Roadmap Update - 18th May 2021

Not such a good roadmap, nothing there that’s exciting other than Rush Hour that’s coming out this summer.

 

[Route Add-On] GGD-R6 01 West Cornwall Local: Penzance - Truro & St Ives - Developed By Rivet Games

Please remove items off the roadmap which clearly are not ready to be talked about. The locos should of been added by now. If you can not include both the loco and route. Remove it off upcoming roadmaps

 

With all the complaints and questions as to how it was released the way it was, I think answers to those questions would be interesting externally for their customers

 

Well roadmaps aren´t always gonna have new things announced. You can´t have the expectation that every two weeks something new will be announced. Your just gonna have to wait for things to be announced

 

My modular 'one' question for tonight:

BR o7

 

Obviously some roadmaps aren’t gonna have some things announced, and I have no expectation, and I don’t feel like waiting, but whatever.

 

Some questions:

When will we get an update on development of steam? I still remember a promise to publish something every month.
Same for Rush hour, when will there be an article about this?

Then two extremely annoying issues:

The HUD and driving direction inconsistencies/big confusion. Is anything going on there?
The sign in issue for DTG live. Matt said it was investigated. Any progress? Can you monitor this at the roadmap please?

And this: a long time ago we were treated with an improved accelerometer for the BR423. It was experimental. What will happen to this? Will there be a next step?

And I cannot resist asking: scenario planner Version 2.0 do you have at least any ideas on what direction this may go? Now it looks like one of the unfinished projects and we really want something better than this.

 

There is a community challenge for Rush Hour. The winning route will get the first article.

see: https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/train-sim-world/articles/article/rush-hour-community-challenge

 

I agree with this but at the same time it’s DTG’s responsibility to ensure they maintain a cashflow and a comparable quality of product that meets their product description.

If DTG want to increase content output then they need to be prepared to take a cut to quality, which you could argue is currently happening now, but then DTG should not be making false promises such as ‘X will not happen again’ even though they know that they don’t realistically have the appropriate resources to ensure such things.

Obviously a community that is thousands of people in numbers will not agree on any one thing, but treating DTG asif they are running a Kickstarter project isn’t the answer.

If what we are going to see with future releases is sloppy scenery and a decreased effort in modelling then that’s what they need to tell us, this auto generation tool is clearly working well for them otherwise I doubt we would be seeing 3 new routes bundled into one release, on the back of a busy content schedule.

 

Short read this one. We know you said in the past things take longer than usual. which they can do when things don't go to plan. Maybe when this occurs you could post a message to say nothing has changed within our next roadmap.

 

I didn’t

 

TrainSim-Adam What is the latest on the Freight exchange scenario on RSN? Would appreciate some information on the stream.

 

We’ll see in the stream.

 

Not to mention that they have a decent amount of cash as well. TSW has been going on for almost 5 years and it´s annoying when some act as if it´s dtg´s first rodeo in train simulatotion. TS2021 has been going along for a decade so it is not their first rodeo in train simulation as you say

 

Wow, another very quiet roadmap...

 

I mean if you had read the Roadmap, I don’t know what you were expecting?

My theory (speculation of course) what happened this week.

An updated roadmap (we’ve seen from a now deleted scheduled tweet) was in progress showing movement of the 313, Cathcart Circle, and the Roadmap Stream would have intended to talk about these in detail.

Then I saw this;

I reckon this Thursday is now being used as a filler instead and we might have gotten a preview of the Class 313 / Cathcart instead, following on from the Roadmap stream.

Still with me? Good.

Because of the issues with HHL, and last weeks patch, DTG have decided not to proceed with a roadmap update, talking about new DLC, but instead dedicate the stream to addressing the recent problems.

As always, the community has had a meltdown, when DTG have had the best of intentions, here, I think.

It’s worth pointing out that just because there’s no roadmap movement the creators haven’t suddenly downed tools, there’s nothing to report, so this is reflected.

