So along many routes there’s short branches unmodelled which currently will likely never see the light of day. Whether its the Greenford Branch on GWE, the Windermere Branch on WCMLOS, The Airport branch on Dresden Reisa/Dresden Leipzig or numerous others, for whatever reason these where omitted. Now if a 3rd party or DTG was to release these as standalone DLC with an integrated timetable/services route hopping with what I’ll refer to as the parent DLC for pocket money, would you purchase and if so at what price point?
Trouble is, there's precedent for this being done as part of an update/remaster (see Meißen branch and Richmond extension). There's also precedent for the whole thing with the base route being rereleased (LIRR and SEHS). This proposal is in danger of getting into "DLC for DLC" territory, as Sam would say. Tbh, it would be nicer to have them from the start. I definitely think a "Thames Valley Branches" DLC which includes the original GWE route (as an example) would sell like hot cakes even for a £15 - £20 price tag, but I wouldn't want to have to buy each branch individually even if it came to the same price.
Not sure if I’d pay for a mini route, but I do wish they would extend out to some of the modeled first station stops on the other branches. For example on the Morristown route, the tracks for NJT from Hoboken are modeled to go down the Spring Valley and Port Jarvis/Suffern line at the lower level of Secaucus (and AI routes run here). You can creatively get to it with some holes in the map, but if you try to run a train from Hoboken there you get the “end of map” message once you turn off the split to the meadows section. I know there are plenty of other routes with similar things like that and while I know why most of them are blocked off, it would be nice to see them opened up to at least the modeled station areas for free roam and scenario planner.
I might pay a little bit, but I think a free update would be better suited if something is only adding a few miles.
Nope. We already get these sorts of things with remasters & updates etc. Though the bigger issue I have with this is that TSW is utterly failing in this area. We need to push for a way for extensions to be common practice, extensions that actually build into the existing route. I don’t have any issue with paying for those. What I wouldn’t support is something along the lines of your idea that essentially financially motivates DTG to not modernise & expand TSW.
If it was a section I was interested in I would probably buy it, as long as it isn't instead of a proper extension/new route For example I would like branches that let you visit somewhere interesting or unique, like: Preston ↔ Preston Docks branch Morecambe ↔ Heysham Port branch Ashford ↔ Dollands Moor Frankfurt ↔ Bad Vilbel Whereas some things I think would be better as proper extensions, like: Ambergate ↔ Derby Ospizio Bernina ↔ St.Moritz Eastbourne ↔ Ashford These would probably be too long for a mini route, and it wouldn't really make sense to include any less than that The ideal solution though would be to include branches and proper end points in the first place, raising the price a bit and it taking a bit longer to release if necessary
Or, how about they just build routes in a way that allows for potential future extensions without having to rebuild the entire thing. Surely that's possible.
So to my knowledge, they kind of do that already. Like for some of the North American routes, they were able to leverage the work done at South Station and Penn Station for the other routes (Worcester and Morristown) while making some updates. I’m sure they do the same do the lines in Europe too so they don’t have to recreate all of the assets. And that’s why I was asking to allow for those extension branches that go out to maybe 1 station to be opened up and the end of the line message pushed back so we can go there for free roam or even taking over some of the AI trains that go to those stations even if we can just stop at 1 of them.
I have made a whole list of suggestions on this basic idea. It would finally open up the missing areas for gameplay.
It is, but expect to pay the premium currency for it. LIRR v2 has already experimented with this notion. I wish TSW routes were like TSC though, as when purchasing an extension on there the existing route gets updated immediately. It’s as easy as connecting two pieces of Lego together. TSW is obviously more complex and takes more effort, hence why they will charge us the premium prices.
We all need to keep bugging ATS to get that extension to Crewe. It’s 17 miles, but until you get into Crewe it’s mostly field’s and countryside. The station is modelled now so they can’t use that excuse anymore.
I would definitely like to see it go to Crewe. It's a lovely route but feels a bit like Mildmay, incomplete. I wonder if they could use the model of Crewe though.
