Hello Dovetail, how are you all doing? I was thinking about something recently and wanted to share it with you. I was looking at the Train Simulator Classic store and noticed that you have a huge variety of trains, routes, and scenario packs from many different countries. However, one thing I didn't find, (and I’d like to make a suggestion here), is South American routes and locomotives. (Specifically Brazilian ones from the 1990s to the present day.) I realize this might be a rather unusual request or suggestion, but I know that you and your Train Simulator Classic partners could create a really great route from this region. Another suggestion I’d like to make is a Conrail retro pack for one of the routes. I hope you like my suggestions; I’m a huge fan of your games. Best regards to the team.
Dovetail no longer develop directly for TSC and have significantly wound down their in house operations for TSW, too, with reliance for content pretty much passed to third parties. Much as I would like to see something from Peru or one of the mountainous areas in Brazil in the game, the challenges would be significant. Access for one thing as these are not necessarily the safest part of the world to travel in, especially with expensive recording equipment. The language barrier, as away from the tourist areas English is not going to be much use. The stance of the railways over licensing also an unknown, with again of course the language barrier possibly cropping up if not fluent in Spanish or Portuguese.
I suppose it’s better to have direct access — I mean, on-site — but is it really always necessary if you have a very extensive documentation ?
Not at all, most of the routes I built over the years in MSTS, TSC and Trainz were based on research from books or online sources. But if you’re planning to do a payware route with the best possible levels of detail, there is no substitute for a site visit and even without that, unless you’re going unbranded if it’s being sold for money you need permission from the infrastructure and train operators.
I am amazed that one class of UK Diesel loco that has never had a new version or even a heavily updated version created, is the Class 25 Or Class 26 ! If the likes of AP could create a new one it would I am sure do their revenue good as plenty guys of a certain age, like me, remember these old but brilliant diesels chugging away on their train. Please can someone do a new one ?
It was somewhat disappointing to find the Class 25 that came with the Buchan line used the OG IHH sounds which don’t really do it justice. I did manage with a bit of help off forum to get the Weardale sound mod working on it, but had an issue loading a saved run that TSC immediately exited back to the main menu. And that route in particular would more likely have been a Class 26 than a 25 anyway. Like you I have fond memories of many hours spent behind Class 26’s forging their way up the Far North Line to and from Wick/Thurso or across to Kyle and indeed the slightly more powerful 27’s on the West Highland Line. I would Day One a decent version for TSC or even TSW for that matter.
There are photos of Eastfield 27s and single class 20s (green and blue) on the line, not often but they did visit.
