How To Turn Off Dynamic Billboards?

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by JealousSheep768, Jun 20, 2022.

  1. JealousSheep768

    JealousSheep768 Well-Known Member

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    How do you turn off dynamic billboards? I can't find the option in the settings menu. I want to turn them off due to them being to distracting
     
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  2. AtherianKing

    AtherianKing Well-Known Member

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    Not an option

    don’t see how they could be more distracting than none changing ones though
     
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  3. JealousSheep768

    JealousSheep768 Well-Known Member

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    They're bright red so your eye is instantly drawn to it.
     
  4. AtherianKing

    AtherianKing Well-Known Member

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    I’m guessing you mean Pringles, they would be there even if they weren’t dynamic, basically it’s dynamic or permanent (currently now set as dynamic for all) (not sure if they’re dynamic on last gen though)

    on a side note you have now confirmed they’re advertising works
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2022
  5. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Please tell me you are never in control of any vehicle IRL if you're distracted by something red in your peripheral vision...
     
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  6. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    You can still kill someone on a bike...
     
  7. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    On what route are they on? I haven't noticed any of them yet. I've played TVL, Harlem and SFJ lately
     
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  8. CowBoyWolf

    CowBoyWolf Well-Known Member

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    SKA BKL SPG
     
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  9. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    Good, thank you
     
  10. Tigert1966

    Tigert1966 Well-Known Member

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    Does anyone know if these dynamic adverts are location based? When I was on holiday in London and played on my Laptop, I saw one. But since returning home to Switzerland I haven't seen a single one - just the normal ads. I agreed to the bidstack t's and c's. so either we don't get dynamic ads in Switzerland or mine are broken. I'm absolutely fine with that, just curious.
     
  11. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Ew. the ads for IRL products in games are usually the point at which I demand a full refund. Making them animated is literally insult on top of injury. Just no. This is a revenue model that's acceptable for F2P products ONLY.
     
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  12. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    I'm guessing an option is to add the server they use to your firewall, could someone playing on PC perhaps check for it in their network logs?
     
  13. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Trains have ads on them. Train platforms have ads on them. Don't see why putting "real or realistic" ads in places where such things exist would be unacceptable
     
  14. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    I mean, "works" is one way of putting it. I have lived an ad-free life for years, especially since the pandemic started and I stopped going outside, so the only thing I feel when an ad slips through my filters is a profound loathing for the product in question.
     
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  15. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    So, after a bit of checking, all the fixes for these intrusive ads I've found for other titles using this ad system on PC involve patching xml files, an easier, simpler, more elegant solution than firewalling bidstack's servers, to be sure - but not an option on console. So we'll definitely need someone on PC to monitor their connections and get back to us with info on what we need to add to our firewall rules. Until then, I guess I'll be taking my xbox offline any time I run one of the contaminated routes.
     
  16. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Looking at some of the ads people have been getting, it's not even "realistic" though, it's immersion breaking because it's ads targeted specifically to "Gamers™", the kind of thing which breaks the natural flow of the experience by constantly reminding you that this is a videogame, like an out of place "glitch in the matrix".
     
  17. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Looking at the ads I've been getting it hasn't been too dissimilar to what I see at Gillingham, Chatham, Bromley South...
     
  18. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    I still find advertising in games to be at its best, as well as most respectful of players, when an ad for an ingame product subtly hints at upcoming future works from the development studio or publisher. Like the ads around Washington DC in The Division for a new Viking exhibition, which teased the setting and name of then-unannounced Assassin's Creed Valhalla through an entirely in-universe billboard.
    upload_2022-6-23_12-34-45.png

