Anybody agree with the idea of DtG revisiting old routes and updating them as Keith Ross has done with the WCML Over Shap and WCML North routes? Be great to see some old classics revamped.
Would be happy if DTG revamps the S1 Cologne Airport Link Extension. That one needs absolutely an update (or rebuild) to eliminate those many bugs. And an further extension to Siegburg/Bonn would be nice too. Then some more useful drives for ICE/IC would be possible ath the eastside of the Rhine.
Only if there is a business case... i.e. increased sales. To spend that much time and effort and not earn any additional revenue would be a bad idea from a business perspective. I would love to see some of the old routes updated considering how much better the newer routes have been.
Is there any legal issue with somebody cloning an old route, redoing it, and releasing on workshop for free?
You need the written permission of the original author/developer, an email is acceptable. They have the copyright. You can of course clone and mod anything for your own use only.
DTG would need to make money from it and current owners would object to paying again for what the already own. Previous owners of the Chatham ML have to buy again a full price for the extension despite already owning half the route.
Especially if you can already get improved versions of the route for free via third parties, or hell, sometimes there's one directly off the Steam Workshop, Same could be said for attempting alternative backdated versions of routes.
What you need is the equivalent of the Preservation Crew for TSW, who basically go through the older content, in theory fixing issues and adding enhancements. Re the Keith Ross routes, as an aside how does one obtain the updates as they (IMHO) remain amongst the best in TS Classic?
The updates to the WCML that Keith did were never publicly released. For those of us who have had TS since the very early days, a completely reworked version of Newcastle to York is currently in the advanced stages of development.
Yes, it is a shame but I would say "never say never". He may well come to some sort of agreement with DtG to release them at some point, I really hope it will happen. And I for one wouldn't mind paying for that privilege.
Just my personal opinion, but many older routes have already had upgrades by 3rd parties but are often inaccessible or have excessive requirements which severely limits their audience. It would be great if there was more collaboration between developers to bring more of these routes to steam, AP or JT as paid DLC like what happened with the Suburban Glasgow route.
