Road Map Train Sim World 5 Roadmap: June 2025

When we thought DTG couldn't get any lower, they get lower....

DTG should just axe US content at this point, its obvious they don't really care.

Also no new progress on HIS's content either, just constant reposting of the same pics over and over for the past few roadmaps.

 

For people not watching the stream. The two timetables are a "weekday" timetable and a "Sunday" timetable for Manchester Commuter no reduced timetables for consoles

 

Sorry, TSW loses me more and more.
The core routes still have blurred textures on PS5 and we are closer to the next iteration than getting this fixed.
We already have a two-class society with PC Editor and mods on the one hand and consoles on the other which now is fired up with the reduced timetable on S-Bahn Frankfurt by developers. Congrats.
And finally we are getting content to pay for even if we already own everything that's included (Boston+Expert 101 gameplay packs).
Feels like one slap into the face of customers followed directly by the next one.

 

Quickly reading through the TLDR stuff. I feel like I’ve just walked into my local CO OP and walked straight back out.

 

An uninspiring Roadmap to be sure. Nothing really new on the Cajon Santa Fe pack.

It's not stated whether the HSP-46 gameplay pack will be free to current owners or that DTG will charge for the 3 new scenarios. If there is a charge, it should be nominal.

Otherwise, there's nothing to stir the blood of North American players, as has been the case for a very long time.

I guess TSW will continue to be the conveyor belt of UK electric toy train bus stop routes and German suburban red emus more or less exclusively.

If there was an alternative SIM that made US freight routes, I'd jump ship tomorrow.

 

There's Run8, which provides nearly everything US players, and even EU-focused players have been asking for a while, with some downsides.

Run8, from what I can see and have heard, is a true sim with no xp points or stop markers - the physics I've heard are even better and the locomotives function even more in depth and closer to their real life counterparts. The routes are long, and can be seemlessly elongated through the purchase of more DLC (no route hopping, you just keep driving) and if you want to run a 2 mile long intermodal stack train from California all the way into Nevada/Arizona you can. There is multiplayer. There is proper yard work or local ops.

However, the downsides are: graphics (obv not run on the unreal engine), I've heard it can be kinda finnicky to set up since it's not like buying and downloading off of the xbox store or steam, and an extremely high learning curve since there is no hand holding whatsoever.

I'd be very very tempted to get into it myself, though the graphics and the set up learning curve (of downloading and setting the game up - I'm not the most tech savvy person) are the only reasons I haven't fully committed.

But if you are looking for freight, and Amtrak services, in a variety of huge areas in the US and don't mind the graphics and the clunky set up process - Run8 is your game.

 

With the Boston thing i'm with you, but I have the feeling that many people don't understand the 101 gameplay pack. There are not only 4 scenarios, a new timetable has been developed that finally includes the ICE-T and Flixtrain, yes the Expert locomotive is more expensive and now you have to pay another 10-15 euros for a gameplay pack. At the end of the day TSG is also a company that wants to earn money. And the scenarios are not made quickly either, if you look at the picture with the track closure, for example, or the written commands

 

The downside on Run8 is their absolute ancient way to distibute content.
They are stuck back into the 1990s when internet started to become a thing.

You are responsible to Back UP literally everything (Content and puchase receipts) you buy and download.
You want to have least one, or better 2, different backups of everything in different locations.
The setup process is clunky and the graphics are not great at all. Even ZuSi does a better job there.

However...
If you dont mind this issues, its the best US Freight Railway Simulator by far you can get.

 

Yes Run 8 is very good if you can get past their chronically hopeless e-commerce system and the learning curve though, that said, it’s not as fearsome as some would have you think. If you have their whole SoCal network from Modesto to Seligman it gives you something like 700 continuous route miles to drive. And that’s before you head off down Cajon into San Bernardino and LA. The style of Run 8 is also more suited to American railroading, much less reliant on fixed schedules from A to B but expediting traffic in an emergent gameplay style. It helps that you have working hump yards and the Industry mini game. You can spend many an evening with the MP15’s just running up and down the Bakersfield branch lines picking up and dropping off cars at various spurs, then coming back to the yard and sorting into outgoing manifests (or run the whole lot across to Barstow or West Colton and use the hump).

