Has Uk Content In Tsw Now (or Almost) Superseded German As "consistently The Best" Overall?

In my opinion, since the start of TSW, German content has always been consistently the best for gameplay content when it came to routes, rolling stock, variety, busy timetables and layers etc. In contrast, long-term players may remember the early days where a majority of UK routes (with the exception of BML, of course) had lackluster timetables, empty main stations and more or less just a single, very similar EMU - reasons why I started playing German content and to this day is still my favourite (for context, I don't play as much UK routes nowadays as result).

So, why do I think UK content has superseded German? For starters, just compare TSW 6 with the Riviera Line to Leipzig-Dresden, the plethora of third parties offering UK content (with routes and locos) which has really bolstered the catalogue, several high-quality remasters like WSR, Cathcart, GWE etc (importantly, all upgraded to TOD 4 too) plus more new timetables for existing routes, and that modern German content has started to become a bit stale or lack imagination; for example, there needs to be more diesel lines, more different operators and more routes from the North and East especially etc. Moreover, on console, it's not been the best experience as of late, with performance issues from Frankfurt-Fulda and the *console version* timetable for Frankfurt S-Bahn have meant more frustrations. Don't get me wrong, there still has been fantastic offerings for Germany as of recent, among them the Expert 101 and new Kassel-Wurzburg timetable (from a third party too) which is my absolute favourite and I look forward to the Expert 145.

So, does UK content now offer the best overall consistent gameplay in TSW? Discuss.

 

I went with almost.

It was very disappointing to see routes like the extended Dresden to Leipzig or the fairly recent Ludwigsbahn not have sound reverb in tunnels or under bridges. The counter to that is the (sadly infrequent) TSG routes do deliver top quality. To be fair also, Frankfurt S-Bahn was very good, just marred by the complexity and timetable causing huge issues. Contrast that with the lacklustre Cardiff City, hardly worthy of the network accolade and glaring quality issues for such a short route.

The Riviera Line is good but I suspect only because Rivet were told to pull their socks up and were subject to a deal more oversight in the process. Most other recent releases have also been third party - JT, ATS etc. with the forthcoming All Aboard one, at least going by the screenshots, looking to equal in terms of quality. Seems DTG themselves have either stepped back from or lost some of the talent they had for route building, both UK and German. The Stuttgart route will be the crunch one.

 

Yes definitely, we now have very high quality producers in JT and the new crew that are doing Birmingham to Crewe, not forgetting ATS of course who set the high standards for modern routes with Manchester airport commuter.
Rivet seem to have had routes taken away from them which is a good thing, but have found their level with new variants of trains already in game and plus they have a very capable TT producer bringing life to old routes with extra services.
it’s now reached the stage because of that where I have decided to just get the free update and UK routes from now on. They are simply so good I no longer need to buy US and German routes unless they are retro which I enjoy, such as the high quality content from TSG. I also intend to buy the Czech route as it’s so intriguing and also comes with 2 units.
I reckon things are looking good, also with HIS new US freight content too. I hope some of it is heritage as it is in TSC. I’d love a Saluda Grade with a high hood in TSW.

 

I would say maybe

Areas where I think UK content could do better:

• More loco hauled trains, especially modern ones
• Variety of eras (Germany for example has some in the 2000's, recent UK routes are only either 80's or modern with no in between)
• Freight locos and services (looking forward to the class 90, but that will still only be 2 modern freight locos)
• Some expert level trains
• More regions (most UK routes are either in North West or London)

Areas where I think German content could do better:

• More unelectrified routes (UK has about 12, Germany still only has 2)
• Steam era (even though it has been abandoned, at least UK has 4 steam locos compared to 0 for everyone else)
• Routes should come with new rolling stock
• More companies than just DB
• More third parties that have released something

 

I'm the one who choose no, but I will explain. In my opinion, UK routes where never worse then German routes. There are multiple UK routes set in the past, having diesel, busy timetables like the route from rush hour, underground section, multiple operators and so on, even in the TSW and TSW2 era. The fact I'm not that much into UK routes, don't change my opinion on this.

German routes do not have multiple operarators, most routes are in the more modern era and not that much diesel. I like the German railroad, maybe because I had modelrailway with German trains as child, but I don't think German routes are anything better, also not in the more early years of TSW.

 

I love UK content but I do appreciate german content

 

I didn’t vote, as usual the polls are really poor at getting an opinion across - they’re just too blunt.

I think your results are going to be skewed by people who just prefer British (or German) content anyway.

As for the actual question, the two trade blow for blow. German stuff usually offers better versatility with the trains, letting you using them over multiple routes, but the downside of that is a lot of routes start to feel the same. British stuff tends to offer a clearer definition between routes due to ToC variance etc, but the downside is less value for your purchases due to restricted layering, or getting busier routes is often quite expensive due to layer requirements.

As a PS5 player though, German content right now is a write off, they basically all suffer from texture issues. Back over to UK content, it gets carried hard by third parties, DTG can’t seem to release a well rounded route that doesn’t have big caveats (length, rolling stock, quality etc), but the third parties tend to care a lot more about their content. Obviously there’s a couple of exceptions here (Riviera for example).

