Route Wcml: Crewe - Preston - Feedback Thread

Ive been getting memory issues when I've tried to do thunderbird are go scenario for example on xbox series x and also blurry issues

 

I‘m getting constant CTDs or out of memory errors on Series X in scenarios or timetable mode. From release yesterday until now I’ve only managed to complete one 86/4 service with the obligatory blurred textures. Switching from 4K to HD changes absolutely nothing. Sorry but what is DTG doing in QA? Managed to get a refund - sorry JT I love your DLCs but not with that ton of problems on consoles here. Maybe I’ll get this in a few months in a sale after some performance patches (yeah I’m still dreaming about this….)

 

When are DTG finally going to get off their asses and sort their optimisation once and for all? I honestly can’t believe I paid £30 for a product where the textures completely die 5 minutes after loading and there’s a 50% chance of completing a service without the game crashing.

 

Agreed, +1 regarding adding arrival times to the destinations please!

 

If I do refund this later, have to say that’s 75% on DTG and only 25% on JT. As I said in the other thread, the third parties need to read the riot act to DTG, get off their a***s and start fixing the core issues with some urgency. Spend the 25 or 30% whatever the commission from these add ons to employ some competent programmers and sort out the mess.

 

Just had only my second-ever CTD on TSW.
Was running 7T75 Bickershaw Colliery to Fiddlers Ferry Part 1.
It was right at the end when I stopped at the signal.

Got a feeling this happened to someone else as well? The headcode feels familiar.

 

I am on Xbox Series S and even though I own Blackpool Branches the Class 142 'Pacer' does not show up on the timetable trains list for WCML: Crewe to Preston. The pacer doesn't even show up as an AI service. You can see proof in the photos above.

 

Platform PS5

Free roam.
Location: Walton Old Junction Time 9.28am

Two services facing each other at red shunt signal.
0A05 Arpley Shunting Class 08 with HAA and 2x choppers against service 6E13 Fiddlers Ferry to Healey Mill Part 2 Class 47/3 with HAA.

 

It requires all the layers I listed earlier as it interworks with other wagons earlier in the day.

 

Please can the arrival times be put back as soon as possible. For me there’s really not much point in driving a train with no scheduled arrival time. The interest is in trying to run to time. Just meandering along and showing up when you please feels nothing like realistic railway operations. Thank you!

 

I promised myself no more day 1 purchases, so I brought this on day 2

First service selected 00:00 4S55 Garston FLT to Glasgow FLT, now I was expecting a north bound run but I spawned at Weaver Junction heading to Crewe, not sure if this a wrongly described service or it does a weird reversal at Crewe? Regardless signal NH12 on entry to Bashford Hall sidings showed red with no shunting signal illumiated although signaller told me to proceed as signals indicated.

EDIT: It does indeed seem to reverse but I didnt have permisson to continue the service in freeroam and run the loco round the train and have to pick it up again once the AI has completed the run arouind?

Not the best first impression if I am honest having to pass a signal at red, but hopefully this can be fixed otherwise in the first patch.

On PC Steam

 

Conductor mode may be the most useless thing on this route in the 142. Zero passengers (PS5)

 

I notice your screenshot shows you have ten of the layers disabled, is the 142 definitely activated in the layers menu and is Blackpool Branches currently installed on your system?

 

I dont know if Im am just being unlucky here but service no 2 timings below. I do think that the timetable could do with a 2nd pass

That said the night lighting is to JT usual standard and performance for me even on just a 2nd run is as go as any route I own.

Good work

 

It seems they forgot to model the entire Crewe-Chester line including Chester MPD as I remember it in the 80s and 90s, anyone else seeing this?

 

Yes, I'm sure I have all the layers for the pacer active.

 

Enjoying the options this route has to offer! I've been playing on PS5 pro, all layers included.

The only issues I've run into so far include:
-Blurry textures popping in and out around Warrington and down towards Crewe
-Frame rate drops around Warrington
-Service 1A61 (express Preston to Crewe) pathed behind 7T75 (a slow coal drag) that was routed onto the fast lines until Warrington, coming from Wigan springs sidings/depot
-If substitutions disabled in advanced settings, all class 86/4 locomotives in session have same number 86420

 

Is it just me misidentifying something or is there a collectible (route poster) on Newton-Le-Willows that you can't get?

 

There are no collectables on them stations along that line.

 

had the same issue with the route hop that the route hopping from BPO is locked. also do the 31,40,45 layer in on the route i seem to be missing all three.

