I’d like to start this post by not having played the TS one so I can only comment on the TSW one. Badged as spiritual successor and a couple of mentions of this I was excited to give it 100mins to see what it was about. Starting with a text introduction I was introduced to the FBI agent and made the necessary switching arrangements before setting off. As I approached the smoke i thought that looked cool and wondered what lay ahead. I slowed down, more text and nothing. I throttled up with Matts Friday night stream providing ambient noise, switched tracks because of a car, switched tracks because of a car and I found matts ambience becoming prominence. I’d lose interest and so had the FBI, he’d disappeared from the cab? Im sorry but a ball was dropped here. There was so much opportunity here. This was a chance to really jazz up the scenarios. Voiceovers instead of text Interactive fbi guy telling me to go faster Police radio chatter A helicopter We had fire, why not an explosion as I went past car Why not let the sim have a movie moment and smash a car out the way Police chasing on the roads People? There wasn’t a single gang looking person (it could remain non violent) Gang chasing train Tension in fbi voice as scenario progressed I was really excited about thought of this scenario, it has some really interesting elements. Who put the cake in the oven and didn’t turn it on? The bean counters. This was just a service with 3 cars placed if I recollect, some text and a smoke plume. This opportunity was really handed away to become another service. what are other people’s thoughts? Would this excitement ruin the sim or diversify it? What could have been done differently?
Its not all bad. The FBI agent turned out to be an alien and peaced out of my train in the very start of the scenario.
You do realize that pretty much no railroad would ever grant DTG a license again after something like that, right? Complete opposite of yours pretty much. I loved the scenario. Loved the narrative and the few bits of unique scenery like the cars. Best scenarios are always those that tell a story or are operationally unique to my mind - while it had little of the latter, it had a lot of the former and this one did it quite well with a lot more effort than I would have suspected.
Fair point on the top two bits, didn’t consider that. I just found it a bit flat and would’ve liked to have seen the narrative a bit more lively
Movies get licenses to use trains in far more spectacular events then what chieflongshin is suggesting so I'm not entirely convinced by this argument although granted their budgets are fat bigger than what DTG can muster on a £25 DLC.
I think you'll find they are generally fictional brands in such things too such as AWVR in "Unstoppable".
I do think it was a good step in the right direction as there's been discussion on the forum and the streams before about what can be done with scenarios. I know some wouldn't like movie type scenarios but this was actually a really decent idea. There's plenty of films to take inspiration from. A runaway train scenario could be decent perhaps , having to find a way to slow it down, having to stay in constant contact with a dispatcher, just missing things . The Introduction of both tension and "what's going to happen in this one" was a really positive step. I do sincerely think it needed more interactivity or I'll bring up my static diggers bug bear again, more things moving. I appreciate that means creating animated assets but had one of the cars took chase and jumped or if there was police cars chasing a car on the roads, or npcs looking like gangs running down the hill towards the track as we passed it would have been excellent. What was the cargo? Where did the fbi guy go? Why was there no police or black fbi sedans greet us. i guess some stuff may be difficult to wangle around a licensee but I'm sure they'd be some that providing their assets aren't portrayed wrong would engage with it. It's similar to a car being trashed in a racing sim in terms of damage I guess for example Brilliant film Matt !
I really enjoyed playing it myself. You can build up the excitement in your imagination easily enough. You should google that FBI agent by the way. Its his 50 year anniversary. Then you'll know *why* he disappears. Its kinda deliberate. btw. what exactly does a gang type person look like?
Very good question Paul as to what they look like. I’d envisage in this instance a 2 legged upright being pursuing the train for its cargo. As for its attire, entirely subjective and non answerable. I will google the other piece though as I wasn’t aware this was a nod to something thank you
That was really my point, no matter what they made a gang member look like, someone would get upset, so invisible people upset someone instead - at least that can't be misinterpreted as spot lighting one group or another . Let me know if you can't find Mr Cooper.
Well, they could put the crooks in balaclavas and gloves, so nobody can see what ethnicity they might be
I also has just finished this scenario, I think it was pretty fun. For starters, having to finish the consist by attaching those cars to the rear, then running around, is a nice touch. I love operational moves like that, makes the A-B run a bit more interesting. Now the agent has disappeared from my cab as well pretty quicky, I suppose he had to use the toilet or something..? Anyway, if that's a bug, I hope it will get fixed at some point. Also they introduced him as a talkative person, yet he didn't say anything to us through the whole route, which I found strange. And talking about talking, I think actual voice recordings would've really made the scenario even better, though I understand that voice recording sessions might also be expensive. But I really liked the old voice recorded scenarios on Sand Patch Grade, something similar might've worked well here as well, both for the dispatched and the talkative agent. The rest of the scenario was pretty good, I loved the car assets and smoke effects, and the whole changing tracks to avoid them aspect. All the track changing and therefore the slower speed limits made the whole run 3 hours long for me, which was pretty neat. AI trains were placed nicely along the track and yards as well. As others have said, maybe some actual people assets and police cars would've improved upon it even more, but it was still a nice scenario, I loved it. This is what scenarios should be about, interesting and unique events, not just a random A-B run or shunting service like most scenarios are. And I liked the length, as I found that most scenarios are barely 20-30 minute long, which is a shame. But long story short, I really liked this one, props to the devs for creating it!
I too thought it was a bug but apparently a nod to DB Cooper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper
