Unless they are all over on Discord now, the only CM I see trying to update us on things is Harry. What’s the point of employing (assuming they are all full time DTG employees) Community Managers who don’t actually manage the community? Not saying they should be spending all day on the forum but there should be a much greater presence, being open and helpful about the various issues being raised. And what happened to the unpaid CM’s, i.e. the Ambassadors. They should also be in the lead as regards knocking on Matt or whoever’s door to pass on the mood of the crowd. Not just on the forum but also on the official Facebook feed. Lots of PR heavy announcements and sales pitches but rarely does anyone from DTG come in with any follow up. For a company diverting a significant portion of their revenue into a PR department, their public relations is quite poor!
One thing I have noticed, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Dtg have created feedback threads for the 3 new tsw routes plus new rolling stock. Yet I couldn't find a thread on tsw6 general feedback. I have noticed a couple of problems with old routes arise with tsw6 but I couldn't seem to find the thread to report these problems. Am I missing it.
yes certain bugs are fixed. For example I got a lot of crashes near Jamaica on my PS4 for TSW4 regardless if I was playing a service or a scenario but in TSW5 I could complete all of the scenarios.
To your last sentence, I have a list of more than 100 bugs on old German routes. I have every German route and play much since the release of the route. Many of these bugs are there for years and are in the forum. I have submitted a ticket for every bug. So far about 5 of the 100 bugs were fixed. 1 them re appeared with TSW6, and 2 of the bugs were fixed by the first patch and both re appeared after the second patch. Please, don’t tell something like “if the posters bug isn’t addressed, every bug don’t get a fix”. This is just ridiculous. From 100 bugs 5 fixes!! This is the definition of not fixing anything! Some of these bugs are very very annoying and are in multiple routes, also newer ones. yet nothing has been done for years and they are very well aware of these bugs!! As others said, they have enough personal to go in the offense and tackle these bugs step by step. This is disrespectful to the players, we pay for that and nothing has been done. In my opinion they either need much more employees that are only there for bugs and actually care for the game or the whole bug team has to find new jobs. This is work refusal at this point.
Are they actually working on the passenger system? That the passengers actually get out of the trains at the last station and that there are no empty trains in the rush hour or that every passenger gets out in the second stop and then no one gets in for the whole route? All this dumb stuff is there for years and multiple routes and just like everything lese nothing has been done.
Bugs do get fixed, but not as quickly as new bugs pop up. The issue is that there is so much new content and content in general, that it’s harder and harder to fix the smaller bugs. Now should they focus on fixing those before constantly releasing new items? Yes and I’d like to see more bug small bug fixes released in the big updates. But the new content brings in more money so those end up getting prioritized.
I had to remind myself, but it's within the journey mode of Ruhr Sieg Nord if you own the DB BR 363 loco DLC. The scenario is called Trunk Service. In the process of reminding myself and finding it, I decided to replay it yesterday. A fair way through the scenario, after already maneuvering logging wagons into position, you have to get to a marker position past automatically switched junctions, then move back to couple up to about 16 wagons that you have now moved into a formation. This is the point where you would do as instructed, but just as you get to the last automatic switch junction it would direct you onto the wrong set of tracks. A few years ago this was acknowledged as a bug. Matt announced sometime later that it had been fixed. It definitely hadn't, but there appeared to be no further response to our reports that it still wasn't fixed... So what was my experience this time? Having got to the same place in the scenario, I got to the automatic switch and again it redirected me onto the wrong tracks, thus failing the scenario. In the past, I tried reloading from the checkpoint over and over again thinking it was something I'd missed (this is before I found out it's a known bug) but couldn't get the switch to change correctly (of course, because it's automatic). But this time? I thought, I'll reload from the checkpoint – and I noticed something immediately different. This time, the signal directly in front of the 363 was now red, which it never was before. Contacting the signaller (again, never required previously) changed this signal back to green. And this time when I got to that switch, it was set to the correct path! Except I accidentally stopped a couple of feet before coupling to the wagons, and bizarrely it failed me anyway because it claimed I'd crossed a signal at danger (I hadn't?) So I reloaded the checkpoint again. Same thing: red signal, contact controller, cleared, proceed, path set correctly again – only this time I didn't slow down, bumped into the wagons, coupled up, and I only went and completed the scenario for the first time in all these years! So is it now fixed? I wouldn't say that. More like fudged. Because it still didn't work the first time, and I could have easily given up without reloading the checkpoint. Was an update ever communicated? Not to my knowledge. Could have missed it in some other place on the forum. So, not fixed but fudged, I would argue. And this is on PC, Steam. If you have the route and DLC, give it a go and see how it works for you.
I played this not too long ago (for the first time) and had no issue. Maybe it's because of some random setting that sometime ls goes right
It's obvious that they did update it, because it was literally always impossible in the past and acknowledged as such. Now there does appear to be a random element, and that to me is still a bug. But at least it is possible to complete now.
