High Iron Simulations Thread.

it will probably be sometime in november

 

It first appeared on the May, 2024 Roadmap, a full 17 months ago when I was still a young man. This illustrates DTG's habit of putting projects out there far too early, leading to suspicions that many of these projects are " believe it when you see it ".

However I do think we have enough solid evidence to expect the Santa Fe pack before the end of the year.

The rest of the items on the TBC section of the Roadmap.........who knows?

 

according to JD on the october roadmap stream, the atsf pack will be the next dlc to be released after the birmingham-crewe dlc
so we can assume it will be sometime in november (considering that october has already gone)

 

Given Gary has gone back to writing more scenario packs for TSC, I can only assume its only Quality Control that needs to be done on the pack. Also remember seeing someone post someones discord status as playing one of the packs services recently.

 

Releasing on 13th November £14.99

 

finally, can't wait

 

At least it's in this year and not the next, luckily. And $18 seems a bit much with new stocks included, but it's a gameplay pack, so not expecting much more worth than that.

Though not sure if both the new loco and route HIS is working on be worth it after the Santa Fe pack, will wait that out until then.

 

I can't wait to get on the Locomotive

 

Has the exact same interior as the CSX version. Also noticed that the number lights aren’t on in any of the pics so already this doesn’t look good.

 

Will there be any sound improvements over the previous versions of these?

 

The only thing they confirmed is that both locomotives have new horns so expect the same engine sounds for both

 

apparently the autorack with the santa fe painting was removed from the pack as it appears in the images released by HIS in april but doesn't appear in the release article...

 

You can see them in the back of this shot.

 

oh yeah, I hadn't noticed lol
I was already depressed about not having the autorack included in the pack

 

New GP60Ms look good! Hopefully the sounds are good.

 

So in order to utilize this add on, if you don't have Cajon pass yet, it would be around $60 US. Kind of pricey.

 

The GP60M and GP60B Good

Cab of GP60M

Engine Room Doors Open Wow

The Intermodal Spine Cars Awesome

It seems that Christmas will turn out well in the end.

 

IDK, this may just be a straight up port of Reppo's GP60M from TSC, which had a few issues which include the wrong cab for the rebuild H4 versions and sound issues. Not to mention that pack had the Santa Fe Skins included, while here it seems like we traded them for the spine cars, while the ATSF ones are regulated to a skin pack for a later date.

Also, the GP60M no longer really runs mainline trains these days, so its gonna look super anarchistic running along side ES44C4's, the place where these do belong, is operating out of Kaiser Yard on the San Bernardino Line though.....

The spine car is the only thing that exites me for this, IF HIS can actually make good 53ft trailers for it.

EDIT: Im gonna clean up the Original post to keep track of all know HIS products.

 

On the roadmap, it states “The GP60M and GP60B will be put to work in a realistic selection of main line and local timetabled services and scenarios on the TSW Cajon Pass Route, and will offer a robust selection of bonus scenarios on the San Bernardino Route." What the “realistic sections of main line” are, I have no clue. In the screenshots of the locos, they’re at Kaiser Yard. Maybe they’ll replace the ES44s you’d usually see there.


This imagine looks like it’s on the line heading towards San Bernardino on the Bernardino Line:

 

Its pretty sad the santa fe is not for gen 8 tbh tsw should just be for gen 9

 

My only gripe with this so far is the colors... the orange seems too dark (maybe a bit dull or desaturated, too?), and the yellow looks more like a highlighter yellow than a gold. I'm curious which photos HIS referenced when making these, as I can't find many photos that match these
Also, BNSF's official brand colors are super easy to find with a quick Google search, so that really makes me question why they went with these colors
Of course, I understand this is still a work in progress - but I really hope they fix the colors before releasing this time, unlike the Santa Fe colors they made and stuck with

 

On the contrary, it's a good thing. Developers don't need the limitations of ancient hardware.

 

I just hope that the dynamic brakes are better then they are now on the other locos.

 

Did they mention hiw many jobs are in the timetable for each loco and will it have a journey.

 

SD40-2 services from High Iron Facebook

 

The UP services will be playable

 

CN old SF GE C40-8W Gull Wing The Cabin changes in that part view the Red Color

NS GE C40-8W Cab no Gull Wing The Cabin changes in that part view the Red Color

 

I meant in game it’s the same cab as the CSX c40.

 

You're right, but all the GE Locomotives of that era had that cockpit, whether it was the AMTRAK GE P32-8BWH ATSF unique GE B40-8W GE C40-8W, plus the first version of the GE C44-9W.

 

Has anyone picked up the Santa Fe pack? Was considering it but wanted to hear community feedback about it before opening the wallet..

