Route Thames Valley: Windsor, Henley & Marlow Branch Lines - Feedback Thread

Hey, thanks for the explanation. I thought that was just a generic "help line" number. I maintain that zero TSW players would probably call it ever, but railway safety doesn't start with "probably."

 

Vern,

With respect, I’ve seen some hyperbolic posts on this forum over time. But this is one of the worst.

Working in a Control myself, I completely get it and it is clumsy to have included it, but we are talking about a number that is already in the public domain by being on a sign that can be not only be viewed but potentially abused on a daily basis by any member of the public. There is absolutely nothing to stop, hundreds of people turning up and that location and calling that number. I’m sure it can be changed in an update.

 

I think the 166 brakes might be too low on GWE, haven't tried the 166 in your route though

 

This is exiting Slough on the Windsor Branch. The rails are misaligned and the ballast doesn't reach the ground (visible closer to the train).

It's the same train with the same physics. The new Class 165 stops about 1.5 times quicker than the 166.

 

Maybe a slight over reaction, but the inclusion is not just clumsy but incompetent and proves how little understanding of the real railways DTG actually have. I just hope that, behind the scenes, someone at DTG has gone, "Oh fudge..." and is making urgent arrangements to get it patched.

 

...Just a few more scenery issues (cont.) ...


Shiplake: Route board collectible needs repositioning out of shelter framework (yellow arrow).
An invisible barrier needs to close the gap indicated by the red arrow, and extend along the hedge. If the player continues walking towards and beyond the glass house, there is a set of stairs leading to the platform, but you can't access the platform because you're on the wrong side of the invisible wall there. Thames Valley Branches is a lovely route to explore, but a little frustrating at times because the player boundaries are not always clearly obvious.


Slough: A lot of floating objects (yellow arrows) as pointed out by Trainsim_TV's review. I'm pretty sure these objects were copied directly from GWE (not a criticism) as they are in the exact same position, but in GWE the underlying terrain is in fact slightly higher. Ideally it would be nice (so as to keep the continuity between route hops) to leave the assets where they are and lift the terrain up to suit. Also the steel fence (red arrow) could be moved slightly off the roadway.

The Marlow Donkey
What a great intro to a scenario, and a neat way for the player to get invested into the world that you've built. The following are some slight immersion breakers for the player walking along the Thames (starting from where the path begins)...


Fence not grounded correctly (shadow gives it away).


Boats have nothing to hold them up. I know if you lower them the rudders are further into the ground, but could they be chocked up with some timbers (maybe loose railway sleepers). Minor thing I know, but kind of drew my attention away from the river view.


The two boats with the boom lift in between (yellow arrow) really need a set of clipping planes around them to prevent the player walking through them. In relation to the green arrows, the stone walls and the paving above could do with collision detection. If the player walks from the carpark behind the building onto the "balcony" you just drop into the models and onto the terrain below.

to be con't ...

 

... a few more ...


A hole present below the bridge (yellow arrow) destroying the illusion things are "solid".
Also it's really unfortunate that fence splines have no way of terminating the ends with true vertical posts (red arrow). As a suggestion only I would have terminated the fence maybe 2 metres short and placed a small bush at the base as to disguise the amount of lean on the post.


Speed boat clips through bridge pier. I think the boats path at that location, would be better if moved somewhat towards the shore. If its placed on the other side (towards the center of the river) I think the speed boat could potentially pass the row boat way too closely for what would seem plausible.

In finishing this post, I must say I loved the walk along the river, the ambience and all the little details etc. Very nice indeed.

Regards

 

They barely work. 165 works great.

 

I just found this phone number at DIRFT should this have been removed.

 

Probably should have been redacted, yes.

DTG really need to send a briefing out to all 3P developers about this and ensure their own QA and testers are alerted to look for this type of thing. I’m fairly certain Google Streetview always redact telephone numbers when these would otherwise be visible.

 

They blurr it out.

