PC West Cornwall Local: Penzance - St. Austell & St Ives - The Definitive Feedback Thread

In 2019, the park & ride facilities at Lelant Saltings were closed and relocated to St. Erth after 40 years, essentially making the station useless. It is now only served by two “parliamentary trains” per day, one in each direction.
I sure hope Rivet Games didn’t use a post-2019 timetable for the St. Ives brach, since the route is set in the 90s as far as I know! Pre-2019, Lelant Saltings was served by two trains per hour. This is all info from the station’s Wikipedia article.

 

Well , a lot of backlash on WCL and Rivet, seems I will wait finally on this one. I can live with not perfect sounds, or not the real tapestry but part of the iconic stations it'seems that there is only forest during most of the route. But I haven't see evrything.
-So how is the route variety (i don't know the real one but if its boring IRL then it is necerrly boring here...)
-And how is the nioght lightning ? No youtubers showed us how it looks at night, neither DTG....

 

Lots of potential but unfortunately lots of bugs. Granted many routes start out in that state but this one has already supposedly been 90% sorted. It doesn’t sound like Rivet will be doing much to remedy that given the size of their team (according to last night’s stream). Luckily I had less than 2h of play, so regretfully refunded.

 

Someone needs to tell the NPC passengers as they still turn up waiting for a train!

 

Haven't bought this route as yet, but the scenery looks nice to me (apart from the dark brown texture next to the sides of the track? - doesn't look great imo).

Also, I don't think the signalling is working realistically again. Watched the stream and going into Truro the colour light distant was green, the following 2 semaphores were off(good) but the starter signal at Truro was on - which shouldn't be the case I believe. It only came off when the doors were closed, which is a bit of an immersion breaker really.

I'm really hoping the next UK route will have improved signalling, It's starting to grate on me a bit in it's current state. I guess it's a hard job to code correctly, which is fair enough.

 

Why Rivet uses low quality textures, it gives a really poor scenery, the trees and the water are decent but the rest of the textures are really low quality. It is a route released in 2021 and supposed to be next gen .. it is clearly not at the same level of Dresden or BML

 

If you look closely the AWS equipment is also from the FGW era. It's basically a FGW era unit in a 1993 skin.

I speculated earlier that this was planned as a 2020 ish route but that they found it too difficult or costly to get GWR licences so backdated it without changing the detail of the 150s. That also explains the ridiculous decision not to include a HST - the most famous train on the route. (I'm guessing even Rivet would not attempt to give us a HST with the wrong engine, but in many ways including a 40 and 45 instead was a much more serious historical error).

 

That would explain things like the GWR green colored Clasd 150 on the advertisement poster in the interior of the train, or how someone pointed out above that one station doesn't get traffic in the timetable, even though it did so until 2019.

 

I just finished the early morning express service taking mail to Penzance at 8:25 (3C24 in timetable).

After parking and shutting down my Class 37 at the platform in Penzance I jumped out and planned to take over the 150 on the platform about to head out when, out of nowhere, a cute little 08 came driving down the track. I was wondering what he was up to so I kept watching him. He rolled up to the end of my mail train, coupled up with the railcars, uncoupled my Class 37 and then he pulled away with all the railcars and got them away from the station.

That was just so awesome to watch I love it when the AI is doing little tasks like this.

Here he comes!



And rolling away

 

I like the route. The scenery looks good and it has some nice details. The procedure Vograx describes (which you can do by yourself as well) is one of those nice additions. I do not know the region and that is always helpful. I guess you always will be disappointed if you know the real stuff.

 

Small bug I think on a poster inside of the 150/2...

 

The biggest oops with the signalling that I may already have mentioned, is that the Signal protecting the entrance to the single line section at Ponsandane is actually beyond the points on the single line, not on the Down Main with a suitable overlap. That alone tells me the route was not properly beta/play tested by people who understand how signalling works. And I agree about the distant signals being off when an associated home or section signal is displaying a stop aspect.

 

Rivet made a poster contest where people could suggest them for the cl.150 interior. Not sure if this is one of them, but even if so, with paint it could get fixed quickly.

