Return Of North Wales Coastal Pack?

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by matthewkeegan, Mar 24, 2021.

  1. matthewkeegan

    matthewkeegan New Member

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    Hi all,

    New to TS, I've seen that the North Wales Coastal pack was removed due to Virgin trains etc.

    Is there any ongoing discussion or thoughts of the North Wales Coastal pack being released again?

    Thanks,
     
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  2. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    I am one who has proposed ways to do it. They could move it to present day and enter into a new contract. They could extend the route to Stafford, maybe Birmingham, and sell it as a new product while converting the old scenarios to use unbranded liveries (new ones can be made for new trains). They could commercialize the Conwy Valley Line from BackdatedTrainSim and have that officially part of the route, again a new route. These are things that might avoid them having to give away the new version to owners like with SWC and unbranding the trains with nothing branded in the route. Extending to Birmingham is also a brilliant route merge option. Holyhead to London Euston in two routes? Yes, please!

    I wonder whether the Arriva Wales DMU pack is on the agenda, as well. Or the Virgin pack.
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2021
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  3. VictorHugoVS

    VictorHugoVS Active Member

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    I really want it, I couldn't buy it when it was discontinued. I really want them to relaunch the North Wales Coastal, as well as other discontinued routes. I don't care much about extensions of this route exclusively, but I would like to see it on a Merge to London Euston. With the launch of Cross City, we already have a Lichfield station in DTG standards, only need a Rugby - Crewe.

    And the Arriva Wales DMU, It could launch as Wales DMU Pack, only with the livery, without branding.
     
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  4. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    You can still buy it as part of TS2018 (? forget now), which you can see on some sites like Humble.
     
  5. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    Explain to me how to get to Holyhead from there. :o
     
  6. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, was confusing with the extension.
     
  7. Robbo13

    Robbo13 Active Member

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    From what I've heard, you can get the NWC from websites such as Humble. The extension however is no longer available and I believe there is no talks about it coming back at the moment.

    I do not know how true this is. I've been around since T.S was Railworks, so I already have both NWC and the extension.
     
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  8. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    Humble does not offer the North Wales Extension. I did get the Virgin Trains pack there after it disappeared on Steam, but HumBle removed that from sale within a month. Best $20 I ever spent. LOL
     
  9. Robbo13

    Robbo13 Active Member

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    I never said humble offered the extension, only the original route as part of TS2018.

    I was lucky enough to get the Virgin Trains pack when it was originally on Steam. Seems a lot use humble, but I've never used it.
     
  10. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    Honestly Humble doesn't have much. In fact, I might have all of the Humble stuff by now from Steam. I only got the Virgin pack from there.
     
  11. Bredyhopi

    Bredyhopi New Member

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    I also want it back as well, it's one of my favorite routes, I want them to bring back the original version, but with Avanti West Coast liveries, as the class 220/221 and 350 with catenary in current days. The 158/175 will be painted in the Transport for Wales livery.
     
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  12. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    I am actually starting to wonder if this is why the DMU pack has not returned yet. Giving it the Avanti treatment and releasing it alongside the NWC return, and possibly with the addition of some NWC scenarios in the package. The latter means that it might not be free to existing users (I say just allow existing owners to get it; unlike an extended route, I don't think I'd pay $20 for two scenarios and some skins that can be created by any modder), but having the models back would be nice as there are packs out there that use it. For instance, I found a version of Devon Rails on UKTS that is used for 80 different scenarios, and someone has created reskins for the158 that use the Arriva Trains Wales DMU pack. There are some 143s out there as well. So if the models end up bundled with NWC instead and those four scenarios lost (I hope they get repackaged somewhere), at least we know where to find the GEO files to prepare the reskins, though we might have to edit scenarios with the new location or just recreate the old location and file structure ourselves.
     
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  13. Nick Y

    Nick Y Well-Known Member

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    I'd love to see the NWC pack come back but Matt said in the stream he did on Thursday (where he did 3 TSW2 routes after the LazerJet video) that there are currently no plans to bring back NWC.
     
  14. VictorHugoVS

    VictorHugoVS Active Member

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    I hope they change their minds, but not a fix for the sounds of the Class 323 was officially launched, very discouraging.

    I see no reason not to bring the North Coast of Wales back as they did South Wales.
     
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  15. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    Sadly, I asked about this privately as well and it was confirmed it's not planned for this year. We don't know if it will be visited again in the future or not. I do stand by the claim that it needs to be before another developer comes in and builds their own route, making this one pointless to revisit, so it's better to do it sooner rather than later. Remember that ATS's subscription route is already at Crewe; nothing is stopping them from doing their own drive to Holyhead if they so choose and if DTG does not make theirs available again.
     