 

He’s just having a casual conversation with his hand, I’ve seen this on a 700 a few times especially late at night when the late bars close

 

• Platform;: Xbox for PC
• Drop in performance after finishing a service, main menu will severe lag and have major drop in FPS
• Repeatability. Every time after finishing a route
• Images/Videos Currently at work, so I can't take any evidence but I can update this
  
  Another thing is if we have branch lines DLC's in future that reflect off a mainline (GWE) for example, those services on the branch need to reflect the services off the mainline so we don't loose immersion in the slightest, I'm okay for multiple timetables, but the primary timetable should reflect the services that in the GWE. There's no london bound/From london services services either (Which are peak services)
  
  Trains need to be a lot faster passing through the station.
  
  Also had a few AWS trips on the class 165 where my train will trip at Bourne end and stop and believe the AWS was the source of that problem then, however the train wouldn't really go into forward/in operable after tripping. I had a similar issue on a 350 at coming into Euston

 

Note for moderators and / or LewisThomas

Can you delete the image in the message. Whilst the number is in the public domain, there is a risk that showing it on the forum may compound the issue.

 

dtg_jan DTG Alex DTG Jamie Afternoon guys i dont mean to sound like a broken record but are getting a mastery for this route or not. Thanks

 

Blurred it now

 

Have done several rides up the Windsor and Marlow branch and they both seem excellent

 

I think Vern's right on this one. It's the difference between it being a public number on a sign where people are at and a number being displayed in front of people worldwide playing the game. I don't know if or how it's been handled elsewhere, but there's a reason phone numbers used in movies and TV shows here in the U.S. now use a standard 555 prefix--every one people saw or heard on screen got called, and the real people on the other end got annoyed. Now multiply that by how people behave behind the anonymity of the Internet.

And yes, emergency numbers are especially never to be messed with, period.

 

Various normally reliable online sources state the TPWS grids in terminal platforms are now set at 12.5 mph, prior to 2006 it was 10 mph. One source quotes a Network Rail technical document implementing the change but I can't find it in the public domain. If I find more I'll post here.

 

Not sure if anything can be done but the timetables on the Windsor / Henley on Thames branch whilst they have all the required services, they aren’t clockface all day, with some discrepancies between the real timetable, more so on the Henley branch.

On a more positive note, really pleased to have the “real” 165 layer onto GWE for use on the Greenford services especially!

 

Oh Vern.

 

Careful on the Metrolink trains it shows the actual numbers for customer service, safety and security and get this "gasp" 911.

Also Caltrain had actual numbers before the unbranding in the passenger cars as well.

So not sure why its an issue all of a sudden.

And why someone would take a number off the bridge and call for driving help in the 1st place.

Also prank calls are not as big with youngins as it was back in the day. Its easier to trace now.

 

Am I the only one that seems to be on the same side as OldVern? Yes, whilst it is a phone number that is on tens (possibly even hundreds) of thousands of these signs all over the UK, it is an emergency number and I don't believe it should be visible on a game that is played by everyone off all ages. What if a child out of curiosity rang the number and delayed an actual emergency call by few seconds?

I know it adds just that little bit of realism but having the phone number doesn't really serve a purpose as you can't drive the cars in TSW anyway (not counting the Holiday Express tier 2 mastery reward)

 

I would also like to know about this. I guess the route is too short to get one but then again, Windsor station should have the replica Dean Single steam locomotive but doesn't so I was wondering if this would become the main mastery reward

 

So as mentioned above the 37 loads in on air brake mode by default meaning you have to switch the two locos to vacuum mode manually. However even once you have done that, the brakes will still not properly release in the back loco. It will retain its vacuum and be constantly fighting against the front loco to apply/release them, which also causes the pressure to be all over the place in the coaches as well. This doesn't make the services 100% unplayable, but it does mean you'll have the back half of the train dragging its feet so to speak for the entire run.

Obviously this isn't on Johannes to fix because neither the 37 nor MK1s are his, the 37s come from Rivet which are just an internal cut and paste of those by Dovetail and this problem is just down to how vacuum braking is set up. The problem is that unless DTG changes something about its setup, the only way to fix the problem for Thames Valley would be to swap out the coaches for air braked ones.

 

Then they could be prosecuted by the laws that are there for that exact situation.

What little kid do you let freely talk on the phone and call people?

By the time they do start doing that I think they are old enough to know better then calling emergency numbers since they grind that stuff into you in grades 1 and 2.

