One thing that is consistently annoying when you have a ton of routes and assets, is not being able to check if you have what is required to run a scenario before you run it. I know I can check the source of the scenario website or it's manual, but hat means leaving the game, and finding manuals etc. It would be great if when you select a scenario in the game menu, it brought up a list of assets and highlighted the ones you have and have not. When you have hundreds of routes, and.. well, to be honest, I couldn't tell you what locos or trains I have without checking. This would be a great time saving asset, particularly in view of how long it takes for scenarios to load, only to be greeted by a error window, and THEN it tells you what you need. Is this possible?
It's needed on the main in game scenario menu for all scenarios. The workshop thing you mention is on the workshop pages themselves when you subscribe, so you know what you are downloading. I'm talking about in game. TS supports third party content that requires extra DLC, and while you can check when you download a scenario from somewhere, there's always hundreds of scenarios you end up with that came with other DLC and there's no easy to way to check without running it to see if it fails or not.. or by exiting the game and checking manuals etc.
I don't really see how it's necessary for that to be on the scenario page, I feel the workshop page is a much better page for it. As for it showing content from external websites I guess that would be nice, but I kind of doubt it would be able to do that easily.
The workshop publishing mechanism is specifically for checking whether only steam DLC are used, and if that's the case it can then publish. If you are wanting to check which assets are from which routes and which 3rd party content provided them this is all fine but there isn't a definitive easy to find list of who did what reskin and where they're from, and given that things like EPs, SPs and reskins go into the base asset folder (such as the class AP 66 EP puts files in the RSC or DTG class66pack folders.
Because that would only check the assets of workshop scenarios. No, but it should be possible to check if you have the assets installed or not, after all, that's what TS Tools does in its scenario editor section, so it must be possible to do in game.
It's done every time you load a scenario, hence why it takes longer for those which use a lot of assets to load up. They're all listed in the .bin files if you know how to handle them. It's a pain but you can extract them and dig out the info if you know what to look for Yes, it would be easier in game, but then DTG have no onus to make it easy to tell if you have 3rd party DLC or not
The way TS Tools does it though is it tells you what stock it's trying to load, that isn't necessarily useful all the time. Stock can be named in ways which make it hard to figure out what it actually is, or it could be a bit of rolling stock that could be tied to a multitude of content. The workshop stuff's useful because it tells you what pack it needs, if it just told you it was looking for BNHopperB03 that wouldn't be anywhere near as helpful. Because you'd need to already be familiar with the internal names of rolling stock to determine what pack it's from, and that can be hard if you don't already have the pack installed.
I find it more useful than "which DLC pack do I need" because the latter doesn't account for third party reskins. And TSTools gets it's names from whatever the author had put in the relevant XML file, which you CAN change if you wish to make it more explanatory
Sure it can be useful, but it's not gonna replace the need for readmes or manuals like OP wants. Knowing what the rolling stock's xml name isn't gonna guarantee that you'll be able to find the origin of the reskin. It's not always gonna mention the author or website it's on, so for the purpose which OP is suggesting it for it's not useful, that's my point.
Even the manuals aren't always helpful. I have a manual from a major 3rd party route published on a 3rd party site run by some fairly major train sim players and the best they have for requirements is : Class 390 Pack BH Reskins - ATS Class 325 Repaint Pack - BodgeItTMD - ATS Class 66 New Lights* - ATS Class 170 WMR Reskin TFW Class 158 - ATS The 325 and 158 packs are multiple and the manual doesn't include links...
