West Coast Main Line: Trent Valley From All Aboard Studios

I'm giving some balance as if you read these forums the route is a disaster. You could easily say some of those with a negative view are speaking as though everyone has the same experience.

I can only speak from my experience as does someone on console who experiences blurry textures.

There is still room for more than one view on the forums.

It isn't even all consoles, some on PS5 are enjoying the route. I'm not sure that "most" people are having problems. Understandably those with issues are shouting the loudest.

 

I'm pretty happy with TSW6, sure it's got some issues but it was playable on day one. Something that's becoming increasingly unusual in the world of simulation games.

Yes, I'm a PC player and will always be a PC player because Consoles are less immune from the ensh*tification process that's strangling gaming and the general online experience. Though buying PCs will become harder and harder if NVIDIA's cult-like embrace of AI continues.

 

9th of June people!

Article
Video showcase

 

#winning

 

OK Preston Crewe Next

 

Is the class 805 not included in the AI layer portion or do i missed something?

 

Thanks! I have missed that very clear

 

Kind of. The longer routes do have a small impact on memory usage. However, you're right it's much less than the impact that is the number of services running. When you combine the two things, you get the worst hit on performance since the longer a route is, the more trains you'll often have moving along that route at any one time.

The compounding "third" issue is a bit less quantifiable, in that ended services don't always "end" and seem to continue to use memory. Over time they "pile up" off screen and hog system resources. DTG members have hinted at that being worked on (I think they called it "memory leakage" or something in another thread) but with no timeframe to fixing it.

To be fair to the route creators, I'm not sure they can do much about any of those issues. They need to go from a key station to a key station. They "need" to make the timetables reflect real life (which in this case is busy) and they can't work on the Core programming.

If they limit length or traffic, the customer base will complain it's "unrealistic."

Also, this isn't a unique thing to TSW or DTG. Quite a few games that track a lot of pieces are running into this issue of memory dumping those completed services and freeing up memory. I'm not a dev so I don't know how much effort it takes to manage that and decide what things get "dropped" and when to free up that memory, but apparently it's quite a major project since it's been noted for years now and it's still a big issue.

Many especially online games tend to "deteriorate" over time as these "services/processes" pile up and lag the games until they crash, or the servers are regularly reset to free up memory and eliminate the backlog.

 

Give it a rest

 

16/6 or 23/6?

 

Give what a rest?

 

Just your constant moaning, it is pretty evident you are not going to buy this route which is fine, you have your reasons. Some of your comments are just complete nonsense though. Did they or did they not release a patch? Sure it has taken awhile but they have at least delivered on something, even if some stuff isn't perfect still, their first route is a lot better now and they don't sit there and start pointing fingers at every tom LOVE and harry which same can't be said for a lot of other 3rd parties at the moment who seem to just point blame at DTG rather than just get something produced.

All aboard are not perfect, clearly improvement is still needed on the testing front whether thats from dtg or themselves or both but at least they seem to care about making things right. Even if they've slipped up along the way.

 

Understandbly people are still frustrated by ongoing issues which is totally valid and such is totally valid to not buy the route at launch. The recent patch drama shows that All Aboard isn't perfect but they have held their hands up, said they are sorting it which can't be said about some other 3rd parties at the moment.

 

What the hell is even going on…

people constantly bickering and complaining back and forth. I know the situation is rocky, but at least be constructive and respectful.

is it any wonder why devs don’t ever speak here?

 

I wouldn’t mind your swiping at me if I was the only one to have an issue. But I ain’t.

You might want to review your evidence as well. I won’t buy the route day one. However if this route actually gets a decent review and isn’t as broken as me and others expect then I’ll get it.

I hope they have fixed the missing AWS South of Crewe on the up lines.

 

I'm excited for a long line with more sparsely separated stations. That's just what I like. I'll probably buy it at full price.

I don't understand the degree of frustration people seem to have in game forums. Not sure if it is a personality trait of some to rage at things that aren't how they like, or if I'm just missing some intensely aggravating things going on in front of me, or what.

 

Depending on the blurry texture situation (I’m on Series X), this will be Day 1 or at least Week 1 for me.

 

Nice to see they're doing a service on Series X on the stream later. Would be good to see it become a regular occurrence

 

Updated sounds on the 350/4

 

are they any good? and by sounds, do you just mean things like doors, or full running sounds?

 

do the timetables for wcml south and trent valley work seamlessly so you can continue a service by hopping out, changing the route and hopping back in again?

 

Running sounds, horns, motor sounds and door jingle sound improved.

