Owch but on the plus side any future products or older ones that require them you now have and you have added to the colleciton
£55.95 for me as I fall short on 5 items, one of which is the 150/1 which is on my wishlist for next sale and the latest ICA-D wagons which I've just not got round to buying yet, the other 3 items are all EMU's earmarked for "will buy if I ever decide to own the complete AP collection even if I'll never use them" (which currently stands at 18 items not including the 150/1 and the ICA-D's). Edit. Oh and the 87 as I haven't actually bought that yet either.
The 325 has always been on that list for me. I keep forgetting all about the base model on Steam during sales, and spending £12 on a train that I will likely never use (hence no need for the AP enhancement) isn't on my to-do just at the moment I bought the 87, MK3 coaching stock and a couple of wagon packs (about £46 worth) yesterday when my resistance to temptation was low during a particularly bad hayfever day lol. But I decided to split it over 3 payments on paypal to feel less of a sting this month, and knowing I won't be spending much in September and October.
AP should provide scenarios for a Default Route - such as WCML over Shap - using the Default coaches and Wagons That way it would only cost the route to run the scenarios.
He did in the early days, the first ones I ever obtained were for the first DLC from Steam, Great Western Mainline Paddington to Oxford and the ECML York - Newcastle, etc. You can't buy them now from his website as they are all from 2009 onwards and the Kuju stock is inferior in quality. He couldn't utilise Thomsons and Keith Ross' routes as they wouldn't allow commercial scenarios on their layouts, which still stands today, doesn't it? Cheerz. Steve.
I have a few of those as well, but his business model has changed since then. The merits of that are definitely up for discussion though. After all, he's all about selling stock, whereas JT sell mainly routes and the odd bit of stock (I'd be surprised if anyone buys their "F"WS 67 compared to their MML extensions, etc). But then I don't really bother with early scenario packs from AP that covered the likes of the Paddington-Oxford route, as the routes themselves feel so dated, despite the soundpack enhancements for the 47, etc. And the Turbo is a relic from a bygone era. Haven't touched it for 7-8 years except for AI. I think the scenarios including versions with default stock should be done, but they'll be very poor by comparison. That is upsell in itself IMO.
Oh yes, Richard has since changed things to suit his business venture, it's his job to sell assets he uploads, you can't fault him for that, it's what he does, especially, as he has others helping now him with scripting and texturing, etc. Personally, I'm the other way around to you, I'm not too fussed with the routes as such, I obtained all the locos and freight wagons from JustTrains as they became released and were the only ones around at the time, the Class 60 and 20 advanced models with the JJA Autoballaster and IGA Cargowaggons I thought were very good and filled a void in our rolling stock stable, especially when released in 2009, I also got the Class 67 and IPA Car Carriers as nobody else has done anything else British since 2015, I still play with everything today, so, money well spent imo. Cheerz. Steve.
Well, that is exactly it Steve. If you're still using the stock now, it's money very well spent IMO And yes, Richard is very good business-wise. He produces stuff that 90% of the time is either pure quality or a significant upgrade on what is available. I just wish I didn't have to edit every traction lua file to sort out that over the top wheel slip he puts in
yes but let’s remember it’s not always all his work other developers have an input as well which seem to get missed sadly. I think AP have got things down to a T with regards to how they do things however and have some fantastic content recently
A patch for the cab: https://alanthomsonsim.com/downloads/armstrong-powerhouse-class-87-cab-texture-patch/
That is all true, my friend. But Richard does get final sign off as to what goes out there under what is ultimately his name, and I do feel the wheel slip is a tad bit excessive Otherwise, I have little to no complaints. For long-term users of the sim who have most of his content, the scenarios are engaging and force you to interact with yellows and reds. Plenty of varied traffic, etc. Otherwise there is locoswap for people who have a fair few items but not quite the right ones. And TS-Tools for deleting consists altogether, if I remember rightly. I think we all have our little niggles with TSC content. But earlier I had an issue with my PC, and the alternative was playing TSW on my PS4, and I simply wasn't up for it. I worked for an hour or so to get my GPU, RAM and PSU cleaned and re-seated and have been having decent fun since
bit bad really people pay 24,99 for a add on and the community have to do a patch to make the cab better, if I am honest shouldn’t it be Down to AP to take the feedback on board and patch the pack giving the high price on all fairness
I think there are a number of things that need updating on the loco and AP might be waiting until a patch for everything is ready before releasing it.
