I love your story and also your perfect summary of my feelings on the Cardiff network. I was one of those who bought it for the Class 153.
Whales - plural, more than one whale (sea mammal). Translates as "Walvis" in Dutch. Wales - A country that's part of the United Kingdom. I hope that helps.
This is exactly it. It’s not about the sale of content, it’s about the cost of getting access and whether or not they can get access to begin with. MSFS is another example where while the whole world is pretty much mapped out (via Bing Maps), they keep going back to the same countries for the photogrammetry updates due to not being able to get licensing and access for some regions (i.e. China, Scandinavia). I would think it would be the same with TSW where they’d need to contract owners of the rails, equipment, locos, and negotiate license fees and actually get access to all of these things. Even if it’s done by a 3rd party, DTG would need to get those licenses in place and access first before the 3rd party could start working on it.
Agree on the Cardiff Route, they could of done so much more with it. Thats why I hope they consider expanding the Cardiff DLC up into the Valleys, go all the way up the Rhymney line and even do the Rhondda line and for extra bonus add in the Barry Island route too. Like you say, its half and half each way with no real end on either end.
Or at least give us the mainline to either Swansea or Swindon. I suggested a Cardiff network a while ago before this route was announced. I envisaged a couple of different valleys to the centre of Cardiff. I thought that would be a relatively easy DLC to make and give those of us who've not spent much time in South Wales a taste of what the area is about. As for the DLC we got, I think it might actually be the most disappointing route I own. Which isn't good considering it was a TSW5 release. Even Paddington to Reading was better once the initial launch bugs were ironed-out.
Well, I hope not for his sake, and maybe I should phrase those things differently which wasn't meant that way either.