 

What’s the AI traffic like?
Seems dead on WCML South & Birmingham Crewe, and I just did two runs with the full timetable. When I could get them to load. Which leads to the question, is this going to work reliably on Xbox X?

just imagine the reactions if this doesn’t load or crashes out on Xbox X!!

 

They are currently doing a run using the Xbox Series X on the stream and the performance looks good - haven’t seen any blurry textures (yet)

 

yep...going to obviously wait and see how the launch goes before buying but i'm cautiously optimistic
when i saw the reduced timetable my initial thoughts were "uh oh" but good to know that both are available on all platforms
sounds like series S users won't have a fun experience on the full one though

 

Ah, but do they have a typical player’s setup with a hard drive full of games and 125 or more DLC loaded on the copy of TSW? I doubt it very much.

I’m not watching, I got bored after an hour and 15 mins and turned it off to watch the rest at a later date, probably at x2 speed. I really don’t like how they have covered the sleeper ends with ballast, covering up where the extended track shadows draw (they draw on the track texture) making it look like half the track is TSW4 track with very short track shadows and the other half is current track with shadows that draw all the way into the distance. It looks bad and is very distracting.

 

To summarise, from what I've seen:
Bad:
The timetable still appears to have the second "lock doors" step at major stations (I doesn't bother me that much to be honest, but I know it bothers some). Dan is just explaining this as I type. It's basically down to helping the dispatcher prioritise traffic.
Stations seem really empty with only a few passengers on the platforms at major stations
There is a piece of OHLE missing at Lichfield
Good:
Bidirectional signalling is used in some of the scenarios (That was my question)
The scoring seems to be the standard scoring (not the reduced scoring on the 805 timetable)
Extra or "fake" station stops have been added to increase playability (e.g. the Manchester service which has its first stop at Nuneaton in reality has an extra stop at Milton Keynes)
There was a TSR that wasn't 40 (it was 75)
The Class 807 has speed set functionality (but this hasn't been added to the 805)

Overall, I think it looks quite good. It seems to perform well on the XBox as well, but I'll let the XBox players judge that.

 

I wasn't too keen on Matt's explanation of the irritating "double stop-at instruction" workaround to stop the dispatcher from reserving the path the second you arrive at a station. It sounds like this is going to become a "feature" of future routes. Surely the actual solution would have been to add a new setting to instructions, telling the dispatcher to only search for a path once the instruction is complete. Wouldn't have affected existing scenarios / services and would have been far more realistic, which you'd have thought would be the primary objective for a simulator.

JB

Edit : anyone else notice his 390 got slowed down by a TPWS intervention a few minutes ago? He was doing 54 in a 60, approaching a 75 limit....

 

Yea the sleeper/ballast shadows are a bit of an immersion killer tbh. Wonder if that has been implemented to help with the blurry textures or can be patched.

 

My only doubt about this route is, will it be as boring as ECML (for me)
There are more stops, but not always

 

speaking of the 805, it's curious how matt didn't take it for a ride, huh? it would certainly have been embarrassing for everyone there to show that messed up panel by the patch from the 28th

 

My impressions are that the route looks good and a lot of effort seems to have gone into it.

I compared it to ECML but I think its better. There is a lot more variety of traffic. Crewe seems more logical a place to end the route compared to a Doncaster.

The performance looked fine. I only watched it up to the class 66 freight run.

I haven't seen anything to stop me buying it but I'll watch a couple of streams on release.

I don't think it will be my most played route and I think I'll still prefer Birmingham to Crewe.

 

I wonder if the 805 panel buttons will be fixed before this is released?

 

been watching the stream back for a couple of hours and i have to say i’m very, very impressed. foliage and ballast looks superb as i was expecting, aabs set their own standards with b2c. the scenery is also very well modelled with excellent attention to detail, including stations. the introduction of speed set on the 807 is another massive improvement, hopefully this gets back-ported to the 805 as that’s my only gripe with the original loco. i’m still apprehensive about potential blurring issues but the xbox preview looked good, albeit in the 390 which strangely doesn’t badly suffer from bluriness like the 350 and AT300s. this will definitely be a day one purchase for me unless there’s reports of bad blurriness. the 350/4 sounds are also a big improvement, i’m not sure if it was clarified during the stream but hopefully these also get added to the other 350s, at the very least i’d expect the /2 and /3 to receive the better versions. hats off to aabs for what looks like another brilliant route, it goes without saying that b2c had a rocky start but their ability to build routes is second to none

 

i have exact the same impression. Will buy anyway
B2C is now one of my favorite routes (pc)

 

Enjoyed the stream, and the route lived upto expectations. The quality, detail, and timetable were pretty immense. But I always knew it would be from the lads at AAS!

