issue, buy hey, we have random events and signalling delays and TSRs to distract us with……hopefully it’ll be throughly tested and not plagued with issues, if it is, it’ll never get fixed
I find it particularly irritating as the communication with the community about how issues are or are not being fixed is far worse than before. We seem to have community managers, senior community managers, senior senior community managers etc etc but little to no engagement with the community when reasonable questions are asked. The old insistence of "put it on the forums" is pointless if an answer rarely follows. Two-weekly roadmaps to monthly roadmaps, to increasingly less time given to answering questions during the stream, to increasingly rehearsed, inflexible roadmap streams that are scripted to prevent discussion where discussion is needed and due. Frustration comes from not knowing. We don't know if fixes are being worked on. We don't know if they are not being worked on. We get vague responses that leave us in limbo. For many of us Xbox players, the game is broken: dlc crashes, textures blur, sounds distort, yet prices remain consistent. Each iteration of the game carries it's errors forward into the next, while adding a whole load of new ones. We are left waiting for a fix, but before that happens a new game is released. I understand the commercial need for their model. I just ask for more clarity of how considerable issues are being resolved...or not, as is likely the case.
Sadly we don't seem to have someone (from DTG) who is responsible for actively engaging with posts to clarify and resolve. Alex and Harry are clearly focused on marketing activities. Jamie still has a junior role and JD rarely has a public facing stance anymore. I also don't think tagging Matt on the forums is right, he is Executive Producer and clearly has alot on his plate just from a day to day business perspective. I definately think we need someone (from DTG) who is focused on engaging with the forums/discord that is more straight talking and does not crossover into a marketing role. There's definately threads that could easily be cleared up with "no we are definately not doing that" or "yes, that's logged and due in a patch 0-3months"....
I have to admit, in the build up to TSW6 we were promised optimisation improvements... But during the Dovetail Direct stream, and in the Roadmap stream none of the optimisation improvements were discussed and no details around specific fixes were mentioned either. I would like more clarity about the optimisation improvements as they were one of the selling points for people to transition over to TSW6... It would probably be a good idea for DTG to articulate what exact improvements have been made/are going to be made, outside of what they have already said for TSW5. I think it's important they do talk about it, as one of the reasons we never got Liams full rework of WCMLS was all down to ongoing issues, and with AAS Class 805 + New Timetable, I'm sure the developers and DTG themselves don't want the same issues repeating themselves.
That’s generally a community managers job. The reason our community managers don’t do it is because DTG simply aren’t going to work on many of the aged issues. They were doing well for a time with several updates in the first half of TSW5’s life but it dropped - likely as work on TSW6 became the main dev focus. Ultimately though we can’t really blame them, they release DLC after DLC which sells all the same, so why bother fixing the last when you can dangle the carrot that is the next release. It’s ironic though as fixing games is becoming the mainstream thing right now. Particularly addressing larger community issues - DTG doesn’t seem to be picking up on this trend though. I also find it amusing when people defend DTG’s lack of work on the core, resolving tech debt & adding QOL features - usually with spiel along the lines of they have to sell things to stay in business. Yet this directly contrasts what most smaller developers do well - community engagement & addressing game issues. I don’t want to call out Harry & Alex as they’re obviously just being told what they can & can’t do or say, but the community engagement at a serious level is LOVE, likely because the real truth is that DTG simply don’t care about old content - perhaps not something largely exclusive to DTG, but then again this is a studio that has a high pace of release, meaning ‘old’ content here is usually less than a year old. If the time can’t be spent post, the process of pre-release needs to be much better defined.
I also raise again the issue of the solitary save game slot. It is becoming quite a nuisance now but constantly ignored despite Matt himself stating he was getting "Engineering" to look at it. TSW6 brings us three new routes with several more on the horizon. Even if we can't have a slot for every route, at least give us 3 or 5 we can use.
Bluntly things aren't fixed because to do so will cost money and as a business if they can avoid spending money they will. As long as people buy stuff warts and all they'll get away with doing as little as possible in the way of fixes.
This is all I hear on stream, lots of promises that are easily broken. The real question is will TSW6 magically resolve all outstanding issues & concerns or will it make them worse? I’d like to be the optimist here, but I think I already know the answer to my own question though.
It’s disappointing that the mods have chosen to move this but not comment. After all the Hollywood production of the TSW6 promotional trailers, I suspect it’s safe to say that whilst the new DLC looks good, as they always do, they’ve thrown in a few new features to help distract from all the issue that won’t be fixed. TSW6, the only ‘expect the unexpected’ I would’ve like to see is to fix the bugs from the previous iteration, but instead, I’m expecting another level to be added to the TSW skyscraper built on increasing crumbling foundations.
Can’t understand why they moved it as more a matter of principle than actually naming specific bugs. Seems once again DTG are indulging in selective marketing with everyone trotting up to the carefully choreographed Direct and Take A Ticket presentations but vanishing when more meaningful issues at stake. No doubt as we rush to part with our £58 for the Deluxe pack, as they know we will, the new content will spawn yet more bugs or issues which will find themselves spun off to the forgotten corner after the sales have been achieved!
W very disappointing. Let’s hope we’re wrong about these bugs, best not say anymore or we’ll be teleported off faster than the passengers when they get off a train on TSW5
Bug Sim World - An upcoming game set in the world of Train Sim World as you descent on your journey to Chatham. You and companions must fight off a vast array of bugs. It’s your job as the player to experience these bugs and defend yourself, they will attack, annoy you and try to steal your money. As you approach the lair of Chatham you must use your wits to negotiate a truce with the dark lords, failing to do so will end the game indefinitely and the bugs will continue rein supreme. I should get paid for giving DTG game ideas