Wcml Preston To Crewe Discussion

Day one for me and starting with a nice drive down the Miley Tunnel.

 

Another JT Day One from me, I'll be getting it from their website so they get more royalties

 

Finally!! Been so excited for this. Seeing a release date is a pinch me moment. Like others have stated this is a day 1 purchase for me as well. I have been holding off on getting anything else just for this.

 

That's made my day ! Totally day one, can't wait!

 

Will definitely be buying this soon after release, and as a PC Steam player direct from JT's website so that they get more of my coin.

 

Finally!

Bring on the preview stream!

 

If this was an option on console, I’d do the same. More revenue should be going to the devs, not the platform it’s sold on.

 

Good price which acknowledges the new loco is a rework of an existing one rather than something not seen before in the game. I might see how many points I have on the JT store and get if from them, particularly as I want to try and keep hold of my Steam Wallet credit where I can, now the Gift Cards are being phased out.

 

Definitely a day 1 buy for me as well, I think we're looking at a 4-5pm release on the JT site and a 6pm release on Steam if the past releases have been anything to go by.

It's like waiting for the new series of Buffy to drop and locking myself in the living room and unplugging the phone so I could watch it all!

 

l had no idea that Steam gift cards are being phased out. I hope Xbox cards won’t be.

l will definitely buy this on release, as previous routes in TSW and TSC have all been good as far as l am concerned.

 

There’s a thread about it in Off Topic. At the moment seems it’s only Steam going down this road, not MS/XBox, PSN or any other company that sells physical gift cards such as Apple or the Roblox ones which are everywhere.

On another slight OT matter, does anyone know how you can view the number of loyalty points you have with JT? I logged into my account but no way to show them, seems only revealed at the checkout.

 

Were you so excited, you missed out every third word?

 

It's on the Account Home page - underneath your name and email address, it says "You have xx reward points worth £x off future orders".

 

Its call trying type without my glasses on and my dogs having a barney. But yeah im really excited for this route .

 

I’m not sure they get more money but they do get the money sooner. Steam and DTG will still be taking their cut. [EDIT - Steam don’t take a cut from sales of keys on external sites.]

 

I've just logged into my JT account and my points together with my name and e-mail address are shown on the first screen that appears after logging in.

 

How do Steam take a cut from something not sold from their site?

 

You're purchasing a Steam code from JT.

Although "purchasing" is a bit of a strong word in my case

 

They do in fact get more money, as Steam provide Steam Keys for free (source). Steam only takes a cut (c.30%, I believe) from sales via its platform.

 

I wonder if we will get a slight discount for owning the class 20 already, like they did fully remake the Tess valley version

also the JT class 20 doesn’t layer or sub onto any routes at the moment

either way still getting the route day one

 

I didn’t know that, cheers. Great for developers who provide their own shop service then!

 

Indeed, depending of course on their costs of running such a service. I'm guessing it's worthwhile for JT because of their wider TSC and flight sim content they sell. And it's a win-win for purchasers who get to support a developer and get some points for future purchases; for me, a couple of purchases gave me a pound or two off their Pacer addon.

 

Really good stream, enjoyed it.
I was wondering about Wigan Wallgate and it's so cool that you can walk there (albeit the long way!).

 

The highlight of the route for me was how well Wigan looked, with its natural landscapes and industrial heritage.

A lot of effort has gone into freight too. So many branching off paths for loading/unloading activities. Not just the standard A-B drive.

As soon as I finished watching the stream last night I immediately did a run from Blackpool (north) to Preston, then Preston to Carlisle. Had to save and cut short the second part of the run though, was past my bed time

 

One detail mentioned on the stream is that after 8pm a section of the mainline “closes” and all traffic then goes via Newton Le Willows. Thought this was a really cool idea and can’t think of anything similar in other routes.

 

I just watched the JT stream (got a bit seasick from the camera flights) and am looking forward very much to the route.

Non npative speaker quesion: The guys made some references to future projects but I did not quite get the essence. I know they are working on the Cumbrian Coast route Carlisle-Whitehaven. But I have the impression they were talking about some other projects. Can someone please enlighten me? Thanks.

 

They didn't mention any new projects because they said they are keeping that information to themselves for now. The one thing they did confirm was that any new route would be set before privatisation came in, so before mid 1990s.

 

Speaking of the 90’s. I learnt most of JT’s team were born in the 90’s.
I did ask them if they would ever consider making a 90’s route, no reply though.

 

was also very pleased to see Wallgate but the inclusion of a full timetable for such a small part of a route has got me speculating about a future Manchester Victoria to Southport route via Atherton. I’ve plucked that out of thin air but I’d be delighted if that happened down the line.

 

Thankfully, my friends who buy me my Steam vouchers are on Steam as well, so we always buy them digitally.

That said, after initially being sceptical about this route and then won over, I'm contemplating buying a key from JT this time to support them.

 

Did you understand the whole things that they talked about?! I didn't understand very much of it due to the loud game sound.... No hate but i have to be honest.

 

Yes I did, what do you want to know?

