Happy Friday, everyone! As a weekend treat, we have news of a new route we're working on. The Santa Fe Railway’s famed, scenic, and challenging route across the Arizona Divide is coming soon to Train Simulator! Find out more here. (Writing credit: Gary Dolzall).
Glad to see Milepost Simulations is still putting out Santa Fe Era routes, I know Raton Pass wasn't well loved, but still excited for this one.
Certainly looking forward to this one. Perhaps someone might come along at some point in time and extend the route from Williams to the Grand Canyon for GCRY runs.
Looks exciting; however, I hope that included career scenarios will abandon the pattern set in DLC's such as Clinchfield, meaning those in which points can only be secured by driving like a bat out of you-know-where {take that, robo-censor!} regardless of weather, time of day, or required tasks. Points don't usually mean that much to me, but to finish a long coal run with multiple hopper fills as darkness descends and receive 0 points can prove disheartening.
How do (or did) they keep all of that rolling stock looking so shiny and new? Let's be honest and bring on the grit!
I've noticed that a majority of North American Freight Scenarios that have recently came out usually start out at 1000 points and don't really have any time limits or very lenient on time of arrival, hopefully it the same for this route too.
Finally some new Arizona route with some more trains unlike Raton Pass or older MS routes. The GP60M would also be a nice addition to this route.
At the very least length ain't gonna be a issue with this route like it was with Raton, hopefully means more potential for scenarios as well. The one thing Arizona Divide doesn't have over Raton is probably stock considering it had a full Amtrak set included, and AD doesn't. With that said the B40-8W's still included, which IMO is the most interesting bit of stock from Raton, and a proper Santa Fe F45 & SD40-2 ain't anything to scoff at, also still seems to have a great selection of freight stock judging by the screenshots. As someone who wasn't thrilled with Raton, and never bought it as a result, this route seems way more promising, well at least to me at any rate.
I think the F45 is the biggest part of this DLC, for 1, the locomotive only came as in BN colors for Marias Pass way back in the day, which is now only available to US customers as part of a BNSF loco pack. It was never offered in a Santa Fe Livery. This DLC also adds back in a Santa Fe SD40-2, which used to be available way back in the day, but has since been removed from Steam for everyone. The only new piece of rolling stock seems to be the white tank car that is hidden in a few shots (Unless the well cars are brand new, but they are not visible in the screenshots)
Time limits aren't necessary an issue, as you say, they can be lenient / realistic. I found two solutions over my playtime for this, from a scenario developer perspective. a) Split the scenario into multiple parts, so that the difference between driving on the edge and safely doesn't expand. It can also involve stopping in sidings (Canadian Mountain Passes) or having a broken down train in front. Can go wrong due to the clock issues. b) Handing out a few extra point, compensating for minor mistakes. Typically it's 4x300 but I'm thinking 4x255 and somesuch. Minor. It's completely sensible, actually, you don't have to perform 100%, just like in school, 90% is fine. From the player's perspective I think the idea is to run scenarios 2-3 times, first just play and observe, then adapt. Like a puzzle.
How about you fix the broke 323 released with Birmingham Cross City last week and then we can talk about milking more $$ out of me.
Not the point. The thread was created by a DTG representative, not Milepost. My response was to that person. Likewise, Milepost is creating it, but DTG will be the one selling it. So my quip to the DTG rep remains relevant.
So, are they not allowed to advertise an upcoming 3rd party route because of one of their DLCs being broke? Not to mention the article itself is written by Gary Dolzall, not one of the DTG representatives on the forum. All JD is doing is posting it here for those interested in it to read it.
Despite the complainers on Facebook, this will be a day 1 purchase for me. Also nice to see a photo with the branding on now. (I just hope it doesn't get banned from Screenshot contests like Raton, and is allowed like Chicago and Montana Hi Line)
If it uses the same branding scheme as Hi-Line, one would think it'd be good for the official screenshot contests.
I would love this route. I've been suggesting this for forever. I love the F45. I think if extensions are added later, the Grand Canyon RR from Williams to the Grand Canyon would be amazing, as well extending the mainline to Seligman and eventually to Kingman and Needles. Other locos that need to be added would be the GCRY F40PHs, Alco FPA4s, the ex-CB&Q Mikado #4960, and the GP7u #1105 for switching the consist at Williams or running special trains. The ATSF #3751 4-8-4, an FP45, SD45, SD45-2, and GP60/GP60M/GP60B would be great DLCs for the route. For passenger services in the early 90s, we need Amtrak's SW Chief with either F40PHs, P40DC Genesis units, or the Dash 8-32BWHs and Superliner cars used on the Raton Pass route.
In terms of the GCRY, the community can never be stopped We have some F40s, and some FAs that could substitute, but the steamers and GP7u would obviously need to be custom.
One could possibly make a Burlington 2-8-2 pack and have 4960 in its "Southernized" GCRY shape included in it. As for the other GCRY steamers. Hmm. Well save for 539 which hasn't even run in I don't know how long, they're all Lake Superior & Ishpeming engines, so perhaps an LS&I pack could be made. But then again, a straight GCRY pack could also be done.
Posting this here since it's relevant. Here's a link to their Facebook page if you want to contact them for the patch in the meantime.
Issue has been fixed, there should now be Arizona US Assets (and I assume a unbranded package for international users) in the DLC list. Pretty much the same as the TruRail Patch, although the .ap package is named ArizonaDivideUSAssets.ap (again might be a tad different internationally) as opposed to System.ap.