Downside is the graphics, in places it does look very early MSTS and on routes like Donner the terrain textures palette is rather limited. Then again, SBO in TSW looks quite bare in places and you don’t really get the vibe of driving through a huge urban conurbation.

Maybe DTG realised they can’t really compete with Run 8 as regards American freight and that, as much as the access issues and it seems lack of people to actually build the routes, is behind the dearth of content we are now seeing. Then again, maybe they will surprise us with Feather River Canyon or the Shasta Line for TSW6!

 

Run8 does look pretty decent to be fair, I'd never heard of it until now. Looking at the graphics I wouldn't be as harsh to say they are MSTS level to me the more recent images look like TSC level though there are one or two vehicles which look a bit older (those Amtrak double deck passenger cars for a start).

With regard to the ATS route, the two timetables being a weekday and Sunday schedule is a nice addition - though I expect the Sunday one to be full of cancellations to make it very prototypical (at least on the Airport leg).

 

Yes I was perhaps being slightly uncharitable there! It's the whole package that counts and when you're trying to get the Oil Cans over Tehachapi without breaking a coupler, helping out the (very good) Otto AI dispatcher or sorting those industry cars you are not idly looking around the scenery.

Haven't fired it up in a few months, really must get back on it.

 

A question for experts, shouldn't that traffic light look red?

 

If you mean the signals, no.
Those are distant signals that can only show green or yellow (or both) but not red. the yellow signal there announces a red main signal

 

Thank you Tom

 

PAY PAY PAY

 

hoping this unanounced route is SWR lmao

 

It's not.

 

I suppose I could give Run8 a shot, though it sounds a bit finicky and actually a bit geographically limited.

I'm just really disappointed in TSW as far as American railroading is concerned. If there is a future, it looks rather like the UK scene, with a heavy emphasis on commuter rail.

To me, the HSP-46 pack is just like throwing a bone to the US fan base because DTG either can't be bothered, doesn't want to or lacks the skill- set anymore, to build genuinely new North American routes and locos, or even simply put together something using its back catalog.

Each successive roadmap is more disheartening for US fans than the one before.

I'm rather fearful of what to expect with TSW6. There might not be a new US route at all, replaced with a Dutch or country X one.

 

Well Run 8 has far more US route mileage than TSW. Not justSoCal but the South East area continues to grow then you have their standalone Donner Pass which must be getting on for 200 miles in length, a couple of NE routes and HSC.

The main drawback for some is probably going to be creating your own gameplay. There’s no scenarios or timetables, no real objectives, AP, Mastery or stickers. You need to make your own purpose.

 

Or the next US route is still very early in development, and will take a long time to get released, or even done enough to be put on the roadmap.

 

I think the next US route will be the core route.

 

ik thats why i said "lmao"

 

To be precise, 5 scenarios. It's a lot of hours of gameplay overall.

 

It would have to be. Core bundles have always included a US route, but opportunities are rather thin (which is why we got back to back Metrolink routes for 4 and 5). Unless they have taken my, and others', suggestion and gone vintage - which takes longer for research and asset creation.)

 

DTG Alex While I missed Matt on yesterday's stream, especially for the in-deep technichal dev point of view, you did very well!
Yes, not every project had new exciting screenshots to show us, some moved up, some moved down the line of development again, there was also the new announcements which really took me by surprise and you also handled the Q&A quite well.