    [Edit]
    It's probably more effective at selling stuff and building hype too.
    Instead of feeling insulted at the thought that the publisher is treating you as the product they are selling to a third party advertiser, you look at this ad, and it makes you feel clever, you figured it out, you spotted the detail that connects this to the Assassin's Creed franchise. It reinforces your brand awareness and likely increases the odds of you buying the next game in their other franchises.
    (Or it would if you didn't subsequently become aware that the company's management spent years covering up systemic abuse, and stop buying their games on principle)
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
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  19. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    Just completed an S12 run from Köln to Horrem, my thoughts are:
    • Billboards themselves are tacky, lacking of any taste and looking particularly out of place in Germany. Here in Italy I've never ever seen an international billboard written in english, apart for a few examples of wordplay. If you eye lands one of those it's a complete immersion breaker. Ironic, considering what's actually written on it.
    • The fact they are red, and the way it's created it means they are particularly noticeable - although I have to say DTG did a good job of "hiding" them, at least on the stations I visited, they always seem to be parallel to the tracks and not perpendicular so it's bearable - also keep in mind I am very rusty with the BR423 so I was laser focused on stopping point and cab instruments, perhaps if I were playing more casually they would have been easier to spot.
    • Overall they are at best it's an immersion breaking annoyance you will spot from time to time.
    The only things I will do are avoid buying and Pringles product, and triple think before buying a DLC that comes with them. Will it change anything? No, does it make me feel better anyway? Yes.

    I'm happy I got to experience the amazing S-Bahn in SKA before this was released (24 services completed) - thanks again Joe for an amazing timetable, but still sad that means that I'm very likely done with SKA for good. Perhaps they could be more bearable on BKL, at least the english makes more sense. I don't play SPG so no opinion on how they look there.

    Hopefully new high speed-ish german routes with LZB are on the horizon.

    This change makes the expansion pack a tougher sell as the experience is worse than it was before, as I would avoid the three basic routes entirely now.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
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  20. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Part of me wonders if a better use for this would have been to market a version of the base 3 routes which is entirely free to play as a "foot in the door" experience, with an option to disable them once you buy any route DLC as an incentive to do so?
     
  21. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Who would this benefit?
     
  22. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Dovetail would gain multiple additional revenue streams, one from the ads, and one from new players who are generally put off by the cost of these kinds of sims, and therefore don't see fit to try them. Game Pass has clearly worked for them in this regard, an ad-supported version of the base three routes for those without GP broadens the potential to turn more people from tryers into buyers. It's the age-old demo factor. The more people are able to try it, the more decide they like it and end up spending money on future DLC. The ads in such a case would then serve as an offsetting measure towards the initial cost of offering those routes for free.
     
  23. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Unfortunately the way modern software works means the "demo" would be cracked and DTG would end up LOSING money on this rather than gaining.
    I guess they might get this back from the ad-support but in the end they don't end up with a paid for version
     
  24. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    How exactly does that differ from the game as it exists being cracked?
     
  25. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    They're not trying to give it away, so anyone who has it "cracked" automatically has it illegitimately
     
  26. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Yes, but if they offer an ad-supported demo, they have their deal for the advertising in place, and they have the F2P product out there which is something that by design nobody is going to pay for. People would still need to buy legitimate copies of the DLC to gain access to anything beyond that, or go and find presumably already existing cracked copies out there. Which they again, presumably already do if they so choose. Nothing changes except the path to getting a legitimate trial copy is made easier for those who might not have bothered because of the initial buy-in. Because it turns out you can in fact compete with free, just by having an easier pathway to getting people invested in your service.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
  27. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Anyway, back to the topic at hand, I do wonder why console users are being treated as "second class" here when looking at the PC forums suggests that this kind of nuisance advertising has an off switch over there in the menus. Is it just because they know PC users always have more options for editing the files directly to block it and will do so given the chance, so there's no point not giving them the option?
     
