someone please explain why cardiff city networj route is so bad, i hear a lot of people dont like ot. thanks
Its really not as bad as people say it is. I'm a US player and quite enjoy it. Scenery is dull in some spots but overall its relatively entertaining
There are some scenery issues/errors with Cardiff network and some were quite irked that the station concourse at Cardiff Central was omitted. Some were also irked that services don't have natural end points for some journeys. The average journey time is 30 minutes using the class 150 and 153 units. It isn't so bad that it's unplayable though.
This route had so much potential and that’s what is upsetting to me. DTG should’ve added the entire Merthyr line so we had Barry island as an end point. It would’ve been a more interesting drive. We have too many lines that start 3/4 way through also.
You’re just driving small parts of services that go from from nowhere to nowhere, the scenery is dull and £30 is far too much to ask. It had the potential to be something far better, I was really excited when it was first announced, but it’s incredibly lacklustre.
Some of the scenery is okay and then some of it is atrocious (Whitchurch for example with cardboard buildings and copy pasted hedgerows). As mentioned the concourse isn't even modelled properly and you have to used a portal to get to a platform. It's just a bit sloppy unfortunately and half baked IMO. Especially for the price it is...
1. The concept was good but the route is too short. No one expected the full Cardiff Valley network but as a minimum it should have gone to Barry Island, Caerphilly and Pontypridd. 2. Cardiff Central station is a disgrace, they couldn’t even model the downstairs concourse or frontage. Not even a freeware author would have sunk that low. 3. There are other issues with scenery on the route. 4. The 153 is nice but wasted on a route where most of the time you are driving at 20 MPH or less. 5. Despite assurances, the 150 retains some of the baggage from its previous iteration on WCL. The sounds are slightly better but still far away from the raw, rough roar of the prototype. Quite why it was built and released this way is a mystery. Was it an intern project that got promoted prematurely to the big leagues, did they run out of time or was it simple laziness that led to such poor quality coming out with a £30 price tag? That said, I do fire it up from time to time. The main appeal being you can usually get a run done in one play session. But if ever a route needed a do over and extension, this is it.
Station frontages are not normally depicted in TSW. They are sometimes but not normally. For some odd reason that I can’t fathom, the fact that Cardiff Central frontage wasn’t modelled was suddenly a huge issue in this route. It’s never normally an issue even for the most critical of players but here it was. You never see it during gameplay. It’s a non-issue. With all the hundreds and hundreds of other stations where the road side isn’t depicted nobody ever mentions it. It’s very odd that they do for this one station.
It feels like DTG were making this a flagship DLC and then just gave up and pushed it out. There's no really decent journey times, only three natural end points. By the time you're getting settled into the journey it's over. Using portals instead of making a concourse was a big mistake that DTG then made worse by saying they didn't know anything about the Portals (I can't remember what the station was though), It was something they have repeated with Riviera line (Dawlish Warren). The Welsh 150,153 and 142s are decent. But I play them on other routes, it's a route I rarely go on now. A real missed opportunity, just like so many others.
Have to disagree. Check out the beautiful stations at either end of the Dutch route. Even a simple texture overlaid would have been better than leaving the face plain grey. If you can zoom out from the train or see it within the boundaries of the free cam, then it should be in the route. I can understand leaving the rear of external scenery assets such as office blocks untextured, but not items integral to the railway. Sorry but it does smack of sheer laziness on behalf of whoever made the route to not fully realise the main station in the capital city of Wales.