I really appreciate the monthly live roadmaps with Q&A with the developers, the presence of the teams in the community on multiple media and the openness and support to third parties. While I'm not a huge "gamer" (typically speaking) and therefore am not really active in game communities, I am active in this one mostly, and I have to say I've never experienced such continuous flow of information and interaction between developers and customers. I have something to look forward to every month now, a reason to leave work on time to come home to watch live and gain insight in development processes, technical stuff and also community and fun banter. I have reasons to post my questions to the dev teams because I know they will get taken seriously and honestly answered in one form or another, even if the answer may be "we don't know yet, we're looking into this matter". While not the best answers to hope for, at least they're honest answers. And while I'm not initially interested in all roadmap parts or some roadmaps at all, I always get at least curious about new projects and might grab them at a sale later on, might learn to enjoy them and get interested more and so on. It happened with scotland, it might happen again.

Keep up the good community work, it pays off. Literally

 

Thank you Alex. Last nights stream was excellent and really informative and enjoyable.

 

Eh.... Run 8 is only as much a "threat" to TSW as TSC is to be fair. It's akin to a more physics-focused TSC rather than TSW in graphics, interactivity, and overall interface. When I play it I see it as just TSC with online multiplayer and far bigger maps. And less "action" or "goals" of course. There's no scenarios or timetables or anything, so it's just you driving on the map with no guidance or goals.

100% sandbox.

That's for some people... but not for most TSW fans. TSW depends on it's timetables and scenarios. That's what it is.
Also if you think passenger stuff is bad in TSW...well there ARE no passengers in Run 8.
Hardly anyone even on the side of the road. Just... few to no people.
At all.
I play it. I have fun with it. But it's VERY different and not at all a TSW competitor.
It's like saying pickup trucks have competition from a city bus.
They're just entirely different.

 

I do agree to some extent. Which is is why Run 8 despite my enthusiasm has sat largely unplayed on my PC for six months (and longer than that since I braved their store to buy a wagon pack) but I’ve probably clocked up 1000’s of miles in TSW during that time.

Have always said, for all its shortcomings and my frequent whinging, TSW is like a drug (or driving past a bad road accident), you just can’t but help get your fix or take a look!

 

I'm curious to see how much the BR101 Gameplay Pack will cost. As far as I understand, it's useless without BR101 Expert and Kassel-Würzburg.

 

In fact only some scenarios and an updated timetable. So I hope not a lot..
In the best world it would has to be free because we already paid 36€ for the loc..

 

Not free (that's just nonsense), just a reasonable price for gameplay only.

 

It is nonsense that SCS usually gives us free trucks on Ets and ats ? I don't think so.

 

Not sure what you'd expect otherwise.
Of course you need the train to use that train.
Why would you expect otherwise?
When has that ever been the case in TSW before?

 

Thats their business model not Dovetails I'm afraid.

Hentis

 

I dunno about a "drug" Vern, but I hear ya. TSW is just a lot more accessible. Run 8 is hardly user friendly even after the install, the way it does things is a bit "clunky" and it is an example of so much POTENTIAL but the follow through is lacking. Not having that structure of a timetable or scenarios is part of it because being a sandbox, it's not "single player" in the same sense that it's "load and go."
You have to either set something up to do in single player (time consuming) or find people multi-player to do in game (time consuming.)
Meanwhile while you're doing it as diiscussed it's not visually rewarding. It is very much an "operations" game, more like a railroad manager... but again without the tools to "manage" anything.
It's like it's a half-done hybrid.
SO much potential but I find it's more time consuming than "fun."
For people who are only used to TSW... I'd say it's more like TSC or TSW...minus any timetable or scenarios... so imagine if you just had "Free Roam" for every route, a limited loco selection, no passenger content, and no real penalties.
The physics are great, the huge maps are great but it's just so... empty.
In TSW it's rare when I'm in the mood to create a whole scenario in the Creator before driving after work, and that's what Run 8 is every time. A lot of work up front.
That appeals to some people, and I can see that.
Maybe it gets better if you have a ton of friends and your own server and some sort of internal structure, but none of that is actually in the game. It's all stuff people add on themselves.
You could do that with ATS or TSW too, to be fair.

