Semmeringbahn Discussion Thread

700? not if there arent:
Desiro MLs
4124s
RailJets of many kinds
1144s + various consists
Taurus + dostos + 8033 control cars in either Wiesel or CityJet modernized livery/config

also there are 5047s and Desiro Classic, plus 2016 Herkules... for diesel routes

 

I mean it has a lot of potential for Loco DLCs!

While DTG could do the RailJet as loco DLC, Skyhook Games could do the Desiro ML. They did it in TSC, and imo it's pretty nice to drive.

 

It may sound picky but I hate that they once again used the wrong kind of PIS-screens as they did with Salzburg-Rosenheim.

In the newest trailer you can see that they used the kind of boards that shows the ÖBB logo -> LINK, but Wr. Neustadt (and all other stations on the route) still has these screens -> LINK.

Am I they only one or are there others that get annoyed by that?

 

Every time I hear that train accelerate I just hear Careless Whisper. Keep expecting George Michael to start at maximum notch.

 

So for everyone wondering if the diesel railcar ÖBB 5144 is present - the answer is both yes and no

 

Not watched the stream, but what was DTG's answer (if any) about why they only modelled the BMZ and not a full consist?

 

The stream is still on, if you want to join and ask the question again:

 

Thanks for the info but I've just fired up TSC. It was asked several times in the Q&A thread so by rights it ought to have been at the top of the list.

 

Not followed the entire stream by the way, so I can't answer either. Just rejoined in since 20 minutes. Maybe need to rewatch tomorrow.

 

No answer

 

...No buy!

 

Not everyone has time to watch the streams, can you elaborate?

 

Unfortunately you can't drive it. That would have been a nice reward .

 

It’s the mastery reward

 

Mastery reward

 

Exit signal in Ternitz is incorrectly linked to next block signal and has active 1000 Hz magnet





The actual Bkvsignal is further down the line



DTG Matt This is what stopped you on the stream DTG Lukas

 

If that happens every time, it’s going to be very annoying :/ Did the QA testers miss this?

 

well the model is here. hopefuly with interior. I really hope to see it on it's own historical route in a year, or as a railtour.

 

Watched all 3 hours and 20 minutes of preview stream and left astounded that the most prevalent question was completely ignored (Why no first class in the IC consist?).

+ route scenery looks decent
- second class only​

Would definitely like to see additions to this route in future, the foremost being Railjet as a full price loco DLC but also a ÖBB Cityjet liveried 4024 in a similar vein to the Centro Regional Railways Class 323. But as we all can presume from past experience; at worst it will never be realised, at best it will take years to come.
So as with Rivet's Fife Circle Line, instead of rushing to click the pre-order button for a route I was initially excited by, I instead find myself underwhelmed and hesitant. I can't help but feel DTG have the potential to deliver great content but always seem to miss the mark.
On a final note, I don't think the static 5144 at Semmering should have been a mastery tile as it is a permanent asset of the scenery. Mastery tiles should be reserved for scenes that are not a permanent sight on a route. No biggy. At least I can be thankful it's not been omitted entirely.

 

they did answer, the answer was "we had no more time" along with station signs not showing answered as "we know, we have no date for a fix"

 

My bad for missing that. I only heard Matt say "no plans to work on additional coaches at this point" near the end of the stream with no real explanation for why they weren't included in the first place.

 

When they inspected the carriages mid-stream I believe Lukas said that originally there were plans for additional carriage variations, but due to time constraints they limited it to the one type.

 

Overall it looks great, as a fan of the Austrian Alps I’m pretty stoked.

I really do hope the Railjet is coming though. Plus maybe an expansion when the tunnel opens in real life?

I’ll never get why DTG doesn’t seem interested in properly preparing these streams though, it’s as if Matt was driving the loco for the first time, and even Lucas couldn’t point him to the PZB switch :’) Same goes for the faulty penalty brake that happened.

 

All of which doesn’t really inspire a full price purchase.

Makes you wonder how much planning goes into these projects, the flow chart or whiteboard should clearly show what’s required and the time budget for each task.

 

I thought the route looked very good from the stream, the scenery looks very well done and it looks like it should be fun to drive with the various different speed limits and the steep and twisty nature of part of it.

The loco looks very nice although I don't think will be the most interesting to drive, some older traction would be nice to see released for the route as that would probably be more of a challenge, I imagine. I do think it is disappointing that there will not be more variety of carriages, although the one included looked well modelled. I wish we had more loco hauled trains like this in the UK with proper carriages not squeezed into glorified multiple units.

Overall I saw enough for me to be happy to purchase it now rather than wait for a sale.