Totally agree on so many of these points, the point that frustrates me is that I would like, just occasionally for a route to exceed expectations, it seems to me that they deliver pretty much what they promised but with no added frills, so many people have said that same thing on CCN, it's a Network.. but not really and once a route is out, then generally, from being the "best thing since sliced bread," it's quietly forgotten and when asked, DTG or the Developer will just say that there are no plans to extend. I get that these things take a lot of time and money to develop, but i'm sure that there is a market and if they released a Cardiff City Network version 2 with a couple more full runs and a proper Cardiff concourse, then me and lots more would be prepared to pay for that. It would be quite good if they held back sometimes and for example if they released this (which probably will never happen) and said that we have an extended route, but then as a surprise they added the Cardiff concourse (the disappointment is the fact that it is a real work of art and would look great in the game). There are exceptions to this and Johanne's Incredible Trains stands out to me, offering a free extension to Richmond (wonder if he regrets saying it is free !!), but also the original route, although some faults from a first time developer, which I can understand, does have that added something, wasn't expecting a busy Stratford with Greater Anglia liveried and Elizabeth line Aventra's, but also the overall feel, properly modelled roads, people walking the streets, junction signs, islands on roads, proper Boris Buses and TFL single decker buses and taxis and as am added bonus, throw in the Docklands Light Rail train, this is a man who likes detail (I think DTG could have worked with him on the missing passengers on stations, but it's not unique to that route). Ours is a hobby which lends itself to people who like detail and just want to see it right. Sorry for the rambling post, I got a bit carried away !!!
Someone summed this up better than I could on a similar post. They said the route feels like a beta test. Every aspect, from the scenery to the gameplay itself is just a demo. As soon as I read that I was like 'that's what it is!...' Maybe in a year they'll actually release the route in full after its fully developed
I agree especially the scenery which is inaccurate in parts and reminds me of WCL only it’s not as bad as WCL. This definitely does not feel like a DTG route and has not been completed yet!
It feels more like a demo game you'd get on PS1, than an actual network... As others have mentioned it has really illogical start and end points, hence the feeling your driving a few stations, get a taster for the route and it suddenly ends. If they'd have added the branch lines like Barry (as others have already mentioned), so you could do a few end to end stopper services I think it would be more appealing. I mean, I won't lie, JTs modern Pacer for the route did enhance it and make it better, and the Pacer is interesting to drive in itself. But if didn't enhance the route to the extent that it doesn't still feel like a demo game. Hopefully a lesson learnt for any future 'Network' style routes should they come to fruition.
The " other " network, that is LIRR, was relaunched after several years in a more extensive ( though still missing branches ) iteration. Despite an issue with the safety system for some players, it is much better than the original. Of course you had to pay for it again but maybe, if the same refurbishment was done for CCN, it might be worth it. It does have potential and it is the Welsh capital after all, which deserves more respect than it gets with the current version.
I think my biggest issue with this route is just the mentality of DTG. Because they released a route which wasn't up to the standards of what it should be for £30 and then they will see that sales might not have been great and will then say networker routes don't sell and never do another one. Similar to how steam or BR blue doesn't sell.
I have a feeling they just wanted a quick easy route to say “oh look we are adding a new country in the sim…… Wales.” pretty similar to the Netherlands route. The Netherlands has some amazing routes and they basically took the easiest option which is basically a straight line. “Oh look we are adding a new country ….. Netherlands” Will be the same this year for the stream they do when they announce TSW 7 will be another new country with a boring route for the easy option.
The original timetable is better. Stutter but less blur. The new timetable with the 142 is blur central for me.
The Pacer also suffers from lack of collision detection. At a stand, if you’re in the saloon, the exhaust smoke comes through the ceiling. A bit of a goof from Just Trains which I believe still needs to be fixed. However regardless of that, the 142 is wasted on this sawn off little runt of a route, nowhere to really get it up to 75 MPH.
It's one of my most played routes. I agree it could have been longer but it has some nice self contained services and decent quality stock. If you have the 142 then you get another timetable with a different service pattern. As always in my opinion it's best to watch a few streams/videos and make your own mind up rather than solely rely on the forums for information gathering.
Cardiff now on a heavy 40% sale in the Xbox store. This seems like a much more fair price in my opinion. I probably would if I hadn't just bought the 86 for WCMLOS.
