Christmas Community Challenge Issues

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by andy#5135, Dec 6, 2023.

  1. andy#5135

    andy#5135 Member

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    Due to a several bugs in the Christmas 2023 Community Challenge, it's difficult to know where to pool our efforts as a Community in order for DTG to release some teasers of next year's releases during next week's December Roadmap.

    At least on PS4, the graphical bar for "Reindeer Run!" is not giving ANY indication of % completion, which could either be due to floating point errors or how the variables have been declared (as they are large numbers). The overlapping text isn't helpful either, as all you see is a large number (in metres) followed by /0. As of this morning (6th December), a quick calculation (if my maths is correct) showed that the "Reindeer Run" was just over 1,000,000 km out of the required 3,600,000 km (just under 30% complete).

    Although it looks as though "Present Delivery!" will be completed on-time, a "Sleigh Load of Scenarios" was either showing around 6,000 or 9,000 (can't remember which) out of 36,000 scenarios (which at best would be under 25% complete). One of those summaries only appears if you click on the left arrow rather than the right arrow, which again is, sadly, not helpful.

    To boost the "Reindeer Run" and "Sleigh Load of Scenarios" Community Challenges, could the TSW community consider focussing their efforts on either short scenarios and / or scenarios involving long-distance FAST running (e.g. SouthEastern High Speed, Kassel-Wurzburg etc.).

    Alternatively, should the Community fail to meet the Community Challenges by 3 pm on Monday, would DTG consider (as an act of Christmas good-will) to their loyal customers, showing the trailers (without conditions) during next week's December Roadmap?
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2023
  2. andy#5135

    andy#5135 Member

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    Unfortunately, some scenarios have wrong duration times, e.g. SEHS had a late running scenario billed as 20 minutes long, yet it takes over 35 minutes to get from St. Pancras to Strood. :(
     
  3. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Can I put my hand up here and ask, "What Community Challenge?"

    Maybe I'm being thick or missed a briefing but I can't see anything about it in the Announcements or Dovetail Live sections of the forum.

    We cannot (maybe) contribute to it if we not actually aware of it...
     
  4. Nick Y

    Nick Y Well-Known Member

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    This post might shed some light for you OldVern
     
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  5. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I see it now, thank you.

    Well guess to get the mileage accumulated it's going to need to be high speed stuff n Scenarios, not bimbling around with US freight. Sorry, SPG.

    Time to get driving then, though Railroader coming out tomorrow could put a dent in things.
     
  6. FredElliott

    FredElliott Well-Known Member

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    Technically there's nothing stopping you from running that mile long freight down the 2%+ grade at 70mph...just don't try it in wet/snowy weather
     
  7. Disintegration7

    Disintegration7 Well-Known Member

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    Somehow i suspect all the goals will be reached
     
  8. andy#5135

    andy#5135 Member

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    Reminds me of "the good old days" when Sam (Colonel Failure) infamously put the BR Class 101 (manual gear changes) on a huge downhill stretch of LGV. :D Can't remember what speed it reached, whether it de-railed, or knowing Sam, whether it launched itself into outer space like a rocket. Happy Christmas, Sam! We miss you. :cool:
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2023
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  9. FredElliott

    FredElliott Well-Known Member

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    I'm trying that tonight
     
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  10. andy#5135

    andy#5135 Member

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    At least there's the weekend. ;)
     
  11. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Of course the strange thing is, because I tend to do Journey mode on most routes, there’s not a huge amount of scenarios left on many of the faster routes.
     
  12. Mikey_9835

    Mikey_9835 Well-Known Member

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    If anyone wants to speedrun scenarios to boost the numbers up, The Lost Toys scenario on Holiday Express is the shortest scenario and can be done in under 3 minutes.
     
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  13. StrikeEagle78

    StrikeEagle78 Well-Known Member

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    Oh I have your teaser right here: TSW5 :D
     
  14. DTG Alex

    DTG Alex Senior Community Manager Staff Member

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    Hello everyone,

    Regarding the challenges and the progress visibility in-game, while it is possible to see the progress, it's certainly not easy or very convenient and we're trying to resolve this before the challenge is complete. That being said, you can view the real-time progress on our Community Challenge website, which displays all three results clearly. :)

    View challenge progress: https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/train-sim-world/challenges

    I hope this helps!
     
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  15. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Thanks Alex. Looks like still much work to be done on scenarios. Timetables are complete and distance travelled just under half.
     
  16. Blacknred81

    Blacknred81 Well-Known Member

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    I haven't touched the French route yet after getting it for free, may need to squeeze some time with it.
     
  17. aeronautic237

    aeronautic237 Well-Known Member

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    If we don't get achieve the goal, what happens? Will they say "We won't show you any teasers?"

    They can't do that... right?

    Right?????
     
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  18. Challenger3985

    Challenger3985 Well-Known Member

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    There's already one challenge that's completed, resulting in one teaser to show on the roadmap. Still got some time to complete the other 2 (or 1 if so) until next week to get more teasers.
     