 

I’m using the strategy of buying now for the pre order discount but not playing until I see the feedback so that I have the option to refund. For now from the bits I have seen, it looks nice and I’m hoping it will be good.

I couldn’t watch the stream. Started to, but it seemed that no preparation had gone into it. If I was trying to sell something, I’d have done at least one practice run. Much as I enjoy watching Matt play the game, I still think that on a sales stream he needs to go slower and explain more.

Anyway hopefully one of the Ambassadors whose opinion I trust will get to do an early preview of the release build.

 

I do agree the streams lately haven't been quite as good. This was much better than the Goblin stream which I did find hard to watch. I do enjoy watching Matt play the game, although it is easy to get distracted from driving when you are having to do other things.

I tend also to now watch an Ambassadors stream before I pre-order in case something shows up I missed, but I think it is unlikely in this case that I won't buy it.

 

Agreed. I cringed every time he got a Zwangsbremsung. After it had happened 5 times in the first service, I quit watching the stream.

 

Certainly there were some interesting points during the stream...

"are there neutral sections" - no one knew
"are more than 1 carriage type modelled" - yes, oh hold on I can't see any others, maybe we ran out of time
"is Railjet being added" - absolute silence
"Is the 47 in a authentic livery" - nope, someone will do it on Creators Club
"show the easter egg under the viaduct" - sorry that's not in the script
"what service are we driving next" - erm... what does the script say... erm
"there's no wording on the station signs" - we know, we don't have a fix
"where is the PZB switch" oh, erm, silence

 

The Preview Streams are mostly vicariously embarrassing.

 

I only watch them to get some answers on questions I have. usually it's slightly less vague than the forum or announcements. and to just see the route and stuff before I buy. but usually it looks like it's not been planned at all. makes it more entertaining to see matt get a zwangsbremsung every 5 minutes. good thing he had afb this time to keep him to speed. but nobody seems to have answers to anything. the most asked questions get ignored or vaguely answered after 2 hours. and the subject derails quickly too. this felt more like a podcast of three people talking about their previous work and chocolate than an actual preview and Q&A stream. all the questions are skipped but the jokes in the comments are all seen apparently.

 

Ok, at leat this one can be answered.

Yes (just one though)

 

I agree with you. Hopefully mastery progess works on this route. Sadly, I will never see the static steam loco on WSR since the miles driven are not counted in my game. Would be a sad, if you could not unlock the 5144 due to a bug.

 

I feel like the preview streams should be outsourced to the YouTube “ambassadors” who would likely do a much better job with them. And yes, not too much to ask that the player on the stream operate the locomotive competently.

I’m honestly kind of underwhelmed by Semmeringbahn. Maybe it’s the slow speed on the mountain, or maybe the lack of the first class coaches are a sign that not enough care was put into it. Maybe I’ll sit this one out for now and buy on sale later.

 

Not so sure about that. DTGs streams look often improvised, but Matt gives mostly a good portion of background information to the systems & railway things in general related to how things are working in reality.

The route choice is good, challenging freight runs with a fast section to wien Neustadt, even longer than the tsc version. But i agree either another coach, or a new freightwagon would be apropriate, taking in mind the ES64U2 isnt made from scratch. This route needs a railjet, and more öbb traction like 1042, 1144 etc.

Today the 111 update was reverted, so ill make the preorder with risk this route ends up as fire and forget, which i really hope it wont be the case.

 

I'm glad we finally got a appropriate answer on the XBox Series X rendering downgrade, alltrough it's a very diplomatic one to not piss off Microsoft in any way I guess.
Since the culprit is clearly the weaker Series S console, labeled as gen9 for pure marketing reasons.

For me it means that I will no longer buy any TSW content for the Xbox platform and switch over to PC.

 

I am still not 100% convinced this is an issue with the Series X and not DTG deciding to simplify their development process by downgrading the game across the Xbox lineup.

The vast majority of Series S/X games perform and look identically on PS5 and Series X, and they accommodate the Series S by running it on a lower resolution like 1080p instead of 1440p or 4k. Example I used in another thread is the Crew Motorfest, it is 4k30fps (resolution mode) or 1440p60fps (performance mode) on Series X and PS5 and looks/runs IDENTICAL. On Series S it is only 1080p60fps and looks a little worse but performs well. You can look up any direct comparison site like Digital Foundry and see that in most cases games look and run almost identically on Series X and PS5, with minor differences here and there.

The DTG explanation tells us why the Series X tends to have better FPS than PS5 but as we now know creates a big penalty in far distance. It may have always been this way but became much more apparent when TSW4 started having a focus on beautiful distant mountains that just aren't there on the Series X as we now know. Microsoft's fault for releasing the two consoles to begin with I guess but still seems to be handled better by other devs.