Somebody has reported this after the first cl.150 preview one month ago. Im surprised its still there.

 

I think this is mainly down to the direction of TrainSim-Matt and has saved this dlc.

Bravo sir Matt, you have saved rivets bacon

 

That was picked up and not spoken of in the comments in one of the live streams.


Another class 150 sound thing. Going up hill, 50 odd mph I'm in notch three at high revs. I decide to go up to Notch 7, no increase in revs, no change in sound where I would assume the diesel engine is loading up more. Very odd.

 

Seems they mirrored the text on a fusebox attached to the easternmost train washing shed.

 

The more you look at this, the more problems you spot. Almost ALL the stone bridges are cloned, lack detail and don't even have retaining wings and parapets! Did they even travel on this line or look at a UK rail bridge?

The loco hauled Mk2as are just as ridiculous - ever one I have seen lacks a brake coach! You couldn't operate the train like this. Who checks this stuff?

And don't get me on the distant scenery - the houses are little more than identical boxes. I produced better stuff than this in Trainz a decade ago

Really not impressed.

 

Additionally all the girder overbridges are identical clones too, despite being very varied in real life. They do have wings, although they are all parallel to the track and vertical - in real life they would fall over if built like that...

I can see why this was pulled. I'm afraid I'm left with the conclusion that the unrealistic layers (45s, 47s, wrong coaching stock etc) were thrown at the route in the hope noone would then notice how poor it is as a representation of reality. It's a real step back for me and a travesty of one of the UK's great railways

 

HST Passing Crossing on West Cornwall Local. This is from a new scenario i'm making.

 

Guess what: the more you search, the more you will find. Works also with well created things.

Minor mistakes like the text on this fusebox are to find in every route.

Some people here would even find mistakes on the real world route. Im sure there is a "regional railways heritage society", which manage the books about wrong placed ballast stones in the cornwall area around the 90s. #sarcasm end#

In my opinion the point of a community feedback should have impact on fixes and stuff like the wrong made physics etc.
So if everybody takes out the microscope its just not helpful and a waste of ressources.

 

I couldn't in truth put a freeware route out in that state.
IMHO DTG should pull this from sale, refund everyone who hasn't already got their money back and take the thing back to the drawing board!

 

So apart from the fact the primary trains have the wrong sounds and the wrong physics, the layers are historical fantasies, passenger trains lack brake coaches, the coaches are wrong for the era, the scenery is crude and repetitive and the bridges look like something from a five year old's train set, it's a great route???

These are not matters of detail, they are fundamental to a simulation.

 

Thanks that great !
If only we had an editor to put all the locos, liveries, timetables and clutter needed even with no license, or correct the lacking sceneries, TSW would be so much better..

 

I'v attached some pictures from the lastest HST scenario I'm making.

 

Probably a reason why they don't want the community to have the editor (other than their official explanation)

 

Its a neat little route to drive on. But honestly gets boring soon with lack of traffic on the route. Not sure, if this was the state of affairs in the 90s as well. Would have been fun running the HST on the route. The pacers itself is ok to drive on. The sounds are not good, especially when going over junctions. Other than that, once I have run through the scenarios, probably won't get back on the route again.

 

i forgot to say the guards panel doesn't even work on the 150

 

I'll vote with my wallet too and wait until the 10% discount as ended before I buy.

 

Nor when I tested it, did it have any different viewpoints with the arrow keys, secondman side, head out etc.

 

Well maybe your scenarios will save this ! Are the livery true to the era and region ? (sorry but UK rail companies are a litlle complicated for me...)

 

No, its the default livery from the "Great Western Express" addon. I don't think a livery has been made for the HST from the 80/90s'.

 

Even at -10%, it will still be LOVE.

 

Well, i decided to do my part of testing of the route. So bought it. I have chance to live in UAE where things are chaeper, (cars, TSW addons...).
And decided to compare the route from Truro to St Austell (the very same route that in DTG last stream but eastbound.) to real route :

This record seems from 2017.
Now of course it's 27 years after the situation of our DLC, so obviously things have changed somehow but still...