I think 17 miles is a push for a free update but yeah it’d be nice to see. Don’t know if All Aboard would let them have Crewe because some of them are ex-ATS’s guys iirc?
That’s the thing, I’m not sure what the circumstances are with AAB and ATS. I thought they had some on-going dispute from when they were under the same roof, but then I read that a member of AAB shut those rumours down, saying everything is fine now and they’ve resolved their differences. I honestly don’t know what to believe at this point As similar to what I said to Theo. I don’t know what the situation is with them, but it shouldn’t affect the player base at the end of the day. They should come first. Not adding Crewe to MAC would be a missed opportunity. It makes route hopping all the more practical with B2C and AAB in-the-works MK to Crewe route.
Well, the most missing section for german routes in my opinion, I guess, is Kahl (Main)-Aschaffenburg (somewhat around 15 km/10 miles...). With that section you could take over your IC in Koblenz, drive down to Mainz on Left Rhine change to Frankfurt S-Bahn drive this IC to Frankfurt, change to Frankfurt-Fulda, drive your IC to Hanau/Kahl (Main),then go via the section to Aschaffenburg, change to Main-Spessart-Bahn drive your IC to Nantenbach, change to Kassel-Würzburg and drive your IC to Würzburg via Nantenbacher Kurve (ok, not fully modelled) on SFS Kassel-Würzburg. A 237 km (147 mile) ride that would take around 2 hours and 45 minutes...at different speeds, different landscapes...well. yes, I really would appreciate this section ^^.
Crewe to Manchester just feels like a completed route...end to end and already having the choice of via Stockport or via the Styal Line and the Airport branch included...would be magnificent....totally get that (ignoring the politics) including Crewe originally from a team of developers where this isn't (AFAIK) their full time job would have been a monumental effort. But now that Crewe is in the game in the modern version, it kind of feels like something that we must have...to be able to drive a Euston to Manchester Picc via Crewe would be magnificent (even if we have to pretend that they stop at Milton Keynes, which I think they don't (the Stoke ones do).....this has been asked for by so many...absolutely love the idea of services that start and end at the buffer stops, gives a nice rational feeling (was last able to do this in Microsoft Train Simulator)....come on ATS, DTG, AABS or whoever, make it happen !!
I think something similar to what Skyhook did with the Levenmouth branch. If it was to be included but falls out of scope, leaving the tracks and signals there makes it easier to come back in with an update and *maybe* a new train DLC (to cover the Dev time costs)?
Rivet, not Skyhook. Fife Circle is something of an outlier anyway, as the route in-game was planned to include that, but the Levenmouth branch hadn't physically been opened IRL at the time of release. Once it had opened, they could then finalise the scenery etc.
Dang it, I did and do keep forgetting it's a Rivet route as I'm mostly using Skyhooks timetable and do admit I get forgetful. Thanks for clarifying ☺️
Mini-routes? No. Rather see existing routes get them to increase interest in said routes. I've driven the Windemere branch on WCMLoS in free roam, how accurate the track is I don't know as only been on it once in my life and a long time ago. But if it's just a case of adding scenery to the route, along with stations, then I'd love to see it properly added to the route. Would make an already outstanding route even better.
I really like Manchester Airport Commuter but as it's so short, I've not got a great deal of services left to do. Like many others I wish it could have gone to Crewe as well. 55 minutes from Manchester on an EMU or 35-40 minutes on a Pendolino feels just right. Edit: When I have to travel IRL from Euston to Manchester for work, I always book myself on the 1 service per hour which goes via Crewe, just to see what's there!
With AABS Trent valley in development, an ATS extension to Crewe for Manchester Airport would just be icing on the cake and allow for a full end to end across 4 DLCs of basically the same time period, couple in with the inbound class 90 + an updated Glossip TT to match. (Would just like to see more Northern liveries across the variants we have and TPE 80x livery in the game even if unbranded to really complete the experience).. C'mon DTG please bring the parties involved together and make it happen
