In-train Announcements

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by migueld, Jan 3, 2021.

  1. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    I wouldn't be able to count the amount of times this has been requested by people, but for some reason DTG just doesn't seem to listen..

    Why haven't announcements in the train been incorporated into the game yet? I see people responding giving all this talk about licenses, but that just doesn't make sense. You're telling me DTG can manage to get licenses to replicated real trains produced by companies, and create authentic routes and stations, but can't get licenses for a little voice in the train saying what the next station is? To me it just seems like laziness.

    But let's suppose that it really is a license issue, there are still no reasons why they can't incorporate announcements in trains, here's why; Why can't DTG record their own announcements? (It's not the most realistic but it certainly is better than nothing). Doesn't DTG already have announcements on stations saying that 'smoking is not allowed' and to 'report suspicious activity to the police' etc.. So they can incorporate that, but not announcements in the train? Doesn't make sense.
     
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  2. skyMutt

    skyMutt Well-Known Member

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    This is something thats been discussed in that other thread already and much like Sam said, its something that is totally possible, but its just not high on the priority list.

    Before they even begin working on announcements, one of the obstacles that needs to be addressed is separating the link between a train and the route it comes from. Currently, trains only come with a predefined list of destinations based on the route it came with. Take the German DB BR 146 and its Dostos cars for instance. Right now if you use them on the SKA or HMA/MAG routes, their destination boards say "Nicht Einsteigen" (Do not Enter)...despite them doing normal passenger runs. This is because they don't have the correct destinations programed into their PIS systems; they come from a completely different route.
    Obviously this isn't favorable, so the idea here is that they want to make the trains become "aware" of what route they are driving on, and pick up the destinations and information from there, making the PIS system much more dynamic.
    Once this is addressed, train announcements come one step closer to becoming a possibility.
    Of course, they also have to figure out when and where to trigger the announcements, sourcing the announcements either directly from the Train Operators or some third-party VO, and then making all of that work according to the 24 hour timetable.
    Announcements aren't something that should be too trivial, but there are A LOT of steps they need to take in order to make it work. And as of the time being, there are a bunch of other things that need to be addressed beforehand
     
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  3. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    This is something that people have been requesting for years, I've been playing Train simulators for almost 10 years, and since DTG started producing their games, people have been asking for announcements, how can this not be a priority? It's just excuses after excuses. They know they won't make profit for that, so instead they just focus on making routes, with dozens of bugs that never get fixed.
     
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  4. skyMutt

    skyMutt Well-Known Member

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    You can call it excuses, but thats the situation that we're in right now, its really not as straightforward as you think it is.
    Besides, DTG doesn't seem to be big on voice overs anyways, since there's been such a large absence of them in plenty of routes (they were prevalent in SPG, but not in any other route).
    Those announcements that you hear in the train stations in game were most likely done a very long time ago, but most importantly those announcements are not dynamic at all. They play at preset intervals and do not take the trains into account. They're there merely just for ambience.

    Which leads me back to what I've said previously, the issue right now is that they would like for the trains and PIS system to behave much more dynamically, which opens up the possibility for train announcements later on down the line. That has absolutely nothing to do with money, (come to think of it, shouldn't the improved immersion encourage more customers, thereby indirectly increasing sales????)
    As for the bugs, these are things that are being addressed, and you can clearly see that on the community roadmap. In fact, the last two updates were just a load of bug fixes for the Sand Patch Grade and SKA routes!
     
  5. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    The situation right now doesn't matter, like I said, this has been being requested for years... and yes, this immersion would bring a couple more customers, but again, TSW is pretty much the only 'realistic' train simulator, therefore, I do not believe the people purchasing the game right now have many choices to choose from, despite the fact that announcements aren't there. And to suggest that making announcements is somehow difficult is ridiculous. This brings me back to the excuses. A company that can produce highly detailed, and dynamic graphics like DTG shouldn't even struggle a bit with making announcements that trigger at certain points around a route. And you can go on and talk about priorities and so on, but the problem is, DTG's priorities are never what people are asking for, it's just remaking the same routes that can be found on previous DTG games. Is DTG a terrible company? Of course not, but do they need to start switching their focus a little more to what is being asked for in these threads? Yes! TSW 2 has been out since the summer now, and none of the routes that have been requested on these forums by anyone since then, have yet been added. In fact, 90% of all routes found on TSW, were already on TSW 2020 and TS 2021, if not more.
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2021
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  6. skyMutt

