No official thread has been started, so I thought I would start one. Mine: Why, after five years, does TSW still not have a functioning save system? Five years in, and after several launch crises, is DTG giving any thought to a complete ground-up overhaul of their QA and beta testing systems? Because the existing ones are not fit for purpose. Have DTG decided that loco DLC are no longer worth it, and are therefore being left to third parties? Speaking generally of rolling stock, we have seen over the last year not only a disappearance of loco DLC from DTG (the long-delayed 313 was the last), but a miserly introduction of new locos within route releases as well (Sherman Hill and Tharandter Rampe are the only two in the last 12 months to include genuinely new locos). Is this what we can expect going forward? Combining all of the above: are DTG overcommitted to too-frequent route releases, leaving insufficient time to develop new locos or catch and repair bugs (or not code them to start with), not to mention unforced errors like the many design omissions in, e.g., Harlem, or the abandoned Track 3 in Sherman Hill? I know these are all pretty negative. But, frankly, after spending a great deal of time and bytes on defending DTG, in trying to bring up the production and business realities some forum members seem to handwave away, there is a limit. I have been optimistically hoping for reform for long enough that my hope is growing pretty thin and my cynicism fairly substantial. TBH, if Simrail proves in reality to measure up to most of its prerelease hype, TSW may well find itself losing a customer.
Would love to see these questions answered on the live stream, but, since they haven't been addressed to this point anywhere else, I doubt that we would get straight answers. I would add this question. Why do new or revived features not become standard on all routes going forward? And one more: What really happened to the whole concept of Rush Hour? It's only partially implemented on the original RH routes and hardly at all since. Oh and how realistic is it to expect all the PC updates to be released by "Indian Summer "?
I assume there isn’t a Q and A thread because it’s not that kind of Stream. If it is, I’m switching off. I find them very disjointed and negative. It’s not that I don’t think your points are valid, I get very frustrated with some of them myself. I’m just hoping it’s more of a history of the game and a celebration of the good points.
Oh, on the contrary, I agree with solicitr. This would be a good opportunity for some soul searching. I always do it on my birthday! I suspect, though, that your wish will be granted and it will be a big PR event and I suppose there's a time and place for that.
Some good questions there, Bill. I would also add... Has the company stretched itself so much with Spirit Of Steam, this is why we are seeing PresCrew updates put on the backburner and no indication of any other UK route even proposed let alone up for release in Q2 or Q3 of 2022? I don't tend to watch the streams myself as I hate the smug and self congratulatory atmosphere that comes across. It also seems completely bogus to have one DTG employee/manager asking questions of another. To be impartial it should be someone from outside the company asking the questions and not necessarily from a prepared script. I remember a BBC political show a few years ago called "Hard Talk" (used to be on in the middle of the night) where, while generally good natured, the interviewer was nevertheless not afraid to get stuck in and press the point. Perhaps we need to elect Andrew Marr to conduct the streams!
I’m thinking along these lines and the stream is part of a promotional extravaganza so I doubt they would want to be answering the most difficult questions from the most fed up of existing players. It’s not that long ago we had the last stream of disillusionment and I’m sure it won’t be long before the next but this probably isn’t the time.
Here is my Question to DTG and Audio Department? Why is there still no realistic Train Track Sound, The Rumbling sound of the train on the rail, the clickely clack, throughout the route such as when the train is on the rail when train is switching junction, and crossing junction when the train is going over the bridge, and so forth, tunnel vibes sound and more ambient noise? When will we start seeing this happen?
Few Questions When as a company will you finally get a handle on your QA process and have standard route features (night lighting etc) When will you finally start being a bit braver with your route choice and loco choice in a new country. Must be a market as everyone keeps asking? When is the route merger, modular route building finally going to be tackled. Another hugely asked for feature. Another 5 years replicating what had been happening is not enticing Final question. Avoiding the answer , lots more. What do we have to look forward to? Can you quantify anything beyond steam to keep us here another 5 years. DTG Natster TrainSim-Matt forgive the tag, just hoping some of the above can be covered Sunday or another day
I'm hardly among "the most fed up." I have on the whole been one of DTG's defenders. But even I have a finite amount of patience.
The only questions they will be answering are: What is your favourite train in TSW 2? What is your favourite route in TSW 2? Which piece of content are you most proud of? What was the biggest challenge? etc...