 

Not something special it was more a thing that a believe they have to better. It was way to loud and the frame rate was terrible but yeah he is playing on 4k with a 3070.... So please do not think it is the game.... It is his pc!!!!

 

Could have been a 5090 and the macro-stutters would still be there. It's the game.

 

You’d think they’d stream on the best possible device to showcase the route though.
I’m sure one of the lads from the team is rocking top tier specs.

 

To be fair.... It was not a deal with microstuttering... The average FPS was around 30/40fps and sometimes below 25 that has nothing to do with microstuttering.

Yeah it's a bit problematic due to customers they play on consoles and have wrong ideas now....

 

Yes I found that too.
What a wasted opportunity from JT.

 

After the first few minutes the sounds levels seemed fine to me.

Route looks superb and packed with the detail we’ve come to expect from JT. Can’t wait to get this and do some coal runs to Fiddlers Ferry.

 

Route looks amazing yeah!

 

Well, I am awfully very excited for this. Where does 101 layer from. And do the 87 ervices sub for 86 services or extra services?

 

With regard to the stream, I could hear and understand Tom easily but the other fellow was just too quiet, even after they adjusted the game volume, it was really hard to follow him along for large chunks of it (which made it very frustrating trying to "listen harder"), oh well.

As for the performance, it's Tom's PC. It's not the greatest of spec but also the 4K and the streaming really hit performance so I am not overly worried in that regard, they wouldn't have been building it on a supercomputer so it shouldn't need a Cray to run it either. There were still the micro stutters which are far more noticeable on electric locos (because the sound 'rubber bands') but that is a core issue which no doubt will go unresolved.

They explained why Preston Docks were left off and I support that decision, their reasoning was sound, aside from all the work that would have gone into it both in terms of scenery and creating rolling stock such as the industrial shunters, almost all of the workings would go via Blackburn so would come off the WCML within a couple of miles of Preston - hardly much for gameplay, though there was an odd one to Stanlow which would have at least gone to Warrington.

I'm glad that Wallgate has a full timetable, it just wouldn't be right sitting at North Western and not seeing stuff constantly coming in/out from down below. As someone who grew up adjacent to Swinton station on the Atherton line I remember the Southport bound steam tour and look forward to catching it go past in here. I obviously would love it if they went ahead and did the Atherton line next (as suggested up-thread), given it is the only route I've wanted more than this one

The detailing around Wigan is fantastic, even my spotting "spots" up at Bamfurlong are included with good accuracy, though it does look weird seeing it 40 years ago than in it's current and very overgrown states.

 

101 layers from preston - carlisle route.

 

Suspect this one will hold a special place in my heart - I’m from Crewe originally but moved to Preston in the year this is set.

I was far too young to remember but my dad tells me around the time we moved to Preston that he used to take me to the Warrington Low Level to see the 20s take coal to Fiddlers Ferry, as per in the game. Been to Bank Quay a few times lately and although that line is only really used for light engine moves now, still find that whole area absolutely fascinating.

 

With each new route we keep wanting the newer items to layer onto the older routes. I do hope the "surprise" they mentioned is tweaks/layers for Blackpool Branches and Preston-Carlisle.

 

I prefer modern routes but the coal operations look nice! I do worry about the performance tho since the fps was not great. If his pc is not good why would you preview your route with that?

 

I got halfway through the stream today and will watch the rest later but it’s the same level of detail as Shap as I would expect from JT. Obviously there are concerns from me with how it will play on PS5 but Shap is generally okay. This route may have a few more train types and rolling stock items on top but hopefully stuff has been optimised well and won’t cause issues. I really want this route as it’s my era and local to me. Unless there’s really bad feedback from other PS5 players this will be my first punt for a full price TSW6 DLC and it’s really well priced at £30. All JT could say in the stream (up to the point I got to) is that there has been console testing carried out but no word on the results of that.

Fingers crossed.

What’s it now, six days to release? It’s been a long old wait. All aboard the merry-go-round.

 

I have mixed feelings after the preview. The models look really good they usually do when JT are involved but I can't help but feel that Preston to Crewe is kind of a boring section and at least for passenger services it's gonna be more of the same. I am very interested in the freight workings, like the MGR trains going from pit to power station is cool and i'm really hoping for a 56 or a 58 from JT at some point.

Driving Over Shap got a bit boring after a while so i'm hoping this route is a bit more replayable.

 

I watched most of the stream, but I didn't hear a lot of discussion about the layers. I was wondering if anybody has heard about the layers from Cargo Line 5 and Peak Forest, how many services they add. And also, if there is a deal like Kingmoor/Carlisle shunting where you have to own all the DLC to get them to work. CL5 and PF are the only layers I don't already own.

 

I can imagine you feel that way! That’s not because of JT, but because there aren’t many options left for where you want to go. It’s indeed not the most exciting route, but the quality isn’t the issue. Maybe it’s also because we’re getting a lot of WCML now, and that makes the content feel a bit repetitive. I definitely enjoy it, but I also doubt whether this will become a favorite of mine. And again, nothing against JT.