I Had An Idea

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by erg73, Oct 21, 2021.

?

What do you think?

Poll closed Nov 20, 2021.
  1. Good Idea

    15 vote(s)
    36.6%
  2. Bad Idea

    26 vote(s)
    63.4%
  1. erg73

    erg73 Well-Known Member

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    Seeing the current situation in which the game is getting bigger and bigger and the problems that this is generating lately, I have come up with something. Give me your opinion.
    It seems that the trend in TSW is to locate most of the routes in 3 geographical areas, and it doesn't seem that this is going to change. So, why not divide the game by these areas?
    So, we could have:
    -Train Sim UK
    -Train Sim Germany
    -Train Sim USA
    -Train Sim World (for the rest)

    Like for example Euro truck/American Truck.
    Why have a huge game if many players are only interested in one geographical area? And those who, like me, like all the variety could have all 4 games but we would get lighter and more specialized games, which would lighten some memory problems and DLC and trophy limitations on some platforms.
    I don't know, it's just a flash idea that crosses your mind and maybe it could be developed more, what do you think?
     
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  2. Factor41

    Factor41 Well-Known Member

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    I suggested something similar in a previous thread and got shot down because people didn't want to spend the 20 secs changing between them. As long as there wasn't an enormous size overhead, I'd be fine with that. Maybe make Germany "Europe" so it could include LGV, Arosa, and any cross-border options which might come in future. USA to "North America" too, so it can include Oakville.
     
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  3. Tigert1966

    Tigert1966 Well-Known Member

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    In some ways I would welcome it. I never play American routes anymore so it would only show me the routes I want to play.

    On the there hand, off the rails mode isn’t going to work to do ‘silly’ scenarios like putting a tube train in sand patch. No big loss in my opinion.
     
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  4. Factor41

    Factor41 Well-Known Member

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    I've not used the Scenario planner other than a quick A-B to get the trophy, so I wouldn't miss that, but it's a valid point for those who do.

    As you say, one benefit would be a much cut down menu screen and less time scrolling across waiting for the driver to pop up in his new uniforms. Even as a single game, I reckon an L1-R1 menu on the route screen to choose between the three regions would be far more useful than the odd "filter by TOC" option we have currently.
     
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  5. appleerwin

    appleerwin Member

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    I like this idea.
     
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  6. benuildo

    benuildo Member

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    I don't like the idea very much. There must be an other solution. If you want to have all areas you need to install 4 base games. I'm afraid this would need much more sdd space than a one game solution.

    I think the mounting idea they persue, is not bad, if it works automatically and you don't need to think about what you need to mount and unmount. I would prefer a version where you choose the route you want to play and the game automatically mounts the route and all dlc needed for the layers. After choosing an other route, the game should first unmount the now unused stuff automatically before mounting the new dlc.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2021
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  7. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    I've done this myself by only buying the routes I am interested in (all UK based), so I don't have the bloat of loads of DLC I don't want residing in memory. Of course I don't know WHY all the DLC are loading into (and staying loaded in) memory anyway as that seems like an insane way of devising a game engine
     
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  8. erg73

    erg73 Well-Known Member

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    I didn't see that thread, I swear I didn't mean to steal your idea. ;)
    Good thinking also about expanding those areas, so for the time being only 3 sets would be necessary.
    I would like in the future Train Sim Asia.:love:
     
  9. erg73

    erg73 Well-Known Member

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    Sure, but even then you have to have two routes in the base game that you may not be interested in. Wouldn't you have liked it better if it included 3 UK routes?
     
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  10. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Not really... I paid for the game and a discounted rate for two routes I wouldn't play. I have many others I do play.
    I tend to focus on what I have that I want rather then the maybe maybe (never gonna happen) that I don't
     
  11. Factor41

    Factor41 Well-Known Member

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    Wouldn't make sense from a sales perspective. DTG know full well that people will always have a preferred option so the bundles always contain routes you probably wouldn't buy individually. Take Rush Hour, for example - there's a discount to get all three with the season pass, but I doubt I'd have bought Boston on its own, so they're not butchering their route sales too much by including it.
     
  12. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    And people like me can still ignore the pass and just buy the UK route. Works well both ways
     
  13. Factor41

    Factor41 Well-Known Member

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    Plus, chances are, unless they announced three upcoming UK routes in advance with a UK-specific season pass, you'd probably have bought at least one of them already.
     