 

I'm waiting for it to release on steam but as soon as I get my hands on it I will post my first impressions/short feedback

 

I looked on steam this morning and didn't see it. Does steam release it today, or some other day?

 

At 18:00 UTC.

 

There's a video on YouTube. I'm currently at work and haven't watched it yet, but I was planning on getting this pack anyways.

https://www.youtube.com/live/DO6QXvhfTEs?si=7GloKgNGQACcqVYa

 

I’ve got a preemptive question for someone who sacrifices their money for this (I applaud whoever does)
Does the C40 and SD40 have suspension physics? Wouldn’t be surprised honestly if they don’t.

 

I think it does.

 

This was covered on TrainSimulatorDriver's stream. Looks like SD40 doesn't but C40 does. Can't verify that myself though.

 

'I think' isn't equal to 'I know'?

These aren't new models and adding new features would perhaps take a major overhaul, too much trouble for too little gain.

 

ok

 

Well, seeing a lot of reactions for the Santa Fe pack. And me just thinks if HIS would do fixes while working on new stuff for the future.

Spoiler

(Though seeing from TS Classic, think I already know the result to that)

 

I got it, I did one TOFC service with the C40, in short:
Route seems busy for roughly middle of the day, the formations in the barstow yard are decent enough, saw both C40 and SD40 formations, as well as UP SD40 formations along the route. The problem is the engines themselves. The C40 is "fine", if you excuse the fact that nothing in the cab has been changed, its the exact same as the CSX C40 is, which is incorrect in relation to real life. Because of the fact nothing inside has been changed, the exterior changes that have been made, namely the gull wing gab, causes clipping from the interior of the cab onto the outside. Apparently if you wheel slip with the C40, you just derail so make sure not to do that. The SD40 at least on a video I watched couldn't recover from a emergency brake, although I tested while typing this and it seems like I was able to provide power again, although the brakes overall on the SD40 just feel very sluggish and weak. And to top it all off, the textures are 1k resolution, so they just look rather bad up close.

This is by no means everything going on with the pack, the American dlc channel on the train sim community discord is having a field day diving into the gameplay and stuff behind the scenes (apparently there are 30 files in a "scrap" folder of just old materials that werent used?)

Overall the pack has potential, however the QC on the pack is horrendous and even by regular US content standards this might just be a new low. If you can get over all the issues then go for it, but id highly recommend waiting and hoping this pack gets the fixes it needs, and/or pick it up on a sale

 

A shame, asbl was going to get this tonight but I shall wait and see if anything changes. I wouldn't know about the cab differences knowing little about the prototype but now I have read about them it's disappointing.

Maybe I'll wait for a sale unless something changes.

 

Honestly I’m waiting for Schnauzahpowahz review on this pack either today or tomorrow. Really disappointing to see that this might be the standard for U.S freight from here on out.

 

Here’s his review if anyone wants to watch it.

 

Well, I am really disappointed. We haven't had any new US freight since Cajon Pass- yes, that was THREE years ago - and just as my hopes were raised it turns out all we're getting is a buggy reskin pack.

 

Seems like they rush it. Hopefully they fix the issues.

 

Expecting anything more than a few mediocre reskin's and inaccurate timetables was setting yourself for disappointment. HIS already had this reputation in TSC, and the fact they went straight for reuse of existing assets suggested the same strategy in use here. Never had any hope or excitement for this pack for that reason, and frankly I'm glad I kept my expectations well in the mud here.

Sadly this also means their routes are likely gonna be of limited value too, not that I expect the routes themselves to be terrible, at least the ones I've played have been fine on their own. But simple fact is if there isn't gonna be great stock to actually drive along them it's gonna make them hard sells.

 

Yes, this, absolutely this. The warning signs were all over the place with this reskin pack. Even if someone didn't know about the reputation of HIS, the information-light DTG articles and lack of a preview stream should have raised some red flags, to say nothing at all about the many posts warning others about what to expect, not just in this forum but on Discord as well. I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt, and really wanted to see something good here, but now we see that what many people were saying was in fact true. Anyone who had any access at all to information about this pack, and bought it anyway, then that is totally on them. This is one we saw coming.

For the future, I don't see anything changing. Whatever else is produced by HIS will be more or less the same in terms of quality. That's fine for whoever is interested and I'm not telling anybody what to do or buy or whatever. But any suggestion that this was ever going to be more than it is, is disingenuous at best.

 

Yes, they gave it the old 18-month rush job. In all seriousness, if you look on HIS's Facebook page you can see where they replied to others who were questioning why this pack was taking so long. The answer HIS provided was that it was taking so long to "get it right "

What do you think about that?

 

lol they took 18 months to release the pack and you're telling me they rushed it?