DTG's solution doesn't seem to mesh with what many other games do. They are downgrading BOTH the Series S and X version at the core level it seems like to save the time of optimizing for each. Not only do they not have any differences in performance modes but they don't really have any graphics options in the game at all, not even brightness and contrast sliders.

One notable exception is that there IS an option to switch the game itself from 4k to 1080p. I have tried it out, it definitely reduces quality, doesn't seem to improve performance much but I didn't get too deep into it.

But I digress. I am not a dev so I can't be sure of anything. Maybe theres a reason they had to do it thats beyond my knowledge level. DTG isn't a massive studio with the resources of Ubisoft and not the first to say that the Series S is holding back Xbox.

I am going to do something similar to you and go back to PS5. I started on PS and have most my DLC there. I got an Xbox X later on for other games but when I realized from gamepass that it runs smoother I started buying DLC there instead. Now I am kind of split between the two but I can't unsee the draw distance issue so will go back to PS5. I never did a side by side comparo but I do remember being wowed by Voralberg when TSW4 released (PS5), then playing it a few months later and thinking "meh this doesn't look as good as I remember" (Series X) but I never connected the dots until the recent thread with side by side screenshots.

But then now both PS5 AND Series X have the current brutally annoying texture streaming issue with most of the newer routes where textures seem to randomly be dropping down to a brutal blurry/low quality setting.

This has been widely reported in support tickets and forum threads by many people on both PS5 and Xbox Gen 9 (maybe even PC too) but I haven't seen/heard any acknowledgment from DTG yet:

PS5 - Texture Resolution Problem | Dovetail Games Forums

XBX/XBS - Anyone Else Getting Weird Lo-res Texture Issues In Cab, Signage, Etc Lately? | Dovetail Games Forums

This Low Res Grapics Bug Is Getting Really Annoying Hics | Dovetail Games Forums

 

Almost every game on Xbox has nowadays a option to either prefer performance or graphic fidelity mode.
Not so TSW for whatever reason.
They just downgrade everything to make it playable on the weaker Series S.

They should give the player the choice of what they prefer... 60 fps or great visual experience. Like almost every other game doing it.

Wouldn't be surprised if they introduce and marketing something like that as New Feature in TSW 5 .. 6... Whatever

 

I agree with the previous comments, the overall scenery of the route is nice, but there are still some imperfections:
1. The construction site near Mürzzuschlag is a bit too clean. I compared it to cabview videos on YouTube, and the construction materials and equipment are far more abundant and chaotic in reality than in the game.
2.There are fewer trees on the hillsides than one might expect, and the limited loading distance makes the hillsides look a bit bare. In addition, the grass density is not high enough. The grass density in the Rosenheim DLC is very good and looks visually pleasing, while Semmering is lacking and does not have that lush forest feel.

 

Yes, he seemed to expect that there were open as well as corridor coaches (still second class, though), which would suggest that some work must have been done on them.

 

ÖBB Baureihe 1020 is also known DB Baureihe 194 because they are the same locomotives built around World War II and the 1950s. Oddly they can be seen in both countries as heavy freight locomotive. You might be able to re-create Main Spessart Bahn Heigenbrücken 1986

 

It looks like a nice route from what I've seen.

Shame that it will probably get completely broken when DTG drop the September "Core update".

After the Spring update just demolished a ton of stuff, I'll probably wait for an 80% discount on all future DLC from this point onwards, just to be safe.

 

September Core update? Interesting what you already know....

 

Coming back to Railjet, it is a striking point that there were a couple of RJ services with a plain ÖBB 1116 locomotive. So I don't think we'll get Railjet at some point.

 

I wish the Devs would understand that free roam and creators club are not excuses for lack of certain content! It seems like only JT have got that rule written down!

The route looks beautifully made IMO but I have nothing to compare it too. Its just a shame we've again been left short with rolling stock

 

On the contrary, I suspect the Railjet DLC will just replace them, like the 465 replaced 375 Dartford services in SEHS

 

I really hope it's a placeholder for the railjet coming one day. I rather have a placeholder than missing services. speaking of, Salzburg is really empty and they said only 4 EC services on the Sazburg - Rosenhem route will be in. my count of the actual timetable is 6 playable and 75 AI services including EC, RJ, EN and ÖBB IC trains. there have only been mentions of the playable services, how many AI is planned?

Edit Add another 16 AI for the trains From München through Rosenheim towards Kufstein driven with the 1116 (and 4 101's and a ICE-T)

 

Large part of distant trains in Austria run as RJ or RJX, so if you excluded that, you wouldn't have many passenger runs across the whole route left.

 

Rather the beauty of this add-on, I wander why console users are not getting 10% discount?