December 2025 - Roadmap Or Season Of Reveals?

So it's why i'm say it Amsterdam zuid - Leystad & Amersfoort could be interesting for a ICNG TT 2025

 

Oh well.

 

Okay, I'll keep that in mind.
Otherwise, I think you sound like a moderator.

 

What? No im not why do you assume that?

 

I'm not saying you are, but you're pointing something out to me that makes it sound that way.

 

New german DLC: Rhein Niers Bahn - Duisburg Mönchengladbach / community project

Nice, but nothing more than a weary smile. Another electrified main line between two major cities. Again, just DB red, and again the 425 as the "star." The scenery doesn't look particularly varied either, for example, the ubiquitous houses that are a must be ssen in every DLC. That's my first impression, we'll see. I wish the builder lots of fun and success with the construction.

 

Sorry thats not what i should do so no thats not the case and i do not understand why i should do that by answering a question of something is ficfional or not......

 

I see that DTG have released their yearly player survey.


Its a real shame the option for "sort and revamp the QA, stop abandoning old DLCs and start prioritizing things like optimisations for once" isn't a valid option..

 

You often see " anger " in the forum where there really isn't any.

Critical comments don't equal anger my friend.

 

The survey I took did actually ask something along those lines...

 

Hopefully we see some progress shots with the New York to Stamford route but something tells me that may be revealed in January or early February next year.

 

I thought my point was clear, but okay what it’s really about is how they sell something like this… With an exaggerated hype that many people didn’t appreciate, showing they clearly don’t know the community very well. If they had presented it with an honest story and a normal announcement, things would have turned out very differently, and most people would surely have understood.

The idea for the youth is very good, and trying to reach a different audience is, in my view, really great. But if you’re talking about children, why try to market it in such an overly commercial way? It’s actually not child-friendly at all.

 

I was just kidding mate, everyone likes big bags of money.

I didn't see a problem with it, I think the main problem, on the forum at least, was the lead up to the big reveal. I'm guessing people were expecting the Riviera line or another section of wcml or ecml etc. and all they got was Thomas! Yeah I can see it was a bit disappointing, but if it keeps the dtg books in the black then it was worth it.
My youngest was 4 when he started to play tsw, didn't take long for him to remember the controls. I must admit he does prefer real trains over Thomas though.

 

Funny you should mention that...

 

I think a Sodor game, without worrying about simulation but giving Dovetail a chance to experiment with more environmental scenery than what Metro Rivals will offer, would prove quite valuable to TSW on UE5.
Interested to see if that goes anywhere.

 

I was 12 when my father introduced me to Microsoft Train Simulator. That’s now more than 20 years ago It’s a great way to show kids what’s possible

 

Where's the "I'm interested if the quality's actually there and I'm not having to pay a arm and a leg for DLC every month" option?

Seriously, after the faults with, well, faults in TSW6, I would be very skeptical to answering a question like this.

For perspective I've been buying Thomas toys again this, both the new classic line stuff made by Mattel, as well as importing a bunch of the Plarail items from Japan. I do have a genuine interest in Thomas, and making a standalone game I think is a smart idea, would rather see that than Metro Rival's frankly.

But I also don't have the confidence DTG/Mattel could do it right, I'm just saying, you buy the toys from Japan and it's striking how much better made those seem to be. Free wheeling motors, and lining and stickers that's consistently applied correctly go a long way, amazes me how much more Tomy seem to care about Thomas than Mattel. And if the IP owners can't even manage their own QA with their internal divisions I dread to think what they'd allow to fly under the radar. And frankly nothing more needs to be said about how bad DTG are with this sort of stuff.

 

season of reveals it is then!

 

I don't care about Thomas at all so I just see this as another waste of resources that could be better spent making TSW better.

 

If they do build a standalone game it had better come with a better control scheme than the Thomas stuff we've had so far. None of this "kids want to drive like they do race cars" nonsense, I'm pretty sure if Lewis Hamilton presses the brake his Ferrari doesn't randomly start going backwards, and while that is a clever solution for a racing game where you're just recovering from an off, trains spend pretty much half their time going backwards.

Kids aren't anywhere near as dumb as DTG seems to think they are, they would cope with a simple forwards/backwards reverser.

 

It does feel like a long overdue continuation of what HRR brought to the table at least. It would nice if we finally got an HRR timetable with the ICEs and other new stock to match the new route.

 

A computer game featuring TTTE probably still doesn't match up to the cartoon's adventures of Thomas and friends or playing with the real toys in a child's imagination.

 

Something I'll say, Kirby Air Rider's just came out, and bare in mind this is what the cover is.

Obviously very targeted at kids, and it prides itself on using only the analog stick and two buttons, that's how "simple" the controls are.

...And this game has taken up 30 hours of my life, and as a adult legit struggle at the start and I'm only just now starting to really get the hang of it. Might sound insane to some, but I think anyone who's actually played this can attest it can legit be overwhelming at points, particularly City Trial mode.

Kids games don't have to be "simple", and the best ones do try and appeal to both, same way that Pixar movies are legit just flat out good movies.

Granted, would I mind the simple controls to stay? Not really, but it should be alongside a full simulation, not as a replacement for a full sim experience.

 

Definitely not but video games are open to younger and younger audiences these days so I don't think Dovetail should rule it out.

 

Perhaps only when Thomas exists in his ' natural environment ' on the magical ' Isla de Sodora ' surrounded by his friends and other characters, and not in some abstract to young children setting like a straight and single track Somerset heritage line.

Anyway, let's wait and see how this evolves, with Focus monetizing the Mattel license.