 

This is an absolute fetish with you, isn't it? Given the MAJOR problems with HHL, this one is almost as trivial as the brake handle diameter

 

In other words "this doesn't meet with my personal approval so it shouldn't be there. Please consult me in future before you publish road maps".

Oh, (pedant mode on) and it should be "The locos should have",. Not "should of".(pedant mode off)

 

Good - they SHOULD be focusing on fixing the issues in existing routes before trying to sell us additional content.

 

My questions for the roadmap stream:

1. Normally routes are made at slightly different times so that they don't all release at once, yet you are now planning on releasing 3 at once in Rush Hour, so how have you aligned the development cycles? Was it by some waiting? Some being rushed? Is there any risk that they may be not all of the same quality upon release?

2. What is your benchmark that routes have to meet to be green-lighted for release.

 

Can't believe people are actually gonna watch this stream when it's Eurovision semi-final 1 at the same time. Priorities people.

 

To be fair, they have had two previous releases containing three brand new routes and generally, these have been better accepted than some of the more recent individual releases. I have my fingers crossed, particularly for London-Brighton.

 

I’ll be watching the League Two Playoff semi final between `Newport and Forest Green.

 

I’m a huge Eurovision fan, but I never watch the semi-finals. I like to not hear any of the songs until the final and then pick my favourite then.

 

Not surprised or shocked with the amount that they have released in the last month and a half that there would be a few stale Roadmaps coming out.

Personally I wasn't expecting anything new this time as I figured we are at least 3 to 4 weeks minimum from the next release. And pretty sure they are busy working on the Rush Hour release. It does seem like a big project.

 

I called the organizers. They will postpone the contest by a few hours. They are aware of the seriousness of the situation \o/

 

I find it weird and also sad that so many people expect the roadmap to be some sort of toothpaste tube, where the more you press on one end, the more comes out at the otehr end. This is not meant to be a constant stream of content, it is an overview of what is worked on. And why would it surprise anyone if there is no big change within that progress?
"rubbish roadmap" "meaningless roadmap" "waste of time" "wow nothing"

get real, you only get failed by your own expectations that simply don't match with what the actual thing is, this is on you not on DTG or the roadmap.

 

I'm pleased to see that "user manuals and guides" have made it to the roadmap. I'll be even more pleased when they leave the roadmap and arrive "on the road" of actual availability.

 

I think saying the community has had a meltdown is abit of on overreaction, there are a few people in this thread that may possibly of had a meltdown, and then some are unhappy that there is no movement.

Now, what DTG have done with the roadmap in general is mistaken the ‘roadmap’ idea with a means of communication, how many games are out there with a roadmap being updated every 2 weeks? They’ve set themselves up to fail with this whole shabang, because putting out a roadmap every 2 weeks sets up the community to expect changes every 2 weeks, because this is the only consistent method of communication where they discuss future plans for the game, so I think it’s unfair to say that the community has themselves to blame for setting expectations when it comes to the roadmap.

Now obviously it’s completely unreasonable to expect DTG to have changes on their plan every 2 weeks, but not everyone is that logical and do expect that (I’m not targeting anyone or trying to cause offence to anyone in saying that), the only people to blame for setting that expectation is DTG, because producing a roadmap every 2 weeks is frankly a ridiculous idea, but then that does fall in line with a lot of DTG’s over ambitious ideas.

 

I'm curious to know since the stream ended if the Motor Audio sounds on the M7 cutting out in the middle and rear of the train will be fixed. This was a bug that happened when lirr came to tsw2 8 months ago and was not fixed in the update. When the train accelerates and moves there is no motor sound on the middle and rear of the train. When doing the return journey, the cab will not have any motor audio at all. The motor sounds on the M7 are effectively broken. This was not an issue in tsw2020. Would it be possible to just get the audio on the m7 to tsw2020 standard meaning like port the audio file from tsw2020 lirr m7 into tsw2. This wasn't answered in the stream

 

I think the whole Roadmap idea is starting to lose its appeal really. The major thing I take away from it is DTG saying ' we have fixed the issue but haven't released it' in my book that is no fix at all.

