Train Sim World 2 - American Legend

Discussion in 'Dovetail Live Article Discussion' started by DTG Natster, Jan 10, 2022.

  1. DTG Natster

    DTG Natster Producer Staff Member

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    Soon, Train Sim World 2 will bring one of America’s most legendary and dramatic railroad landmarks to life – with the Norfolk Southern Horseshoe Curve route!

    Read the article here.
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2022
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  2. Challenger3985

    Challenger3985 Well-Known Member

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    Now, that's not bad of a route (so far). Can't wait to see the preview stream for this one.
     
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  3. damarjatiaji

    damarjatiaji Guest

    Can't really wait for this! I'm ready to dig my pocket
     
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  4. universal.chris

    universal.chris Active Member

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    Oh wow. That route looks great! I really like the look of the black N&S locos as well
     
  5. WonterRail

    WonterRail Well-Known Member

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    You know how this route is has been referred to in roadmaps as being between Altoona - Johnstown & South Fork? Well, this might explain why:

    So this route has a whole extra 15 mile branch to explore on top of the main route.
     
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  6. breblimator

    breblimator Guest

    I am praying for the ES44AC audio to be at least acceptable.
    Besides - I'm waiting impatiently \o/
     
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  7. F-Block

    F-Block Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]
    That last shot is killing me! The repeated textures, the non-fitting ballast, the mip-maps in the background, the road & track on the other side of the embankement feels dead, the trees in the background just placed with a brush with some bare terrain left, the already ugly default water, floating fence and most of all that "embankment": terrain with no transition, partially seeming to glitch out with the water a bit, and just unregocnisable to what it is sopposed to look like.
    Don't tell me it's still Work In Progress or something, how can you show that?
     
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  8. Krazy

    Krazy Well-Known Member

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    I’m hyped because this route seems that it could be like Sand Patch Grade, with the trees, steep grades, and coal mines. And I’m glad to see the debut of Norfolk Southern! The ES44AC does indeed look like one. That’s good.

    The route could use a bit more trees, but it’s better than some other routes. And Skyhook continues to show that they can make some REALLY good rocks. Look at those rocks. Amazing.

    Obviously I’m excited for this, it’s an American freight route featuring Norfolk Southern. But if the audio is bearable and the timetable is well-made, we should have a good route similar to Sand Patch. Not as high quality as Sand Patch, but still an enjoyable freight run. Perhaps we’ll even have switching with the GP38-2! Heck yeah.
     
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  9. breblimator

    breblimator Guest

    Truth. I also closed my eyes looking at this one :D
     
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  10. ArTrailfanRaf214

    ArTrailfanRaf214 Member

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    Wow the route looks good it's one of my first routes when I first bought and played RailWorks 3.
    ES44 looks good hope it gets better sounds as well.
     
  11. Thelonius16

    Thelonius16 Well-Known Member

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    This looks cool. But once again, the article is pretty confusing because it mentions a ton of stuff that's not actually in the DLC, such as:

    I think the author and editors just have a bad habit of burying the lead. This should be right at the top so people can more easily figure out what they're buying:

     
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  12. erg73

    erg73 Well-Known Member

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    Good article. I didn't know this route. Some questions for connoisseurs:

    -Is the scenery as similar to Sand Patch as seen in some pictures or is it only somewhere along the route? Is the experience different or similar between the two?

    -If the article talks about passenger train traffic on this route, why has only freight been included?

    -Does the driving experience change much between the ES44AC and the AC4400CW or is it basically the same locomotive with a slightly different cab?
     
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  13. kolesnikvictor

    kolesnikvictor Active Member

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    Have you found proper sounds for GEVO and geeps?
     
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  14. Monder

    Monder Well-Known Member

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    Looks fine so far (someone mentioned the last shot, which I agree is pretty underwhelming - hopefully, there are not more of these spots along the route). So far... interested... but so was the same for 187, before I saw it...

    Also Skyhook - numbering error:
    upload_2022-1-10_17-56-5.png
     
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  15. tibomatthijs

    tibomatthijs Well-Known Member

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    Hmm, looks not really good, hope it will get fixed or atleast will looks better on release! Overall the route looks good!
    unknown.png [​IMG]
     
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  16. jiroo92

    jiroo92 Member

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    TSW2_Horseshoe_Curve_Watermarked_Screenshots_1.jpg Whats going on with the cars on the right? Seems to me like the road is missing...
     
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  17. fanta1682002

    fanta1682002 Well-Known Member

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    I'm ready to dig my pocket
     
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  18. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Well Gary Dolzall is primarily a railroad historian, so he has a tendency to go into the historical stuff. But, yes, I agree with you that perhaps talk about PRR and Conrail history should have come after a summary of what customers will be buying.
     
