Because the 420s only make occasional runs as backup/overflow on the S12/S19 Düren line, stopgaps until the 424s all arrive. (In actual fact, the last of the Köln 420s were retired last month, although the route itself is set ca. 2019)
Oh, I think that's really unfair. The problem is that HMA, it turns out, simply cannot be further expanded, unless it's given a huge rebuild like LIRR. Sadly for us (and TSG), München is the city associated with the 420 above all others; it was once known as der Olympiatriebzug.
dtg no longer cares about HMA too, they could have made the adjustments just to make the 420 compatible with it and that's it
It's nothing about compatibility. The train can run on that route in the current state. The main problem is RAM consumption. The timetable can not get any more trains in or it will explode (on consoles mainly). To "fix" that, the route needs a complete re-signalling. Means, all signals need to get rid off first. Then all signals need to get placed again and route tables filled in and maintained after that (this is actually the exact spot where the problem lays). Then the timetable needs to be done again from scratch. That is work for weeks or even months for a small team. That's simply not paying off at all. Nothing to do with caring about, it's simple math.
Such a shame. The original timetable on HMA isn't even that big. Yeah there's a fair few S-Bahn services, but nothing crazy. And the main line between Pasing and Hbf is downright empty.
well yes, but clearly it would be nice to at least have it in game XD And to be fair: I would also take it in the Munich livery and version, as long as we would be finally able to drive it
Actually, if I would be someone, who have to work economically, having spent quite a lot of time and energy in it, and then finally discovering that the route, it was built for, isn't optimised for it, I would say it's the opposite. Somehow, I may think, that just 'throwing it in the trashcan", actually wouldn't be the right way to act economically.
To be honest, this route was a problem-child already from the beginning, sadly enough! It was for the moment maybe not the best choice of route. I barely drive on it, because of the lack of 'life' in the route itself, what use does a million of signals have if barely any of them are 'functionally' working or getting used anyway. And having München Hbf that empty (being the actually busiest of the complete network) is a bit of an insult.
HMA was probably over-ambitious given the state of the game at that time (pre-RH, pre more recent optimization). I think that with later routes, notably LIRR, DTG have shown they really can handle very busy routes with highly complex signalling- but that wasn't really the case four years ago working in TSW2020. In other words, it like LIRR could be done much better now- but would require a ground-up rebuild. (Also, if this were ever done, they really, really need to include Hbf Tief so the S-Bahn terminates in a logical place)
That actually gives me idea that potential remaster of this route (including busy timetable) would be perfect way to bring high signalling to the sim.
But maybe building HMA at that time was necessary to get where we are now. Sure, that's not a great answer. But I think DTG learned a LOT with/after HMA. Maybe we achieve today's quality of routes (see LIRR), because back then someone at DTG was brave enough to say "let's do it. Let's do Munich and see what we can do". And I'm sure, today this route would be an absolute banger.
München is certainly a mother. Once in TSC I tried to reproduce all of the RL traffic just between the HBf and Laim for one single hour- just 60 minutes. It broke the game; TSC's engine couldn't handle it. Shame, too, because I put rather some work into the various non-DB liveries.
That must've been in the 32-bit TS era, which could only use around 3.6 GB of RAM. 64-bit removed this restriction. Try again it should work
And that is exactly why it is so disappointing to hear that the 420 has been 're-assigned' to a different project. We were all kind of hoping that the delay in releasing it meant that they were working on an overhaul of the route. But alas, apparently TSG has been told "we're not doing an overhaul, so you better take that 420 somewhere else" so we can stop hoping.