But yeah, overall I could probably pick a good German route for a good UK route, and bad one vice versa.

Right now though I am avoiding German content altogether as A) texture issues & B) it’s really peaked as all feeling like the same thing again & again.

 

That's like asking "Is having your left leg amputated better than having your right leg amputated?"

Even the Just Trains UK routes are riddled with bugs, blurry textures, weird glitches and many other problems ... The windscreen wipers on my class 142 stopped working during a thunderstorm half-way through a run yesterday, and I couldn't see a damn thing for half an hour.

So no, TSW6 is completely broken and it's only getting worse with each update in my experience.

 

I was thinking this same thing the other day. German stuff used to easily be the top tier of TSW. Both in experience/variety and quality. A lot of that was because of the nature of the real life German railways where each new route and DLC added trains that could be used across multiple other DLCs

UK was a bit different because there are like a dozen different operators with different liveries, licensing, etc. So a lot of routes would be a ghost town because they had 1 or 2 trains to fill the stations but were missing a lot of the real life stuff that fills that area, or at least approximations of it.

Brighton-London was an exception as far as being very alive with the timetable, but at the end of the day it leaned heavily on basically a relatively boring train (Electrostar) in 3 different colours and a few smaller supporting services here and there. But overall a relatively straight route with an uninteresting EMU.

Now the UK stuff has progressed to the point where there are enough trains and operators in the game that UK routes can be quite busy too. I think that really hit home around the time that Cathcart Circle got re-done with the 380 and the new timetable completely filled up Glasgow with Pendolinos, 801s, 380s, 170s, 158, 314, etc... it felt like a German station as far as how alive it was. Third party routes have hit some home runs in quality, some of the key operators are now in the game that can appear across multiple routes, and with things like the 86/87 we are getting trains that are fun/different to operate beyond the relatively derivative EMUs.

Then a lot of the German routes have gotten so huge in scope with timetables and layers that the performance and blurring texture issue has meant I hardly play any of them anymore. All the newest ones seem to have performance issues on my platform (PS5), with some exceptions (TSGs route was my most played one in the last months).

That said to me personally nothing beats the fun/engagement of driving the German trains with PZB. AWS/TPWS is so simple in comparison that I get bored faster driving British trains.

 

I can’t really comment on the topic as a whole, but I can vouch for the UK’s wild variety. It’s pretty impressive. There’s high speed mainline stuff (ECML), diesel mainline (Riviera), commuter runs (WCMLS), heritage (WSR), tube/metro (Bakerloo), 80’s (JT’s realm), steam (SoS), freight focus (TVL), novelty (Thomas) and now routes in three of the four nations of the UK.

I can’t think of a trick the UK content has missed (except maybe Blackpool Trams!)

 

No. All the DTG and 3P output, UK, German and US, has settled into an imitative groove of emu driven commuter content. JT has broken the mold to some extent and Riviera is a step in the right direction. ( will it be more than an outlier? ). Morristown is very good but still in the same groove. Leipzig is toe curling in its imitation of an existing route.

Overall though there's nothing to separate the gameplay from the 3 major countries, with the exceptions mentioned above.

 

One thing I'd like to mention is the amount of love old UK routes are still getting.
At this point we have had Southeastern High Speed, Cathcart, WSR, and soon GWE receive some major revamps. Not to mention the new BCC timetable and unlikely, but possible upgrades to ECW.
Meanwhile, the only German pre-TSW3 route to have received a proper update to modern standards was DRA.
I find it hard to enjoy the new Köln-Aachen timetable because the route feels so dated in terms of lighting and scenery. The Hamburg-Lübeck scenery has held up better, but the lighting still feels too flat to properly enjoy 218 drives.
Not to mention other routes that have immense untapped potential gameplay wise if they were to receive a very thorough remaster, such as München-Augsburg and Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr. (Could even be combined with new DLC to find the endeavor. Anyone want a Mireo or Desiro HC?)

 

so unless i might be getting this topic wrong.
I say almost.
the amount of UK routes we have is really because a lot of the developers working for TSW is from the UK. So UK content are a lot more and depending on some routes are a lot better compared to, what is to my knowledge, not that many developers that makes routes/content for TSW. Other than 1 german developer that made a non-electrified line that a route i cant remember which one, but it contains a 2 car DMU. But even then again thanks to a specific 3rd party developer that I truly wish are begone from TSW because they refuse to listen to their player base to fix bugs. Not all UK content are hits either.

 

You mean the Niddertalbahn from TSG with the two car DMU. They also made the Mittenwaldbahn route, the Vossloh G6, BR218, expert BR101 and gameplay packs. But indeed, it's the only 3rd party developer for German stuff, but a good one. Rivet did a few Swiss routes, the quality of them is not that good.

We now get some other countries from 3rd party developers, so I'm curious about that.

 

Dovetail content? Equally bad generally. Third party stuff? JT and TSG have both had their ups and downs but are pretty equal I'd say. Of course, historically the German content was better and that still kind of applies - I still love driving the BR155.

 

I would say that Germany has an edge which is due to the real world, not the sim world: engaging safety systems. TPWS and an alerter are pretty rudimentary.