Again sure this happens quite a bit, and it sucks, but I don't see how having a in game system for such a thing is gonna prevent that from happening. I'm no expert but there's almost zero chance of making something like that automatic. So it would have to be manually inputted, which means devs could very well choose to not bother with it like some already do on readmes and manuals,
Don't forget the OP is asking for a check on what's needed rather than where they got it from. Quote below for reference
Yes, it is, but you have no idea until it sits there for ages trying to load it, then fails. It takes TS Info seconds to bring up a list of required assets. If Train Sim did this when you tried to load a scenario, and then said "You are missing the following assets", it woudl save a great deal of time. That wouldn't matter what it's called. Surely it would be best if it checked that you had the assets required before it goes ahead and tried to launch the scenario, wastes minutes of your time, and THEN tells you what you have missing (and even then the window often doesn't contain everything missing). If TS Info can make all the necessary calls and return a list of assets required in seconds, why can't TS do this BEFORE it heads into it's massively bloated, long, and quite frankly irritating launch sequence? I don't mind the long load times if I know the scenario will work at the end of it. Surely, that when you try to run a scenario with missing assets, it warns you FIRST before it spends forever trying to load, only to fail is a good thing? What could there possibly be to object to with this suggestion?
I know, I was stating for information purposes. TSTools extracts the bin using serz, mines the XML for blueprintsetIDs and then looks for those in your file structure It's not rocket science, but also not something DTG would want to write in their program to help third parties necessarily
It would be helping the players, not thirds parties If DTG want everyone to stop using 3rd party content, they'll kill Train Simulator, because that's what makes it appealing to most players - its wide range of content. If it wasn't for that, you may as well just use TSW2 if you're going to only use DTG assets. DTG KNOW this, so it's not to help 3rd party developers at all, it's to help the players.
Big difference between stopping something and assisting it. And talking of "most players" when you haven't asked most of them kind of kills your point. People have been using 3rd party content without this additional feature for a decade so it's a "nice to have" rather than a necessity and it certainly won't kill off anything not to have it
I give up. LOL Sorry for the LOVE idea. You're right.... It would be terrible to get a heads up before you run the scenario, and now I've considered your sage advice, I think it would be MUCH better watch a scenario load for 90 seconds or more, and THEN find out I have something missing. Seriously dude.. what's your objection?
It wouldn't of course, but DTG have no reason to do what you suggest, and as you've said yourself there are already tools out there that do what you ask
That's absolutely not what I want at all. I never mentioned replacing manuals or readme files. I just feel that having to leave the game in order to read them is a royal pain in the arse, when a simple check before loading the scenario would negate the need. I can see I'm peeing into the wind here, and people just seem to prefer watching a scenario painfully load and fail, or leaving the game to hunt down a manual. I hear some people like touching their metal tooth fillings with tin foil too... horse for courses.
Anybody else hear a salt shaker shaking? Just me? Alright then. But person to person, ya might wanna curb the obvious passive aggressive annoyance within your thread posts. Won't get ya anywhere quickly. It's not like what was initially suggested with the original post in this thread wouldn't be a huge blessing to have in the game. It's certainly got my support, whatever that may be worth. Just, try to keep a level head with ya posts, no matter how riled up you may be.
Person to person, you may want to mind your own business, seeing as you've not even been part of this thread.. just saying. I'm not riled.. and nothing I've said is even remotely aggressive - passive or otherwise, except the previous sentence, but that's kind of your own fault for being judgemental... considering your signature, being judgemental doesn't surprise me in the least though. I'm actually puzzled as to why people would rather sit though a scenario loading sequence that takes anywhere from 1 minute to 2 minutes, only have the scenario fail due to a missing asset, as opposed to that being checked before it loads. Can you tell me why YOU would prefer the former rather than the latter? You wouldn't of course... you've already said as much. No one would. Why would they?
I never said that this was the case, only that it doesn't benefit DTG to do what you ask because their packs tend to come with the required assets anyway, and they have zero reason to do anything for third parties, But as you've said a third party already has this covered, so just use that
We've covered this. It would benefit the users, not the third parties. [edit] I've only just noticed your signature. It explains much.
That's not actually what I said at all. I never once suggested leaving Train Simulator, and loading up TSTools is a suitable alternative. What I said was if you are in TSTools, and you then go to the scenario editor, and load up a scenario, it can check your assets in seconds, so if TSTools can do it in seconds, then there's no reason why TS couldn't be made to do the same. I wasn't suggesting anyone actually leaves TS and does this... as you well know.
Yes, you'll find that happens when you disagree with someone's opinion, because you feel you can speak on behalf of DTG.