What is your favorite ice cream flavor? What pop song do you listen to the most? Who would you rather have a date with, Scarlett Johansen or Charlize Theron? Are you a dog person or a cat person? This has been the Dovetail Games/Tiger Beat interview stream
My five cent would be: 1. Is Spirit of Steam like Rush Hour, eg. three routes? 2. In the past five years of doing this, is there anything you do not want to repeat, eg. a specific country, time period, train, etc? 3. Where do you see the game in another five years? 4. Will loco DLC return, or do we have to wait for Scenario Planner 2.0 for them to not being "DLC for DLC" and therefore considered as good? 5. Compared to the first 5 years of Train Sim 20XX, was TSW2 a better or worse experience to work on? 6. How happy is the team with the decisions being made? And at last a question that I wonder about with each road map stream and difficult article or topic that comes up: 7. Do you think that TSW2 will have a future as big as Train Sim 20XX?
You might not be normally but the thread is open to all and could fill up with many questions that DTG wouldn’t really want to talk about on a promotional stream, especially when even the most positive players are edging towards being totally fed up at the moment. There will be other times for DTG to answer us.
Here are my questions When you save during a Journey mode Service the next signal might be permanently red or clear for you to proceed? When Austrian ÖBB routes arrive in game can you simply substitute them on existing German routes due to both countries using the same PZB LZB Sifa 15kv 1.95m pantographs or not? For Spirit of Steam route to be a bundle for it just like Rush Hour or not? Owned Riesa-Dresden for a month now still haven't gotten DB BR146.2 DB BR143 improved version trips on Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr and Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen will there be a fix for it?
And that would actually be a great question to ask. What is their vision for the game? Is there a plan for the next 5 years?
Absolutely this. Where is the innovation? Are we to resign ourselves to another 5 years of standalone 40 or 50 mile routes from the big three countries? Or are the R&D department actively brainstorming how the scope can be extended, longer routes, joining routes or extending existing routes all of which is what your customer base wants?
Basicly solicitr nailed the questions i would like to get answered too from dtg. After 650 paid dlcs on ts (3rd party like jt, sss, vr) not included! and 51 paid dlcs for tsw 2 (only harlem line missing), i just want to know if this franchise focusses on become a budget range. We discus about track sounds, were standard 5 years ago, unused potential of routes, and a lot of ignorrance by dtg related to bug fixing. Not starting with preserv. Updates now, i mean they are for free. If there is a serious problem tell us, instead of chitchatting together a hocusbokus over 6 months. And yes, what happened to the loco dlcs? I have no problem if because spirit of steam the vehicle team is busy. But there is 0 information, since the roadmap became more of a "1 month horizont". Enjoying the content i have now is one thing, the vision of tsw in the future is another. As a customer over years, i think ts to tsw has improved a lot. Unfortunately adding a feature and remove an existing one is not what i call improvement. Nice we got advertisement boards, but seems since rushhour, tracksounds like a typical flange noise which every train has, are gone. Trading train related aspects for fancy stuff?! No thank you dtg Future will tell if i stick with it, or put the final grave nail into it.
I don't think they have a 5 year plan. They have the looooong list of things they would like to have in the game, and they pick things from it when the time comes. As far as we know, what they do is some kind of yearly plan at the start of each year (they are probably finishing the one for 2022).
I honestly wouldn't expect most of these questions to be answered. The 5th Anniversary stream will be a promotional stream going through the history of this game. I'd also suspect they talk about the highs, lows and their vision for the future. I guess people want to see matt get another grilling by Nat again based off the questions that were asked here
Remember those old machines at the coast with the horse race, streams nearly here “Place your bets now please”….. Will anything here be touched on.
Just a heads up now so there's no disappointments while you are watching the stream tonight. This is not going to be a Q&A style stream, but very much a "Look how much has changed in 5 years". The intention is to celebrate what we have achieved and not get bogged down on what we need to do better. Your questions have been noted and when appropriate I will ensure you get answers, but that's not going to be the theme for tonight.
You wouldn't fancy doing a little sneak peak on what's to come in the next 5 (or a bit more) months, do you?
The easiest $100 you'll ever make, since we all knew that none of these questions would be answered on this stream. I'd venture to say that all the questions asked in this thread are now swirling around the circular file, never to see the light of day. I mean it's not the first time they've been posed. Still it's been a nice bit of psychotherapy. And a useful list of irritations that we can add to as time goes by.