 

On Xbox series S service 1V72, Just after Winwick train-spotting loco lost power and wouldn’t increase throttle, this was just after a neutral section. Came to a stop and did a physics reset but when I set the loco back up again it only had one carriage attached and the rest of the train vanished! Love the route but a bit too buggy to play right now.

 

This is a core thing, but 5F25 Preston to Wigan Springs Branch ECS working - like so many ECS services in TSW - has passengers.

 

I was rather enjoying this route until I ran across some dubious signal progressions.

The first progression I think is probably incorrect is on the approach to Warrington MSC sidings. The signal at the end of the platform at Warrington Bank Quay (WN196) was displaying a green aspect. The very next signal (WN218) was displaying danger. When I got a bit closer to WN218, the position light came on giving entry into Warrington MSC sidings. I'm pretty sure you should never get a red signal without any prior warning.

Another thing I noticed is that diverging routes that are signaled with flashing yellow aspects don't seem to be working quite right. At least I observed the following at signal PN7 and WN155. The sequence I was expecting in both cases was double flashing yellow -> single flashing yellow -> single yellow with feather which step up to green with feather if the route is clear. I checked on the map that the signals after PN7 and WN155 were both clear, but PN7 and WN155 did not step up. I was approaching both at around 40 mph for a 50 mph diverging route. I'm pretty sure that this stepping up after flashing yellows is working on other routes.

Unless this is how it is supposed to work, it would be nice if these signalling issues could be fixed. Incorrect signalling kinda ruins the immersion for me and it makes HUDless driving very difficult.

 

PC/Steam - No major issues really, nothing game breaking at least. The initial stuttering that I'd experienced at Warrington is no longer there after a couple of runs so it probably was just the shaders getting loaded in for that first time.

Biggest issue I've noticed was this unfortunate Duff in Springs Branch shed, not sure what is happening there (the bogie appears and disappears at random) the body does extend out through the shed door too. Not exactly game breaking though as you can't see it from the main line

Also I know someone else has mentioned it but reverb sounds are largely missing both inside and outside the cab.

 

Tier 2 mastery complete, there is no poster award =(

 

What do you its not showing up or displaying

 

Sometimes the rewards don't unlock until you restart the game

 

I've restarted it three times already, and it even started counting towards Tier 3. There's no poster.

 

6T75 in journey mode waiting for the signal to change right at the start another coal train (7T77) comes down and stop nose to nose with you so you can't depart.6H13 appears to be stuck at a stop signal preventing your route being clear to depart.

 

Platform: PC - Steam

After a couple of sessions, here are my initial thoughts.
Positive:
Too many to list, but the highlights include:

• New sounds for the Class 47/3.
• Small variations between hoppers - logos and weathering.
• Scenery quality seems to have improved from previous JT products.
• New cars and bus assets.
• Performance seems to be stable on my PC.

Neutral:

• Braking with the HAA hoppers seems to be poor. I don't know if this is realistic or not, but if anything, at least it's a fun challenge.

Negative:

• On service 7M49 Healy Mills to Fiddlers Ferry Part 2 I uncoupled the locomotive from the wagons before the wait instruction was completed. This caused the locomotive to fly up into the sky, quite spectacularly. On second attempt I waited and there were no issues.
• Announcements are too robotic. For older eras, I prefer the way it was done in the Pacer, but I understand the limitations explained earlier.
• Station announcements are too quiet.
• Missing some variety with the stock available in the timetable. Mainly the Class 31 and 45, but also it might have been good to allow the 101 and 142 to share services, even if the substitution is only available to the player.

 

Class 45 would have been rare to non existent on the WCML itself. The Class 31’s were starting to appear on short or trip freight workings as the Class 25’s were withdrawn and on some of the short loco hauled passenger workings that crossed the route. A bigger omission is actually Blue Class 33/0’s working into Crewe and on to Manchester or North Wales to and from the Shrewsbury and Marches Line.

 

Supposedly the ambient volume slider also controls how loud announcements are, maybe look into that and see if it's lower than 100.

I'd love the announcements to sounds a bit less robotic too but with the way the system works where it's segments all mashed together it can be quite difficult to get it to sound natural, especially with numbers.

In regards to the 31, 45 and 37 being unavailable this is because we did an update for them to allow them to spawn but it both needs a little more work and didn't come out in the round of updates.

I'll look into allowing the 101 and 142 to share services too as that's been a request made a good few times.