 

It can't be a fix if it isn't released and it has to actually fix something. I just hope the reasurrances that were said actually happen. The "improved" pis that was shown for lirr is still a disappointment and a real immersion killer since I use the Hempstead branch quite often in reality but I hope down the line, the pis will actually have the proper design as reality

 

Sound was discussed in the stream and Adam said to point out any broken sounds (point him in the direction of the bug reports that mention them), so that means any missing sounds in TSW2 that were present in TSW2020 or anything that is majorly broken that wasn’t fixed. It appears that some reports of sound issues from the preserved collection may have been missed, as Adam seemed unaware of some specific issues.

 

It's a fair response. It's not a tv series where you have to wait until next week to find out the answer.

 

I did write a ticket in Kayako though last week about the issue. Many people also pointed out the broken motor sounds. I know what was said. I watched the whole stream.

 

Sorry, I thought you were asking what was said. Something needs to be done about the sound in LIRR as it is really unpleasant sounding and still buggy. There have been errors across the board with this update, hopefully the sound cutting out and some other issues will be fixed in the patch.

 

Why?

• What "went wrong" is they didn't test properly, I suppose. Either someone was supposed to test the things that broke and didn't do so, or they were never going to test it in the first place.
• What's being done now is either they will make sure things are being tested, or they will not. (but they couldn't say that, of course)
• What important lessons have been learned? Probably none. They have released broken stuff in the past. Why should this time be any different? But for the sake of argument let's say they've learned how to test patches properly. (??)
  
• How updates will be handled and managed more effectively in the future? They'll try or make sure to test properly in the future.

So, what did we learn? Basically, they made a mistake and promise to do better. (sound familiar?)

Seriously, I have no idea what kind of answers anyone would find "interesting". People are just looking for scapegoats.

 

It seems adam was unaware about the motor sounds despite all the reports which is a bit odd. I rather them just get back to the tsw2020 sounds of lirr instead of improving them at the moment

 

Yeh the answer sounds somewhat familiar.

 

As a few people just mentioned, these are just words. It is true, however, it was an admission of guilt with class.

I am looking forward to Rush Hour, but I am full of anxiety. Okay, it turned out, they'll fix the HHL magnets. I was afraid to hear that it would mean doing something "from scratch" / again / not doing it. I appreciate Adam's willingness, professionalism, but I'll be completely honest: considering the last few days, I can't imagine bringing Preserved TSW to the level of Actual TSW. It will always be chasing your own tail. BR o7

 

the challenge is over. germany won.

 

Now it's time to play the German National Anthem since Germany won the challenge


Not gonna lie, the German National Anthem sounds nice

 

Thanks for today's Roadmap stream. It was interesting to learn more about what went into some of the decisions which were made.
I also appreciated the clarification about what "broken audio" meant.

 

The challenge for the developers diary on one of the new routes doesn’t end till the 24th May

 

okay but germany will be first

 

I dont think I agree with this part, as it was shown in a preview in Facebook this morning as well as a leak on the TSC discord that Smokebox's Bigboy model is coming soon, which I think was already planned for this week regardless of what has happened.

 

Looks like the German National anthem won't be playing yet since it's not over

 

I've been doing research on German routes recently - I did 100+ services, maybe. I hope it did not hurt the competition and my colleagues from UK and USA will not be angry with me

PS RT testing HHL testing BR 101 testing... I am sorry!

 

One comment on what was said by Sam: I am happy that you have heard the community and will learn from it when it comes to things such as PIS on LIRR and the Dostos on HHL. However, I really hope that the lesson you learned will not result in not doing things at all, but rather that they will be done correctly in the first place. The learning process from this experience should not be "So let's not do it at all" but rather "Let's do it correctly then".