And I doubt many would know how to make international calls.

 

Well we can debate the rights and wrongs and also whether publishing real world telephone numbers in a game without permission might be in breach of data protection laws, but the bottom line is - what are DTG going to do about it? As there has been complete silence from the route author and DTG on the issue, sorry but time for a couple of polite pings…

So incrediblehannes DTG Harry dtg_jan have you noted this issue and what, if anything, is being done to rectify it? Or do we need to take the matter up with Network Rail?

 

Vern DTG have not been on the forum in days now. Witch is really quite annoying seeing as there are a few problems that need addressing.

 

Really can’t see how this is any different from the BTP number or any other number in the public domain which can be viewed by anyone going over a bridge in real life. As has been noted, it’s significantly more likely that someone in real life is going to see the actual message on a bridge and do a prank call than someone playing it in a niche interest video game.

 

PS5:
I have seen a lot of issues with this route (a lot of the pictures I am about to include may have been raised in this thread..), and there are also some issues I have noticed but forgot to include pictures of said issues. Here are some of the problems I have found with this route:
Floating car stop marker at Maidenhead

Floating fence near Bourne End

Issues with the foliage near Bourne End

Wall not being dragged to the next object at Bourne End

Railway bridge near Bourne End literally clipping into the staircase

 

Photos 1/5: Floating buildings clearly visible from the track at Twyford
Photo 2: Floating buildings and a floating road between Twyford and Wargrave
Photo 3: Flying cars at the same location. There is also a floating road right next to this
Photo 4: a tree on top of a house between Twyford and Wargrave

 

Photos 1/5: Sloppy terrain at this bridge between Twyford and Wargrave
Photo 2: floating (idk what to call it) between Wargrave and Shiplake
Photo 3: more sloppy terrain just south of Wargrave
Photo 4: Incorrect GWR logo on signage at Shiplake (the “W” should be pointy. The same incorrect logo is also used on the signage at Wargrave)

 

River Traffic
In my previous post, I mentioned the speedboat passing through the bridge pier (bridge south of Bourne End). Well, while running another train service I noticed it missed the bridge pier this time. So on further investigation I noticed that only every second boat passes through the pier and the other one clears it just fine. Not sure if that's fixable.

Class 165 DMU
A couple of things noticed in the cab relating to the two switches above where the master key is inserted ...
1: Switch for FAN has no tool-tip text for either position. Probably needs "Low - High" type of prompts inserted.
2: Switch for TEMP currently works on a linear scale 0 to 1 (with 5 decimal place figures in between), but the label above it implies it is a 3 way switch with settings "Cool - Off - Heat"

Token and Staff Gameplay
One small thing first...
The tool-tip text when using the door to the token sheds, reads "On - Off". However, that comes up whether the door is initially closed or open. Probably a good idea to simply delete the On Off prompts, as you can see which way the door is set.

My main issue/concern...
I know the token setup within the game is mainly a role-play kind of deal except for the throwing of the points to change routes. However its a little confusing when the staff for the Marlow Branch turns up in the machine unexpectedly. For instance, I've come from Marlow (so I should already have the staff in my possession) and when I arrive at Bourne End and have to put it back in the machine (because I'm now heading back to Maidenhead), when I go into the shed the staff is already there. I'm pretty sure there is only meant to be one staff in use, and whoever has it can drive the train onto the branch.

If I could make a suggestion:
Since the player can't actually check whether or not they have the staff, it might be possible to set up a trigger (maybe near the 15 mph sign as you come into Bourne End from Marlow). This trigger could remove the staff from the machine, set a flag that the player has it and then when you go to the shed you'll be able to re-insert normally. I believe this would create the proper illusion of using the staff regardless of which timetable service you choose.
I hope this makes sense

 

Continued post:
Photo 1: contactless reader at Henley-on-Thames. I am aware that all three branches now accept contactless but at the route’s time period (2017) they did not accept contactless. Also why does it say “for fares see tfl.gov.uk”? This is a GWR station!
Photo 2: I am aware that the number on this picture is a real life number, that is not the issue I am reporting as that issue has been raised. “Underridge”? That has to be spelt wrong. Also this sign is present at literally every bridge on this route, with no change to the name
Photo 3: clipping road, or whatever that is, at a bridge between Shiplake and Henley-on-Thames
Photo 4: more sloppy terrain and bits of floating road at a different bridge on the Henley branch