One thing that really struck me as someone who likes long distance routes, is that this route really hit the sweet spot for me in terms of length. I don't particularly find extremely short routes with illogical start and end points of much entertainment value for me personally (the exception to that rule is GOBLIN and North London Line which have end to end, intense commuter runs, and full services), but from watching the stream this really felt like it hit the sweet spot and goldy lock zone for me. It gives the 805, 807, & 390 such a good stretch of their legs and you really get the feeling like you are getting a proper InterCity run (something I haven't felt since ECML).

It was also nice to see the difference that has been made with the Class 350/4. Don't get me wrong the 350/2 and 350/3 are still smashing units... But the new sounds and updates to the 350/4 sound absolutely great and made a noticeable difference. (TPWS Mk4, updated running sounds, and some external sounds).

The route details were also really nice, as was the trackside scenery, foliage, and overall detail in the route, although I shouldn't be surprised from the lads at AAS... Overall a very tasty looking route!

Something that really stuck out to me was the huge and major difference between Milton Keynes on Trent Valley, and WCMLS, and the new Milton Keynes really blew the WCMLS version out of the water and put it to shame.

This will be a day one purchase for me and really look forward to it. I've been waiting a very long time to have a route of this length and a proper InterCity run. Something we haven't experienced for the UK since ECML in TSW4.

Lastly finishing on a positive note it was positive to hear about optimisation improvements that have been implemented, and further improvements that are going on behind the scenes. Actions speak louder then words, and it feels like there definitely is some action to improve and optimise the game, rather then just words and empty promises we have heard in the past.

 

It won’t be that. It was like that on the last All Aboard route. The extended shadows will still be computed and drawn in but you just can’t see them on the outside edge because another texture is drawn over them. It’s only bad at certain sun angles really.

 

Haven’t watched the stream, but showing off on Xbox is pretty encouraging IMO. I would ask if there were any caveats there though, B2C runs fine if you remove the 350 layers but it removes the soul of the route, so I’m not interested in another mainline where I have to run it much emptier than designed.

I’ll of course wait for the day 1 reports to come in, but down the line when the price is more…palatable, it’s certainly a route I’m interested in.

Also, AAS still have to get their other products in order. B2C is still in a rough state on console & I fear there’s not much hope for it overcoming its related issues there.

 

Looked great. Nice to see the speed set on the 807, hopefully that comes to the 805 down the line.

The 350/4 sound gorgeous. A shame the audio won't be ported to the other subclasses, but hopefully that's on the cards for the future.

Route looked fantastic every time I joined the stream. What more can I say. As a PC player I'm sure it'll be a great route. If there are any 86 railtours that would be great but not fussed if not.

 

Don't think the route will include any railtours on timetable mode

 

It’s going to be fun driving from Euston to MK, MK to Crewe, then back on myself to Birmingham new street.

 

Not really, why would they drive the 805 when the 807 is the flagship train of the route

 

Did the route come across as busy on the stream?

 

When they showed it on xbox it performed ok but did anyone notice how many dlcs he had on his xbox. Because does that impact performance if you have a lot of dlc.

 

The reports from the stream are encouraging and I might try and watch a bit of it later on. Still wavering on it being a Day One purchase as, on the one hand it does appear AABS have raised their game and deserve a payday, but on the other… 1. It’s another relatively flat Midlands workaday route so once you’ve gone end to end a few times, where’s the replay value? 2. £33 is tickling my red line as regards pricing especially for a route that consists of 30% recycled mileage and no new trains (Class variant of the 8xx doesn’t count in my book).

Couple of quick questions for those who watched the stream..
1. How does Kilsby Tunnel look? Have they included the large ventilation shafts as you pass through?

2. Was the questIon about missing out Northampton addressed on the stream, along with what happens to all the slow line traffic that would run that way from Roade to Hilmorton and vv?

This is definitely a situation which would have benefited from a 10% pre order discount. So watching closely what happens next Tuesday, betting odds at the moment are 25/1 I’ll buy before the end of next week, dropping to 5/1 first time it gets 20% off in a sale.

 

it could certainly do with more light baking, there’s no light shining onto the rails and above you the ventilation shaft is full of the weird blue haze that often appears around tunnels

 

Thanks for that. Well at least they have modelled the structure itself accurately by the sound of it, which is a plus.

Started to watch the stream and have to say the new 350 sounds are rather nice. Very AC EMU ish. So the odds on a purchase by the end of next week have now dropped to 20/1!

 

Hopefully all the way to Carlisle at some point with what Im working on now and will once another DLC is released (though Unsure if the person who created the Modernisation mod for OS which Im using for this TT will do one for Crewe-preston)

 

Does this have any depots for depo/yard moves.