Dovetail Games Your Feedback For The West Coast Main Line (updated)

Good afternoon everyone,

Following the WCML preview livestream last night, we want to acknowledge that we’ve seen some of you provide really useful feedback and responses from the community to help our teams make the route the best it can be, which we are grateful for.

Just to set expectations correctly for the launch of Train Sim World 5, we are working to understand if any improvements can be made prior to the release on September 17th. However, our teams have heard your feedback for the West Coast Main Line route, as well as the content included, and we are reviewing areas we can address for potential post-release updates.

Something we can confirm coming after launch will be suspension improvements for the new Class 350, the Class 377/2 and the 1972 Stock, which we were unable to highlight during our preview due to issues when testing and implementation.

Our teams would love to confirm a date for when you can expect these changes, but we also want to ensure our promises stay managed and allow our development teams a chance to review possible day-one patch information if needed, but we will keep you updated regularly across community spaces.

Thank you for your comments, we’re excited to bring the WCML into TSW, and we’ll do what we can to support the new route alongside your collective feedback.

 

As an update, we've just shared a range of new responses following your raised questions from our preview stream, and across our community. We'll be checking early next week to follow up on commitments and address some of the top areas of feedback you've raised, with a plan for what areas we'll be improving for the WCML experience post-launch. Thank you for your patience.

If you want to see the additional WCML Q&A responses, please view them here:
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/wcml-pendolino-preview-q-a-thread.84099/page-3#post-890389

 

Hello everyone,

We wanted to provide an update for the West Coast Main Line route for the launch of Train Sim World 5 coming next week, with early access beginning this Thursday. We're committed to delivering the best experience for all of you that we can, helping develop this route in conjunction with multiple development partners, including those from our Partner Programme and members of our community. We're actively working on a range of improvements that will be implemented post-launch, that we wanted to share today.

Here are the WCML improvements we are changing in the first post-release patch:

• Increase City Skyline draw distance to be visible from further away
• Improve passenger spread around Euston Station
• Various Lighting Improvements
  • Euston station light baking & performance
  • Watford High Street lighting improvements
  • Fixes for flashing when driving through tunnels
  • Minor improvements to nighttime lighting for buildings (We've added more context later on)
• Avanti West Coast Class 390 Pendolino
  • GSMR functionality
  • Adjustments to Front/rear coupling alignment
  • Fixes to lighting intensity around luggage racks

Finally, we’ve also committed to adding off-route locations as virtual destinations on PIS, however, we are not expecting this to be included within the first patch listed above and it will follow in a future update afterwards.

As we've now finished work on the launch build for TSW5, the team are working on those improvements. They're in the current development cycle which has started today - and once that is completed and tested, we'll be able to confirm a release date.

Additional Notes
Included with this initial patch will also be a range of other improvements for San Bernardino and Frankfurt-Fulda, including some performance improvements for 8th-generation platforms.

Conductor Mode
There are also a couple of known issues with Conductor Mode which we will aim to improve with this patch that we wanted to acknowledge for launch:

• We are seeing some issues if you start conductor mode from in-world or change service mid-session, so we recommend that players start conductor mode from the menu.
• Birmingham Cross City will feature Conductor Mode, and this has been implemented with launch, however, we are not fully confident with the delivery of this yet and we do not recommend you play Conductor Mode on BCC for the time being whilst we continue to implement and improve this experience.

WCML Timetable
One of the key areas of feedback we’ve received from you all relates to the timetable, and this is something we would like to improve the overall experience on the route in the longer-term. We have prioritised the playable services available in the core route, however, at this time, making improvements to the volume of services in the timetable isn't something we can promise, so, in the interests of transparency, please consider the current timetable as final.

For launch, here is the full list of service counts:

• Class 350 EMU – 244 services
• Class 377/2 – 36 services
• Class 66 – 38 Services
• Class 390/0 Pendolino – 49 services
• Class 390/1 Pendolino – 60 services
• 1972 Stock – 198 Services
• Class 710 – 65 services (Requires London Overground Suffragette Line add-on)

This is for PC/Gen9 consoles – For Xbox One and PlayStation 4, we've amended the timetable to provide a suitable experience after reviewing the performance on these systems.

8th Generation Console Amendments
The timetable will consist of Class 350 and Class 377 services, with additional Avanti West Coast Class 390 Pendolino services available for those with the Class 390 Pendolino add-on.

Other trains included in the route, such as the Class 66 and London Underground stock, will only be available to operate by spawning them into the timetable.

Update: Our original gen8 messaging shown above in red wasn't correct on this post, and we've since made an update which you can read below. We apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Gen-8 Consoles - Update on the Class 377/2
We’ve seen a few players mention to us that the Class 377/2 isn’t appearing in Timetable Mode for Gen-8 players (Xbox One, PS4) on the West Coast Main Line, and we wanted to take the opportunity to clarify.

The Class 377/2 will not appear in timetable mode for players on Gen-8 consoles – this is due to our continuing efforts to improve performance on the route.

The loco will be available for Gen-8 players to use on Free Roam mode, Livery Designer, Formation Designer, and Scenario Planner.

Additional Mentions
We’ve previously announced that we are implementing updated Suspension physics on the new Class 350 EMU, as well as the Class 377/2 and 1972 Stock after our teams encountered development issues which prevented getting these implemented in time for the launch.

Other areas of feedback that we wanted to acknowledge:

• LNWR Branding – We understand some of you may be disappointed with the removal of the LNWR branding from the route and on the Class 350 EMU, and we can fully understand. We began development of the WCML route and locos with the understanding that we had permission to use the LNWR brand, unfortunately, that permission was since withdrawn, and we were asked not to include any LNWR trademarks. Our teams are still managing ongoing conversations with LNWR, and we are hopeful of reintroducing the branding at some point in the future. We will let you know if this happens.
  On a separate note, we would ask that players let us engage with our licensed partners, rather than engage with them directly – please see our Message on LNWR Branding.
• Track Shadows – During our preview, we’ve seen feedback that track shadows weren’t appearing to be functional on junctions, this is intentional and due to the unique nature and design of every junction being a complex process to render reliably.
• Neutral Sections – Currently this isn't something we're investigating adding at the moment to the route.
• Nighttime Lighting – We’ve listed minor improvements to nighttime lighting in our first patch for WCML above to improve the way buildings are lit, however, we wanted to clarify that from real-world references, the area is generally very dark and we’re happy with the result we have achieved.
  For example, here is some reference material taken from a beta tester who captured this footage via a drone on the Euston approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_m0fvup-k

We hope this has helped to provide some clarity and we thank you for your patience as we've investigated all your feedback.