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  16. Robbo13

    Robbo13 Active Member

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    There are currently no plans to extend it to Holyhead, same with to Shrewsbury, ATS have said, whether it happens one day I don't know, but the route is working towards Manchester at the moment.
     
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  17. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    Right, I'm aware of that, but if NWC stays missing another two years, they'll probably decide to just go with it. And that removes NWC from accessibility completely. Which stinks, because new stuff is still being routinely created for it that many users just can't use. We NEED that route back.
     
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  18. VictorHugoVS

    VictorHugoVS Active Member

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    We need the North Wales Coastal back, it is a very good and quiet route to drive. Besides being a work throw away, many people who arrived later, lost the opportunity to drive to holyhead. Also, if you include it in any Merge, it would be a little tricky to have to load the entire route and just drive from Chester to Holyhead.

    I know the focus of the topic is on North Wales Coastal, but DTG, if you're reading this, fix the Class 323 sounds.
     
  19. AirbourneAlex

    AirbourneAlex Well-Known Member

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    Surely re-releasing NWC is in everyone's best interest? DTG make money with another route to sell and we get a route back for use with community content. I don't get why not? Even unbranding like SWC wouldn't be a great deal of work would it? We have all the necessary trains from other routes that can be copied over and all else you'd have to do is take the logos off the station signs.
     
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  20. VictorHugoVS

    VictorHugoVS Active Member

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    NWC would certainly be in my ranking of the best routes if it had not been forgotten, it is a modern route, with good rolling material, pleasant scenery, and good travel distance. I would probably be taking a trip from Crewe to Holyhead now. With NWC back, it generates more sales for those who do not have the original route. Already has unbranded Class 175, now we need the 158 and 221 unbranded. It's a good utilizing the NWC for WCML South, for the 221 and 158.
     
  21. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    The thing is, they probably do not realize how important the route is to the community. They have already set a plan without it. I can't see them wanting to deviate from the plan just to unbrand a couple of trains quickly, especially if they plan to do something bigger and better with it later. In that case, the route better be extended, for goodness sake.

    Personally, I have a scenario pack from UKTS, and ATS still posts NWC to Holyhead. We NEED this route back.
     
  22. Mich

    Mich Well-Known Member

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    If people at DTG have said that they're not doing anything soon then in my honest opinion it's not happening, period. Unbranding it would take little to no time to do, indeed I believe Bossman said they managed to unbrand their route in less than a week it was pulled from Steam. The most complex thing would be sliding it into the release schedule, if they aren't doing it it's because they're choosing not to do so. Is it silly? I would say certainly. But that's DTG's choice, and it's pretty clear it's a stance that they're dead set on. I mean some place tried to buy the rights to the route for god's sake, and DTG declined. They clearly don't want that route being republished, and highly doubt they're unaware of how popular it is, especially if people keep asking them all the time about it.

    Also having the route back is likely not gonna help community content a ton. When they rereleased South Wales Coastal it wasn't compatible with content made for the original route, as far as the game's concerned it's a separate route. So you need to completely swap all the assets over to use the new version's assets, that's a lot of work, and many aren't gonna go though the effort to do that. And that's assuming it's just a rerelease, let alone if it's a new version of the route. If you want the route back because you want to explore that area than I have no issue with that, but wanting it for all the old community content it supported is setting yourself up for disappointment, only a few would update it, most aren't.
     
  23. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    Why is the Holyhead extension no longer available? Who made that?
     
  24. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    As a side note, this third-party add-on exists and cannot be used by anyone not owning the route. So this is another example of DTG completely isolating third-party developers who are trying to build on what DTG has already provided.

    DTG, bring us the route again. Third-party devs will do the branding for you and you have nothing to worry about. Content is constantly being developed to use the original route, and it's better to get a fix out soon instead of waiting until 2022/3/4 (theoretically) to patch it up, thus requiring four/five/six years of content (theoretically) to have to be redone.

    As my comment just above notes, DTG were the developers of the route.
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2021
  25. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    I’m too new to TS to have ever seen the extension available: I know DTG made the main NWC route (which you can still get by buying TS2018), but did they make the extension too? I thought it was some third party developer?
     
  26. Cyclone

    Cyclone Well-Known Member

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    My understanding is DTG made the extension as well, but perhaps someone can correct me if this is not the case.
     

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