Results : mostly it's the same, trackwise.
I have no problems with aproximmative modelisation of Truro cathedral or other buildings.
But, and this is not nitpicking and is clearly a big miss:
- fields look like irregular sand patches, or mold or i don't know, bit not like proper square fields...
-there is too much high trees, far too much. They prevent from seeing the scenery, villages, houses and those pesky fields. There are trees 90 to 95% of the ride, while on real route there is a lot of trees but often far shorter and you can clearly see the landscape...

Dear guys at rivet, please bring a lumberjack, and cut off those trees !

I have also inserted some pics to show the comparaison. Some shows good call, some other show misses. Hope this will help with decision. As in a cramped 150 you see only trees...

 

It's not that bad, judging by this comparison. Sure there are a bit more trees and they are higher, but that's not the end of the world.

What I really dislike however is how at the places where it's just one track instead of two (I suppose the double track is a recent addition), they just left it all blank. Not even grass or anything. Either just really bad scenery building, or further proof that this was supposed to be a 2020 era route, but when they decided to go back in time, they just removed the double tracks and left it as is?

 

Well, the impression while in a 150 is that you drive in full forest all time (just like ik DTG stream) while in fact they are fields, villages behind to be seen. As for the double tracks I don't know for sure, but if I remember clearly they were removed, then put again IRL, maybe I'm wrong on this however, some otehr people will confirm.

 

Thanks Chacal for your thoughtful post.

Whilst many of us who know the area have been disappointed, many of the posts here have been verging on the nasty.
They expect perfect physics, perfect graphics and detail, perfect sounds, perfect operation, etc., all for the price of a couple of pints of beer,
If you don't like it, like me, don't buy it, but don't believe you have to wage a war of attrition on Rivet.
They have to make commercial choices.
They'll either learn from this or turn to other projects elsewhere.

I hope they stay as there's too few developers out there.

 

But many of the mistakes aren't "commercial choices" they are just careless mistakes that could have been rectified by a few simple checks. Trains without brake coaches. Signals in the wrong place. Incorrect bridges. Incorrect rolling stock. Far too many trees and incorrect vegetation. Poor depictions of iconic buildings. Most of these errors could have been corrected simply by watching cab ride videos on YouTube or buying half a dozen standard railway reference works off Amazon. I want Rivet to succeed but they have to make an effort...

 

Agreed Fezza, it's route building "101", as many of us who have been around this hobby for a while have learned. They obviously hoped people wouldn't notice looking out the original default train the 150, with its narrow forward view and no head out. I haven't seen or read anything particularly nasty reading these threads, only justified criticism from customers who will be paying up to £25 when it goes back to full price. If some like it, fair enough I respect that, but please let's not allow the old Stockholm Syndrome of give the devs a break creep in. It's not a piece of freeware, it's a supposed to be a professional studio level add on for a commercial product. Rivet and DTG need to be left in no uncertain terms this is unacceptable. You wouldn't cut a builder who did a sloppy job on your house or a garage on your car any slack, you'd expect them to get back and sort it out. Commercial software should be no different.

 

I think I will swerve this now. Shame as it had potential being a decent era enough negative reports so I will save my cash for something else.

 

What gets me, and this is true for a number of routes, is the near total lack of lineside clutter and paraphernalia. Look at any English trackage and you will see concrete cable troughing (sometimes straight, sometimes higgledy-piggledy), orange pipes between sleepers for track circuit cables, grey location boxes normally situated near signals and points, mileposts, and a whole host of permanent-way material lying around such as rails, sleepers, et cetera. Some routes have some of these, but routes like Local Cornwall have absolutely none. In addition there are many stretches of track missing the obligatory trackside fences, which are always present to protect the public.

Edit: as we spend all our time near the track, this should be more of a priority, it really does add atmosphere and make the railway feel more living and real.