Going from what Matt said, they have a system that empties the train at the end of the line, but it causes problems, crashes etc. My impression is that at the moment DTG don't have an answer to this problem. The other problem is when you start at the begining of the line at a terminus station, a load of passengers leave the train, the passengers see the driver and don't like the cut of his gib? When you arrive at the end of the line, it triggers a load of passengers to get out, so when you start at the end of the line terminus station, samething happens a load of passengers get out.
Out of curiosity, I just attempted this one on Xbox Series X after downloading the required content, and was able to complete it first try, no fudging required. Any points changes needed were done manually, as I have auto switching of points set to off.
That's confusing. The auto switching setting (under the player assists menu?) is an assist for manual junctions, right? I have all assists off by default as I'm on expert mode, and on the Trunk Service scenario there are a couple of manual points, which of course I had to change manually because the assist is turned off, but the rest are automated points (as I believe they would be in real life), which the player has no control over. So surely the assist setting has no bearing on what are automated points by their very function? So if you had the assist off the same as me, surely you would also encounter both manual and fully automated points in that scenario the same as me...?
I can only assume so, but if they're not shown on the map clearly, I wouldn't have been paying them much attention! A PC only bug perhaps?
They certainly don't show the same as manual points. The bug used to be across all platforms, but it's possible that it was fixed properly on certain platforms but not on others.
Ever? Any? Never? None? No, glaring modeling errors still persist to this day, and when the DLC is abandoned, will never get fixed re: Cane Creek. Maybe once in a while DTG will fix some game breaking bugs, only to find two new bugs surface for each bug squatted. Scripting the game to the standard of 'ultimate in realism' is very complicated and difficult to debug and new features aren't being added to old DLC exactly for the reason of re-scripting and QA testing everything anew without receiving an addition penny for the time and trouble. Would you pay DTG to fix the bugs that most irritate you?
They can't even fix the latest and greatest... The DB 294 Journey Stage Two was broken by last week's patch and/or the hotfix. Flagged in the dedicated feedback thread but no acknowledgement from DTG and it was still broken when I looked at it yesterday evening. What's the point in having feedback threads if they are ignored, or are the whole team now sat around swooning over Metro Rivals and TSW is in imminent peril of spinning off the Dovetail Flywheel.
Yes for sure, if there was a one off charge for a 'bug patch' that guaranteed a fix of certain bugs then I would happily pay it. Would be impossible to implement though and no actual guarantee they would get it right!!
Exactly. I keep diligently reporting any bugs I come across, which takes some time in itself if you do it properly with pics etc, but have little hope any of them will ever be fixed.
Yes, they fix bugs. But not all and it may take some time. They have about one release each month with a number of bug fixes.
I think they do care. Making a game like this is very much a labour of love I reckon. Doubt many people in the industry think 'yeah, train simulator game is where it is at' without having a bit of passion for the subject matter. I just think they have limited time and resources and that both the organisation of and communication between, people who work on the game, is a bit lacking. Personally, I would love to get a bit more feedback about all our bug reports, what has been seen, what has been acknowledged, what is deemed worthwhile and has been added to a priority list and what has been either put on a 'maybes list, or a 'no list'.
They definitely have passion. You can see that. I mean, you don't have one member of the team revamping routes in his own time and releasing the updates for free without passion. You don't have Matt doing 11-hour charity driving without passion. But it's the way it's managed from the top and where the priority is set. Unfortunately I think management is geared far more towards the "get more new stuff out the door" side to the detriment of fixing issues. And that is partly a resource issue, I would presume. If they can keep getting the money in, and it's invested back into the business rather than shareholders, then they can increase the human resource and have people dedicated to maintenance of the sim while the new stuff is still being pumped out. That might be the direction they are already heading. Edit: and I have to say, I really do enjoy the sim overall. I definitely see the passion in it, and I appreciate it. Could be even better, but it does a lot of good stuff. And some of it's quite beautiful. You can see they have improved performance too, because graphically things are getting more resource intensive, such as the far more realistic water, etc., in the new routes. Yet performance is better than it used to be when much lower quality assets were used.
Ultimately it’s also about the comms. We seem to get less and less detailed feedback on what is actually being worked. Look at all the threads for recent and past content in the Feedback forum, specifically created by DTG for the purpose of collating issues that might need sorting but not a squeak out of them. Where are the Community Managers for starters, they do know they actually have a community (paying customers) to manage? But yes when TSW works well it is very enjoyable. I just finished up a sunset run into San Jose on Caltrain, having brought across and locked down the branded version pak files from TSW5. Following that, I jumped in a Cucumber for a trip down to Paignton from Exeter. All good stuff!
