Train Sim World 2 - Hustling On The Harlem

I agree and it's the American equivalent to a Class 387/2 long distance commuter train due to Overhead contact system wires third rail 750v DC voltage ability on both EMU. Missing is the German equivalent DB BR 474.3 and 490. That can also fill the Wakefield 241st street Metro-North station to Grand Central Terminal Harlem Line section with AI Traffic drivable if both are merged.

 

I really do hope that is the case. I would be more excited if that is true. I love the M8 sound, especially since its made by Kawasaki. I really do want to see the New Haven Line, and then the Harlem Line. They could do the same and give us half of the route first, and then make route extension down the line in the future. It would be best to see all Metro North Train added to TSW 2

The more Metro North Trains we have, the more layers we can have that make the route more lively like in the real world.

 

We sem to be in the short route phase.

BML. 49miles?
377 reworked, 387, kinda new for all intensive purpose
25 or so stations
1400 services
£25

Harlem 24miles
Two existing units, lots of work, look nigh on to LIRR
I think (I could be wrong here) 18 or stations
260 services
£25

Rivets route
Shorter still I believe
A brand new never seen train (nice work)
Services tbc
Services £25

Horseshoe
All tbc

it seems like we’re on the short snappy route phase at the moment when there’s been some significant posts on here both about mergers , fixing save system and interlocking route mergers. These current selected routes and expansion packs are saving me some cash at the moment.

 

I'm actually really looking forward to this route, which is surprising because I didn't care all that much for LIRR.

But this route is looking really fun so far, I especially love all the urban scenery, I think it's a big step, especially the New York skyline. This'll probably be a day one purchase for me.

 

Honestly from the first previer stream it's a bit of a mixed bag.

For starters, I really love that they seem to have fixed the issues with the trains. For example, most of the issues that were present on the LIRR M3 seem to have been fixed. For example things like the train finally having it's rear marker lights on by default (just like the M7), or fixing the incorrect click area for the doors on the back of the carriages. We didn't see them on stream, but hopefully the dim headlights have also been fixed, as on LIRR the dim headlight setting incorrectly turned off the center headlights. The new horn audo is amazing, and train sounds overall sound much better. I do hope they kept the nice small details like the M3 loosing the interior lights when going over gaps in the third rails.

Many people say the track sound is missing. It's definitely there, I could sometimes hear some nice sounds whem going over junctions, though not ad loud as they could be. But that might've been just the stream. Will be looking forward to how it will sound with volume up when playing myself.

Now as for route building, the modelling looked good for the most part. I liked details like the red boxes for the third rail, plenty of electric boxes around the tracks, and the countless unique looking viaducts over the line were nicely modelled.

What I really disliked however are the lighting and the texturing. Might've been just the fact that it was running on console, but the lighting looked really weird to me. Hopefully it lools better on PC.
GTC platforms really do look stupidly dark, as others have pointed out, while it should look more like NY Penn or Atlantic Terminal on LIRR. And when it comes to lighting, the areas under platforms on surface stations looked annoyingly bright. Some dark shadows or textures under the platforms would really help.

The tracks also looked weird, too clean, almost like a model train rail. This is a problem that many newer routes have. Why can't they make properly looking ballast and sleeper textures? And the pop-in on the third rail supports are very noticeable.

And sadly many, many of the scenery assets have horrible textures. The platforms are realistic and weathered, but for example some platform canopy roofs looked like plastic toys. No weathering, and no darkness under them. Many buildings around the track suffer from the same fate, incredibly clean textures with no shadows or weathering. Basically many assets lack depth and realism, it's like model train accessories and buildings, just plainly painted plastic. Who the hell makes these textures?
The same can be said about the side of the elevated tracks out of Manhattan. Too bright, looked very silly.

Hopefully it will look somewhat better on PC, but I doubt the textures will change. Pretty disappointed with them, it looks like a toy town.

The timetable is good I think, plenty of movement even without the New Heaven line traffic. The improved ATC is also great news.

In overall, I think I will get the route, but there are a few things I really hope they fix, like the passengers. And I'm afraid I'll have to spend some time trying to replace some textures to make the route look better. We'll see.

