SOS got like one update before it was abandoned for TSW2 A game company with over 10 years in the train sim genre released a steam loco in a half finished state and never bother updating their product to fix it. its been over a year, and even if you forked over more money for TSW3 and even more money for TSW4 steam locos are still half assed. Spirt of Steam was even one of the bundles for TSW3, which included some of the fixes thy said were coming to the TSW2 that never came. They could have at least gave people who bought SOS a free update to TSW3 but nope. You think with TSC and 5 years of working on Unreal engine they would have figured this out by now. Derail valley figured out how steam locos work it only took 2 tires but their first was pretty good the 2nd is great. That game I only had to buy once and got massive updates for. Sim Rail will release their steam loco soon, I bet that will work out of the box as a steam engine should. I don't even care much for the current content in Sim rail, but what I do see, is they care and they have a attention to detail so its worth the purchase. Looking forward to their US route and the up coming steam loco. I have only had to pay for SimRail once. Imagine if a flight sim released a ww2 era plane where you could not adjust prop pitch or fuel/air mixtures or lacked direct input support. This is What DTG did for SOS. They would be laughed out of the market which is funny enough what happed to DTG with their flight sim, while it was not for the reasons above, the flight sim community has standards and way better games to chose from so no one was interested in DTGs half assed shovel ware dlc approach. so the game failed. Take DCS world for example the base game is free with several air craft available and you have access to the entire original dcs world map. There is even a study level ww2 mustang. Its quiet a package, the game engine behind DCS world is as old as the rail works engine but it has been updated for years and now looks almost as good as Microsoft flight sim 2020. While DCS did have some growing pains they now have one the highest quality flight sims out there and nothing comes close to them for military aircraft simulation. They did not do this by making their customers rebuy the game every year and locking future content and already purchased content fixes behind a a pay wall. I Did not even have to pal for DCS world but the modules i do have only had to pay once and got years of support. But back to TSW, with TSW4 DTG wants me to pay yet again to get the content I already bought that was released in a unfished state and broken fixed. So much for preservation crew updates for TSW2. The company flat out lied about those. But SOS is barley over a year old and got zero support after release for TSW2, even on the newest version of the game its still unfinished in the most basic of ways. Where is the improved auto fire man ? why cant i just push tab and order the fireman on what to do like so many 3rd part devs did for TSC ? how hard is that to implement ? like i need more steam, i need less steam, keep her steady. Where are the water injectors ? Why the hell does the blow out valve constantly go off ? Which water injectors would let you control better. dampers closed ? blower off ? pressure still climbing dump some water in. The last fix was not to fix the blow out valve constantly going off but to reduce the volume for the sound so it was less annoying. that is not a fix that is incompetence. Why do my wheels constantly slip for no reason at speed.? Why is the perfomance so bad for this route. ? Why dose the ground textures clip through the ballast every where in these weird Dimond shaped patterns that move with the camera and just look so bad and half assed. Why does the TSW3 lighting looks so bad on this route. Walls and other structures previously hidden in shadow are now brightly lit. The low res textures used in such places is now clearly seen. It looks worst then some old TSC routes in places. Why is this route so empty. Why is the time table impossible to stay on time still. Where is the switching ? Why are the last couple of journeys still broken. You have to like perfectly stop between two red lights in a steam engine with like a meter to spare or you will just fail. If I knew when I bough TSW2, SOS and some other DLC early july 2022 that I was not going to get any updates for what I just bought I would not have bought it. This was the road map I was basing some of my purchasing on it all turned out to be lies https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1282590/view/3356885688293602773?l=english Who announces a new game a month before release. I will get TSW4 when its less then 30 dollars on a steam key reseller site which is what i did for TSW3 because i am not giving DTG any more money. Even the recent TSC updates were bad. Some how the official DX 12 update for TSC runs worst the dx9 version and way worst then the hacky way to add Vulcan which actually improves perfomance. Or that i cant disable head tracking in TSC so to use free look with a mouse i have to uninstall my head tracking software. DTG is the only game company I have actually felt ripped off buy. I have no problem paying for new content just don't make pay for content I don't want, to fix the content I already own, or to buy future content I may want. Unless its actually a new game like say Cites Skylines 2. I got ten years of content and fixes for the first one which I only had to buy once and the 2nd game looks above an beyond the first so that's day one purchase for me. I don't get how people can continue to defend this company, or tell people that the new routes are a good deal. you that you should be happy to spend more money to get the stuff you already paid for fixed. Yes as a company they need to make money but they also need to form a relationship of sorts with their costumers its a two way street. You don't do that by lying to your customers and shoveling half assed LOVE out the door then charging more to fix that LOVE later. I uninstalled TSW3 with the announcement of TSW4 because i was waiting for the steam locos to finally get those updates. But they are not coming yet again. So i would rather use that 65 gigs so space for something else. You lost a customer right out the gate almost after my first purchases.
