Hey everyone For people that bought the Arosa line on PlayStation, what do you think of it and would you recommend it, or is it in the condition Isle of Wight was in. I’ve heard some good things and some bad things about it. So should I buy it or wait for Hamburg to Lubeck (clinchfield looks amazing but I’m not in to freight).
I've done a couple of scenarios now, and in all honesty I wouldn't recommend it in its current state. The loco and rolling stock are beautifully done, the sound seems fine. The big problem is the graphical quality of the scenery, it's pretty bad. I'll attach a couple of thumbnails of what I'm talking about, in places it really does look two gens old. As for (re)playability, it's not a fast route (I've already started thinking of it as West Switzerland Railway) There are 8 scenarios I think and 40 or 50 timetable services. For all the route's twists and turns the speed limits are pretty consistent, in fact I have just left it for 5 minutes* on Control Wheel setting 3 and it's just happily chugged along on the climb needing no input from me. That's not really exciting or involving. *10 minutes now and haven't needed to touch the controller! I think if DTG or Rivet or Skyhook or whoever are going to release short or slow routes, the scenery needs to be good to make up for that fact. If you're only going to go 20mph for the entire route, then you want something nice to look at at least, I mean this is the Swiss Alps ffs, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and Rivet haven't done it justice for me.
I can't do it right now, so please take a shot of the mountains in Chur. The bad textures are nothing compared to the AWFUL half loaded mountains in the background. The draw distance is simply unacceptable. By far the worst thing I've ever seen on this generation...
This one? Even walking round the station and town itself is bad, it's like some sort of Steam Early Access knock-off. Very few people, hardly any traffic. Only seen about 5 passengers in 2 scenarios.
Didnt they explain that they focused on the near and on the trains? Something had to give? Poor scenery or poor trains?
I had half a mountain, but the biggest problem (which was addressed in the live last night) is the cars...they drive through the trains and even each other. Someone at River or Dovetale need to invest the time in either trying to improve the way the game is made, or look into other ways open world games are made, this could be so much better with a different core game engine running it.
I'm afraid there are some nasty bugs in it again! RE1434 (11:13) and R1436 (11:50) derail briefly at the beginning. The first one directly at the entrance to the station at a switch that is correctly set. The next one just after Arosa on a siding. In addition, the gradient is displayed the wrong way round and the german tutorial says at the end to set the brake to 100%, but the Tut expects an emergency. Question: What's the difference in train numbers, like Rx and REx? And what does it mean to choose the train in a different livery? It just has a different name / number? I think that when it comes to the compromise between graphics and performance, on a slow driving route, they have been way too cautious. IOW is a very similar track, after all.
As I said in another post, performances are very important, but this mess is simply awful. IoW is pretty well made, except for the early LOD problems they solved with a patch, so I can't believe this is the same developer. It looks like a game from the PSX era...
I tested the two services again. RE1434 retracted at only 5 kmH, so much slower. No derailment. Then derailed again in the same place as R1436. 30 kmH are allowed, I was 1-2 kmH over it. Does that mean that you derail at every junction if you are just over the limit ??? At that point I don't care about the graphics ...
I can't believe that Dovetail let them put it out in this state. I assume DTG get license payments from Rivet, Skyhook, but they should also care about the quality of third party products put out under their brand name.
I know this is not a fair comparison, but, damn, I'm playing Densha De Go and I can't believe these two games share the same hardware. The Japanese game is very different (no cockpit, no chance to walk around the stations, etc. etc.) but it uses the same engine and it looks simply great (I had the chance to travel frequently on the Yamanote Line back in 2008 and I feel like home). I don't expect the same level of detail, because TSW simulates a lot of other stuff, but, well, something better than this garbage? I know it's possible...
Now I did the scenarios. It's a great idea to move freight on this route as well. If only in the scenarios. It is only stupid if these two are also faulty! With the first one, I ran into a stop signal shortly before the finish, even though it was green. When transporting the empty ones, the distance was displayed incorrectly again and when slowly driving back onto the siding, I derailed again. In the timetable, derailments are also the order of the day. So you can say that ARL is a complete derailment. So I show my red signal to everyone who is interested. It's like IOW! For the fact that there is no quality control, we beta testers pay the full price and after the update or bug fix there is a sale. Everyone is loughing about us. Didn't Rivet learn from IOW? No. ARL is hardly or not playable at all. The graphics hardly play a role anymore. No - ARL is currently not worth buying and needs an urgent update and bug fixes just like IOW once did! I don't understand how they can sit in the nettles again like this. the graphics - it would be enough if it at least worked! Edited by DTG Natster - REmove inappropriate language.
I ragequitted after a few minutes due to the HORRIBLE graphics, but you're right. This is definitely worse. This is my last TSW purchase, no doubt about that. We should ask for a refund, because this is beyond shameful. Cyberpunk 2077 was the first ever case of a mass refund on Play Store, and it was definitely better than this piece of garbage. The problem is that maybe just 10 people bought this thing...
I haven’t done the tutorial so don’t know if it a peculiarity of the train but I jumped in to do a downhill service from the timetable. After using the dynamic brake, I could not take any power again without coming to a full stop, at which point it allowed me to take power normally. It’s probably another bug, but don’t know for sure, so not putting a report in just yet, but it seems odd to have that happen. I tried lots of thing to get the power back while moving but only completely stopping the train worked. I got tripped up with one emergency stop and that was easy to deal with. Otherwise the train was easily controllable and fun to drive. I’ve only done one service but that’s where I’m up to. No other driving bugs to report. As for the graphics, there is something funky going on with a mountain a Chur not loading but in general the scenery was behaving itself. It looked fine in the snow from the driving seat. As much as people have been going absolutely nuts over the way the distant scenery looks, it’s much of a muchness when you are driving. From the cab, it all looks rather beautiful in the snow. It’s when you look around from an external camera that you get to see a mix of beautiful, average and terrible bits. Unless looking at the scenery is the biggest thing you want from the route, I wouldn’t let that aspect put you off getting it at some point. I’m not that bothered by it, I’ve seen plenty of bad distant scenery before.