 

Photos 1/5: This has been an issue since GWE remastered but I may as well mention it here. On one of the coaches the car number is glitched, it should be “5____” but instead it’s just “1651_”. Also with the new 165 there’s a weird texture glitch as shown in photo 5. It’s kind of like a line dividing the two textures - I think this was done to remove the “A FirstGroup company” text on the other side of the coach present from the 166 (shouldn’t it be there as the route is set in 2017? that text wasn’t removed from GWR trains until I think 2023?)
Photo 2: Because of the glitched car number shown in Photo 1, the sticker in the cab of that coach (as this is a 2 coach unit) is glitched…
Photo 3: really weird foliage glitches between Shiplake and Wargrave on the bridge that crosses the River Thames
Photo 4: floating bridge at Slough (it’s also floating on the other side of the railway too)

 

Feels like a lot of unfinished scenery on this…

Wargrave feels like there’s an entire fence missing by the road and the vegetation around the station just isn’t like real life.
Floating fence hanging off the terrain as you come around into Twyford
Floating water on the stream you pass over coming into Harlow.
Train goes through the platform edge at Twyford.

And that’s just one of the branches. Not quite the quality that was boasted. Hope this is being looked into to.

 

Sorry to harp on about the telephone, but a bit of research indicates the inclusion of a real world telephone number in a video game is regarded as a serious breach of Data Protection laws. In fact, similar to the US “555” system there is an 01632 code which should then be suffixed with a number not resembling the correct one, reserved for entertainment use. Or in this case just redact the number altogether.

 

Back on this I see, but im sadly not done with this - more errors(!!)
Photo 2: floating road, fence and barrier at Slough
Photos 1/3/4/5: multiple scenery errors at Windsor & Eton Central, including literal holes in the scenery

 

Even more scenery errors at Windsor…

 

Photos 1-5: More Windsor scenery errors
(at this point Windsor is the worst bit of scenery on this route due to the sheer amount of errors)

 

Now you pointed things out it just shows how poorly this route is made. And it really needs to be sorted on a short route like this it needs be pretty much spot on. Im just hoping that this will all get sorted along with the mastery.

 

Photo 1: weirdly tall (stretched?) GWR logo on the signage at Windsor & Eton Central
Photo 2: another hole, this time at the Windsor station car park
Photo 3: road glitches
Photos 4/5: more scenery errors…(!)

 

Photos 1/4: questionable terrain on the Windsor branch
Photo 3: floating trees at the same location of Photos 1/4
Photo 5: this bridge just outside Windsor is wrong - a real life picture from Google Street View has been provided as Photo 2.

 

Photos 1/4: more questionable terrain on the Windsor branch
Photo 2: a floating fence on questionable terrain
Photo 3: a floating lamppost on the bridge that carries the M4 motorway

 

Photos 1-4: multiple issues involving this bridge on the Windsor branch

 

Photos 1/5: more issues with another bridge on the Windsor branch
Photo 2: sloppy terrain and a floating fence at Maidenhead
Photo 3: a floating “Warning Limited clearance” sign on the Windsor branch
Photo 4: a floating/incorrectly placed tree at Maidenhead

 

Photo 1: this clipping through a bridge at Maidenhead
Photo 2: This was mentioned before, but where’s the entrance and car park at Maidenhead?!
Photos 3/4: even more sloppy and questionable terrain at Maidenhead
Photo 5: low quality textures on the Maidenhead Clock Tower

 

This is appalling…

 

Took a quick break, but here’s some more errors(!)
Photo 1: floating thing between Maidenhead and Furze Platt
Photo 2: multiple scenery errors between Maidenhead and Furze Platt
Photo 3: weird entrance to a car park in Maidenhead
Photo 4: bridge not touching the other object, seen as floating
Photo 5: floating fence and lamppost between Maidenhead and Furze Platt

 

Yes I'm aware and I fixed it. And I'm talking to DTG when we can release the patch for the route.