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  19. Mikey_9835

    Mikey_9835 Well-Known Member

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    I think it's impossible for the scenario one to be done in time, you'd have to grind out 6,000 scenarios a day if my math is correct to complete it before the deadline. Just seems that way more people play Timetable mode for obvious reasons
     
  20. StrikeEagle78

    StrikeEagle78 Well-Known Member

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    I would rather see this play out than the actual teasers :D
     
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  21. OpenMinded

    OpenMinded Well-Known Member

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    Do we know if free roam runs on the training Center count towards the mileage goal?
     
  22. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I suppose you could finish off any Training Centre scenarios as they tend to be short but I do think someone was a bit optimistic when setting the target for that one. Mileage is easy as are timetable runs as for the latter you just head across to the IOW or St Ives branch. But as I said yesterday evening, I’ve already done over 60% of the scenarios for installed routes. Many of those left are items such as switching on SPG or Clinchfield which will take hours just to get a couple done and not much towards the distance target.

    So I’ll do what I can but seriously think DTG ought to relax the scenario objective a bit, or maybe if we get half way give us half a teaser.

    The cynic in me also has to declare this seems to be a means of motivating people to play TSW4 rather than something else, in exchange for what will probably be at best a cryptic look at something we find out about in due course anyway.
     
  23. richtayls

    richtayls Well-Known Member

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    Black, no sugar, for me please.
     
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  24. CK95

    CK95 Well-Known Member

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    Guess I’ll crack on with some remaining mastery challenges.

    Personally I do find the scenarios to be quite dull, they don’t have any of the wow factor that timetables tend to have, but are often just a TT service with a red light thrown in.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the goal isn’t met.
     
  25. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I think you may be right… And as regards scenarios, yes basically most are timetable runs with a couple of (non) random events thrown in and some lousy weather.
     
  26. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Personally, I always begin with the scenarios. They give me a good introduction to the route and, occasionally, someone has written a gem which stands out.

    I do move on to the timetable, though, to be truthful, I find many of them to be very repetitive. How many I do depends on whether I like the route overall and whether there is decent lighting at night.
     
  27. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    DTG Alex can you please have a look at downgrading the scenario challenge. The maths simply doesn't work.
    At present Steam DB shows 647 in game, not all of whom may be running a scenario. Even if they are, we double the total players with those on consoles/Epic to 1300. If each player manages to complete 2 scenarios a day that's 2600 x 4 for the remaining period = 10,400 which is going to bring the total to just over 20k of the 36k required.

    There are only a finite number of scenarios and many are complex requiring a couple of hours to complete. So unless someone is totally barmy and spends 16 hours a day playing TSW, it has set an impossible challenge.
     
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  28. Disintegration7

    Disintegration7 Well-Known Member

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    Guys, this is at least 50% a marketing campaign- it drives current players to engage with the game, and pushes traffic to their website.

    There's 0% chance there won't be all the sneak previews made available.

    Relax, there's already so much stress this time of year lol
     
  29. andy#5135

    andy#5135 Member

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    Hopefully JD will "accidentally" leak something again next week. ;)
     
  30. CK95

    CK95 Well-Known Member

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    Honestly, the reward isn’t significant, it’s not like DTG won’t market the routes before release anyway, the teasers will likely only be a couple of weeks ahead of when we would be shown them anyway.

    Not really worth the slog of some of the scenarios in game.
     
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  31. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Don't look to me for any help. I just did a Blackpool scenario but it was the first one I'd done in the last 3 days, a little below my average play rate due to the wife dragging me around the mall for Christmas shopping.

    I think those who think it's a ruse to get more reportable playing time are probably right.
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2023
  32. antony.henley

    antony.henley Well-Known Member

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    Having problems with my TSW on the PS5. It's just started to crash in random places. Bloody annoying g when your streaming as well. Will look at clearing the cache over the next few days.

    Hentis
     
  33. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Ouch. I did one on Blackpool too, luckily no crash but 35 minutes and of course all it racks up is 17.5 miles.

    You are right about the “ruse” I think. Reminds me of the similar events on tablet games like Hay Day where they set a target of so many lbs of fish to catch, truck deliveries or helping other players revive trees etc. They dangle a prize of 30 diamonds (premium currency) in front of you as an incentive if the global goal is reached, but really it’s that they want you spending time on their game to the exclusion of anything else. In the case of tablet games they also want you spending real money to achieve the objective too. Now DTG aren’t as bad as SuperCell but you can see the mindset at work!
     
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  34. DTG JD

    DTG JD Director of Community and Marketing Staff Member

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    We'll be reviewing the # of the Scenario completions required - we based the numbers from player data, but that may have taken into account a large influx of scenarios being completed when TSW4 was launched.
     
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  35. Tigert1966

    Tigert1966 Well-Known Member

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    It‘s the same with Forza Horizon 5. Every year special Christmas tasks for a reward that regardless of how much progress is made always end up completed. Just a bit of fun. I‘m sure that somehow we‘ll get the previews anyway.

    It would be a strange decision not to market something new because the players weren’t playing enough.
     
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