First stream in months Ive not bothered with tbh, was anything exciting actually announced? Or just DTG giving themselves a pat on the back?
I don't know how anniversaries happen everywhere in the world. Is it a common thing to put up a list of complaints and throw it at the person/entity as a reproach or people still gather to celebrate, have a laugh and a drink as another year went by? Maybe here in the Mediterranean region where I live things are more laid back and I see them from a different perspective. There is still the feeling of not forgetting about being human, about respecting at least the crucial moments in one's life, be it person or entity. Tomorrow we can go back to whatever, but now let's just have fun and look through their eyes. It's important to know their story too, it can put some things into context for example. Happy anniversary TSW!!!
Actually i thought it was a good stream. It was nice to see how TSW evolved throughout the years. The game was originally gonna be called TS2 but then they changed it to Train Sim World since Train Simulator and Train Sim World were different concepts for instance. There is so much I can say about it but I would be typing forever to be honest. TSW 5 years ago is not the same now. Despite the current issues I really loved Matt's passion for this product. You can tell he loves what he does and I love seeing people that are passionate in what they do. We all want to see this game do well and while yes tsw2 can be better, it was nice seeing how the game evolved instead of seeing Matt get grilled by Nat again I'm hoping the next 5 years will be better. Happy Birthday Train Sim World
DTG Natster TrainSim-Adam TrainSim-Matt DTG Happy Birthday TSW 2. Look forwards to many new amazing route and loco you will bring this year with many news exciting and amazing feature added to the game.
Although I can't completely share your optimism, I certainly can't argue with your sincerity and enthusiasm. Who knows. If you keep pinging these guys at the rate you do, they might offer you a seat on the Board.
I enjoyed the steam and I think it really drove home just how far this game has come. So, I would like to thank DTG for literally 1200 hours of gameplay over the last 5 years. TSW/TSW2 has been a great release for me, a way to get away while still engaging my mind. My gratitude goes out to all who have made this game possible.
I watched some of the stream and found it a bit off putting tbh. To me the video should of been done when the game is in a better state. For me there are just too many unanswered questions to be answered than looking back on TWS2. This stream should have ben put out after the preserved updates have all been released, Rush Hour is working as intended and the core updates issues have been solved then for me this video would have been enjoyable. Matt still could have said why DTG struggle with station lighting, track sound and Loco sound as it seems these issues have also been around from the start. I also agree with solicitr, if any of these upcoming train games prove worthy I can see the player base here getting smaller.
DTG's own competitor product is a serious rival, IMHO, Over the last few days I've been exploring the rich diversity of routes and trains in TS. From the Class 87's over Shap to thrashing a 232 between Munich and Augsburg. Apart from the track appearance on some routes it looks better, especially lighting and sounds better. Only downside is limited scenarios and no timetable mode. Oh and the save game works and you have a slot for each and every scenario you are running concurrently.
Especially since SimRail will be coming to consoles and that game has alot of potential and looks stunning.
An interesting question which we forgot to ask, is how do they view the progress of TSW over its first five years compared to TS? After initial launch in 2007 as Kuju/EA Rail Simulator, things moved very rapidly. Morphed into Railworks and switched to Steam distribution, the company changed to RSDL then RSC. Loads of route and train DLC, active community creating content. At the end of five years - ~2012 - it was thriving. With TSW they have point blank refused to give us a route editor, the current scenario editor is a joke and the promised new version has gone into hiatus.
What? Where did you hear that. I heard it wasn't but that was many months ago. I'm pretty sure it won't come out for 8th gen if it does show up on consoles.
This was in the Simrail Vs TSW2 Thread in the off topic section. I thought it wasn't either until another forum user told me as well. It'll most likely be gen 9 only
Will there be a locomotive add on’s to some of the rush hour route’s like the MBta Boston sprinter route such as the Hsp46 locomotive with the bilevel coach’s?
Wow, that's great news. Does SimRail have ETCS? I can't remember, being based in Poland I think they had it... the one in Luzern is... good enough as a first attempt. Can't wait to give it a try, they seem like they are more focused in making an actual train driving simulator compared to TSW, which would be very interesting.
You know, I was about to say how all of the other products aren’t really competition to TSW since around 2/3 of TSW’s user base can’t play them (not counting multi-platform players). I didn’t know about SimRail coming to consoles, might need to check that out when it’s here.