 

Maybe it's because a lot of locations in video games are located in the US but I'm not aboard with this one. This should be NY and it looks like a small town in lockdown. I get that it's a train game and on that part there doesn't seem much to complain, the trains look fine but that's everything positive to say about the preview. This works for me on German routes where I imagine the stations are located at really dull places, it works for some UK routes but this Harlem route is totally not convincible. Urban areas need NPC's and way more car traffic. The lack of passengers in the shown build even emphasises the entire deadly feel this route has. If it wasn't for station passengers and a few cars this route feels very dead.

 

Yeah. They could place static NPCs in GWE and Paddington. I remember SPG having a few walking NPCs in the town (at least in the scenarios). Why can't they populate Manhattan with a few group of people on the corners?

 

??!!??

 

This is a great point, foot traffic could make a significant difference for this and other routes as well. The NPCs are present in SPG, and not just in scenarios, although their density seems quite low. I remember doing a double take the first time I saw one. If DTG had done something like this for the route, it would have been a nice surprise.

 

AND THEN…

“Memory fps “ monster raises its ugly head to all gen 8 owners

 

I wonder if Steam is drawing resources away from other teams meaning they can't do as much as they want within their time frame? Although I could've sworn someone said Steam has its own separate team or I dreamt up that excuse. I can't help but feel a bit "meh" with the latest and upcoming batch of DLC. Im usually a first day purchase person but I think I'll be hiding my wallet until Steam is released.

 

Yeh usually there are many cars driving along Park Avenue and people walking on the sidewalks. As a local to the area the environment in Manhattan felt quite dead

 

Well, this is a British-based company that doesn't often have the means to get to the territory they're replicating. With respect, this would have looked better if this was contracted out to an American-based 3rd party with better access to the area, and or the resources to give better representation.

As I pointed out in the other thread regarding this route. I did appreciate some of the aspects that were done, I found largely incorrect about the TS version of the Manhattan Section. GCT although still not perfect, is better looking, The lighting could use a little more work.
The partitions throughout the Approach to GCT was nice to see, as that was missing. The Tunnels... WAY BETTER. The Park Ave Viaduct is more accurately modeled this time as well the gradient changes coming from out of the tunnel. Harlem-125th looked better, and from a passenger's perspective, looking out of the window seats, you can see the streets below, much better.

I hope that if there's ever a chance that this route makes it way into TS, all of those things would be updated in that area..

I also would note, that the Woodlawn Section looked much better, especially the Nereid Ave Viaduct/Bridge, which was of course was not depicted correctly at all in TS.

 

Places nobody visits besides the people that live there

 

But I thought Neuschörnewitz was a an entertainment and nightlife mecca?

 

i already got it since yesterday, when they release on steam, because i just love the metro north line, and its a huge step forward when comparing to the current LIRR, which i really do hope that they can fix, or better yet give us another LIRR line. As in terms of alll the things you said here i agree. The lighting hopefully is like that because its different on the console, so i hope for when they stream on PC next week, it would be much brighter and similar to how Atlantic terminal and Penn station terminal would look like in terms of the lighting because as of right now i call it the TWILIGHT ZONE LOL. Also, i really do hope that they can increase the audio for the Track sound because it is so faint, i barely could hear the clickly clack sound.

TrainSim-Matt I really do hope that Matt and the team realize this and increase the audio of the track sound, that way we can all hear the track sound more clearly, cause this is what most people here like me want to hear.

PS Sorry for the tag Matt, i just really hope that you are listening to this feedback.

 

What about post-release? The route looked good overall, but there were a few issues that could really use some fixing either before or post release, like the passenger volumes or the lighting at Grand Central. Is anything about to change from the preview stream until release, or post-release patches are our only bet?

 

Post release = never - The Class 313, LGV and LBN send their regards for example

 

I understand it's too late to improve the track noise before release.
But then don't expect a buy from me at release full price.
Matt, i tought you as a train enthusiast and the man in charge to watch the team doing the right job, should have noticed. Don't you like track noise or don't you care about?

 

Thanks for replying back Matt, I really do hope the team, would be able to.

 

Did the game M3A Have the whoshing sound when the train pass the station like this?