    skyMutt Well-Known Member

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    I never did say that making announcements were difficult to do, I'm saying that there's other more important things that need to be done in order to lay the foundation to allow for these announcements. This is all completely just speculation. Announcements might never ever even be a thing. But if it were a feature to be developed, its something that would happen months from now.
    It is much more important right now to fix bugs and make the sim run much more efficiently, especially for last gen consoles.
    Theres a loooooooooong list of things that all of us would like to see in the game, but only a finite amount of time to implement features. Unfortunately, that means that some things must be addressed in front of other things, even if they are a popular request from the community. You may have a set of priorities, I have my own set of priorities, and DTG has their own set of priorities. Certainly there's going to be differences among us, but thats just the way things are.
    I would LOVE for the PIS and announcement systems to be improved, but I understand that it will take some time, if ever.

    What about variable adhesion? What about dynamic weather? What about automatically switching between imperial and metric units? What about a motion blur toggle for consoles? Or maybe longer routes? These are all things that were requested by the community for a long time, and now its in the game. The community roadmap and suggestions forum exist purely because of this. I'd say they are definitely paying attention to our feedback

    You know that the TSW2020 routes were ported over into TSW2 as a "preserved collection", right? Of course they're the same routes! Its the continuation of the first game!
    And the reason why there's some routes from TS classic making their way onto TSW2 is for numerous reasons. They're faster to make, since the research has been done. Plus, they were popular routes, so why not make a newer version of them? TS Classic has existed for over 10 years, with A LOT of content that replicates real world routes. So of course there's going to be some remakes.
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2021
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  7. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    My position still remains on this topic, that is just a very round conversation that won't get us any further. And yes, I am aware that some routes are part of the preserved collection, but most people who own TSW 2 already had TSW 2020 so I don't see why the preserved collection is a priority. I personally, would like to see some new routes, that haven't been on TS 2021 nor TSW 2020, that are also from different countries other than the UK, Germany and the United States. Take the New York subway, (Yes it's an American route but forget that for a second), this has been requested hundreds of times on these threads for so many years... still hasn't been produced, or multiplayer which was promised years ago, never got it. If you're okay with paying for a game that is only going to give you the same routes as previous TS games then so be it. I've been a costumer of DTG for 10 years and personally feel like my loyalty to this company hasn't been credited. You can also see so many youtubers complaining about this, and those who back it, don't even know how to drive trains. If DTG comes out with one more simulator, I'm going to refrain from buying it, unless I see some changes. I don't want to buy a game if I'm just going to get the same content as previous games. And don't get me wrong, DTG deserves a lot of credit for TSW, it was a revolutionary production in the world of Train Simulation, but TSW 2020 has been out for like 3 years if I'm not wrong, and so far it still looks the same as it did back when I bought it.
     
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  8. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    I agree with the op on the matter of in train announcements. I own ts2021 and tsw2. The south china high speed routes have in train announcements. The Frankfurt U Bahn which was made by Just Trains have in train announcements. There is another asian high speed route that has in train announcements so announcements are possible and they have indeed been requested numerous times. Yes we have longer routes but we don't have a long full line routes yet. Instead we continue to get non full line routes in the game. I didn't buy the tgv route simply because it's way too short for the speeds and will get boring very quickly. I would've preferred Marsaille to Lyon instead of Marsaille to Avingon. The only full line routes we got in the game are the Bakerloo Line which is 14 miles and the West Somerset Railway which is 23 miles. I remember seeing a suggestion asking way before HRR came out asking for a route from Dortmund HBF to Dusseldorf HBF and instead we get HRR Duisburg to Bochum. A short 22.6 mile route with non terminating stations. It's a route that I regret purchasing simply because it's too short for the speeds you are doing. Yes you have S-Bahn, Freight RE services and soon Inter City services with the DB BR 101, but they can be done so quickly that it gets boring. I don't even use the Regional Express services because of that so I can see why the op is saying that at times dtg don't add routes from the threads all the time but the have their reasons. The Bakerloo line wasn't the most requested underground line and they added it because it was easier to make. We don't have dynamic weather in the timetable mode of the game yet but in one scenario of a route that not everybody owns.