I think a good number of those threads appeared because the fixes and improvements done by your team were sat on for months unfortunately, as you mentioned. The community still does not understand to this day why the Preservation Crew were disbanded, and we're all worse off for it.
My guess is just plain "financial reasons", too great an expense for too little return on DLC that has already earned itself according to accountancy. Plus staffing, and managerial priorities, perhaps forced on DTG from higher up?
Right on both counts. I stopped submitting tickets to Support years ago and I rarely post on the feedback threads. They look like black holes to me. Lots of stuff goes in but almost nothing comes out. But there is fun to be had in the game. I just ran down the Morristown line driving the Cab Car, not a simple one-handle machine, quite a challenge actually hauling an ALP 45DP and a full rake of galleries with ATC/ACSES switched in. Managed without any deductions, so a good, enjoyable run..
IIRC, it was stated when the Pres. Crew was disbanded that their work was pretty much done--the mandate being to bring old routes to current (at the time) standards, with some bug fixing being an incidental part of that. I don't remember the timeline on whether PC leader Adam moving to Skyhook took place after the PC was ended or vice versa.
I apologize for the harsh comment, but sometimes it seems to me that this whole bunch of bugs will only be ELIMINATED in TSW: UE 5 Edition. It's an extremely convenient solution for DTG to transfer the “core” to UE 5, while “throwing away” all the content and the bugs it contains (because, of course, the purchased content will not be transferred there). Moreover, there will be room for re-releasing all the content (with bugs, of course).
UE5 is no knight in shining armour, it has the potential to change things but not eliminate bugs entirely, things will behave different yes but it will have its own issues.
I was referring more to the fact that DTG could use the transition to UE 5 as a “lever” or killer feature for advertising and marketing. But either way, it won't solve the scheduling issues and related bugs associated with the game mechanics. Please do not take this seriously, my message was more ironic than anything else.
For anyone who wants a quick overview of the differences between the versions of Unreal Engine, this is light reading on the matter: Unreal Engine 4 Vs 5: What's the Difference? https://share.google/Jy6vwQinSMYpU1ZHp
Trouble is they fix old bugs and then introduce new ones. I suppose the more layers we get, which is a good thing, the more chances of bugs being introduced. I must admit from what I’ve read bugs seem to be more commonplace on consoles. I feel sorry for those players as they seem to be treated like second class customers. DTG needs to show more preview streams on consoles for them I think. I don’t own a console but their money goes towards supporting the game I enjoy too.
That’s just the nature of coding. Every new release that fixes bugs ends up opening up new ones because you realistically can’t test everything. Also bugs on console seem to be intermittent. I’m an XBSX user and I haven’t run into too many, but the ones I have I can’t seem to replicate. Not to say there aren’t consistent ones, but it seem to be across the board and different from user to user.
I often wonder if they are now at a point where TSW is such a beast (100+ DLCs), that it's impossible to know which way is up. Seen it a few times where bug fix A, creates bug B. It's entirely possible that a bug fix for a TSW5 or TSW6 DLC could impact earlier routes, cue fallout, so if in doubt, do nothing. Going from the Metro Rivals video the other week, I'm positive that a UE5 version of TSW is on the cards. With the 'its impossible to port 4 to 5' comment, gives the team a chance to start from scratch. Maybe the continous improvement cycle will mean that we end up with a much cleaner DLC pool going forward in the new title, with the lessons learnt from TSW here. Wishful thinking, but not out the realm of possibilities. In essence, game is too big and is bust in that many places it is impossible to fix without chucking a serious amount of wonga at it, which won't get signed off my those with the longest trousers. Include the next generation sim launch in 2 years time and new title/replacement that will likely follow and that kind of investment has no viable return stamped all over it. Please just fix the blurry issue, no point in releasing another DLC in the same state.
Extremely wishful thinking. DTG have shown no signs of changing their "fire and forget" attitudes to releasing and patching content.
It isn't impossible. Not at all. It's a lot of work. Current big title on the market right now was originally being developed in UE4, and far into development, before development switched to UE5. It wasn't a case of starting from scratch because, yes, there are big differences between the two versions, but they are not alien to each other. Agree with the quote from AAA dev posted earlier that it requires highly skilled developers, and skill comes with years of experience. (Although disagree with "you have tons of junior devs" adding to the performance issues as if that's the norm across studios to have a load of juniors. Some studios consist of mostly experienced developers – and they still cause each other problems )
I disagree. I think console gamers are a higher priority for DTG. The problem with consoles is probably their less powerful hardware and some related issues, all of which add up like a snowball effect.
I think the problem with consoles is still the development team, i.e. not understanding how to optimise the game specifically for the consoles. There are development studios out there who specialise in porting games from one platform to another for this reason.
Blurry textures? It seems from reading this forum most of the complaints are from console users, so put 2+2 together…