  28. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    DLC should be locked out from the trial version... Otherwise everyone who BOUGHT it beforehand would have paid for the game and DLC bundle, but these people get it for free... Don't forget there IS no core content, only bundled content

    For me every setting available in game should have an option. Not everyone should be bothered to hack files which then get overwritten at validation (which is now a requirement of any support being given by DTG support)
     
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  29. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Games make select pieces of previously paid-for DLC free all the time. Often a new edition comes out at the same price point which includes all previously released DLC and they make all that DLC free to anyone who already owned the game once it launches to bring everyone up to parity. In many cases for games with ongoing support, each time a new expansion releases, the oldest expansion they are currently selling becomes free, so as not to clog the store with so many piecemeal purchases of 2 year old content. Sometimes a particularly themed piece of DLC will be switched from paid to free going forward to commemorate some major real life event it's relevant to. Hell, sometimes they screw up like the Halo DLC for Fable 2 Collector's Edition where the CE content redemption codes printed in the box didn't work, so they just made it all free to every player as a fix for the problem.

    In a lot of cases entire games I bought and paid for at launch have subsequently gone completely free, no monetisation strings attached, just because the publisher decided they had made enough money and there was more potential in the goodwill generated from letting anyone play it, for example, if a sequel is in the works to a well loved title. It's a very normal thing, and it's not like anyone who bought it is being "cheated", you paid what you considered it to be worth at the time, and you continue to get enjoyment out of it. Just now more people do too.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
  30. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    That would make me never buy from that company again...
    "OK, so we've fleeced these people over here for enough money, we can give the same thing away over here and not bother charging them"
     
  31. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    I guess we just have diametrically opposed philosophies on what constitutes good consumer-friendly business practices, then.

    I have no problem someone else getting something I once paid for, for free. I could afford to pay for it and chose to. Now they who could or would not, get to also enjoy it. We're all on the same side as users of this product.

    It's the same reason I find it abhorrent that arguments keep being made that the fact that some people have paid student loans and tuition fees is a reason not to abolish them or write off such debts. Not wanting someone else to have to do the thing you had to is why we constantly strive to make life better for everyone.
     
  32. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    Well... look no further than the BR363 and BR182.

    Why did I buy those loco DLC? I could have just got HHL and BRD...

    Letting the 182 slip as HHL is awful, but the 363 is not much better than what you describe considering how popular the RH bundle is.

    It's possible the next german route comes with a remastered BR155. So why did I buy the loco DLC then?
     
  33. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    I look straight past them... don't run German
     
  34. JealousSheep768

    JealousSheep768 Well-Known Member

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    One thing I've noticed. They all spawn on the platforms. None in the underpasses on Bakerloo, these are all generic.
     
  35. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    Just because you look away, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

    They set the precedent, they could release the next british route with a Class 465 included for example.

    They have already done something very similar to what describe worthy of " never buy from that company again..." and now you say it doesn't matter just because it's Germany?
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
  36. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    And that would indeed make me consider ever paying again for any DTG product
     
  37. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    It's the same company... how can you consider it being different? I don't understand.
     
  38. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    That would be like saying "oh I really hate companies that have awful anti consumer practices, but this product I bought from an awful company just happens to be fine so I am happy" how does that even make sense?
     
  39. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    I mean, this is what they rely on, and it works for the most part too, it's precisely what Blizzard are banking on with Diablo 4 laundering the name of the franchise as they continue to rake in cash with Diablo: Immoral.
     
  40. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    Surely I am not the odd one out. I can't fathom how someone can reason in such a way. It's literally the same company creating the same product, just one being modelled after Germany and other one being modelled after the UK.

    ARuscoe is not only setting himself up for disappointment whenever they obviously do something similar to the 363 with a piece of British content (you know, it's the same company), he is also supporting and giving money to a company doing something he despises. I don't understand the thought process, and I can't see how I'm the wrong one.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
  41. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    If you buy a product BEFORE they turn into an awful company (or in this case give it away free) what are you supposed to do? Not like yyou can claim a refund three years after the fact, but you can certainly choose not to give them any MORE money once you find out their douchebaggery
     
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  42. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    I don't follow the german side of things so didn't know they'd done that
     
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  43. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    Ah that makes more sense.
    Oh yeah of course, I just didn't like the response you had given me early, as if you didn't care just because it was German and not british...
     
  44. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Nah, just ignorant...
     
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