Personally I’m enjoying it but the re-playability will suffer as aside from the scenarios, you don’t use any of the sidings or freight wagons. I wish they would unlock the points so we could switch them on demand and do our own shunting. The rolling stock is exceptional and the route looks very good. There are several bugs however, at least one of the scenarios, several timetables and any southbound custom scenarios are unplayable due to random derailments or signals that won’t clear. The livery editor doesn’t work for the locomotive as you can’t place shapes on the side. There is a mountain that appears to be transparent behind Chur but it doesn’t bother me. The road traffic does not work for any northbound trains, nor does the gradient indicator or pantograph. This seems to be a core issue with directionality which needs fixing. Unless you want the day one discount I’d wait for the next patch in mid-April and see what they come up with.
The images in this thread are horrible, unacceptable quality. They look like PS3 graphics. And the rest of the bugs they are reporting are serious, what kind of quality control do these people do? And DTG doesn't look good either, at the very least they should test a third party developer's route before authorising the release because in this case it tarnishes the TSW brand. I was so looking forward to this route, what a disappointment!
Issues so far: 1) Random derailments. 10 kmh heading uphill, and a sudden violent back/forth jolt is experienced followed by a derailment. Frequent violent jolts are experienced when passing over switches throughout the route. It feels as if the physics on the carriages is broken, throwing them forward into the locomotive when passing over switches. 2) Power cut outs. After using the electric brake, power cannot be reapplied. Fiddling with the vacuum pump lever kicks this back into action. 3) Missing mountains at Chur until up close. 4) Audio. No wheel/running sounds on the loco at all. If wipers are active when braking, the fan audio in cab cuts out with every click of the wiper or when you sound the horn. Distant scenery is as it is. I won't comment further on this, as it's been extensively covered elsewhere. Overall, this route has some great potential with the driving itself proving to be very different and challenging to what we've seen so far. BUT, this should not have been released as it is. Frequent derailments are game breaking, not just minor niggles we can accept until it's patched. An entire hours worth of driving can be lost by this, which is not acceptable. SHS wasn't in the best shape when it came out, but it could at least be played and the patch that came out soon after brought the route up to a pretty reasonable level (in my opinion). Even before then, I could still enjoy it. Arosa isn't in a fit state at all. It's broken. I'm very disappointed.
Rivet accidentally released the dev build. Because they wouldn't have been serious. Just a little mistake, nothing else.
It looks great but I just get stuck at red lights for an enter it’s. For instance in timetable mode, the R1421 Chur to Arosa. I gave up after waiting 15 minutes at a red.
I've spent a good bit of time this evening playing this route after a few derailments earlier. I enabled the 'disable switch derailment' in the options to prevent that particular bug reoccurring, so I've been able to enjoy the route a bit more. I stand by the issues I've mentioned in an earlier post regarding the route not being fully ready for release. However, there are plenty of things to love about the route, too. If Rivet can get these bugs patched in the first update, I'll be very happy. The loco itself is stunning. The challenging descent down to Chur is an amazing driving experience, really challenging but rewarding when you get it right. The attention to detail and additional small features are very well thought out. The crackle from the overhead catenary, the stop button in the carriages illuminating the light on the desk, the request stop button in platforms illuminating the trackside signals, the ability to walk around the lake at Arosa, the fold out mirrors and even the cab fan. They're all incredible! It's such a shame that so much thought and attention went into these great additions, but they failed to add wheel/track joint noise to the loco, didn't notice you can't apply power a lot of the time, didn't notice the cab audio constantly cuts out under braking etc. Bring on the patch
It has its bugs for sure, all of the above! Also lacking in passengers along the route, No passengers board or alights the train, they just stand there like frozen statues!
No derailments for me as yet. Horn doesn't sound every time, seems to be an audio looping issue. Chur mountains don't load in but other than that scenery was stable and you do get the sense of passing through huge mountain shoulders. That depsite the poor quality into the distance. The drive uphill is easy and soothing. The drive downhill is challenging and great fun 100% concentration needed. The power issue was weird. Couldn't get power to reapply after using dynamic brake. Made for a lot of near flat areas becoming a crawl downhill. There are very very few passengers. And those that are there stabd on the platform in summer wear (in the snow) and never never board the train ... Which train are they waiting for? They all go the same way. But that's an issue on other routes too. Overall, work needs doing. It is sub par. But it's also a good driving experience. Something unique. Let's hope they re-evaluate the community's feedback and not predetermine what they will fix by themselves alone. There is potential for great here.
One thing is certain Rivet games can't do water, the sea on IOW is still awful and in new Arosa line the rivers iook very poor. The background mountain trees look like my 4 year old grandsons sticker book.
Nope, but here you can find a good translation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1up2i8Iyv-_imCq7S_UTIUItQTdcaJhLc3AFpvdv361M/edit
I think what is pretty cool is the fact you can walk around Arosa, the Lake is a pretty good walk whilst waiting for the next service. Need to do some more walking around Chur too.
I think some signals you must change manually. At least that's what I have heard and read. I couldn't afford to buy this route so I did pass on it as I am putting emphasis on my DE collection but some pictures are bad and... To me Switzerland is all about those beautiful mountains and picturesque mountain scenery that I have experienced in Austria in real life. I mean, it kind of has TS vibe on streams but I'm really not sure if it was ever worth getting it simply based on screenshots taken by other players and brutal feedback to be honest.