I like the style they’ve chosen here - similar to how I remember some of the books. It also looks to be the pause menu map, which is a great choice too. Immersion is key!
I too love this map! Not sure if it's a pause menu but instead a main menu. It looks like you can select two scenarios at Tidmouth.
So... wondering how condensed the map will be? From what I've seen and read, Sodor is something like 60 miles east to west and 50 miles north to south. That would give actually quite a fair size route to drive, particularly if the various minor lines are eventually added. A tricky equation for sure as it needs to be contained enough so the little kiddies don't get bored. but long enough for any adults delving in not to be over in five minutes.
So by the looks of it, if we get the branch to Arlesburgh, that will be as DLC, probably with Duck (Maybe reach out to a certain modder on this forum, DTG?) but at the very least we're getting the main line and Thomas' branch. Interested to see what else is included on the other side of the island we don't see in the preview images.
My memory is admittedly a little hazy, but weren’t there narrow gauge railways, maybe a mineral railway and a mountain railway too? Duck’s branch line was my favourite though.
I reckon they’ve thought about that, and for the kids it will be the ‘story’ mode.. and ‘explore’ and for the elders like us it will be ‘timetable’ - in theory of course. If we’re getting Gordon we’d want to be able to get up to speed, and for that we need distance..
Lots of potential for this project to grow into something huge, they’re certainly not short on characters and scenario material. I wonder if DTG will add characters that never appeared in the CGI series? Boco is a firm favourite, but was weirdly omitted from the show’s CGI era. Would love to see him show up here if they add the Wellsworth branch! Definitely hope to see a Skarloey Railway update at some point, the narrow gauge engines were my absolute favourites growing up
I wonder if these will come later on as DLC. We know additional DLC is supported as James is a separate purchase!
I am assuming they'll do the main standard gauge branches before the Skarloey, Culdee Fell, or Arlesdale railways. More interoperability.
I saw a post from Tallyn railway, and DTG got 3d scans of the original rev awdry map of Sodor from the 1950’s… that’s pretty cool to have had this to build sodor from
I think they must be saving bits for DLC surely. We are definitely missing big characters like Henry, Edward, Toby etc and DTG will know that. It would be a nice way to flesh out the whole island unlocking new bits with new characters and stories. As others have said I'd love to see the narrow gauge line appear. My favourite stories were when Oliver and Stepney are saved from scrap! Would love to creep through the scrap yards in that dark and misty railway with only the signals for light! I do hope we get some of that Dark foggy atmosphere in these stories! Like Henry with the flying kipper!
There will be multiple DLCs of course, ala TSW. Jumping into speculation mode here, I'm wondering if they'll be "jumps" like TSW or a seamless integration like say European Truck Simulator. That would be a nice tech to develop given you don't have the usual problem of multiple developers doing different maps/eras to connect. If it's all done by the same crew they can make it seamless. The only issue might be performance, but again there'd be a lot less traffic on this rural fictional map so unlike TSW it might be a lot better for a larger map when complete. It's the huge amounts of AI traffic that tends to sink CPUs in TSW. Not a huge amount of that in Sodor if they stick to the stories. It's often just whatever character you have, the ones you're "supposed" to run into on scenario mode, and in timetable it'd just be a fairly limited schedule. Remember it's Sodor, not London. If you have a train an hour that'd be a lot. Then again, you don't need a lot of traffic...because that's the setting. So I can see it being a lot more immersive and "deep" than the typical linear DLC, where you have a lot more places to go, but it's a lot "emptier." Then again, a lot of the TTTE feel is from off-track animations that won't be interactive in Timetable mode (like animated crane moving cargo, or cows or automobile traffic we have in TSW) that won't be "tracked" long term like AI rolling stock so it'll load your GPU, not your CPU. They disappear when out of view. That's my thought anyway. It opens up a lot more possibilities for less "route hopping" and a more seamless one-map experience. You'll have to unlock probably 10 DLC maps to get there, each with new areas and characters, but it could work a lot better than TSW for that given it's unique setting and design. For me, that's an ideal scenario because I'm from a rural area. That's how is "normal" to me, not regular MUs every 15 minutes and LOTS of traffic, so this seems "normal" and the setting is "quaint" in the cartoons of a rural island of "small-town" characters. If that allows a seamless experience over time to build all of Sodor and go wherever you want, that's a huge opportunity. I may just be wishing, but I think it makes some sense.