 

With other Gameplay packs you at least have something that you can use in FreeRoamn and Scenario Planner even if you don't have the home Route but with this pack it doesn't seem to be the case

 

You do get "free" stuff from TSW, but having 10 times the customer base means SCS has a lot more flexibility.
Transport sims are niche.
Train sims are a small niche of the small niche.
SCS sells a LOT more than DTG.
A lot of it is even worse value than DTG too (the paintjobs and custom wheel packs, etc) which if offered comparable on the forums here would get howls of protest. But, it's a far larger player base, enough so that those $10 "custom paintjob" sets adds up.
I do wonder what happens when they run out of geographic content.
What happens when you have Europe all modeled? Or the United States?
Will "African Truck Stimulator" sell as well?

 

What exactly would you have when the pack is "scenarios for this particular locomotive?"
And they're complex so you need the systems that aren't on the basic 101.
You can't really model a "system failure" of a system that isn't on another loco for example.

It's like saying "Well I bought a Playstation controller, why do I need to buy a Playstation to play games with it???"

 

DTG/TSG should perhaps consider changing the Name of this DLC so that it doesn't cause confusion with the already established Gameplay Packs.

 

Reasonable would be a price at most the level of the New Journeys Packs. They were pretty much the same level (they even included repainted versions of an existing train but I‘ll grant that this makes up the least of the value). In fact anything more than 4€ is too much. It‘s after all just a timetable and a bunch of scenarios (There also was a 2024 timetable for KWG in development which pretty much incorporated all of the changes advertised in this DLC)

 

I own Run8 and about 75% of the DLC. But i do have to say the scenery quality is very poor, 2D trees and bushes much the same quality as MSTS. Ground textures are dismal, even poorer than TSC and probably MSTS. But there again it is about the operational realism, not sightseeing.

You pays your money and makes your choice.

 

Wil the db br 101 gameplay pack be coming.to gen 8

 

Even your Ambassador shows you a middle finger....
https://www.youtube.com/live/eZ4fvbR9hTI?si=T6XvoYoKiIGtmfJx

 

Still No Updates On GWE Remaster, North London Line Extension, Manchester Airport Commuter Has had the same update message for 2 months now and no date for release is announced, The All Aboard studios route hasn't been announced yet...
Each Roadmap I Always Get My Hopes Up To Have at least a solid update with a solid time for us to either check back for updates on release or expect a release date But it just gets more and more disappointing.. Is It Until When TSW6 Comes Out Until You Release all of these routes/updates?
I Was Really Expecting A Release Date For Manchester Airport Commuter This Month (But it may still come , Who Knows?)

DTG For How Long Will You Keep All Of Us Waiting?... You Guys Have Been Making Us Wait For Too Long..
smh.

 

Nothing we haven't seen before. From about May or June everything goes into a holding pattern.
Then the focus shifts to Dovetail Direct or whatever it's called with pretty much anything other than the September content release shuffled off to one side.
The Roadmap might then return to normality in October.

 

From the supplied fabulous screenshots of MAC, l would like to think that it will be released at the end of this month.

Really hope so, as we have been waiting a long time!!!

 

Seemed curious to me also? But on reflection I can only guess that there is something like "On Train Announcements" which JT have done before, but will be a new 'feature' of TSW6 within the Core game? So for the sake of performance (or something else?) JT are utilising the new functionality of TSW6.

 

It is a shame the pride livery will only be for the expert 101 but I like to see it nonetheless

 

From the information I've heard is that the other timetable is a Sunday service and not a reduced one,let's not hope it ends up as a different version otherwise this is starting a trend

 

One thing on the roadmap that now it's time it moved is the great western remaster,yes I know it's a project that Liam does in his spare time ,but it does seem like it's been nearly completed since time began