I feel obliged to reply, having read such a long post, but I’m not sure what to say as I presume from the last paragraph you are leaving TSW ? Good luck finding what you are looking for
I would always say to look into what you are purchasing, If you’re not happy with what you are buying, I wouldn't recommend purchasing. I also wouldn’t expect everything ideal to be there, what isn’t said don’t expect.
Thats something i ask me too, immagine the amount of employee resources and "years" of research to build that route in a accurate way, just to face reality that there wasnt built a single loco dlc to make this route more alive. Instead they abandoned it and left it behind half empty. Cant bring the term "wasted potential & wasted time" more to a point. Not so sure about your other points. I heared a different story why the flight sim world doesnt exist anymore. (something with microsofts fs2020), but im not into flight sim so anyway...
Some interesting points but its a shame you have chosen to devalue your post with insulting and unfounded accusations of lying. I think many here would prefer the same model as DCS World but what you have failed to mention is that Eagle Dynamics charge £40-65 for a map and £65 for an aircraft module. Would you be happy to pay £65 for a TSW route and £65 for a loco DLC to get free updates? Steam will improve a lot but it is still very much playable and fun to drive right now. I am looking forward to the Flying Scotsman. There is nothing wrong with waiting for a sale or to see what future deals come your way for TSW4. The money still goes to DTG. In the meantime I hope you enjoy CS2, probably a first day purchase for me too.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1282590/view/3356885688293602773?l=english Where is it mentioned in this road that TSW3 will be released in 2 months and that none of this road map will happen for TSW2. How do you release that road map when you have a new game in the works that will come out in 2 months and not mention it. That is lying. Then DTG went on to say for the last year the Updates for tsw2 are ready but we are waiting for the right release window. Its a video game update not a rocket launch to the moon. there are no updates coming. That is lying A DCS world map is several hundred square kilometers in size highly detailed with thousands of hours of game play potential since you can customize missions and campaigns how ever you want. Almost all content is usable for each map except, while you can fly modern aircraft on ww2 maps you cant use a lot of their modern weapons' or navigation equipment because things like GPS or other modern navigation aids did not exist in ww2. DCS world modules are highly detailed study level aircraft that take years of research and time to implement all the systems. TSW map are a little skinny corridor at best a few hundred kilometers long. They don't even have AI dispatchers. there is nothing dynamic about their routes its all such a canned experience. its also a stutter pop in fest. There is no study level locos in TSW not even close, half the computer screens in most trains are not even functional, there are so many locos shared with routes yet they still charge 60 bucks a route now. DTG is charging close to dcs world prices for a fraction of content quality and function.
Unfortunatly the train simming community is narrower that combat flightsim, even study level like DCS (ah the Mig21....) There is less money to make, so there is less editors interested. TSW is by no way a study simulator, more rather a casual simulator, applying for broader audience. TSC has however some very advanced locos by external editors. So unfortunatly we have a more limited choice than our flightsimmers friends.
I feel for you. Your points and frustrations are similar to mine. I wish they would have taken a different path with this franchise, but instead of broadening the game's appeal to a larger audience, the name of the game now is to squeeze every last penny from the current crop of customers until the well runs dry. (Just how it feels to me).
Fair play the crazies really are trying to take over the asylum...... Also think he's bit late, clearly missed his train to the ranting and raving party for TSW2......
Steam in TSW is far from perfect and I suspect even DTG are quite aware of that and hopefully allocating developer resources to try and improve it. However rather than write a rambling, whinging essay, why not join in on the thread where we are trying to make the experience more realistic, within the current constraints.
