Feature Announcements - Feedback

It would be nice to see announcements work in free roam and scenario planner

 

Just adding some general feedback but I'm really enjoying the announcements, both internal and external and I've only driven the Riviera route so far. For me, they are loads more immersion and make everything feel more "real"

In case you're reading this DTG, my only other feedback is: When are you adding them to all the routes in the back catalogue because they're really good....

 

Ps5 not getting station platform announcements or them in cab

 

I have the same problem sometimes. Especially after restarting a service or restart on foot.

 

It’s on morris route as well ..everything else is fine just missing sound

 

Another thing to mention on PS5 is that the announcements at the stations and trains, depending where you stand or sit are almost not hearable. Would be better to hear them from every point where you are.

 

They need to set volume higher so that we can at least hear it more clearer and if to loud we can still turn down …but at the moment it’s too low to be honest

 

Very nice addition to the game, they make such a difference. It would be nice if what we’ve got could be expanded a bit, so that terminus stations get that bit of extra info, eg Paignton, Exeter and Plymouth

 

Very nice addition to the game with very acceptable execution. However, whenever an announcement is played and you go into external camera, the announcement ends prematurely when it should've been kept going when you return to cab view. (if it isnt already at the end of the announcement or you stay external long enough for it to end properly)

 

Platform announcements are too quiet. All volume settings are on max and PC settings are on max but can still hardly hear them. Also we need the British Transport Police announcement that play in real life at platforms and on trains. "See It. Say It. Sorted.

 

I have to say, I am loving the announcements! I've only played Riviera Line so far, but they increase the immersion so much! The first time they came on in the cab, I was wearing headphones and I thought there was a lady talking behind me irl The volume does seem a bit quiet on the platforms, but the volume in the cab is great!

 

I had to chuckle at the on board announcement on the Arrow III. In the scenario " Tucked In ", Milburn was a waypoint, but was announced as the next stop. Guess the app isn't perfect then.

 

I like them but have already started to get a bit repetitive and tedious. In reality you would also get more information than the bare bones. For example, arriving at an interchange or terminus station you would get a reel off of connecting destinations - approaching Newton Abbot on a service from Plymouth you would get “Change here for the Paignton Line and local stations to Exeter” type of thing. On departure you would also get the security announcement departing from principal stations, followed by the catering trolley person if on board. Usually telling you they can’t take cash today!

So a nice touch, but I would rather programmer time had been allocated to more save slots, fixing carried over bugs such as erroneous route on the after run report etc., etc.

 

I'm going to say that, for me, this is the best new feature for a long time. I've tried announcements with various Train SIM Classics DLCs and found them irritating so I fully expected to hate them. But it's done really well. Volume is just right for my taste. Not intrusive but can still be heard in the cab.

But the best bit is platform announcements. At the moment I'm mostly driving between Exeter and Newton Abbot then giving up the train and driving another back to Exeter. Being able to stand on the platform and listen to the announcements is excellent and reminds me of my trainspotting days at Newton where we'd listen for the announcements and then run to the best spot to see the train come in.

I've turned the other new features off, but announcements, I really like.

 

Announcements are great, better than what I was expecting. However, would be nice to have it announce, "this train is formed of X coaches" and also when the train is approaching, change it to "Train now arriving at".

Also, as Vern said above, perhaps a "Change at X for stations to X" etc. although I understand that may be a bit more difficult as you wouldn't want it saying something like "Change here for stations to Plymouth" when you are actually on the Plymouth service!

Finally, it would be good to have an announcement at the final destination, something like "We are now arriving at X, where this train terminates, please collect all you belongings etc. thank you for travelling with X etc."

 

(on PC) - Massively enjoying the announcements and by having them at both the stations and inside the train is a lot further forward than I was expecting say a few months back - love the fact that on distant platforms it isn't so loud - only issue I have spotted so far is that with the island platform at Exeter St Davids, you can get two announcements conflicting with each other- needs to be after - it's going to be very interesting hearing them at Crewe and Birmingham New Street in the not too distant future. As others have mentioned, definitely need a "this train terminates here...all change), wouldn't have thought that would be too hard to implement. Some have said that they can't be heard over the noise of the train (principally the Voyager), but i've been on stations many times where it's difficult to pick up and to be fair, if you get closer to the speakers, you can hear them.

