I threatened to make a poll and here it is. Should there be more access around Dawlish and Dawlish Warren to get the full sea wall experience, explore a famous railway location and take even more atmospheric photos?
On this one I vote yes. The Dawlish and Teignmouth sea walls, plus Dawlish town around the station area are an intrinsic part of the Riviera Line experience. They need to be fully open and accessible to players on foot. Put the World into TSW.
I just noticed your new picture. Like it. Taken from a certain sea wall by the looks of things. Reminds me of my Anglia Class 86/2 protest pic.
What makes it worse is its all fully modelled and they've purposely blocked the sea wall access with a barrier. Also you should be able to walk around between platforms at Dawlish Warren. DTG remove the barrier please its not alot to ask.
Absolutely no way! This is a train driving simulation not a hiking game. Every inch of the walkway and coastal area that can be accessed will require the allocation of extra storage and bleed off precious processing power due to collision detection which will affect overall performance negatively. Keep TSW lean and fast rather than bloated and sluggish.
I'm not sure how being able to use access assets that are already there can have anything other than a negligible effect on performance, especially as it's the trains that seem to cause the stutter. Anyway, it's not exclusively a "train driving simulation", you can walk around stations, do some trainspotting, board a train, sit and look out of the windows and walk though it or be the guard. TSC is purely a "train driving simulator".
It’s already been modelled based on the fact that it’s right next to the mainline- if you don’t like it, then you don’t have to go near it but that doesn’t mean you can try and spoil things for the rest of us
Hear, hear. And DTG themselves see this as more than a driving game, otherwise we wouldn’t be jumping off trains to check for stolen bicycles or put up decorations.
i haven't got the route yet, but having had a bit of fun round morecambe on WCMLos, i cannot see what harm it would have to allow you to explore. are there any collectables in the route ?
Anywhere you can walk has to be modelled in the 3D world as solid with definable surfaces that can be "sensed" by collision detection routines. Pure scenery is much more simple being just a framework on which to hang the visible textures and various objects which you never interact with. Imagine it like the background scenery on a film set compared to the actual set where the actors move around on whilst being filmed. Enabling many miles of coastal areas as user accessible will be resource hungry, difficult to implement and of little longterm value to players beyond initial curiosity. Where does it end? Should all roads feature user drivable cars? How about allowing us to sail the boats? Do we get to swim in the sea? Maybe we should get to go on the funfair rides too. As far as the game title, I think it applies to the world of train simulations rather than a simulation of the entire world near railways.
i can see your point with this, however even if you could walk through a building in the distant scenery i'm sure people wouldn't mind because i do agree that first its a train sim. but the sea wall (literally 2 meters away from the track) and the immediate areas outside the stations should be able to explore, it adds to the experience and makes you explore more areas that you wouldn't normally especially if collectables are involved.
On Shap you can walk right down Morecambe promenade (quite far away from any track) and it doesn't impact performance. How would something literally right next to the line?
But we are not talking about "many miles" here. A linear couple of miles from Dawlish to Dawlish Warren, slightly less at Teignmouth and maybe a couple of hundred yards at Dawlish by the river and town. Again have to wonder if this was something that was going to be but got cut at the last moment. Back when we guessing what the routes were going to be and I jokingly suggested to Matt he was checking out the sea wall walk at Dawlish, it was around the time he was also stating none of the routes were anywhere near ready. So unbeknownst to us that actually was the route and far from being a keynote feature it was given the chop, probably to get the rest of the route finished.
Erm, Over Shap is probably the worst performing route I have. My old machine struggles with the Frankfurt routes, but WCMLOS is a slideshow.
To be honest if you look at scenery beyond the immediate trackage, it’s often pretty sparse. I think it’s worked out well for the route overall though. I suspect the walkable front was likely culled in this regard. Personally I never use the extra walkable sections in TSW & if I had it my way, the accessible areas would be limited to operationally necessary areas only. The free cam is perfectly adequate for further exploration. I would also ask how often these extra areas actually get used after a couple of goes.
One of the main perks they promoted for tsw over tsc, as far as I can tell as someone who hasn't played tsc and started tsw with 4, is the ability to walk around the world we are in. Here they have something where we would all love to explore as others have pointed out, it's a big part of the experience of the route, but they prevent us from walking. Having said that, being Rivet made the route can we really be surprised you can't walk the sea wall or down the beach? On the Cardiff route they put teleporters on some of the stations because allowing us to walk down a slope, under a bridge and back up another slope to get to the other platform was too much. (I think they did that on Riviera too, actually)
I really don't think being able to walk along the sea walls would've been resource hungry at all. Saying where does it end is nonsense when we've had more exploration on previous routes. You could walk around the town at Arosa really far from the trainline. It's not alot to ask when the scenery is right there. Also apparently if you can glitch through the fence the sea wall is actually walkable so blocking it makes even less sense (im unable to verify that tho). Plus even if you don't care for it at all having the option is really nice especially in a location thats so big on trainspotting.
Would change my opinion of the route a bit more, actually enjoyed my run on day one with the class 220
Am surprised your unable to walk the sea wall . Its one thing Rivet did well with the IOW route of exploring a map.
I know the primary focus of a train simulator isn't where you could walk, but at the same time one of the coolest things about train sim world is the "world" part and the fact that you aren't just stuck in the drivers seat. They seem to be going backwards with the new routes. The invisible walls are very close to the station platforms - some stations you can't even walk to the other side and instead you have a teleport spot. Also they seem to have dropped all the advances they made in the TSW 4/5 when it came to having things like restaurants, coffee shops, and kiosks that were explorable and alive. Now it is back to just black doors with no modelled interiors. I thought maybe these are efforts to conserve resources... but they are still putting effort and resources into things like working elevators.
Good point, as a person with a fluctuating disability, I often have to use lifts IRL. However, I've never thought of using one in TSW. It seems like a resource intensive thing to have in the game. I guess the question could have been; what would you prefer, working lifts at Dawlish Station or access to the full seawall and beach? I'd happily not have lifts/elevators in favour of more explorable stations. Given that this is a simulator that focuses on the experience of being traincrew, I've always been disappointed that stations feature canteens, toilets, lifts and shops but never a traincrew mess room. Most drivers start their day in a mess room or similar at their home station or depot in order to read operating notices, that would surely be more immersive to the driver/guard role than being able to go and by a coffee at the station.
Oh and a big thank you to everyone who voted. I'll keep it open but currently 77% favour a fully accessible sea wall. One of the most emphatic poll results I've seen in this forum.