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  19. leexiheng#5142

    leexiheng#5142 New Member

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    Although I'm not a very big fan of American routes, but I do enjoy driving all the powerful American made locomotives on the railroad with beautiful scenery. I am excited and looking forward for this new route, but at the same time worried as well due to the bad experience with the Cane Creek DLC due to the inaccuracy of audio of the locomotives sound. Next, is the bad experience with the German DB BR187 which is total disaster which are still yet to be fixed, the sound of the locomotive is incorrect and the LZB not functioning properly. I really hope that these issues will not happen again on this beautiful route.
     
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  20. pveezy

    pveezy Well-Known Member

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    The person they use for these is actually a real writer and knows tons of history and includes that in his write up. I love his TSW write ups since they get you into the mood of the route and aren’t just a blurb about features and stats.

    Honestly it’s not rocket science to figure out what you’re getting from the write up, and knowing the other history is great for people who don’t know the location.
     
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  21. kolesnikvictor

    kolesnikvictor Active Member

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    Apparently we won't meet LZB issues on HSC because American locos aren't equipped with it
     
  22. BennyP92

    BennyP92 New Member

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    Looks nice! As a lot of people are saying, hope the sounds are accurate and not recycled.
     
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  23. Mattty May

    Mattty May Guest

    It does look pretty poor :(
     
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  24. Mattty May

    Mattty May Guest

    Not the best screenshot to showcase a new route.
     
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  25. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Norfolk Southern locos are equipped with PTC - which even the Germans haven't implemented yet - but TSW doesn't model it.
     
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  26. Schnauzahpowahz

    Schnauzahpowahz Well-Known Member

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    Ah yes, the modern roads of chocolate mousse in Pennsylvania

    Some of those pics are highly suspect. Atleast try to hide some of the sure-to-come funk from this route.
    Oh wait... "dev build" right

    And Autumn on the east coast def doesnt look like a scene from alice in wonderland
     
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  27. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    Well done scenery in the future ES44AC Horseshoe curve can be reskinned into Canadian national Union Pacific and CSX because in real life all the freight railroads in the United States and Canada ordered the same locomotive
     
  28. Krazy

    Krazy Well-Known Member

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    Wait a minute.
    upload_2022-1-10_11-27-24.jpeg
    Flatcars.
     
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  29. stujoy

    stujoy Well-Known Member

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    I see lots of horsepower with horses painted on the side going round a giant horseshoe. Giddy up folks, the horses are on the track. I also see the ‘neigh-sayers’ are already about with their pixel level examinations. Some people will want to shoot it dead before even waiting to see if it is actually lame. Place your bets now on whether they all buy the route anyway :D
     
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  30. Anthony Pecoraro

    Anthony Pecoraro Well-Known Member

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  31. metro north railfan 224

    metro north railfan 224 Active Member

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    Yeah but Norfolk Southern is the only Class I railroad that has headlights above the windshield. The rest of them have it on the nose.
     
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  32. trainsimplayer

    trainsimplayer Well-Known Member

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    I've not a clue about the route, and a lack of interest in US Freight, however that screenshot from Johnstown (I believe) - the one with the embankment at least, looks really concerning.

    A quick look on Google Earth shows me the railway embankment is decent, as are the rocks and the building, but what on (or, I presume, off) Earth is this? Screenshot_20220110_195203.jpg
    Fence Floating, the ground seems to be mid-landslide or something, I could say plenty however I don't want to - because the rest of the screenshots have me somewhat interested, even if just for the scenery.
     
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  33. zefreak

    zefreak Active Member

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    I certainly wont purchase it before I see your breakdown, the best train simulator channel on US freight in my opinion.
     
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  34. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for telling me about this and from what I can see is this Norfolk Southern version base model then it spawns CSX Union Pacific Canadian national versions with the Nose mounted Headlights.
     
  35. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

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    THe straight line in the water I hope disappears.

    What differences should we expect to see from the locos in this? Are they the same as Sand Patch, Cane Creek and Sherman primarily. I don’t know much about US locos, will these two drive differently?

    Is it likely to be Sandpatch with a longer consist?
     
  36. docsnyder1911

    docsnyder1911 Well-Known Member

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    1. Will there be loco- and carsubstituion?
    Especially centerbeamcars we have on OSD and PC only in TSW.

    2. Last gen consoles got 50 car trains at SPG, a route very similar to HSC. Will it be the same? Or will we get the 40 car trains only like on CRR and SMH?
     