 

Try Paddington on the "Lawn" or up in the top refreshment/retail area. Completely unintelligible!

 

Arriving at Paignton on P1, instead of the station announcement saying train terminating, it was announced as a GW service calling at Paignton! Some tweaking to the AI needed there I think. As a train arriving on P1 would either have to go to Goodrington or do an east end shunt to reach P2, the next working would be ECS regardless.

 

Another announcement that would be good is when a non stop train is about to thunder through, something like "The train approaching platform x does not stop here, please stand back from the platform edge"

Also, could we have the random safety announcements back

 

It would be nice to hear what stations the service is stopping at in the train announcements, such as: "we will be calling at x station, y station, and z station"

Also I feel like the announcement that announces the next station and which station it terminates at should be flipped. Instead of "The next station is, x station. This is a service to y station." It would be flipped around and maybe there could be a welcome aboard announcement as well?

 

Yup. Jarring to hear, at Paignton, "This is a Great Western service to Paignton, calling at Paignton." Should be "This train terminates here."

 

Platform - PS5

Two issues. (a) Announcement volume settings hard to change and (b) the settings do not persist after closing the game…

(a) The announcements volume settings are difficult to change. The ‘apply’ button does not work (but settings can be saved from the popup when the page is exited).

(b) The announcements volume settings are all back to 100% next time the game is loaded as the settings do not persist. I’ve only loaded the game 3 times due to the audio issues on PS5 making me not want to play but the announcements volume settings have reset on both the second and third game loading.

 

I like the announcements but onboard ones echo as if I'm stood across three platforms hearing them. The echo works on the stations but it shouldn't echo for the announcements on board the train.

 

German ICE - should the announcements be multilingual or at least also in English? So far just hearing German.

 

PS5 Pro
I confirm that I set the Cab announcements to OFF (I also tried various values lower than 100%), I could not confirm via Apply, only a pop-up window, and when reloading TSW6 it was back to 100%, while the music setting in the menu is set to 2% and that is it.

 

I find the inflection / emphasis of “Great WESTern Railway” on the platform announcements a bit weird / jarring… if anything it should “Great Western RAILway” I think?

 

Announcing “Torquay” like the second half of “walkie-talkie” is a bit jarring as well!

The voices used may have British accents but they are using American stresses and inflections in the speech for a lot of it. It’s probably to be expected with an AI system.

 

First of all, I like the addition of announcements a lot.
But it feels a bit weird to hear that passengers are warned that the exit will be on the left or right at the next stop. When you are just leaving the current station and the next stop is half an hour away.

 

Could be, but I think the onboards sound ok; like in my GWR naming example, there’s not the same inflection issue (actually sounds really good)

 

All Trains on the Dresden Leipzig Timetable need an Update to Play the Announcements, it makes no sense to have the Announcements feature and only two Trains Play it. Even on Frankfurt S bahn exist working Announcements for the 143 from Dresden Leipzig.
Platform: all
Service: Default Timetable Dresden Leipzig
Repeated: Every time you drive a Train on this Timetable

 

I'm curious about something with platform announcements... Why aren’t they dynamic to when trains actually arrive at stations? With random faults and the delays that happen, there are plenty of times when you end up arriving behind schedule.

For example, I was running an ICE into Dresden and ended up more than 15 minutes late. But when I pulled in, the announcement still said we’d be departing at 11:31 AM, even though I actually arrived at 11:45. It just feels a little off in those cases and breaks the immersion a bit. Not sure how difficult this would be to implement, but maybe it’s something to consider for the future? Having the announcements tied to the actual arrival time would make things feel a lot more realistic.

Even just adding “this train is currently operating behind schedule” for services where the internal PIS recognizes that it's 'delayed' would go a long way, along with keeping the scheduled departure times already there.

 

Even more dynamic and the apologies for the delay could also link to the actual cause. “This was due to a lighting fault on the train (and Driver Vern being too dopey to find the circuit breaker to fix it)”. Or, “This was due to your driver jumping off the train at every stop to fire a silly cannon, to comply with his monthly evaluation (!)…”

 

Didn't notice a thread on the passenger atmospheric feedback so I'll post in here.

Please get rid of that annoying sneezing! I get enough of that travelling IRL, can't be doing with that in game too!

