Have DTG ever considered making an entirely fictitious route and trainset DTG Protagonist DTG Matt ? Some of the guys on the team clearly have great imaginations as seen with the easter eggs and mastery rewards, not to mention the training centre (though that was inspired by a real life location). I reckon it would be great to see a route unstifled by licensing and real life limitations, though grounded in reality of course - flying trains are still a way off
Fictional routes won't happen unfortunately. I would rather have them make real routes with real trains so it's realistic. Sure, there are things that aren't realistic but I would want the route and trains to at least be realistic. It's better use of resources to make realistic routes than to make a fictional one. Also many forum members get upset a route is unrealistic so a lot more people would get upset with a fictional route
Funnily enough, the Training Center is actually real (albeit with fictional mountainous scenery). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wegberg-Wildenrath_Test_and_Validation_Centre
the TC is based on the Wegberg-Wildenrath Test and Validation Centre. DTG couldn't stress that enough when they announced the TC
I don't see the appeal of fictional routes. If I am playing a train simulator I want not only the train to be accurate but also the route that I am seeing out the windscreen to be accurate as well.
I like the idea of scaling up a complex miniature railway or even model railway, would be quite fun in a real world environment. There is also the possibility of transforming a railway from a politically sensitive area of the world into something from another region. There are many scenic railways in Russia, North Korea etc. and Iran has a railway that runs inland from the coast with loops a d spiral tunnels that are the equal if anything Switzerland can offer. There are the former railways on the islands of Bermuda and Barbados plus the route which circles St Kitts which could be transformed into an interesting project. The advantage is as a fictional or freelanced project you avoid the rivet counters coming out to pick fault.
The only fictional route that would remotely take my interest is GARL. And that's all ready been made for TSC. Even if it is awfull
Given how unrealistic they have treated some US DLCs *cough* the CSX SD40 and the ATSF F7 why not just go all the way and say screw realism?
Something like the examples below could work in a franchise collaboration, but as with anything DTG do, it will always come down to rights. - Island of Sodor - Polar Express - That flying train from Back to the Future III - The Hogwarts Express
Cuz people would get even more mad and dtg would receive lots of threats lol. Probably worse than what they got with rush hour.
But how do you know a train or route is accurate? I haven't played one route in TSW that I would know to be accurate. Most of the routes seem fictional to me. I really wouldn't care if a route was fictional or not, it only has to give me the illusion that it is real.
I only drive the British routes and so I have a rough idea what the area looks like, landmarks of the area, trains which run in a certain area and most importantly names of places in an area so I know when I drive on NTP Victoria station is how it looked Huddersfield is how it looked and Leeds City is how it looked and this is how I know it is accurate because I do have prior knowledge to the routes.
(Hypothetically speaking) It can, as we know where the route starts and ends, plus it is not difficult to find out what the train is. As this is a thread about fictional lines, it shouldn't be too hard to make work. Start: London King's Cross Station End: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Engine: GWR 4900 5972 Olton Hall built in 1937 with MKI coaches The Route/ Scene: Filmed on a 42-mile stretch of line between Fort William and Mallaig and can be remade using the actual line
But then most people would just prefer the Mallaig Extension as is, whatever era. There are also likely to be huge licensing issues with franchises such as Harry Potter, Sodor or Polar Express. Most of the money from sales would be going back to the rights holder.
You are correct and the best solution would be to make GWR 4900 5972 Olton Hall with Red MkI coaches over the Glenfinnan Viaduct as its steam locomotive complete with Scotrail class 156 153 sprinters. Tom Connell Cover Art for TSW 3 Fort William Mallaig is 5972 Olton Hall over the Glenfinnan Viaduct if TSW 3 were to get West Highland Line Fort William Mallaig as a route. That way DTG avoids the licensing fee from Warner Bros and JK Rowling for Harry Potter Hogwarts Express
So it would not matter that fictional routes would exist? You clearly don't buy German or American content so it would not really matter as long as they still make real UK routes? To me fictional routes seem more interesting as you can have way cooler routes and trains. GTA for example is also a good racing game, filled with fictional cars in a fictional setting. I love racing simulators that are as real as can be but I don't feel offended by the racing aspect in a game like GTA. Even in 'real' racing simulators you see fictional tracks and fictional cars.
I have not once said they shouldn't be made but I am just putting across my opinion across as I would rather time when into real routes whether they be British, german or whatever. I just don't see the point in time going towards fictional stuff when there are so many real life lines missing.
Completely 100% agree with you mate like I said they may as well make fantasy locos and buildings built of fairy dust to got with it!
I’d be up for a well made fictional route. I can see the potential for making the most of game play, through that. particularly for historical eras where getting ‘real’ might mean using artistic license for want of lack of reference material or the access to it.
Seems like opinion as fairly split. The question was prompted by me playing the mostly good Bus Simulator 21. It has its issues in terms of bugs, but it has a fully developed small town (two in fact) that is entirely fictional and has a good mix of motorways, dense town centre and industrial areas along with smaller settlements a bit further afield. Its by no means massive, but assuming one drives "properly" it still takes 30 mins+ to finish a route once the final areas are available to place stops. Licensed buses are used here too In before anyone says a bus isn't a train, but the same principle applies - a relatively large area has been planned and implemented from scratch while (presumably) drawing inspiration from real locations, and I find it as enjoyable driving around that town on a route as I do driving a train Thus, the question of whether a similar type of route and trainset could be dreamed up by DTG came to my mind as an alternative to, and freed from the limitations of, real life routes Note that I'm not advocating that DTG should ditch real routes in favour of imagined worlds One could imagine a series of routes in a fictional country, but rather than the disparate locations that e.g. the UK routes have seen (exclusing south east) each subseuqent route either builds off or extends the previous one so ultimately we end up with a full (?) rail network with many different kinds of geography, features, scenery and the like
I would take 1 or 2 fictional routes but I wouldn't want them to overproduce them or to make them not good quality. Something like the forest of rail in tsc would be nice. It's not fully realistic but it's unique. There would definitely be a lot of disappointed people. There already are people who bash dtg for the slightest inaccuracies or bigger inaccuracies, etc.
Actually I'm sure I checked the co-ordinates of FoR when I first bought it and it does broadly follow a real closed Japanese line.
I actually like this idea, at the end of the day its a video game and the idea is to have fun. There were a couple of Australian based fictional routes for MSTS that were so much fun back in the day. More scenery, more intricate and fun driving requirements etc. All the purists will sulk about it but if you don't want to play the route you don't have to.
I think fictional routes are better left to Users with the new editor. I'd rather DTG not waste a development slot on something that isn't going to appeal to that many people. One of the things I love about TSW, is learning about different real routes, and different real trains. I knew nothing about German/US trains before starting TSW.
Pretty much how I'd go about doing it - It'd probably require owning multiple addons to get the correct set-up, but if a one or more dev teams were to make the route and the 4900 class, it'd just be a case of users making a livery on the Creator's Club to properly represent it, and boom, there's the Express That way, everyone should be happy - in this case, it'd probably be fairly easy for DTG to make the extension as they already have a licensing agreement with Scotrail which runs trains on the route.