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  37. Krazy

    Krazy Well-Known Member

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    Thanks, I’m a bit of a flatcar enjoyer :D
     
  38. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    The bigger of the two is the GE/Wabco ES44, the successor to the familiar AC4400 found in Sand Patch and Cane Creek. It however has a completely new prime mover (diesel engine), and interestingly the cab layout has reverted from the desk model to the control-stand model. IF they get the sounds right, it should sound very different even if externally the two look rather similar.
    (Broadly speaking, it is equivalent to/direct competition for EMD/Progress' SD70ACe, released with Sherman Hill.)

    The smaller of the two is the venerable EMD GP38-2 general-purpose loco (heavy switching/light freight), already seen in Sand Patch, Oakville and Peninsula Corridor.
     
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  39. docsnyder1911

    docsnyder1911 Well-Known Member

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    With or without a load? :)
     
  40. Krazy

    Krazy Well-Known Member

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    I like them empty, but it’s also really cool if there’s a vehicle or trailer sitting on them.
     
  41. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    With luck, Skyhook can adapt the subroutine that puts containers on well cars to put variable loads on flatcars. (Sadly, no such routine exists on TVL, the only other route to date with flatcars- they just have "loaded" and "empty" versions as separate wagons).

    Of course, we're still waiting for loaded centerbeams......
     
  42. ngc427

    ngc427 Active Member

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    Haven't seen anyone mention this yet.
    [​IMG]
    I do hope this random kicked-in handrail does get fixed, doesn't even match the other side.

    All-in-all though, very satisfied with how it's looking so far. I can excuse some of the larger bugs as just growing pains for a route in active production still. Just looking at the screenshots recalls some fond memories of railfanning the line. Can't wait to give it a spin.
     
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  43. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    That's weird. While some of the fleet does have cranked handrails, they're symmetrical- we don't see both kinds on one loco!

    [​IMG]
     
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  44. ngc427

    ngc427 Active Member

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    That's a model locomotive. Usually model train manufacturers will use the same mold of locomotive over and over again, just applying different paint, which leads to inaccuracies like that (notice the window on the door, not present on NS ES44ACs). The narrow handrail design is an almost uniquely west coast railroad thing. None of NS' fleet of GE widecabs have the narrow handrails.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2022
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  45. docsnyder1911

    docsnyder1911 Well-Known Member

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    Will we get more realistic functional safety systems like the SD 70 Ace or the SD40-2 at SMH?

    Or will we get the simple alerters like the other american freight locos before?
     
  46. Dinosbacsi

    Dinosbacsi Well-Known Member

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    Couldn't agree more. While the rest of the screenshots looked great, how could ANYONE from the team choose this screenshot and say "yeah, looks good, let's use this one". Looks horrible, and if this is what we can expect from the rest of the route, then that's very bad.

    That being said, most of the screenshots looked good. Good distant terrain for the most part, and I like the rockwork. What I really dislike however, is the new "Rivet style" texturing, with the simply repeating textures, instead of actual UV maps. It really shows, the repeating textures are obvious and every asset (like the MG tower) looks too clean. No dirt or any form of weathering at all.

    But bonus points for actually taking the effort and recoloring the british style yellow rear licence plates from those scenery cars! Whoever did that from the dev team, I love you! It annoyed me to hell seeing all those yellow licence plates on non-UK routes.
    [​IMG]
     
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  47. Anthony Pecoraro

    Anthony Pecoraro Well-Known Member

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    skyhook- sean Are you aware that GEVOs have e-bells, not mechanical bells?
     
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  48. Callum B.

    Callum B. Well-Known Member

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    That's not exclusively true. A lot of NS GEVOs have a door with a window. But there are other inaccuracies like the handrails and mechanical bells (mentioned above).

    [​IMG]

    Cheers
     
  49. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

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    I wonder if we'll see the return of more MFD functionality....
     
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  50. MetrolinkF125#916

    MetrolinkF125#916 Well-Known Member

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    Wow I sure wasn't expecting this today, but anyways the route looks great! The GEVOs look great, hopefully they sound just as good as they look. The scenery is also looking amazing, especially the details on cliffs.

    upload_2022-1-10_13-19-22.jpeg
    Looks like we’re getting a new flatcar, I wonder whether it will also appear with some type of load, or will it always appear empty?

    upload_2022-1-10_13-20-11.jpeg
    Another thing I noticed is that the controls seem to be missing the numbers for the notches on the throttle and dynamic brake, hopefully this gets fixed before release.

    This is how they should look like:
    upload_2022-1-10_13-25-15.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2022
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