High Iron Simulations Thread.

I consider myself a 'US trains normie' and watching the previews I saw things like the box at the end of the train increasing its number but not the box in the cab, had no idea what it was and the train was still drivable.

The colours look like colours, they're not blurry as heck like they've been through a fire.

The sounds sounds like a diesel loco and nice to someone who plays *mostly* uk stuff

It was a reskin apparently of an existing route, sand patch iirc, but I have the SD70ace and the ES44 so this is different enough from them for me and as for cab internal stuff, I'm a mid 30s person from Australia, I have less than zero idea of the Sante Fe in the 90's. I honestly only started seeing things were wrong after perusing the forums and seeing this post.

One problem I can see is that while I'm not what most would consider a full 'normie' - I engage with the forums, discord and upload TSW to YouTube - I still know less than nothing about US locos, and pointing out things I thought were wrong or bugs in the past on UK stuff usually results in "what do you know, your an Australian" (not from the forums, YouTube is a friendly place LOL) so as much as I'd like to point things out, I'm also afraid of getting it wrong and getting dog piled again.

It's the worst attitude to have but 'experts' making you feel like absolute LOVE because you aren't as smart as them on UK trains (it's a thing I'm still trying to let go) makes you just not care anymore about pointing stuff out. It works, it looks right, shut up and drive it and no one gets upset.

 

** I just shut up and drive - wanted to make it clear I wasn't telling other people to do so

 

Glad I could generate some interest!

I do want to stress in my video that I didn't make that stream just to bash on it. As I stated, there is some interesting stuff in this pack and there are a few things I applauded HIS for...

But this is just really unacceptable. HIS needs to do better. From the beginning I was skeptical on how well this DLC would turn out and it seems my fears were correct.

 

They should be called "High Nose Simulation", not a single response, left a very bad first impression for my personal taste and looks like they care even less than Rivet during the time of their dark past.

A lot of hype, the pictures even excited me when they appeared months back. But yea in the end my wallet stays closed

(Bought some of their content 10 years back for tsc, not gonna miss them anytime soon)

 

Also got to wonder why DTG just wave this stuff through, like a disinterested Customs Officer in the green channel. They should be the backstop when it comes to 3P quality, in terms of protecting their customers from overpriced junk. Sadly it seems the £££ win through, the silly headphones get put on (if it even gets a stream) to be talked up and high fived, so they can pay another months rent on the HQ building at Chatham.

Sorry, I'm a bit cynical this morning,

 

Just this morning, Vern? ;-)

 

Not a single word from HIS yet?

Even on his home board RWA where the staunch defenders used to live, nothing but silence.

That board is down to a handful of postings a week already?
No well received US content, neither in Train Sim Classic nor in Train Sim World, there is no need to talk about it?

Best start leeching the RWA file store, since there is no more sponsorship and even with so little traffic the hosting bills still have to be paid.
Already most of the archived background information, modeling and creating tutorials and tools are unavailable, their authors have long left the board.

 

High Iron PLEASE for the love of god give us or sell us some weathered cars so it doesn't look like I'm driving a train of brand new cars.

 

This is it for all I know. Don’t know if they’ve said anything else anywhere. Don’t know what “feasible” is according to HIS but I doubt significant model changes are coming.

 

Doubtfull indeed, since (DTM ?) took and borked up the CSX model, adding a brow and gull wings only for the exterior.

AFAIK, the TSC EMD F3 and BL2 done by DTM still have the swing hangers missing from their Blomberg trucks.

Anyway, let's wait and see what HIS and subcontractors will do now the pressure from DTG is on.

 

This not the best of dlcs but still playable just what exactly were they doing for a year and half feels something they knocked up in a couple of months.

 

What pressure would that be? Have you heard something?

 

The newly appointed USA content liason has collected a lot of remarks from the various threads.
The bugtracker should contain a lot of reported bugs by now.
The liason will report to staff.

I am sure there is 'silent pressure', since obviously, nobody wants to admit their failure regarding this much anticipated DLC.

Whether there will be any transparency as to the improvement of this DLC? We'll have to wait and see.
I am glad I didn't spend my money on this and rather got myself the Somerset & Dorset line for TSC.

 

With all due respect to our new CM, I fear the " bugtracker ", as you call it is so overfull I doubt it can accept any more reports. Your optimism is admirable. I'm afraid I don't share it.

 

Fair enough.

I'm giving her a chance- i suppose DTG could claim "they weren't aware" that the US/NA community was unhappy with the state of things.

Now, with a dedicated CM, that excuse (as weak as it was) is gone. We've made the issues with the new HIS pack clearly known and she's reported them back.

The results will speak for themselves in the end.

I hope they make a sincere effort to fix it because it DOES have value imo. The timetable itself is pretty darn good IMO, it's just let down by poor modelling and programming (based on the alerter issue, etc).

Some of this is on DTG (core issues) but some is clearly on HIS,- this is their first project in TSW, that's to be expected to some degree!

For me, an acknowledgement of these issues, a committment to fixing them as best as possible, and to make improvements in their dev process for the upcoming GP60 pack would go a long way.

I'd love to hear more from them on these forums, either directly or through Candace.

 

It only benefits HIS to be transparent about feedback and work on fixes honestly. If they choose to not fix something, then that could be explained too. (For example they think the paint color is correct, or there's some Core issue that prevents them from fixing the EOTD)
They are the ones that would be hurt by bad press before another upcoming DLC release.

I can respect a company that explains their actions.
It shows they have responsibility and a vision, even if I don't agree with their decisions.
Sometimes I wonder how much of it is avoidance and how much of it is NDAs or agreements with DTG to limit what they can talk about.
We'll see.

I'd personally ask more about their design decisions on layering, timetables and cross route compatibility than the individual loco design stuff, but that's because I think it's a waste to not expand their work beyond Cajon Pass which is not the most popular route by a long shot. A C40 or the GP 60 would be a LOT more useful addition on other routes. (Would work really well on the Sand Patch and Horseshoe Curve routes) but that seems to not even be a consideration, limiting the usage and value of the pack. That's what I'd like to know personally.

That lack of usefulness outside of Cajon Pass made me hesitate to pull the trigger on this, not the EOTD or artwork.

Still though, I'd like to hear the reasoning behind decisions made because that will determine what sort of content we'd get in the future. If the C40 for example is ONLY going to be on Cajon Pass, then the GP 60 will likely ONLY be on Cajon Pass.