Steam would have the same issues if that were the case, if the DLC's can launch on one platform they can almost certainly launch on both. Also the fact that DTG noted they curated the list based on popularity and layering suggests that they had a choice to which DLC's to pull. If it were deadline or technical issues I'd expect the selection of pulled content to be far more random.
Well, they focused primarily on the layering for TSW 6 routes, as many layers as possible. So why did all the old stuff and even Thomas make it into TSW 6? I doubt that Thomas is more popular than JT's Class 86/2 or TSG's DB BR 218; it has more to do with Mattel than popularity. This thought I've just expressed here has been on my mind ever since I read about the Epic problem. So if Epic has no limitations, what could be the reason that ancient content makes it into TSW 6, but relatively recent DLC that doesn't even appear old doesn't? I am on Steam, so I don't really care (yet), I just want to join the discussion and share my thoughts.
I highly doubt that this is an Epic problem, no platform can afford to have such a problem these days, especially if it is the developer of the engine for the game in question, quite counterproductive. Lynch me for saying this, but I'm 99% sure that the problem lies with DTG. And I say this without any hatred or other negative ulterior motives. I'm curious to see how it will all end.
Explain how DTG is to blame for an Epic policy on Epic's platform, when Steam has no such issues with the same content from DTG? Again... has anyone asked for Epic's response? Even if they did blame DTG, at least it would prove someone actually asked them... which has not been done as far as I know. People have just jumped to the irrational conclusion that "DTG is to blame" based on nothing. Step one.... ask Epic for comment. Step two... ask DTG for counter-comment. People are just ignoring step one.
Thomas is only there because of a collaboration, I would love to see statistics telling me otherwise that its one of the most popular DLCs, all Ive seen about it is negativity, probably didn't help it was all hyped up as this big thing and then turns out its just Thomas with simplified controls.
A few people have contacted Epic and posted parts of the responses in this thread. I've yet to hear DTG say it's an Epic Games policy thats the issue, as far as I've seen they have not specified the exact reason. They've only said not all DLC will be available in TSW6 and the "We know it sucks but..." response. So another process might be : Step one.... DTG tells us exactly what the issue is preventing all the DLC from migrating to TSW6 Step two... If it is a decision\limitation on Epic's part the players lobby Epic for a change Without knowing what the crux of the problem is its hard to say if its an "Epic should fix it!" or a "DTG should fix it!" issue. DW
Looking back a bit, it's odd, because they said the Expert 101 was having a "major crashing issue" on Epic, and that's why they were leaving that release off Epic entirely, but I don't remember seeing anyone elaborate further. Then the announcement that only 60 DLC were being carried over to TSW6 on the Epic platform. Neither DTG nor Epic benefits from fewer DLC being available to purchase, which makes it seem like a technical issue. That DLC was #129, so a limit of 128 DLC on Epic's platform seemed a logical conclusion, but per pierrechi, Epic Support said "There is no publicly stated upper limit on the number of DLCs a game can have..." Which also could imply a technical issue rather than a policy or deliberately implemented limit. So, speculation: Given that Steam and Epic each have their own builds, maybe something specific to Epic's build is crashing the game if more than 128 DLCs are loaded. Could be that the Expert DLC would work fine for everyone who doesn't have that many DLCs purchased, but when they do eventually, their 129th would crash the game as well. If so, this would fall under DTG finding and dealing with a problem in advance of it hitting the customers, which is a good thing, yes? Further speculation: DTG and Epic are both quiet because they're using this time to try to find a specific cause and solution to the problem rather than talking when they have nothing substantial to talk about.
Is this the add-on you mean? Cause it seems to be available on Epic? I don't own it myself but it seems purchasable. DW
Or indeed possible legal action. Once the lawyers are involved, then you keep schtum in the public domain.
Someone here posted, they copied their Expert DLC gameplay pak file into their epic version of the game and it worked just fine.
As I mentioned before this is a commercial issue and not a technical issue. Details have not yet been worked out. I am sure they will get there. DTG are just being up front about circumstances. As usual the hype leads to user paranoia. They have 24 days to hash things out. Time to be chill
Can’t wait to see the Random Events with Thomas on TSW6. Maybe he will have trouble with the quarrelsome rolling stock.
