Thoughts On Luzern - Sursee

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by JustAVaporeon, Mar 25, 2022.

  1. JustAVaporeon

    JustAVaporeon Active Member

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    Yet another decisive route, however I will give Rivet this one, the route itself isn't as big a dumpster fire as their previous ones. There are issues but I found LZN better than their other stuff.

    Gonna get the good stuff over with first:
    - Train modelled quite well (as always)
    - Scenery, while not best, is not a massive firepit of horridness
    - Stations I think are ok, I don't know the IRL counterparts well so I can't really comment
    - Route as a whole looks great, it's not that badly done

    - Eh sounds, not good, not trash either, but it's definitely youtube quality of meh
    - No comment about the mastery scenery, it's questionable but not terrible, I'll say that

    Ok time to list my issues with LZN:
    - ETCS is basically borked, I don't know how it works exactly but I don't think ignoring moments before a SPAD or getting e-braked when following the signals right
    - Some bad scenery areas, it's ok as a whole but there are some bleh areas where it doesn't represent reality
    - The timetable is a bit of a mess, some unrealistic services and AI lacking set destinations
    - The usual TSW fatigue of usually busy areas feeling dead, probably due to the lack of other stock

    Meh route overall for me, it's better than their other stuff but Rivet still have miles to go to improve. I can probably see myself picking it up in a sale but not at full price. They kinda tried with this one at least.

    But what do you think? Too harsh on this or have I missed anything? I wanna know your thoughts as well :D
     
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  2. erg73

    erg73 Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for your impressions. The reviews I am reading make it clear to me that I should not pay full price for this route. I will definitely buy it, but when I get a good discount. Hopefully by then they will have fixed some problems like the security system, which will make it more enjoyable.
     
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  3. Railmaster

    Railmaster Well-Known Member

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  4. simontreanor81

    simontreanor81 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, with this route I'm waiting for at least two of:

    a) a sale
    b) another rolling stock DLC
    c) the PS5 addon fix
     
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  5. Thunderer

    Thunderer Well-Known Member

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    Only done the tutorials and a couple of services, but so far it's a very good DLC.

    The train is very accurate both inside and out.
    The scenery is excellent and varied.
    The sounds are almost perfect - I lived in Switzerland for most of last year and travelled by train a fair bit, Swiss tracks are like billiard tables and the trains are very well sound-proofed, when you're on one you don't hear much track noise, just a low bass rumble, and Rivet have captured that perfectly.

    Well done Rivet, onwards and upwards!
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2022
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  6. appleerwin

    appleerwin Member

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    Nice route, although the scenery is a bit too dark for me (even with clear weather). Did anyone notice that the driver is always standing when looking through the front window from the outside? Almost like DaVinci’s Vitrivius man, only with the arms down :). Weird and a bit scary.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2022
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  7. SBos

    SBos Well-Known Member

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    It’s the cab that’s dark once you go outside it’s fine. The tint effect on the cab windows needs reducing or removing altogether.
     
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  8. Thunderer

    Thunderer Well-Known Member

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    I know what you're saying, but Rivet have done a pretty accurate job, when one of these trains pulls into the station the windows are so dark you can hardly make out the driver.

    I suppose that's the tradeoff with it being an accurate simulation.
     
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  9. antwerpcentral

    antwerpcentral Well-Known Member

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    It's indeed a decisive DLC but between Luzern and Harlem I lean to Luzern as meeting the expectations. When the intro starts and I hear Jasper I started to smile. DTG has put Matt's voice on all new German routes and it always makes me cringe. Noticed this with the expansion of Koln that the original intro was German. Jasper can fool me into thinking a Swiss person is speaking. And than that famous sentence "featuring trains from all of the world" and yes we are not in UK, US or GER so yes no lie was said there. :D

    The train itself looks very nice, I don't like the way you control the train but that's just how the train works. I must take a closer look at the scenery I suppose because for me nothing seemed off. But from what I encountered I so far there are some loose ends. Suddenly encountered a clicking noise when going back to internal camera, might be my fault as I was clicking some random buttons in external view. But could not find the source of the clicking as everything seemed to be operating fine. The view in the cab is way too dark as mentioned. Speed signalling is also a bit weird, feels like the HUD does not correspond with the speed limits on the track. Sometimes you get a speed limit in the HUD that not get's enforced on the track.

    It's probably not TSW2's best DLC, but it's the most interesting one of the the third party developers releases by far. Is the price too steep? Not sure. I want to see more modern international routes from Rivet so I'm glad I paid this full price.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2022
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  10. Lightspeed

    Lightspeed Well-Known Member

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    The train is fun to drive and the scenery varies from cities and towns to construction sites and villages. ETCS level 1 is alright but has issues, so I use Integra instead. The route is very short but, makes up for it with steep grades all along various places on the route.
     
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  11. Railmaster

    Railmaster Well-Known Member

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    Well, the train is really well done, as is the track itself. But there is only one train and the distance is short. So you don't have much variety and so the whole thing has to live from something else. Weather, seasons, twilight and also the night.

