December Season Of Reveals Speculation And Discussion Thread

Still to come now.

Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn: Mannheim-Kaiserslautern

Spoorlijn Zwolle-Groningen 1st Dutch route!

Cargo Line vol 3 and vol 4 release dates

New German locomotive to be revealed

 

Excited for cargo lines.

 

l would rather have a route done very well and accurate, than a new locomotive and a poor route. That’s the Rivet way.

Just Trains have it right. They have now released two exceptionally excellent and accurate routes and their next release is a locomotive, no doubt to use on their routes.

For me it’s the route that is foremost, has to be absolutely accurate as it should be, not a fantasy effort that the designer thinks it should be, just like the Rivet way. The designer should be judged on the quality of the route and l think that the Alan Thomson team will do an excellent job of this route. I am liking the planes near the Airport and the addition of Piccadilly concourse plus the Metrolink tramway and the taxi rank outside the station.

 

Yeah, I'm gonna agree. It should be quality over quantity. Constantly demanding more more more more new new new is how you get a large number of lesser content. It's generally one OR the either because it takes time and effort to create quality.
As the saying goes, you can have fast, cheap or good. Pick one.

 

I'm going to predict mannheim kaiserlautern announcement is coming tomorrow

 

The 150 tfw will layer onto the route as they operated around Manchester and Crewe

 

I don’t think JT is a great example of your point, considering they’ve not only released 2 of the most detailed & accurate routes, but included some of the best quality, new rolling stock & made multiple variants of existing rolling stock too. If anything it counters your point.

That being said, we’re of course going to see reused trains, even as the main focus on new routes. If that’s what runs then that’s what runs.

I do think there was a middle ground to be had here though, some new liveries on existing trains would have been nice, such as a TFW 158.

 

Potential for a 331 in the future

 

It kinda does though, because JT only does one a year. If Rivet only did 1 a year, JT did 1 a year, and DTG did 1 a year... do you really think the community would accept that as enough, even though they were high quality?
And the JT route does have the same rolling stock... it only introduced one loco (when people are crying that "the standard used to be 3 new locos!!!" You can claim 2 with the 86, but that's not in the route it's another DLC.
The original point was about 1 route a year with 1 loco (the "JT model")
This very thread is proof that a lot of people would NOT be satisfied with that, although I suspect most of them would not be happy in any case because they are operating on a "gimme gimme gimme" model of whatever is in their imagination and not a realistic look at what is reasonably achievable, especially since as time goes on each route and loco is getting more detailed and laden with more features that increases the amount of work to complete them and integrate them into existing content retroactively.

 

That's a hole DTG dug themselves. They did not want 3rd parties for a long time, it's all documented in the forums here. They kept the dev tools to themselves for ages. The result is only a few fulltime developers now.

 

It’s a ONE in THREE!!!
What’s it going to be?

 

l wasn’t complaining about Just Trains. I did say Just Trains have it right. Their routes have been unbelievable and top quality.

l am sure their new recently revealed locomotive will be the same top quality too!!!

 

We don’t know what the ATS dev cycle will be yet, I suspect it’s not going to be much different to other TP’s though.

JT released the 142 in several variants for BPO & then took to modifying other existing stock to help it fit into the theme better. With WCML they once again did a new loco with coaches & again took to modifying existing stock to help it fit better. So I stand by the opinion that JT is not a good example for why we can’t have high quality routes with new locos, because they’ve gone above & beyond that expectation.

Personally I’m not bothered if we get a new train or not in each route, the part that does bother me about rolling stock is how it’s becoming increasingly common to shoehorn other stock into routes to make up for the lack of included content. We have several routes in the game now where a timetable is made up of service diagrams & stock allocations that happened once in a blue moon, in an effort to pad out the gameplay.

It’s fairly hard to ignore the fact that this route won’t have its correct southern terminus & majority of the background traffic is made up of a ToC that didn’t exist, a Scotrail fleet & LNWR fleet. It’s quite the feat of reality bending.

 

Yes and no. While it's not tailored to the route (which takes longer to reinvent the wheel), it does do two things... it reduces file sizes (you don't have 10 copies of the same coaches on 10 different routes all taking up space) and it encourages people to buy other routes to get those layers. That's good for DTG's bottom line, but also good for expanding peoples' experiences.
So there are valid reasons to reuse existing stock.
As I've said before, if 90% of players don't care about that level of detail, then DTG doesn't either.
And most players won't be able to tell which sub-variant of a coach car is proper for which route.
It's easier to just accept that you're in the 10% that care about those things and won't be satisfied by DTG in the end.
It leads to much less false hopes and unnecessary disappointments down the road.

 

I wasn't referring to layers, but new items of rolling stock.

 

Maybe new container wagons skyhook are developing for cargo line vol 3

 

Would be nice if even the current licensing was being utilised. The 66’s are mostly EWS, Northern & TfW haven’t been used outside of an upcoming route & the 323. US content has been diluted to Metrolink & MTA. Germany has a few private ones that seldom get used outside of one hit wonders.

 

Outside of the Metrolink F59PHR, these announcements have done nothing to excite me for the new year.....

 

I think the next British announcement will be the release date for the 158 timetable for FCL... Skyhook already announced on their Facebook page it's due to be released very soon.

 

Weirdly I doubt they'll announce the release date for the 158 timetable for FCL as someone from skyhook said the Leven 158 will come out before Christmas and they'll be no new changes to FCL's timetable.

 

i like the depot in the manchester route... thats it. Still not end to end nor no new trains. End of case.