Which makes sense as they are both the Windows x64 PC version of the game. It's why when I transitioned to GOG for most of my gaming, it was a straight copy and paste of my saves, config files, and the like from any game I previously had on Steam. The only difference ofc being GOG is DRM-free and thus has no licensing checks, all the game checks for when run is the presence of the DLC. Presumably Epic/Steam check installed packages against what is owned on your account, hence how when you get a refund for a DLC purchase for a game, even if it is still installed locally on your drive, it won't load up in the game.
There are games that allow the DLC to load without a purchase in Steam. I've shared the DLC files for Skyrim and Fallout 4 with a friend who only owned the standard editions and they load fine and are playable. If they redownload the game they need to place the files again. There probably are some games that enforce that check but I know Bethesda don't seem to care.
Well, those games launched originally on disc, and use a file management system dating back all the way to Morrowind, which predates digital storefronts and modern forms of DRM, the changing of which would probably be too much work for Bethesda to justify in making sure it wouldn't wholesale break mod loading.
Interesting because back in TSW3 I won a code for the old LIRR and tried transferring it over to epic and it wouldn't load onto layers for NYT, but moving NYT over to steam it did work iirc. Has it been confirmed anywhere that random events are added to all engines? I feel like it would be something similar to suspension updates where old stock before the game of the feature introduction don't get the new features, same with most TSW2 routes and their TOD3 vs TOD4 on everything else
I did an experiment with DLC number 129 in TSW 5 on the Epic Games Store version, it works normally. TSW 5: Expert DB BR 101 on Kassel - Würzburg Gameplay Pack (Epic Games Store)
Cool! In either case, did the Epic installation already contain all 128 previous DLCs? Interesting to know that a Steam DLC can seemingly work under Epic. I would have expected some kind of verification and protest.
Do you have all other 128 DLC installed by chance? Just wondering if that could be the issue although unlikely as you’d think someone with mods would have already gone through 128 pak files installed
It's the exact same Windows x64 PC version of the game. It's the same files, so it's no surprise they're cross-compatible. As I said before, this is something I am used to from my experience of moving the majority of my library from Steam to GOG. The thing that one might expect to interfere, which I am familiar with encountering on Steam but is not a thing on GOG due to its DRM-free nature, would be if the game does a licensing check against the server before allowing one to load. I know that on Steam I cannot play Cardiff even though it is still sitting there in the install folder on my drive, because I got a refund. Microsoft's store behaves the same, as I recall. I can imagine a couple of scenarios in which you could bypass such a check on any store which does them when loading another store's version of the game's DLC. One is if the player owns that DLC on both stores. The other is if that DLC is not available on that store, so it doesn't do a licensing check because it just sees it as a player-created mod.
Thing is, DTG has always said Steam and Epic have different builds, so I assumed there were checks in there to prevent cross-pollination.
Epic & Steam are just store fronts for the same platforms, no reason to change how the games work internally. Would be like assuming the Barbie you buy from Walmart's completely different from the one you buy from Amazon. No sane company's gonna invest into multiple tooling's with the same basic end-goal in mind. No different with a game, if both stores are selling to Windows users you're gonna have both share the same basic Window's build underneath. You also got bare in mind what makes a new build of a game is kind of arbitrary, difference could be as simple as "Steam build has Steam's DRM, Epic has no DRM" and they call it a day. Or heck, for a really simple difference you'd see things like the single and multi-pack version of a film get labeled as separate product. All because one version of the film came in a horrendous value pack with four other films they couldn't sell on their own.
This is pretty much what I was thinking--again, with the idea that each store would want subsequent purchases for the same base game locked to their version. Your Barbie analogy is pretty much how obnoxious I find that whole idea. Or imagine if a physical game bought from Gamestop forced you to buy the DLCs also through Gamestop.
Well, IF it is the case that Epic doesn't use DRM, then the problem is essentially solved. Download your DLC on Steam, stick it in your Epic folder and voila!