 

It's not really for me, I'm lukewarm on a lot of German routes but my god are we in desperate need of seeing an interesting city like Berlin in the game.
But I guess I don't mind bits of a national network being filled-in by new German route builders. Especially as I spend a lot of time in here moaning about gaps the UK network being filled-in.

What do we think about a possible UK route announcement? Are we missing any sections of the WCML or branches off of it? I may blow a fuse if it involves Classes 323, 350 and 390 again.

 

I only speak for myself, of course, but I've seen enough WCML routes for now...

 

Unless it was an extension of WCMLs to New Street then I would like to see the next DTG UK route to be somewhere else.

 

Anything else on the WCML and I’m out.

Sensibly you’d be looking at Kings X to Peterborough or St Pancras to Bedford.

 

If people didnt know the update is out for Birmingham Crewe if anyone is on series x can you let me know how it runs

 

If it's a "route update" wouldn't mind seeing some love for ECW with the new pack soon tbf

 

There's the Firefly studios route which in all likelihood will be the Wherry Lines, however after the release of the Stuttgart route there'll only be one DTG-made route on the roadmap, that being the New York route.

I'd like to think that this is because they're either working on another UK route, or because they're heads down and working hard on fixing the issues with the game on console.

If they are working on a UK route, I'm just praying it's SWR or Southeastern, and the console issues are resolved before it releases.

 

The new pack for ECW is really strange to me. We have the Scotrail Class 170 which is basically the 171. I think they have basically used a 171 for it by looking at it. So how the ECW one can be much different I don’t understand.

Regarding an SWR route, don’t think they hold the license for anything SWR related.

Wherry Lines makes sense because it’s small, self contained mostly and shouldn’t pose a performance risk. It could though be rather boring.

But number one priority has to be getting the console performance issues sorted.

 

Biggest problem with the AP Wherry Lines in TSC was, very much a case of quickly whack the 37 up to full throttle for a few seconds, shut off and coast to the next station at 59.5 MPH. To make it interesting, really need to add the Sheringham Line as well.

However I'm assuming this is still purely speculation as regards what Firefly might be working on?

 

Yes speculation only at this point.
I don’t think anyone is going to make anything all that exciting right now as performance is just so poor.

 

DTG haven't built their own UK route since Goblin, presumably that team is now making Metro Rivals, leaving only two teams working on German and USA content.

That's not to say Rivet aren't building one for them, we knew about Cardiff long before December so hopefully they'll reveal their next route in the next couple of weeks.

 

Do they even have the in house capabilities anymore?

 

A question I have posed several times recently and not just in relation to route and train building but core functionality i.e. programming. Or has it all been outsourced to the cheapest bidder with all that remains in Chatham an office containing management and PR staff?

 

You never know with Ferrari these days
...

 

at least that's what it seems...

 

Or Hamilton himself!!

 

Incredible isn't it. DTG showed how good they can make TSW look on GOBLIN (apart from Barking Flood Barrier being absent near Riverside and it would have been nice to have a walk to the water a la Morecombe). They just hit their stride then stop making routes?
That would be a crazy situation.

As for Wherry Lines. It's not a high speed thrill testing your skills to the very limit. There are other releases that can do that for you. For me it would be pure escapism.
The beauty of the Wherry Lines is the atmospheric rural scenery, morning mists, amazing sunsets, the sounds of birds over the hum of a diesel engine, silhouettes of distant windmills, it's like nowhere else in the UK. Nice relaxed short drives somewhere a bit quieter than the rest of the South East of England. I think it could be amazing if done well in TSW.

Adding the railway enthusiast element, 6 years ago would hit the spot. Class 37 "short sets", 153s, 170s and an all new 156. One handled trains, two handled trains and loco hauled services close to the modern era. What's not to love about it?

 

Only thing that would surpass that is a @1976 timetable, Monday to Friday and Summer Saturday variants. Class 101 and 105 (Cravens) DMU's on the local services, 47's on the Liverpool Street through trains and an Aladdin's Cave of traction on all the dated Saturday through trains, relief trains and Merrymaker/Mystery excursions.

 

I just hope we get something a bit bigger than Cardiff for this year's potential mid-TSW6 UK route. I can easily see a situation where we get Southampton Central to Portsmouth & Southsea with no branches at all, despite the potential for branches to Winchester, Bournemouth or Chichester.

 

Aladdin's Cave is a good descriptor. Norwich Thorpe used to run hybrid DMU consists quite a bit and had a small number of Class 100 DMBS cars and a Class 104 DCML that would often turn up with a Class 101 or 105 driving car at the other end. A very BR Blue traction scene, for a sleepy part of the country Eastern Region were quick to get rid of steam and quickly replaced the old green livery that could still be seen elsewhere in 1975.

 

No licence for Greater Anglia content and I doubt they’d spend on getting one.

 

Greater Anglia is now an in-house DfT contract having stopped being a TOC in October.
DTG have a record of working with DfT operators, LNER and South Eastern spring immediately to mind.

So the barriers to getting a licence have changed and there's been a bit of a swap around at the top of the operation lately. The new man in charge seems very focused on opening-up new revenue streams from the brief interactions I've had with him.

However, there were railways in East Anglia before GA took over in 2012 and any era prior to then is open to be simulated, licence or no licence.

 

And we would get semaphore signals, set now it won't have and in my opinion as an enthusiast is the poorer for it.

 

There will be a cost for the license though i would imagine.

 

There usually is. Frankly, I don't care if it's not got "Greater Anglia" written on the side. I know others feel more strongly about licenced products though. It helps being on PC, there's always a mod!