 

To give a bit of context, this section of line was originally built as double track. Then in 1985 as a cost saving measure British Railways singled it, so in say 1990 it hadn't been lifted for all that long. You can see what it looked like at that time in real life from the picture I've attached from the Cornwall Railway Society. It looks about right to me.

It was restored to double track in 2004.

 

I see. Thanks, that was really helpful! It's nice to know that it's actually not unrelistic.

 

FPS FPS FPS, need to keep the gen 8 consoles from self combusting. I believe this is why we see less mess around the lines. Equally those trees are exactly as Rivet needed them. They're at just the right height and density to "smoke and mirror" away the distant scenery feedback from Arosa which hits FPS and performance again...

 

The other problem with the trees, which I’ve noticed on other routes too is a horrible LOD flicker where they look like billboards, before the 3D effect pops in. Maybe it’s my settings but I’ve not experienced that on any other game. It makes the West Cornwall forest look even more unreal and distracting than it already is.

 

Can I please bump this question as it has not been answered adequately. The only reply I have seen is that the Park and Ride closed in 2019 and it is a “parliamentary” service. However, the route is set in 1992 and I know that trains stopped here at that time (although not all trains as far as I can remember). I used the park and ride facilities myself well into the 90s and 2000s.

Edit: I’ve just posted this on the Rivet’s support forum so hopefully there will be a definitive answer.

 

I would normally consider this to be an insta-purchase being a UK route but unfortunately that hasn't happened this time.
The route scenery does look v good, but it's a combination of a few things that has made me decide not to purchase. I'm getting a bit fed up of the signalling issues (maybe if this was perfect I may have actually purchased), the sound issues (openBVE sets the bar v high) plus there's a lot of competition out there at the moment in terms of other sims/games- notably Forza 5, Aircraft DLC for flight sims etc etc. So for me I won't be buying until things are sorted. Shame really, as it does look good in terms of near and mid scenery (apart from the earth texture next to the track).

 

Some of the feedback on this thread is quite depressing. I really wanted to buy this route, but not sure I want to now.

 

Anyone manage to complete Cornish Circle? I got to Penzance, opened the platform doors, changed end and the doors wont shut. Broken scenario.


I retract broken. It appears you have to wait in the cab you pulled up in and shut the doors from that, for some reason you cant change ends and expect the doors to work??

You should also try running through the train too, you end up stood on half the seats.

 

I have been torn since Thursday, deliberating whether or not to pay £22.49.
I really wanted this route because I like the notion of driving a British, seaside setting. The beach scenery, in my opinion, looks really good and the 150 model visually I am really impressed with. With the addition of the NTP and Heavy Freight layers, both of which I already own, I was very excited about having more playability with those DLCs following the announcement.
However, after regularly monitoring these forums, assessing reviews on the Steam store and watching content streamed on YouTube, I am opting not to purchase the DLC (which I am gutted about) for the following reasons:-

• Admittedly a very small issue, but the fact the thumbnail for the route on the main menu faces the opposite way alarms me. It's the only DLC where the loco/mu faces the opposite way to all other DLC. If such a basic attention to detail as of keeping the UI uniform is missed, I instantly question what else has been overlooked?
• I really dislike the earth texture next to the track.
• I cannot hear the track joint sounds.
• Even if I could overlook the current sound implementation of the BR Class 150, I cannot overlook the acceleration curve.
• Reports of bugs including signaling issues.
• I really regret the choice to not include an Intercity swallow liveried HST. And whereas I may have bought WCL with the hope that at some point the HST might be released as an additional DLC, now the NTP and Heavy Freight layers have been added I feel as though there is little to no chance of that happening.
• I am concerned that the route has only just been released but will be abandoned, receiving no quality improvements or additional content.

Some of my feelings may be daft or misinformed but that's just the way I feel as a consumer. I hope my feedback provides valuable insight.

 

All valid points. I spotted the train facing the wrong way too and that would bother me. My decision has already been made for now on the Trophy issue, so I'm not buying anyway, but little consistency details like that do make you wonder.

If you really can't overlook the acceleration, then surely that's your decision made too?