 

Not to mention IRL a few years ago sat on a bus going into town, someone a couple of seats in front sneezed and two days later we both had Covid!

 

So do you have plans to disable it on empty stock movements?

 

The audio menu doesn’t save the volume levels when you set them in game (despite asking you to confirm changes). I have to keep dialling down the cab announcements every service as they are very loud

 

I just played an RB 75 Service from the Frankfurt S-Bahn Route with the BR143 from Dresden-Leipzig because I wanted to know if Announcements work on older Routes.

I had the slim Hope that it would work on the said Route, since DTG must have already been working on the Announcements feature when this Route was in development, and as i expected, the answer was no, EXCEPT for Wiesbaden. I was extremely surprised when I left Mainz and suddenly heard an Announcement. This is probably because Wiesbaden is listed as the terminus for ICE service on the Dresden-Leipzig route.

 

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but the announcements at the stations are sometimes difficult or impossible to hear because they seem to be played in only one place and the sound doesn't carry very far, which means you practically have to search for where the announcement is being played. On very long platforms, you can't hear anything at the other end. I would like to see this improved.

 

The question is whether it is better in the real world?

 

In my experience with smaller stations (in my case, Großbeeren/Teltow near Berlin), it is quite noisy there. Unfortunately, there will be no more trains running there until the end of the year, so I won't be able to record anything there.

 

The volume of the announcements depends on how close to the speakers you are.

 

Yes, but even the smallest stops in Germany have more than one loudspeaker. In Leipzig, for example, it is also better implemented in the game, as the announcements are played at several points there.

 

Once again on South Devon we arrive at Paignton and both the on train and platform annoucements are stating "GWR train to Paignton, calling at Paignton". On train the announcement should be, "This train terminates here, all change, please ensure you have your luggage, wife, kids etc. with you." (I made up the bit about the wife and kids...). the platform announcement should also be saying the train terminates, then changing to the one for the next working if passenger rather than ECS.

 

Do you have any plans to expand the functionality of announcements by adding information about how many cars will fit on the platform?

 

TSW6 Modeditor:
The S_DE_Male_MEX and the S_DE_Female_MEX Announcement need a change. It is not Pronounce M_E_X. Its Mex like the beginning of Mexican

 

I have done some testing - announcements in free roam and scenario designer seem to be inconsistent. They work on Morristown, but not on Riviera and Leipzig - Dresden (unless I am doing something wrong)

 

I'm really enjoying the announcements! I’m not an expert on the US and the UK, but I do have some feedback regarding Germany.

The regional announcements are pretty spot-on regarding the feel of the real ones. One thing that is missing is a final destination announcement: “Thank you for travelling with DB regio, we wish you a pleasant day (in German)”. But overall, pretty much love it.

Then onto my real wish list. The long-distance trains (ICE/IC) announcements. Right now they are the same, but I would love for them being different than the regional ones. Something like this:

In this case after every station a welcome message. Somehting like: “Welcome in this ICE 123 service to Dresden… calling at… next stop is… scheduled at 12:10 currently expected to arrive at 12:15. I will later inform you about your connections…” Sometimes they also say their name or something about where you can find the BordBistro. This all of course in German. However, 9/10 times they also say it in English.

Next, the “We are almost arriving at…” announcement. Give the current and/or planned arrival time. If it is possible, give some transfer information with times and platform numbers. If not, maybe some general information: “Here you have connections to local and long-distance trains, please check the announcements and displays on the station...” Something like that will always be valid for every ICE station (and I have heard such things if they were a bit late and in a rush). And it’s better than nothing at all. And end with something like “Thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn, we wish you a pleasant day”. And if it’s the final one an “all leave the train…” announcement. Again, usually these are bilingual.

And for the long-distance trains, hopefully a not too robotic voice, since it’s supposed to be a real person saying these things. And if I’m allowed to dream, maybe a couple of voices to further emulate that these are real persons, but I’d already be happy with one voice. I understand if not everything might be possible, this is just a wish list, but at least something different than the regional trains would be great! As long as the feel of it is okay, I’m happy.

 

Announcement Audio for all Routes are there in the Editor for all Local service. they just need it to connect it. Even the Stuttgart and Heilbronn HBF voice are there.