Henry's forest and the Wellsworth-Brendham branch line (IE Edwards branch line) imply those 2 characters will be appearing as DLC, Henry as a Black 5 would be pretty easy for DTG to recycle in TSW too The S bend north of Ffarquhar looks odd and the area around Knapford looks a bit crowded but the map looks quite good so far
I ended up rewatching the first season last night as it actually showed up on prime video. I realise how much I loved the old model style but I can't believe episodes were only 5 minutes long? They felt longer as a kid! I'm intrigued to see how they will recreate it and especially what the timetable will look like. It's interesting to see what engines they've put in it though as I think the originals would've made more sense to me personally, so will definitely be interesting to see what old stories there are and what new ones! I'm actually genuinely intrigued in this one!
There were two stories per programme which is probably why it seemed longer. It used to fit into a 15 minute slot.
Looks like they’ve removed the wellsworth-brendam branch line [for now] from the world map from that initial screenshot deffo implies a dlc for Edwards branch line
A thought occurred earlier, what if we're getting each section of Sodor in a sort of Season based format like the show? Each Season gave more focus to different areas. Consider the base game to be Season 1; we got Tidmouth, the Main Line, Ffarquhar Branch + Quarry and Ballahoo. The release plan may go as Brendam Docks (Season 2), Little Western (Season 3), Skarloey Railway (Season 4) and so on. Maybe the standard gauge will come first, working around smaller engines from the Skarloey, Arlesdale and even Culdee Fell might take time.
The 3D models are straight imports from the CGI series so that they look identical to the trains seen on TV. Mattel would definitely not agree to having a reskinned TSW Black 5 as Henry, he will be a dedicated model like the others. JB
Makes sense. Skarloey, Arlesdale and Culdee aren't as spread out across the map and players will want to see & play more characters on their routes. We want to see more RWS and TV characters to fill out Sodor, but smaller engines like Sir Handel aren't going to pass us on Gordon's Hill or Rheneas meeting us at Elsbridge.
They’ve changed Gordon an Emily to be more like their real world basis and James has been scaled down from his cgi model so they’re not straight imports
I'm really struggling to see what changes Gordon has undergone... In fact it's clearly the same model other than a duplicated lamp. He looks no closer to being a prototypical A1 than he does in the CGI series and again, Mattel wouldn't agree to DTG deviating from the CGI models, particularly as there's no justification as there might be for physical models / toys. After that analysis I didn't bother checking your claims about Emily or James. If indeed James has undergone a global scaling down, it's not exactly a major undertaking as the action of separating the wheels and scaling down the rest of the mesh in a CAD package takes approximately 5 seconds, although any adjustments to animations may take a bit more time. Contradicting people just for the sake of contradicting people is a hobby I'll always struggle to understand. JB CGI series WoS model
I think Henry’s cab interior would match that of a real Black 5, similar to Gordon’s cab interior would match Scotsman’s cab and Emily’s matching the real Stirling Single. The design of the model itself will most likely be the same CGI model, with rivet and handrail details implemented where necessary to match the rest of the engines that are currently available. Same will likely be the case for other engines they might eventually add. IE: a J70 cab interior for Toby, a 57xx pannier cab interior for Duck, a 14xx for Oliver, etc.
Yes that's very likely to be the case, in fact you can tell certain elements of the cab interiors and front end of the tenders have been directly transplanted from existing TSW engines (which is a logical choice and makes the cabs more interesting than they are in the TV shows). I suspect Henry will be along before long! JB
Gordon has blue handrails beside the cab and tender, that's one of the only details I can think of aside from the more realistic placements of rivets. I believe I heard in a video that Dovetail corrected Percy's toolboxes, the hinges are on the inside instead of facing outward.
