'Mildmay', like 'Elizabeth Line' is just a brand name, which I chose to ignore. Contrary to what the DTG article says, the North London Line and West London Line are still called that. Hilariously, the DTG article says that 'some' people called it the North London Line, which presumably included every person who had ever worked on the line or knew about it.
With some exceptions, I prefer to call lines by their real names rather than brand names. HS1 Limited recently renamed itself to (brace yourself) London St Pancras High Speed, but the line is still called the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. In that case though, I think it makes more sense to call it HS1. The Elizabeth Line is just the Great Western Main Line, the Great Eastern, and a section in the middle which is officially Crossrail. Why I personally don't like National Rail lines being named as if they were Underground lines, as that assumes the system is one fully integrated network. It isn't.
TSW took the train simulation a step ahead with all the dlcs and features, which players only could dream 10 years ago. Also it covers a lot of game aspects. If a player wishes, he can just ride as passenger and enjoy scenery. Overall TSW customers expect a certain quality standard by now which is unfortunately not always there. The release of unfinished content lately has become a pain in the a..s. Also good train related features got dropped for introducing nonsense gimmicks. Im sure every player here has its own perspective whats important on a dlc to call it "complete". While the route lenght is maybe more important on a high speed line, with this dlc in the london area and a lot of stops, a short rote is very much welcome too. But a short route, which covers just half the line is something which was discussed a lot past 5 years here. And will remain a certain "NoBuy" even if im willing to spend even 60 Bucks on a full line to richmond and clapham. Its just a total missed opportunity.
Have said before, DTG should if anything be using the traditional operating name or even line references for their routes, not the service marketing and in the case of London politically inspired branding. So North London Line should be exactly that as the operational stretch of railway.
Looks like the guy has done a great job. Had it gone to Richmond it would be a day one for me as I do like end to end commuter runs. The distance isn’t important to me but stopping the route 5 miles short of what would be the end of the line at Richmond, just irks me too much and ruins the experience for me. May pick up in a sale & hope they do go on to do more as quality looks pretty high.
The licence from TfL probably states that they must call it by the current name. Maybe “Mildmay Line : Stratford to Willesden Junction” would be tolerated, but “North London Line : Stratford to Willesden Junction” would not. Look at GOBLIN. In the game its listed as Gospel Oak - Barking, but to purchase its ‘Suffragette Line’. Presumably as by the time the names were announced it was too late to update the coding, but not the storefront
I am quite sure it's a licensing restriction, but equally it wouldn't surprise me if it was a choice on DTG's part considering their past whoppers for names they've picked. It is also true (to my knowledge) that the internal names of plugins (DLC) can't be changed without great effort. That's why internally TSW is still TS2Prototype. With TS it's as easy as clicking Rename for routes, because all routes have randomised folder names and that structure has no effect on the display name. It's a bit more complicated for assets though. Regardless of that, I think the official name of the lines should take priority over marketing names or DTG's own names. This does get complicated with network routes like SEHS, but as long as it's not Boston Sprinter of London Commuter we'll be alright. This also applies to the route codes, which I think should be the real ones (or realistic) wherever possible. The WCML should be WCMLS rather than EMK, and the Brighton Main Line should be VTB rather than LBN.
