Thames Valley Branches Discussion

I like the recepts . fair points were raised about the expected details since it was mentioned as such. The good news is Johannes is aware of the bugs and has pledged to patch them. I'm enjoying the route and I hope we see more of this type in the future

 

Yeah but this is a bit much, it's almost every service. Bit bland

 

You're comparing apples and oranges by taking examples that came with brand new rolling stock and hundreds, if not thousands of custom assets. This line contains a minor modification of an ancient train model and a few custom assets for the stations and scenery, the main stations being imports from GWE.

Your argument seems to be "it was half price so we should happily accept an unfinished product". That's up to you if you're happy with it, but don't complain when routes like this and stock like the 90 become the norm.

 

Does anyone know what activates Static Layer 2?
Although it looks like it's built in, I haven't seen any static wagons or locos on the map.......
I'm not talking about Class20, that's another static layer

 

Nope. I'm saying those others aren't much better and cost a lot more. So YOU are being unrealistic in demanding more out of a product that costs less. Heck, even the Isle of Wight was significantly more than this route, is a lot shorter, with fewer custom assets, less animations, and the same or less rolling stock.

In fact all 4 similar routes came with just one piece of stock. While you are falsely saying it's just "minor" changes, there was substantial changes to the 166 as has been pointed out. So... a small route with just one piece of rolling stock. The amount of "custom" in the other lines is also debatable as a) it's not as different as you make out and b) that's true of most of TSW.

Let's put it this way. If it took a year of work to release at $17.99 let's say another 6 months to fix all the minor stuff and include some custom assets... would you then be willing to pay $24.99 or $29.99 to cover the extra work and time put in?

If the asking price were the SAME as Mildmay and the Sufragette then you might have a case that it should be similar quality. However, it's not so demanding $30 out of an $18 product is entirely an unfair expectation. It is a decent $18 product.

 

Seems like you're determined to stick to the idea that the route should be average quality due to the price. By that logic, I expect we'll find you defending DTG when the free upgrade to TSW7 comes with the same buggy core

 

Seems like you're determined to get more than you pay for.

 

Squabble via DM children…

 

It's not a squabble at all. Simply a disagreement of perspective. Does honestly exchanging opinions make you uncomfortable?

 

Post reported. You're not a moderator as far as I'm aware. If your dream is to become one, then by all means contact the community team. Calling someone a child for pointing out that DLC needs be finished before release and quality needs to improve rather than worsen is unwarranted, and if you look under my posts you'll see I'm not alone in having those opinions.

Interesting take. You could say that if I'd bought it, but the content of my posts should make it bleedingly obvious that I haven't for the reasons outlined... in my posts.

If the intention was, as you claim, to achieve a lower price point by lowering the quality, then ask yourself why Johannes is now working on fixes. Your "you get what you pay for" argument just doesn't hold up to scrutiny, and repeating it won't change that. You'll notice even DTG don't agree with you on it, since the DLC you buy at 70% off is no different to what you get when you pay full price.

Muting you now, goodbye.

 

It's a Class 66 and some JNA wagons, I think SEHS based on the JNA but there are so many EWS Class 66's I can't say for sure sorry

It sits in the sidings just in front of the Class 20 though

 

Not to mention if you tout how great you have made the route because the shorter distance allows more focus on fine detail, don’t be surprised when you’re asking for a payday rather than releasing as a community/freeware project, that your claims are going to be examined and scrutinised in minute detail. Trains clipping into bridges or platform edges are not minor errors, they are an example of sloppy and untested work - whether by the route author, his own associates or DTG QA and management. I don’t do much route building now in any of the sims, but even doing a freeware model railway for Trainz, I actually deleted the project when I couldn’t get trains to go round a curve without going into the platform edge.

It’s good the author has publicly stated he will try and fix some of the issues (with the caveat basic snagging should have caught most of them) but as I believe already aired, there have to be concerns once these get into DTG’s backlog grinder they won’t see the light of day until after TSW7. Will DTG therefore continue to support this route in TSW6 or will it be a case of tough jerky, if you want to fix it you need to move on to TSW7 (free or otherwise)?

 

Yea can say been playing on Xbox series X and had no issues with performance and no blurry textures. I’m going to try to see how many round trips a day at Windsor-slough . Hope there’s enough time for at least a coffee break

 

I don't think reporting the post was necessary. Someone got their pique up and wanted to be snarky. No one was harmed. All pogodoyle did was a little sarcastic "holier than thou" treatment which most on the forum are guilty of at one time or another. Reporting that does seem a bit childish as I'm not sure he broke any rules. It's just hurt feelings at worst. The rush to call in the authorities incessantly is part of why DTG staff thing we can't control ourselves and their "workload is so high."

To the topic at hand, look... if you guys want more quality then tell him you'll pay more. You are getting $18 of product. If you don't think so...then wait on a sale and you'll be getting $10 or $12 of value on sale. The creator is working on fixes, has been transparent with the community, and is offering a product that offers as much as others for MUCH lower cost at what I think is a similar level. It's not like there was zero feedback on any other TSW DLC.

You can justify YOU not buying it if you want, but trying to pretend it's exaggeratedly worse than it is or that there's some conspiracy to "not point out bugs" for some odd reason is just silly. It's again unnecessary hyperbole. I pointed out several bugs to fix...and others that weren't important.

At this point pretending it's black and white or "all or nothing" is simplistic and not helpful. You're free to do it of course, because people do counterproductive things all the time. That's human nature.

