Route Medway Valley Line Feedback Thread

This truly is a labour of love! Phenomenal work by everybody involved!

This route is gonna be a very high mileage route for me!

 

Well....

Just done a run from Strood to Paddock wood and have to say, it's brilliant!

Played on XSX with default layers and didn't experience blurry textures or any problems at all. Can't wait to do another run and also have a play with the SEHS improvements.

 

Great performance on Xbox!

 

What an absolute delight it is to drive! Well done to all at Firefly.

 

I’ve just done two full runs and the route and performance are the best I’ve experienced on this game. I live in the area and often run on the river path between Maidstone and East Farleigh. The attention to detail is next level.

Thank you to the Firefly team for all the work that has gone into this. You’ve set a new benchmark in terms of quality and I look forward to seeing what you take on next.

Only three bits of feedback and all are minor:

You’re still instructed to ‘Lock Doors’ after unloading at the final station, only to have to unlock them again if you want to do the next trip. This kills the immersion a bit, however, this is an issue in a lot of routes so I suspect it’s something to do with the core rather than this route.

Also in Free Roam, the core bug with the timetable display not updating, makes it difficult to get the head code for your next journey. Is there a workaround that doesn’t involve returning to the menu?

It’d be great to have some GSMR boards at Tonbridge and Paddock Wood, where the signals numbers are too far away to read from the cab.

 

One minor thing ive noticed so far, when approaching Paddock Wood from Tonbridge and going onto the Medway Valley, the signals are flashing but no where near enough to notice that they are flashing, they can be mistaken for a solid aspect.

 

Great route to drive, however on PS5 the traction sounds on the 375 are really quiet. Can just about hear them in external view but pretty much not noticeable inside the cab. Is this an issue on my end or is anyone else experiencing this?

 

It's a known issue currently, for some reason only on PS5, and only on the current build. DTG are investigating it currently.

 

Thanks

 

Wow, I am on pc so have not gotten it yet, but this group took time to update parts of SWHS and that update is out now.

 

On this, I’ve found you can find the headcode for a service by hovering over it in the map. Hope that helps anyone else experiencing the same issue.

 

-PS5, When you switch to the GSMR cam there's no cursor and you can't move the camera to the buttons

 

Platform - PS5 Pro

I’ve just the first few scenarios and one TT service from the route, overall I’m very happy. No blurry textures, great FPS and detail. Even the sky looks like it’s have a major overhaul, the clouds look more realistic then usual.

The only cons I’ve found are the running sounds. I’ve only driven the 375 and 700, both sounded too quiet while other route sounds were like double in volume, especially junction sounds *Clank, Clank*.
The in-cab announcements could do with a 10-15% increase in volume too. I can barely hear them.

The GSMR has no joy stick functionality either. When I switch to the GSWR by holding down R3 and left on the D-pad I can’t free cam the buttons with the cursor (white dot).

 

Once again, I can't find the route in the Xbox Store. It's not listed under the TSW 6 DLC or in the search results. This has been happening a lot lately with new releases. I'm in the European Store.

 

It's a MS issue, you need to use a direct link to find it currently:
https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/st...way-valley-line-strood-tonbridge/9nmtz52bwj3r

 

HERE: https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/st...way-valley-line-strood-tonbridge/9nmtz52bwj3r

 

Ditto on the above 375 issue on PS5 Pro.

That aside, it’s actually really hard to overstate how good this is. I don’t want to speak for the devs here, but for a community who is quite critical of TSW’s flaws, these guys have put their money where their mouth is.

I didn’t think it was possible to achieve a step beyond what JT had done, but it’s happened - this route is just so…nice. Just being stopped at a platform & looking onward at the signage & foliage etc, it’s just really 10/10.

Everywhere you look, you can tell someone has been over it & applied specific details. None of the weird roads that go through seemingly random placed buildings. We’ve got warehouse yards that have road markings & well placed assets, shoutout to the various new vehicles too, the BTP vans & 7.5 tonne trucks are neat. The various logistics facilities have different layouts & vehicle variety so that they don’t look like the same prefab placed 12 times over a route (though my favourite is the DHL one on the curve into Aylesford). Various platform textures that look so good. Frankly I could go on & on about it all, but the point is that pretty much every mile of this route seems to have had significant detail put into it & whilst that isn’t necessarily unique to this DLC, it is in the way it’s done purposefully.