    The reason why DTG are focusing so much on preserved collection is because they weren't brought in properly and routes are riddled with bugs to the point that they have to get those fixed. Some are so bad that it's causing players not to play those routes so of course they need to focus their attention on that. Hopefully in train announcements will come soon. It's strange driving a bakerloo line train but have no announcements
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2021
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  9. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    Agreed. And I bought the TVG line and can confirm what you are saying, played for a day or two and haven't touched it in weeks, it's so boring. Why does DTG build long routes if they are going to be incomplete?... I would personally prefer to have, short 30-40 minute routes from start to finish, with all details incorporated, including announcements. I've suggested the Cascais-Lisbon line a couple months ago, and it has also been suggested before, with 17 stations, 25 KM, 40 minutes calling all stations. Simple but complex at the same time, interactive and fun, along the Atlantic coast of Portugal. I would much rather have routes like this, than extremely long routes with only a couple stations, that aren't even complete from beginning to end, and you if you want to play timetable mode, you are unable to reach the last station and take your train back to where it departed. That to me just sucks.
     
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  10. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    I like the idea of long routes but they need to be the full line Not part of a line. Hopefully we will get long full line routes or a full line high speed routes. That way you can do a return journey in the timetable mode from where you started. We simply can't continue to get non full line routes especially if the game is capable of making full line routes and long full line routes. Extensions would solve this problem but dtg simply don't want to do extensions despite the numerous requests to do them and they have done it in ts2021 so the excuse they are giving as to no route extensions at all so far makes no sense
     
  11. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    The reason they don't do full long routes is because it takes too much time and effort. I'd like to see long routes too, but, if they're gonna be incomplete, I'd rather see short, start to finish routes.
     
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  12. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    Routes that are similar to the Bakerloo line and the one you suggested would be cool as well. We do need more start to finish routes in my opinion as well
     
  13. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    **This is coming from the perspective of a person who prefers driving suburban, inner city trains. I understand why people who are more into High Speed, long distance voyage trains are pissed that they only get a fraction of what they should be getting...
     
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  14. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    I do get upset that we get a high speed route but we can only use the high speed train for 30 minutes. They are too short for the speeds and the route itself needs to be longer so we can get more playtime out of the high speed train.
     
  15. migueld

    migueld Active Member

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    Agreed, but for what it looks, DTG doesn't seem big on meeting those requirements. It's almost all about producing half completed routes with tons of bugs, as fast as possible. The guy that replied to my posts on this thread earlier said that the last update was a major bug fix, sure it was, but to be honest, all the bugs DTG claimed to have fixed in that update and the ones coming up on the roadmap currently, I have never seen them before, and I still encounter the same bugs on almost all routes that I own, that were there back in the summer when the game came out and I bought it.
     
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  16. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    Every game is gonna have a bug and yes there are routes that will have bugs that are clear as day that will have some questioning "how was that missed and was this certain thing tested?" Yes the game still has issues that have not been resolved which is annoying but at the same time they are a small company. I've heard that they have 150 people who work at dtg. Since they are a small company, fixes may take some time. I would love if they were quick but unfortunately that isn't the case. Then a bug you may report may not be fixed because it may not be a high priority bug that needs to be fixed as well
     
  17. Adamgrant3

    Adamgrant3 Active Member

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    Hi there, Just remember its the technology that is holding DTG back, I was watching a stream and they said they have now got the tools in place to build longer routes, how ever, it takes time to design and build long routes. such as the LGV ones, DTG are doing the best they can to get all the bug fixes fixed first and have other teams within DTG to design and roll out new routes.

    On saying that its also the Limitations of the Engine too
     

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