However, for my part I'd sayve the actual constructive criticism for the feedback thread and simply stick to a discussion of overall value here. If you don't think it's worth $18, that's fine. Get it on sale or don't get it. It's no skin off my nose either way. That's a fair disussion to be had.

On the other hand, ranting that it "should be better" (ie $30+ quality comparing to other similar routes) and then demanding a low $18 price is indeed unrealistic and selfish. You get what you pay for. It's like buying a used car and expecting it to be both cheap AND brand new. No... a used car has a lower expectation of value because it's used and lower cost.

No one goes to Taco Bell and demands gourmet quality food.

As I said... if you want a $30 route, this isn't it. It's an $18 route at best.

And that's what it's marketed as.

 

Some people don't seem to like others having a different view to them, plenty certainly aren't willing to listen to an opposing point of view.

I haven't purchased this yet, it looks good from the cab from what I've seen and looks decent value for £14.99.

As ever some know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

 

It's Train Sim World though, I don't get why anybody treats the third person view as secondary when the selling point of DTG sims is that you can view it in third person and have a convincing looking world. Especially when people do try and point to other train sims others can try and then they scoff at the fact you can't go third person, or the world outside the train looks terrible. Would be like judging a route like Peak Forest solely on the basis of the route and ignoring the quality of the stock it comes with. You're paying for both, and so both should have equal weight in the scoring of the product, even if you think one half doesn't deserve to be weighted down by it.

 

Well you are free to look at it that deeply.

I drive entirely from the cab and occasionally travel as a passenger or on some routes do some train spotting.

I will base my purchasing decisions on what I feel is important, not what others feel is important.

 

By reporting a member who is clearly not violating the forum rules, you are in fact breaching the rules yourself. Ironic ;-)

 

Is insulting other members no longer against the forum rules? Didn't realise they'd taken that bit out ;-)

 

This route was out for 48 hours before the Tadami line release date announcement and atleast for me who was considering in getting this a few days ago, it means i will rather spend my money towards Tadami.

 

Watched Joe Dobson’s YT clip of a trip over the Marlow branch this morning and his views seem rightly mixed.

Nice job on the scenery if you disregard the glitches and unredacted telephone numbers. However almost his first comment was, why the heck wasn’t this integrated into GWE. Calling up the 2D map brings home how lonely and little this set of short branch lines is, not even being able to stay immersed and travel between the junctions.

Some flickering textures observed and commented on.

There seemed to be a lack of speed restrictions on the HUD for some of the level crossings.

On the 165 there were comments that the cab was too bright and the braking too strong. Also able to run with a cab door open which should not be possible and trigger the interlocks.

The token working at Bourne End for Marlow seems entirely cosmetic. The reviewer was unable to find the token hut and when departure time arrived the route and signal to Marlow just cleared anyway. Maybe the token operation in both directions needs to be written as instructions in the timetable, to at least make it seem authentic.

His final view was along the lines of nice, but limited which seems to tally with what others have concluded. If there weren’t bigger fish to fry - TSW7, Tadami (perhaps) then might have been worth a punt but as it stands can wait for some fixes and a 50% off sale.

 

I’m having a blast with the route. The price is fair and playing the services continuously is challenging to see if you can stay ontime. Understand that it may not be everyone cup of tea but that goes for any route in the game

 

Well exactly.

If it ticks my boxes and looks good on a couple of streams and there are no reports of anything major then I'll buy it or put it on the sale list or the now even in a sale list.

I feel sorry for those who can't make a decision without having their hands held or being guided by what others say.

This route is another take on what different drivers experience. Not everything has to centred on high speed lines or intense commuter lines.

Personally I would have preferred it to be set in 1990 with a network south east bubble car but it looks decent nevertheless.

 

I’m also really enjoying the route. Yes it’s short but perfect for a couple of end to end runs. Love the scenery and clutter around the track. Johannes seems to be good at making routes feel somewhat authentic. Same with the Mildmay line feeling like you’re in London.
For 15 quid there is really little to complain about.

I just hope route hopping from GWE remastered can be added soon!

 

There is a uncouple button in the cab.

 

Thanks, I found it minutes later and deleted the original post, haha!

 

I enjoyed pootling about with this on Sunday; it really is very chill and on the whole, very enjoyable. It was nice jumping between the different routes, and aggregated there is plenty of duration in a run if you want that rather than a short blast.

there is something quite cool about the scale of bringing a service back in to one of the GWML stations and seeing the traffic / shift up after trundling along a sleepy branch line.

I’ve not tried route hopping yet, but I think that might be how I play the branches generally… a blast down from Reading or Paddington and then jump to a branches service for a final stint and change of pace.

overall, a welcome addition and like it… agree some dodgy scenery and asssets, but generally nothing too offensive.

One thing I have noticed with TSW6 routes more than previous routes (I think) is the amount of camera collision when playing in the external view. This is often my preferred way to play, but this route and Trent Valley / B2C have jumped out as not being external cam friendly and blocking movement or shunting you internally or above / under the unit

 

Niggling issues aside, I really like this route. It's scenic, enough speed variations to keep us on our toes, the 165 is a decent unit and I personally am a fan of the short services and turn around time. It's great if I have only 30 minutes free for example.

Though I'm not sure why there's a random class 20 just sitting at Slough doing nothing.

 

Class 20

doing Class 20 things

 

Just whistling away.