I haven’t done much with the 375 on account of the wrong build being published, but I’ve done a there & back in the 465 & the new cab PoV along with the suspension has made what was already a good little unit much more relevant to recent rolling stock expectations. It’s also excellent to get an end to end route for it.

If I had to absolutely pick out some issues, it would be that the track shadow behaviour is pretty weird - particularly near Strood, rather than gradually rendering it sort of loads a section of shadow, waits until your near the end of it & then loads another chunk. The other thing that stands out is the track bed still has the usual poor rendering, it seems to be loading ballast that goes over them, when you’re close up.

Overall though this route has really overtaken anything that has come before it. JT already had a wide margin over most content, but this has really turned that margin into a gulf, it just improves on pretty much every limitation that we’ve criticised in terms of world building.

PS5 Pro performance has been great, locked 60FPS & no blur to speak of.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied.

I’ve now purchased the DLC from the in-game store.
Now let’s get started.

 

On your Xbox, go to System Settings > Account Settings > Payment & Invoicing > Order History. You'll find the purchase there. Click the Store link and start the installation. That's exactly what I just did!

 

I don’t know if it’s my ears deceiving me, but I feel like there’s an audio quality change between Stood to Paddock Wood and Paddock wood to Tonbridge Wells.
It’s sounds like a lower quality audio is used from Stood to Paddock Wood then a higher one from Paddock wood to Tonbridge wells. I say this because I had my surround sound at a set level (probably louder than normal due to the quieter running sounds). Once I got into Paddock wood I noticed the shift in audio quality, it seemed louder and I had to turn my speakers down a notch.
Maybe it’s me, I don’t know. It’s barely noticeable I guess, but my hearing is pretty good
For reference I played TT service: 2T48, I also tried the service after it (2T51) and it seemed like the same results.

 

Just crashed coming into Chatham with a Dover service, 2K06, brake in position 1 and half way down the platform it kicks me to desktop.
First run too, great start

 

Absolutely great route! I'm loving it to bits, the only issue I have found is that there is a dash or two by the headcode on the GSMR.
E.g

 

I noticed that also. On PS5

 

Just had another crash to desktop, this time on 1P12, again just approaching the station (first station stop, can't remember the name), brake in position 1.

Terrible start to this, shame as it looks really good and I've only been on the SEHS bit as far as I can tell. On the plus side the 375 is really good, the spark effects were a nice surprise and I do like the properly interactive GSMR.

Switching the damn thing off now for the night and going to the pub instead.

EDIT: just to add this is PC Steam on Windows 11, 64GB RAM and 32GB graphics card with SSD.

 

It’s how it should be, the Electrostar have very well insulated cans and the driver doesnt sit on a motor bogie, so the main thing you should hear is the AC and coupler knocking sround

 

The electrostars can be quite quiet in the cab due to sound dampening and the fact the driver isnt on a motor bogie.
the announcements should also be quiet as they only come through the phone in the cab

 

This scenario came completed? I have only done the introduction and 377 tutorial.

 

Are you using any mods/ini edits?

 

I’d still prefer them louder tbh, like how they are in other routes. Maybe this is a quality of life feature that needs adjusting in the menu’s. All cab announcements should be at the same volume imo, if you prefer them quieter then you have the bar to lower it to your preference.

 

I wasn't able to play for long, as the game crashes after a dozen or so minutes. Setting off from Strood, the crash occurs between Snodland and New Hythe.

But those few minutes of driving are a truly amazing experience! The sounds are impressively good. The train guard simulation really does the job. And the attention to detail is incredible – for example, the wider I open the window, the louder it gets in the driver’s cab. I was worried about performance, but it’s actually really good. The ride is smooth, and the computer’s fans don’t have to run at full speed.

If I can find and fix the cause of these crashes, this will be my favourite route in TSW6.

I’ve waited six long years for a route in TSW to offer a similar level of realism and immersion!

What I saw during those dozen or so short minutes of driving along the Medway Valley Line absolutely captivated me, whereas practically all other routes in TSW have always quickly disappointed me.

 

Is this with a vanilla install or with mods?

It might be a case of removing all mods and adding them back in batches till you find the culprit. (I had to do this with the GWE Remaster).

 

Shouldn’t it be more realistic?
You can always open a window

 

For anyone that is having crashes, please remove all mods, reset your ini to default settings, and ensure steam doesn't have any extra launch parameters like "https" or "dx12".