 

leva is out already

 

I meant the leven link 158 TSW 5: ScotRail 158 – Winter 2024 Update Patch Notes - Skyhook Games

 

I still don’t think it would be a specific route or train DLC, unless as noted something with a festive theme such as if they got a licence for Polar Express. And then as said, would be a commercial disaster not to have already launched it in the run up to Christmas.

No, fairly certain it’s going to be something core, not tied to one country or region.

 

I really think they need stop releasing new content and concentrate on fixing the routes they have broken with updates and fix some of the older routes that need doing.

 

I think one of this week's reveals will be another UK route upgrade possibly with new stock. Based not on preference but what seems like commonsense;
ECML - Transition timetable with HSTs and introducing a Class 91/Mk4 set.
Bakerloo Line - Full WCMLs AI. Improved sounds for the TS72.
Birmingham Cross City - Full WCMLs AI, 170s on the southern section.
WCMLs & Birmingham Cross City - Class 730 pack.

All four would make their respective routes significantly better and make commerical sense in terms of reigniting sales of the originals.

 

I understand everything, but the British content in the game RIGIDLY dominates the rest of the countries... Maybe it's time to pay attention to other railways? (if anything, I also love British trains and routes very much, no offense to British friends)

P. S. American content suffers especially terribly

 

All the reveals so far, as well as the three remaining are all being taken from the November road map.

In the next three days, DTG will update news on the Mannheim German Route, The new Dutch route, Reveal details of the new German locomotive and if imminent the Cargo Packs 3&4 release dates.

lf it isn’t on the November roadmap, you will have to wait until at least Tuesday January 7th to find out news of any new comings.

 

There's a chance we'll be getting double reveals if they want to throw in a surprise before the big reveal friday.

 

Week 3 screenshots part 2
Dec 17th Reveal - Update on Santa Fe Gameplay Pack for Cajon Pass

 

More than i was expecting from the Santa Fe pack tbh. 3 new freight cars is really nice and maybe it will finally inspire DTG to fix freight car subsitution for US routes lol?

 

So the rolling stock....

The Grain Hopper seems to be based off of the GA-180 hoppers, 3 bays build by Pullman Standard in the early 70's


The 2 bay cement hopper seems to be based on a GA-204 hopper, build by GSC in the late 70's

 

Bit underwhelming today, really. Some screen dumps of US freight cars from a 3D modelling package. Yet another third party item too, really not much at all from DTG themselves. As Wednesday and Thursday will probably be the Dutch route and the other German route not much wiggle room for much else if the big reveal isn't content related.

 

DTG really can't win sometimes lol. After years bemoaning the lack of third parties, now we're complaining about too much third party content.

I think overall the reveals have been good if not amazing. Personally i'm very hyped for Tadami, TSG's new route, the Dutch route and interested in what else is still to come. The only stuff i've had no interest in are the Tram and VR content, which are separate titles anyway tbf.

This isn't aimed at you specifically, but i've seen the sentiment lamenting that "it's all for marketing"....well, of course it is, just like the roadmap and about 95% of all their communications lol. It's certainly gotten me to check in every day so i guess it's working!

 

Nothing against third parties, the more the merrier but a pack with freight cars and a new loco we haven't seen yet might have aroused a bit more interest.

 

I hear ya, but presumably High Iron would have the same reference issues as DTG wrt new freight locos and for their first project in UE maybe taking it a bit slower isn't the worst idea. 3 new freight cars is more than we've had in ages for the US.

I'm actually looking to the Dash 8 getting a new chance to shine in Santa Fe colors. Hopefully they will be spending a ton of time on the timetable and operations side of things.

I guess i'm hopeful if it sells well it might convince some other US-based devs to start making content for TSW. JT has resurrected BR Blue on the UK side so maybe this will have a smilar effect.

 

Seeing new rolling stocks is one thing (without seeing what the paintwork is really gonna look like), but seeing how the locos are gonna look is the one that's gonna be the most crucial point to look at, even if there reused

 

Yeah, they state they will include various road specific features, but seeing them modeled will be the real treat....

A CSX C40-8W on comparison to an ATSF C40-8W, note the high number board and gull wing cab

 

OldVern from the way they wrote Tuesday's reveal when I read it this morning it looks like we'll be getting more than one reveal on both Wednesday and Thursday. Per how the article says "Join us tomorrow for the next reveals,..." when it has usually only said it singular.

 

The wagons are untextured cause WIP, that's ok. But why the whole world in these screenshots are untextured too?

 

HIS did state they plan a route after the Gameplay pack, maybe someone was toying with the editor when making these WIPs?

 

It could be a filter

 

Week 3 screenshots part 3
Dec 18th Reveal - New Screenshots for Spoorlijn Zwolle – Groningen

 

Looks incredible.

 

Awesome. It's so strange to see a train I've actually been in. That's a first for me. Quite love the detail. Really looking forward to this route.

 

The modelling is fantastic, hopefully we get some screenshots of the route in the future

 

Looks fantastic, keep it up!

 

Looking great. Though the fact that there are no screenshots yet for the route itself makes me suspect that a release date in Q1 2025 is unlikely and Q2 is looking more realistic.

 

I wonder if christrains has been involved with this

 

The dutch route and locomotives look a fantastic addition to the game, but obviously a long way from release with no route screenshots.

Nothing new in these reveals as everything so far has been itemised on the November roadmap, with l would expect tomorrow’s announcement will be more details about the Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn: Mannheim-Kaiserslautern German Route and possibly the new German locomotive will be revealed.

Also maybe the Cargo Line vol 3 and vol 4 release dates or these may come in the January roadmap on the 7th or 14th, depending on future announcements!

Friday big reveal could be something that has been in the works secretly and nearly completed. We shall all know in two days time!