    Last time I played the scenario late in the evening. I pulled out of the station and turned off the HUD. And what I saw was- nothing! TV broken? Soon I saw some lighter colored patches here and there. As I drove past, I realized that they were signals, and that there were probably buildings or lanterns in the area. But you can't see anything.

    It's no better on the outside. It's just pitch black. The lighting in the train stations or on the streets are green spotlights, also completely dark in between. It looks very unreal and spooky. Is that the case in Switzerland?

    The best is the outside view, at the level of the buffers. And when I'm 1m away from my 55" TV. I can see some details better with this angle. And it also has to be dark in the room, so it's also night.

    There are some tracks that were pitch black as well and it has been improved. And there are routes that convey a realistic ambient light. That is not the case here. I can't imagine anyone testing this and finding it good. That can not be.

    IOW is way better in lighting and if they got there then why not in Lucerne?
    They may have done the cabin tint realistically, but the night is not at all realistic nor acceptable.

    But the good thing is that you can let the AI drive these services.

    Or you drive the night routes with the TV switched off. Is then a special challenge and not far from what you can see.
     
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  12. SBos

    SBos Well-Known Member

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    The distance counter going into Lucerne is all wrong starts counting down only to go back up.
    Insufficient time to set up the train on timetabled services. Think it’s 20 seconds which is ridiculous.
    Night lighting on stations virtually non existent.

    On the subject of setting up times why don’t they make them all the same be it 1min or 90secs. The amount of routes where you simply don’t have enough time to set up to allow for an on time departure is stupid and pretty annoying.
     
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  13. arek#2842

    arek#2842 Well-Known Member

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    As a some sort of workaround you may try this:
    If you know a particular service you want to complete is starting at i.e. 10:50 - start the game in an "Explore on foot" mode on the departure station setting the start time on 10:45. The train that you'll be driving will probably be there on the platform already and you'll have much more time to set it up for travel without a hurry.
     
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  14. Lenwigg

    Lenwigg Well-Known Member

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    I don't have the route so I don't know, but maybe the distance counter not seeming correct is to do with it measuring as the crow fly's
     
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  15. antwerpcentral

    antwerpcentral Well-Known Member

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    Yup that's the reason, it's because of a huge turn that the distance counter doesn't work near Luzern. This is also is present on the Boston route
     
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  16. surreychuff#3060

    surreychuff#3060 Active Member

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    Do other people have the same sound loop dropout every 30-35 seconds where it drops really quiet and then goes loud again; assume because the sound loop has restarted?

    it’s really jarring but haven’t seen anyone else mention it, so not sure if it’s “just me”

    *this is audio outside the train
     
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  17. ianjpoole

    ianjpoole Active Member

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    My main thought with it is the main thought that a lot of Rivet stuff comes up with; some of the lighting is trash
     
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  18. steveownzzz#6107

    steveownzzz#6107 Well-Known Member

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    I really like this route. Cool, modern locomotive. Great scenery, lots of curves and grades. Timetable is achievable without having to drive like a nutcase. Pretty relaxing route for me.
    Lighting and sound loop are fairly annoying but I can work past those. The safety system still seems a bit buggy and for some reason the loco level 10 trophy isn’t popping despite me being a level 12 in it… but overall I like driving the route.
     
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  19. arek#2842

    arek#2842 Well-Known Member

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    I've just watched some videos showing the route and it looks really interesiting. I have request to anyone who owns it - could someone please provide what is the number of services available and what are the types of services (is it just " from A to B" services or also some depot movements/train washing/anything else)?
     
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  20. CK95

    CK95 Well-Known Member

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    112 services.

    Some Depot moves.

    Some services are all stop S-Bahn, some are limited stop RE.

    One thing to note, is that all services seem to terminate at Sursee, instead of going off through a portal and onward to their off world destination.

    The negative side of this is that it’s very unrealistic, the positive is that you can just get into a train for the day and run up and down.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2022
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  21. Fitz

    Fitz Well-Known Member

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    I really like this DLC, it's definitely Rivet's best content release to date.

    I really like the route, nice accurate scenery but the sidings are crying out for some loco freight to populate and finish it off. Yes, it's not accurate that all services termine at Suree but as said above you can just grab a service and drive up and down all day.

    Yes, the Flirt sounds could be better and the safety system need some work. But overall it's forgiveable and not game breaking. There are some glitches like the player unit never displays the unit number on the cab ends. The unit number is on the inside of the cab and external sides bit not the external front or rear, it's always 523 000.

    I'd love for this route to be expanded one and new content made for it but I know that will never happen and it's such a shame because there is so much potential in this DLC.
     
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  22. ÐFG

    ÐFG New Member

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    I love the chair height selector, this should be implemented more often.
     
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  23. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

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    14miles. Sat that out. Got burnt/bored by Cathcart being similar
     
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  24. Thunderer

    Thunderer Well-Known Member

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    Get it in a sale, the 523 is a pleasure to drive, and the modelling inside and out is fantastic. It's much more varied than Cathcart, there are lots of scenery changes for such a short route, and the stations are all different and have their own character.

    Been playing this route for the past couple of days and it's fast becoming a favourite.

    It would be nice if Rivet extended this route or gave us some other scenarios, freight would be cool too.
     
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