 

Are we saying that this route is going to be a case of having to have a fully vanilla install to ever actually use it????

Or is this just as part of the fault finding process?

 

Fantastic route this absolutely love it. Well done all involved.
Just one thing I've noticed on this route, I cant seem to work out how to disable that 'Objective complete' message as it doesn't seem to crop up on my other routes.

 

They did a great job with this route. Sound is top drawer and the attention to detail is fantastic. I never knew I could have this much fun driving through towns I have never heard of in a train with a postage stamp-sized window.

 

Idc about realism when it comes to announcements, I want to be able to hear them clearly and not muffled.

Having one set volume for all announcements going forward is the best approach. Let the player decide what the best course of action is.

 

This has to be the best route in tsw by far. I'm on Xbox series S and I've had no blurry textures. I believe this route is underpriced for it's features (when the hell would you see a working toilet!). This route shows what DTG could do. If a group did it on their first try, DTG can do it easily.

 

Part of the fault finding process. We need to ascertain whether it is the vanilla route, a specific train, a specific mod, or an engine.ini.
We're modders, we don't expect people to play vanilla. But we need people to play vanilla when they are crashing so we can diagnose the crash. If mods are included there are thousands of variables that could be the cause.

 

Certain engine.ini cvars are almost certainly the culprit if you've ever added stuff to that file.

Because MVL uses it's own version of TOD there are conflicts that never came up in testing as testers aren't allowed to have modded files.

Please delete your engine.ini and let the game rebuilt it on its next launch.

 

As far as I know I don't have any mods, both times (only had the two go's so far) were on "custom" weather but just set to clear skies no wind etc... (as I don't trust dynamic weather to not just throw snow at me in summer). I will have another go and try a different train, to see if the issue is with the Electrostar rather than the route itself, then will try a different stretch of line as both my crashes were on SEHS portions.

 

Could you go to: Documents\My Games\TrainSimWorld6\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
And delete the "engine.ini" there.

 

This worked for me. I CTD on 3 occasions trying to run 1T94, Gravesend to Maidstone West, my usual train home from St Pancras. Once I deleted all of my mods plus the engine.ini file I was able to successfully complete the run.

Thus really is a fantastic route and I can see myself playing this regularly. The attention to detail is fabulous, even down to the blue tanker parked up/rotting away in the sidings just down from Aylesford heading towards Maidstone. It's actually there in real life!

 

In case it helps, I was getting crashes on a completly vanilla system. A file verification didn't help, so I took the nuclear option and deleted TSW completley including from the My Games folder (save game backed up). I reinstalled with only the Route + all DLC Layers.

I've gradually been adding stuff back and now have all UK DLC installed -dx12 and -httpapi + I added god mode and Jetwash's Beast mode settings. So far it's all working.

Strangely on my considerably less powerful Rog Ally X with a ton of mods, it ran flawlessly from the start. So I'm guessing something on my desktop was corrupted somewhere which is a bit surprising as it was only freshly installed last weekend. Hopefully it's stable now.

Now that it's working, I'll add that the route is stunning. The transition into darkness is a great experience. I'm going to really enjoy this.

 

The PS5 audio thing with the 375 is a known issue I think.
It stems from a lack of traction motor sounds I believe and is only an issue on ps5.
It's being investigated

 

I was also having crashes 10-15 minutes into any journey with mods/lighting enhancements/Godmode installed. I went for the nuclear option of a clean install and whilst I've only done one trip end-to-end since then, the crashes have not re-occurred.

 

Very good route and there is bridge reverb on this route which is missing from a few routes. Love bridge reverb.

 

Thanks, I was going to ask how to find the "ini"

I had a quick run on the 365 from Strood to Cuxton, the game didn't crash however it did present the weird frosted glass effect on all of the units windows as well as the Javelin that was in the adjacent platform. Reloaded with the Electrostar and that didn't have the frosted glass however the adjacent Javelin still did. I managed a run of a few miles before it kicked me out whilst roaming around Snodland doing the collectables. If it helps here is the data from the crash report.
Unhandled Exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x000000000000010d

In the meantime I will find and delete that file and see if it helps

 

Is James doing the narrating on the scenarios?
Whoever it is has that calm & soothing voice, the kind where you’re sitting in a relaxing warm bath listening to some Sade. Very pleasant on the ears. Sorry Matt, someone has taken the number 1 spot