 

Browsing feedback before deciding whether to purchase the route on XSX this evening, it's interesting to note that some users report positive feedback whilst others report CTD.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is that if you use external storage it helps to have all dlc saved in the same place. Could this be a factor for some?

 

Both ambient and station announcement volume is at 100. The lack of volume is most noticable when standing right next to a speaker imo.

Glad to see it's being looked at.

 

Any of you that are reporting CTD using route annotations? If so don't use it and retry.

 

System - Standard PS5.

My 1st proper MGR run went brilliant, no errors no low res in the class 20's worked really well ran at a smooth FPS took some great high res shots which I'll post soon.

My last run I jumped in an 08, dragged the train in to Arpley sidings from Latchford then hopped out & ran the 20's north to Bickershaw quarry, the run north was low fps & low res, looked like an 8bit 16 colour game at times! TSW never used to be like this, DTG need to fix the core error that's been introduced that is showing these 3rd party devs hard work & beautiful creations in a bad light.

 

I was playing on XSX with all content stored on the internal SSD storage in the same place and I was getting CTDs.

 

Was that the locomotive of test scenario if so same just happened to me JT Benedict

 

Signal WN195 at WBQ (Goods line) - in the scenario Merry Go Round you're driving to MSC sidings, but signal 195 shows green when the following signal WN218 is red; shouldn't WN195 be at a single yellow there?

 

I've not been able to play it as much as I want, but so far the main issue for me is blurring and texture issues. It's horrendous. This is on PS5

 

I’m using route annotations and I’ve no no crashes at all

 

In regards to announcements (XSX):

I tried adjusting the "Ambience" slider to 100% as recommended (it had been at 40%). My "Platform Announcements" slider was already set to 100%. I can report that this did make the platform announcements louder. However, while now being audible, they still aren't especially loud, and certainly not as loud as one might expect with double max volume applied. Then I went to Hoboken on the Morristown route for a comparison. Now, with both sliders set to 100%, the announcements at Hoboken are really too loud. Then had been fine before with my 40%/100% mix. So, I would still say that the audio level of the platform announcements on PCW is still too low and needs to be increased on the developer side. Perhaps find out what was done for Morristown, and do that.

I would also note that adjusting the Ambience slider has no effect on the in-cab announcements, which are still extremely quiet to the point of being inaudible. I drove a few services before realizing that the 86/4 even had working announcements. In general the in-cab announcements across all routes cannot be made very loud, which is a problem that DTG would need to solve. However, on PCW the problem is really much worse

 

PS5
Service 6T68 - Class 20
Crash to desktop about ten minutes in but properly. Game was running fine until then, no blurries. This is my third CTD in 90 mins or so but the first I'm reporting here. Rest logged via PSN.
Also had a CTD on the scenario Deep Coal just before second signal.

 

47/3 bogie brakes are painfully slow to come off regardless if using the train brake or the straight air, really makes it challenging trying to drive and while my IRL experience on Duffs is with 47/4s and 47/0s straight air is supposed to be near instant. It's almost certainly not right, even hitting the speed-up has no effect and you can go from 75 to a dead stop (when aiming for 40) way too easily

They do creep on sometimes too, as does the 20, though I wonder if that is to be part of a real world "defect" or quirk, though my only experience of bogie brakes creeping on with any kind of regularity was with the 50s and it was down to a defect with the loco.

 

Train of the future featured on a poster at Acton Bridge. It's not there every time but the texture needs excluding from the route.

 

I've been waiting for the mastery poster to appear as well. Full restart of the game and everything. Sometimes the posters can take their time to become active after you achieve them, but this one is seemingly taking extra long.

 

It's ok! Acton Bridge asked Mystic Meg! Lol

 

On the first part of 7T75 I could only manage 5 MPH up the hill out of Bickershaw Colliery to the summit, with the standing start on the 1 in 100. In reality full throttle at that speed would have fried the traction motors. 2 x Class 20 with total 2000hp seems a bit underpowered for a nearly 2000 tonne train with the dead 20’s on the rear. Could have done with the rear locos banking the train.

I’m fairly certain I did nothing wrong. All brakes fully released and the change end lever in the cab correctly set (I didn’t bother activating AWS). How did others get on with this run?

 

I done that one yesterday i done everything correct but took a good hour to do it. Im surprised the locos didn't blow up lol

 

This is something carried over from Shap, but please can the speedo on the 86 be properly aligned? In the default cab viewpoint the needle is barely past 5mph when your speed is actually 8mph, and this carries on around the speedo.