Given that we are upgrading to a new engine within tsw2 do you think this would allow dtg to be able to make dlc faster and produce dlc more often ?
Dude, all the DLCs already feel rushed and are full of bugs and shortcomings, and you want them to produce them even faster? I'd rather they take their time to make quality content. By the way no, I don't think TSW2 will allow them to do work any faster. They just updated the graphics engine and SimuGraph to allow for more functionality (like the wheel slip thing), but that really doesn't change route building.
One can assume that the 4.2x editor is faster, more stable, and more feature-rich than the 4.16 editor used for TSW2020 development. DTG has undoubtedly improved their TSW-specific plugins for Unreal Engine over the years, too. So in short, I believe the answer is yes.
I admire your optimism. I'm sure the 4.2.x editor is more feature-rich and that DTG has "improved" their TSW specific additions aka there is greator complexity. Whether or not new DLC can be produced faster and more often or just with more functionality is a moot point. Whether or not DLC should be created faster and more often is a completely separate question.
Consider it this way - if the process of creating routes is more streamlined, the opportunity to pack more into them, extend them and improve the way they run exists. You may opt to take a cynical view of this, but personally I find that life is more cheery by maintaining some optimism.
Please explain in a dedicated thread how the introduction of TSW2 is likely to affect you and your team's development of a Northeast Corridor Route.
Well unless they apply for the third party program, they are not going to have any progress on the Northeast Corridor project in the near future, if ever at all.
Let’s hope TSW2 flies off the virtual shelves and helps to ease the pressure from ‘upstairs’ on the devs so that they can finish the routes to the standard they are capable of and the players deserve, rather than pumping it out faster.
Stujoy, that train of thought assumes a corporation is fine with making only a certain amount of money instead of all the money. If this "flew off the virtual shelves" then whatever amount of money they made would be the new standard and anything below that would be unacceptable.
Sadly yes. Money people are like that. But I don't understand, isn't DTG a standalone developer and publisher? Shouldn't they technically be free to do whatever they want, without being bullied to make money by a greedy publisher?
I do wonder what percentage of people contributing to threads like this have any idea about running a business!
All the DLC's feel rushed? If I bought two DLC's which felt rushed and were "full" of bugs, I wouldn't be purchasing any more! I certainly wouldn't be purchasing all of them!
The investors that put the money in to develop TSW need their money back plus more. It took around three years of development before the first TSW route came out. That would have been paid for partly by investors because that’s an awful lot of wages to pay before any money comes in. That’s how businesses big and small function. Nobody running a business is free to do whatever they want, that’s not how the real world works.
I think this is the dose of reality some people on these forums need. It is all very well thinking that you know how the business should be run better than those that are, but the reality will be a lot different than your perceptions. If you don't like the business model and the way the company behaves then don't buy into it, simple as that. That is obviously not an excuse for errors not being put right and content not working properly, of course.
It's not like they're a brand new company with no moneyflow though. They have the whole TS1 franchise for themselves, which is still going pretty strong. Obviously, but the reason I'm saying this is because other independent developers can pretty much "do what they want". Look at CD Projekt for example and how they have been making their Cyberpunk game for how many years now? And it's not like they are pumping up small games every year to keep the moneyflow going. They simply don't have a publisher above them telling them to hurry up, so they can actually take their time finishing their product. Simply saying "ah stupid people don't know how a business works" is no excuse, as there are plenty of examples of businesses working fine and making great videogame products, without rushing unfinished releases. Of course I don't know what goes on inside DTG, that's why I asked what I asked. In yesterday's stream even Matt himself said they often look back and wish they could've done more, so I'm curious why they simply can't slow down the releases a bit to polish their routes and trains better.
I didn't use the word stupid or imply anyone was stupid so please don't misrepresent what I said. If "people" took the time to think about the implications of running a business and what was required they might get a bit less angry when things aren't going how they want them to! Precisely - neither do any of us! Well I would assume cash flow, without cash coming in you can't pay wages, employer tax, NI and pensions for what 150 people? Also rent of premises, IT support, insurance, advertising, paying for research trips etc. I don't know about CDProjekt or any others but are they as big as DTG, what does producing their games involve, maybe they have a much wider audience? I don't know and to be honest it isn't something that interests me really. I am not a big gamer only train simulators and Football manager, which has also been released with bugs in the past. From comments I have seen on here and around the internet very few "games" seem to be released without bugs of some kind.
CD Projeckt Red is a terrible example of this. For one, they treat their employees like utter trash and promote a culture where crunch is an expectation. Crunch is common in a lot of gaming industries, but the extent to which they work their employees is borderline criminal. Sure the games may release with far less bugs than other AAA games, but we must all ask ourselves at the expense of what human cost. They are also one of Poland's leading commercial enterprise, rivaling some of the country's banking institutions, so there is no way that Dovetail should be compared to them at all, considering just how much bigger their company is and their financial standing. I personally do not have an issue with launch day bugs, as long as they are not egregious, and if there is an expectation that bug patches will come quickly and resolve any issues that may present themselves. Unfortunately, Dovetail in it's TSW days have utterly failed on both of these accounts where we have longstanding bugs that have been ignored (ie. NEC tunnel signalling), or any bugs that do get fixed take far too long to be addressed (ie. it took more than a year to fix the console underpowered bug for one of the trains on NTP). It remains to be seen if their playbook on fixing bugs has changed with the start of a new era in TSW2. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in hopes that they learned something from the community backlash, but of course, only time and actions will be the test of that. Hopefully they will change their ways and spend more time and resources when it comes to improving and adding upon older content.
It appears this vaunted TSW2 roadmap will be only including the release schedule of the preserved routes into TSW2. Thats a bit of an anti-climax for me as I was expecting all the TSW1 routes to be in there at release and the roadmap to include new content Hopefully this roadmap is updated as time goes on
That was my worry, the road map is to show us when our preserved routes will be coming over to TSW 2. If so, it’s clever wording to make people think we’ll see what new routes are coming out. I could be wrong about the road map but I won’t be holding my breath.
I can hazard a guess that his reply will be: There'll be a stream covering this in due course. No news on the roadmap yet. No, I can't/won't confirm/deny anything. Their new openess and honesty policy, in my opinion, is at the moment little different from the old policy. We're still not being told any more, we're just being told a definitive "No" rather than if, but, maybe etc.
As protagonist mentions, I don’t think it will help create more dlc but I believe it will make some of the process more streamlined and they can use that extra time for areas they couldn’t before. As someone who owns all of the dlc for TSW, I do wish they would not spend time trying to get those TSW routes to run on the TSW2 application. If I want to play TSW routes I can just load up the original game.