 

My point was about the expression "really dull places". For me, that fits more with endless row houses in suburbs of big cities or industrial areas than with small picturesque villages.

 

Funnily enough, some stations on Tharandter Rampe for example are crowded in a way they wouldn’t be if the amount of people getting on a train in a week would be there at the same time - and that even in the middle of the day with the next train half an hour away. And yet on a line such as Harlem where you would expect this level of activity, the stations are deserted like they should be on Tharandter Rampe. The (train sim) world is flipped upside down.

 

Out of all the issues with the route, this isn’t one of them in my opinion. Let the devs have a chuckle!

 

Most likely this will go to Adam’s team to add it the preservation crew update, since they can change it now

 

I also don’t know why look like Adam’s team is going to have to take another huge overload when they already have stuff to do, I kinda of feel sorry for him and his team

 

Yeah that was funny when Matt turn his head and look around the corner and saw only two car on the street. What do you think was going through his head when he saw that? I know to us the player we are like what the heck, where are all the cars lol. I really do hope that they can fix all of this before release this week

 

I went back to playing the LIRR yesterday just to see if their is any track noise and I indeed did hear the track noise when it goes through another junction but not when it’s on parallel straight track though, but the junction was loud and very pleasing, so I really do hope that this is the case with the Harlem Line, and that Matt will be able to ask the team to fix the sound before the release date. TrainSim-Matt Sorry to ping you again Matt but is it the reason why the team can’t do these realistic track sound is due to the fact that’s it’s hard to produce especially on the Unreal Engine? There have to be an explanation as to why? how would we as the player know why these wasn’t implemented.

 

Matt said they’d paid special attention to the number of cars with it being New York. More like New York after an apocalypse. No people. No cars. Only one or two trains.

 

Lol

 

Yup, I heard the whoosh sounds from the preview stream

 

I highly doubt that will be fixed before release. Frankly I'm surprised that they would announnce the release on the preview stream. It would make sense to show the product off so people can give feedback so the necessary changes can be made instead of effectively showing off the final product because that means any improvements would have to be done after release and those improvements won't come for a while

 

But this is how it they usually do in the past which is preview first and then release the following week, if you remember the stream when they do the Chemnitz route

 

I think this route was always a case of spare time, slot something in. The whole “less length so we can do more detail” is nothing more than sugar coating.

 

Yeh and you had the usual suspects try to justify/defend the short length but I wasn't buying those excuses frankly. The stream showed all the corners they cut as well. So the whole detail thing wasn't really the full aim

 

No M3 woosh = NO BUY WORST ROUTE EVER MADE

 

Something that just came to my mind: Have they shown night lighting yet? Really expecting it to be great here with all the buildings and infrastructure surrounding the route. Could be an amazing nighttime experience if done right.

 

Set in 2020. COVID lockdown.

 

No, DTG do not do pandemic scenarios. It's simply a lack of attention to detail. All that talk about the route being shorter because of the density of the scenery is nonsense. There is no detail. Look at GCT, missing landmarks, absence of AI, passengers and vehicular traffic. Let's not kid ourselves. I almost dread nighttime driving in the city that never sleeps.

 

DTG don't simulate covid though and you know that. Can't always defend the indefensible

 

There gonna show it on Thrusday

 

Code:

--HUMOR SENSOR MALFUNCTION--RECOMMENDED ACTION: WATCH OLD GEORGE CARLIN VIDEO --

 

You might want to consider using an emoji. Some of us can't tell when you're kidding. Can you?

 

Malfunction? More like you need to find better ways to express your jokes

 

I was just skipping back through the stream, you’re right, there’s no people at all. Baseball field empty, yards full of cars with no people. This is like a covid Sunday where no one is home. I felt like something was missing when I watched stream and you cannot unsee it

 

Idk if this is just me, but it really looked like the external PIS displays on the AI M7As was not displaying anything. The player unit was, but it looked like on every AI version that was seen the screens were blank.

 

I reported that to them already they said they will look into to it before they release it.

 

malikrthr said there is the whooshing sound

I really do hope so

 

Can we have the Hudson and new haven lines I would also like to see the M1-M8 cars and shoreliner cab cars with work equipment and a P32AC-DM. Not only that I would love to see actual people working on the tracks and radio communication