Introduction Birmingham new street was introduced with the Birmingham Cross City route many months ago and since a lot of new content has been introduced that would be compatible for this route that would make it look a lot more realistic and immersive, this section will discuss the potential this route has and whether the lack of layers is a missed opportunity. I welcome your opinions below! Current new street in TSW: New street with layers added in free roam: As seen above many new layers have been introduced over the past few months that can be used to make the station look more busy rather than being completely empty at times. Why is this not in suggestions? I didn't put this in suggestions as I am not actually suggesting this should be done as that has been done many times, I'm purely checking if the community would like this (if there is a demand) and what format you would like to see this in, so please get involved in the discussion. Posible approaches 1. Via loco DLC A timetable upgrade could come via a loco dlc as seen with the cathartic circle class 380 bringing along a new timetable with it, this could also be done with cross city bringing the new wmr class 730. 2. Remaster This could come through a remaster bringing the layers through a timetable upgrade also bringing the rest of the route up to date with tsw5 features. 3. New route The route wolverhampton - Walsall would be an appropriate route to bring the layer update as all locos 150 350 and the 390 run from new street to wolverhampton therefore could be playable services in addition to ai also bringing the highly demanded soho depot in addition to Bescot yard for freight moves. This would add the layers to the new route but not the old cross city route but route hopping can be used. (Could also come with the new 730 or use current rolling stock 350). Posible issue As seen in the West Coast mainline South DLC there has been a lot of issues regarding crashing due to the amount of services, I feel this could be a risk when adding theese layers Into game Conclusion Let me know what you think of this and if there is a demand for this to be done, and if so which method would you prefer 1,2 or 3 or tell me another method. Thank you for reading.
Remaster would be my preference as it's 'free'. If a paid update, would rather a loco DLC to a new route. If the 730s come, really both WMR and LNWR should be included, though feels like neither would be likely given the WCMLS licensing saga
In theory the easiest way to update would be to do a new timetable with the updated loco for the route (Class 730). The loco could then also layer onto WCMLS. However, although it shares similarities with the Class 710 already in game there are also huge visual and performance differences that would need a lot of reference material to do properly for a game like TSW. I don't think DTG has the best relationship with WMR these days to get the necessary access to properly do the loco. So unfortunately the easiest solution is the most unlikely. The next easiest would be a remaster but those are usually done by staff in their spare time like Liam. He's said GWE is going to be his last remaster. There's also other routes that are arguably higher up the pecking order for remasters such as ones with older lighting and graphics. BCC as a TSW3 route still looks quite good visually. I suppose you could do a timetable update without a remaster like what Joe is doing for Koln-Aachen but again it's a spare time thing. Therefore the only way I see this happening is through a new route. There are an abundance of options from Birmingham New Street, so fingers crossed for the future.
If a paid update they should add the routes to Walsall, Coventry and Birmingham to make a decent West Midlands network from it.
I'd happily pay for a new loco or unit that included a timetable. Maybe a Class 220 or 221 in XC that could also layer into Midlands.
a SEHS style remaster would be preferable, bring in the route as it is & add another IC/Regional line into the mix. I would suspect the issue with this particular DLC though is with licensing (suspect it’s risky for DTG to do anything with a license they’ve had refused/taken away once already) & then there’s the more & more common issue of route scope. TSW just doesn’t seem to be able to handle anything larger in scope. All in all I think the various chunks of the modern WCML we have in TSW have been handled poorly, no foresight or cohesiveness appears have been in mind during development.
I really hope they add other trains into Birmingham New Street station. It would make it feel so much more real. Seeing 390s, 350s and others would bring the station to life. No idea why it hasnt been done yet. Even if they dont move to a timetable, and they are just static. It would make all the difference.
Birmingham New Street should not be empty it's one of the busiest stations in the country it needs more services now whats been added recently can layer onto it
My two cents here: The Cardiff City Network was muted as being a ‘tester’ or a ‘see how it goes’ in the network format. That to me would suggest that if successful, future plans would be influenced it. No news, or a lack of discussion from DTG may also be a hint towards something happening in the background. Even denial could be fruitful.. the GWE Remaster was periodically shunned and treated as ‘not happening’ until it was announced. Perhaps I’m clutching at some short straws here..
Given the scope of the Cardiff "network", let's hope DTG's thoughts on that don't mean we would only get Stechford on the Coventry line, Sandwell towards Wolves and Tame Valley on the Walsall Line!
I wouldn't mind a 730 DLC with WMR and "LNR" liveries with content for a remastered BCC and WCMLS. It definitely adds to both routes and would give an opportunity to do what the OP suggests for BCC - especially now that we have (albeit not entirely correct) TfW stock that could also fit in on top of the WCMLS stuff. Big yes from me.
I mentioned why it's not in suggestions in the explanation, it's not a suggestion because I'm not saying it should be done as that's been done hundreds of times already, I'm just checking the demand which falls under a discussion rather than a suggestion. From this I've seen there's actually more demand than I thought however there are lots of opinions in what format it should come in.