  14. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Indeed. The only way it would work is if they gave a pass and allowed you to buy any three upcoming routes. But then I would probably just buy them anyway
     
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  15. stujoy

    stujoy Well-Known Member

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    I had the same idea but then dismissed it due to all the negatives and the fact that it doesn’t solve the problems that go with the game being so big. For players of one nation’s rail content only then it is neither needed or serves the purpose of reducing total DLC that they don’t have anyway. The size of the core game isn’t that huge. The main issue that I see is having to have four games when there really only needs to be one. It’s the total DLC size limitation that is the problem to solve and eventually you would have four games reaching a DLC limit instead of one. It’s better to come up with a real solution than to cause a whole bunch of other issues to buy you some time.
     
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  16. ukpetey

    ukpetey Well-Known Member

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    Exactly what he said! I never buy North American routes, I have no interest. I have a passing interest in European routes, and would have an interest in other areas of the world potentially. But my “go to” is always UK trains and routes because this is where my interest and knowledge lie. I personally have never used ‘off the rails’ mode

    If I could delete unused ‘core routes’ from my game, such as Sand Patch Grade I would
     
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  17. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    This is a very bad idea. Apart from being faintly xenophobic, it would put an undue burden on the substantial number of us who enjoy railways from around the world, having to install three or more separate games and constantly having to close and reopen different ones.
    The core game has only one route from each major area. Not a big deal for anyone. If you don't want content from North America or Germany, simply don't buy it, then it won't load. As far as RH is concerned, you could just buy BML That would cost you the same as buying any other individual route.
    Speaking for myself, I have all currently available dlc, except the two most recent which seem to be problematic. I like being able to quickly switch from LIRR to Hamburg to NTP. I'm sure I'm not alone. Why do you want to spoil things for me and my friends?
     
  18. erg73

    erg73 Well-Known Member

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    I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, things spoil themselves too often in TSW.
    I also like the idea of moving from one country route to another, in fact that's what I always do. The problem is that now I can't go from e.g. Dresden to Marseille because I had to delete LGV. And I can't go from Manchester to NY because I had to delete Lirr. Etc, etc etc etc. Yes, we are on the PlayStation forum Mr PC gamer, I know you guys don't have as many problems lately as we do, so you don't have much to fix. On this side of the poor console gamers do, and this is just something I came up with to do something, which will be far from ideal as others before you have pointed out in this very thread. By the way, the xenophobe thing you certainly could have done without because I don't know what one thing has to do with the other.
     
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  19. box215

    box215 Active Member

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    Well it sounds like you play on Xbox or PC?
    These folks have to deal with Sony's stupid limitations

    I agree with you - I love the variety of playing different routes from around the world. I have all the DLC except DB BR 204 and the WSR Class 52. And I find using the Scenario Planner and using off the rails adds even more variety.
     
  20. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Even though it doesn't cause as much of an issue for others, as Matt said the issue still impacts the performance of all platforms, so it's relevant if not a "class A problem"...
    If the root cause of the issue is loading (or mounting) all of the DLC at once when the game loads then there must be a reason to do so, and I imagine it's because sometime back in the distant past someone decided how to populate the opening menu, and they thought that mounting all the DLC as a method of checking they exist sounded like a plan, and now DTG are discovering that this has impacts they didn't consider back then

    Of course the answer to all this would be figure out how to offload all the DLC that are not needed when you have the scenario or timetable in question loaded, ie when you KNOW what DLC are needed and which aren't. That way if you need four or five loaded for layers on BML, fine, but you don't have thirteen or fourteen sitting latently in the background doing bugger all
    Better that then splitting DLC into separate "games", which would also remove the option to run big american freight locos down the bakerloo line in off the rails mode (the only thing I've ever found a use for that feature)
     
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  21. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Ah, yes my apologies for momentarily forgetting that I was on the PS section. I know you guys have that limitation on the number of installed routes and it's a royal pain in the derriere. But that's a different issue that DTG and Sony need to solve. Splitting TSW into 3 or more games would not solve that problem. What's needed, as ARuscoe mentioned, is the ability to load only the route that you are currently playing at any one time and have that happen seamlessly. Also we need to be able to separate locos from their " home " route. I believe the file system in TS Classic allows all this. Why TSW has to have that funky, clunky file system is above my pay grade.

    One last thing. It's common in the forums for people to assume that all PC players have the same experience of the game. They don't. Many have to lower their settings to the level of gen8 consoles to get decent frame rates and playable graphics.

    Oh, and the " zenophobic" " comment was not aimed at you. But perhaps it was unnecessary anyway, so I'll happily walk it back.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2021
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