Responding and raising arguments. At the time of testing, I only had three files (*.pak) in the DLC folder, which are for the services and scenarios to work: TS2Prototype-WindowsNoEditor-BR101Expert.pak TS2Prototype-WindowsNoEditor-BR101ExpertKasselGameplayPack.pak TS2Prototype-WindowsNoEditor-SFSKasselWurzburg.pak But many have already responded, it doesn't matter if I have all 128 DLCs more the number 129, they will all load normally, there is no restriction limit in the Epic Games Store engine. Another point raised by many, the DLCs on the 3 PC platforms (Epic Games Store, Steam Store and Xbox Games Store) are all the same, the hashes only change due to compilation, other times I saw only 1 file or a few files different in hashes which in practice is just the order of their compilation, in the end it would be like mathematics, the order of the factors does not change the product.
This was what I suggested someone should test when I heard about the 101 thing, grab the steam version of a cheap old DLC in advance that's being delisted on epic, grab the free starter pack on steam come launch day, install the TSW6 version of that DLC for Steam, and copy it over to the Epic TSW6 install folder to see if it loads.
Not sure why they'd choose to add functionality to prevent additional sales and deny themselves the revenue, but this is DTG we are talking about, after all, so who knows?
I've only seen one response, from a person who says he has over 200 PAK files, even though there are only 129 DLCs. Not sure what to make of that. If someone owns or copies 128 DLCs into an Epic installation, then adds a 129th (ideally Expert 101 Kassell, as that's the one causing DTG problems) and either has it crash or is able to play it, that will be valuable info.
Ok so if steam files run on egs TSW then why was the Koln Aachen update held back from release on EGS? IIRC we was told that the EGS version was suffering from crashes so was held back.
He means mods. I have over 400 installed. Mods just like DLC are .pak files and live in the same folder
The game can run any number of .pak files. The 128 DLC limit is unrelated, as it is the game that runs the .pak files, not the Epic Store. Also, when you purchase a game/DLC, you are buying a license to use it only through the platform you purchased it on. Copying the game or its DLCs to another platform without a valid license is considered piracy.
And where is the connection between pak files which I installed myself and the epic store? The problem is not that the game in epic does not support more than 128 dlc. The problem seems to be in the store, which does not allow you to place more than 128 dlc.
Exactly. The game can load as many files as you can cram into it. The problem appears at the moment to be some arbitrary limitation on imaginary "shelf space" in the store. Epic say there is not one. DTG's actions suggest otherwise. The fact the problem only exists on Epic's store suggests the limitation is indeed with that system.
"Major crashing issue" seemed to imply a problem with the Epic build of the game. Maybe it refers to something else happening on the dev/publisher end that we wouldn't see. Hopefully DTG steps in with more info soon.
That's what they said with the 101 pack release ? Although copying the file over from Steam seems to work? Something doesn't make sense.
I mean, I've found in general that any store that requires their launcher to be running in the background impacts performance and occasionally stability of games launched through it. The DRM-free standalone install GOG versions of my games run measurably better than their Steam counterparts, but can deliberately be made to run worse if I enable Steam in the background and turn its overlay on while running them.
What if piracy isn't a crime in my country? Or T&Cs against piracy are unenforceable in my country? I am not for piracy and I won't do piracy but, we legally don't own the games we buy, so why buy them?
I wish I knew that when I upgraded to TSW3 but alot of people used EGS because TSW2 was free over there for a while. I snatched the opportunity and naturally upgraded to TSW3, (skipped TSW4 because I was playing on a i3/uhd graphics with 8gb of ram), upgraded to an actual PC and bought TSW5... TSW is my favorite game, even. Having to rebuying all of this because of a technical bs is extremely annoying. at least I will start fresh and only buy what I actually play
They've updated the FAQ today to say 17 of the 60 DLCs will now be available sometime after TSW6's launch. DW
Credit where it's due (Both Epic & DTG) & you for catching that. For me, 8 DLCs from my collection are affected: DB BR 101 Expert, original DB BR 101 , Maintalbahn, Rapid Transit, Niddertalbahn, Harlem Line, BerninaLinie & Salzburg-Rosenheim. I can live without them, albeit with no IC services (for now).
Would probably be a better plan to, y'know, not make us port everything to a same-game-new-number version every year.