How do you know they aren't? They are usually good at fixing faults and fairly quickly. I wish DTG would act as quick we still don't have a class 323 with properly working sounds!
well look how long it took to fix the 317 stability it wasn’t until the community fixed that AP contacted them and implemented it. Forget about that one did you. Wouldn’t be surprised if ap have contacted the cab kidder and asked if they can use it to implement it in the default download already to save them having to do it.
unfortunate. Even if DTG's Class 142 Pacer is good quality model, it lacks good sounds and liveries (both can be fixed on ATS website where it utilizes AP's Class 142 sounds.). I am hoping for better model (if not, an enhancement pack for DTG's Pacer might do the job.)
That's great news. I bought it today in a panic expecting it to go off sale soon but I'm happy with my purchase even if it's staying as it's a nice DLC and I am always happy to own some more Armstrong Powerhouse DLC. In my opinion what should be done is that when they want to replace or remove one of their DLCs because it's too old for them, instead of just removing it they should decrease the price and tag it with something like (Old Version) so people are still able to buy it and use it for scenarios by other developers that require it.
Wonder if the 90s will stay too, all announcements about their withdrawal seems to have disappeared...
Well, the Pacer and Class 90 were Waggonz products initially, weren't they, so, I'm sure they've had a say in this matter. Cheerz. Steve.
There was never any announcement regarding the withdrawal of the 90. It was a Facebook comment AP made, which is still viewable.
I agree with this principle. I once suggested default stock scenarios with the featured train since, when someone buys a pack, they typically want to see that particular train, so one would drive that train. The remark I got back was something along the lines of hey, we only create realistic scenarios, and this requires realistic stock. In other words, you can Quick Drive it. But if you want to play his scenarios, you have to pony up or do a lot of work in Ts.Tools. To be completely honest, they could easily do all the stock swapping for you in a matter of minutes if they really wanted to and swap all the AI. A quick scenario retest then confirms if it still works. But they continue to then add other DLC to the scenarios. Making it cost more. The problem is that his biggest supporters - the "we buy everything the instant it comes out and praise Him at His altar" group - want this. The important thing to consider is there is very little stock actually needed to run the scenario successfully. A lot is eye candy in a siding or an AI train coming at you. Other than a train that you wait for at a signal, or a train you follow, or something in the storyline that passes you, the rest is pretty much optional. You can even remove services you don't have from the scenario and let the dispatcher figure it out. You may still get the errors from the scenario properties trying to load its blueprint as a requirement, but even if you leave the train in the scenario, the train just won't load - any of it - and you can play on.
Cyclone - It would be great if the scenario part of TSC was more accessible to the beginner! I started my TSC collection in March, TSC has already swallowed up what is to me a considerable amount of £££, more than any other software I've ever invested in yet when I'm browsing scenarios to download on ATS 99% of the time I have to skip past as there is something I don't yet have, some quiet substantial pack that costs a small fortune for a passing AI. I totally understand creators wanting the most realistic and immersive experience but it seems everyone wants this & there are no creators (except JT I've just learnt) who make scenarios with the beginner in mind. I get that I can probably F2 past the can't load screen but it's knowing what will or won't work. I love my AP, JT stuff but actually getting to use them in anything other than quick drive is not easy or cheap & I mean hundreds more in some cases.
Yep and this is what developers forget them seem to be only happy to accomodate previous customers and seem to forget about new commers. It is the new players that are going to keep the hobby going longer so they really should be looking after them as well as the older users.
The scenario editor is worth learning, it isn't hard to do so. It is very rewarding, running your own creations. There are plenty of tutorials. You can knock up a simple scenario in minutes if you want with little or no AI and even on somethling like WCML Shap you could quickly make a scenario with a player train and some simple AI in half an hour to an hour. Likewise you can make a freeroam very quickly. The despatcher does have it's foibles but you soon learn to work around them. However, I do agree for certain routes like WCMLShap there is plenty of stock included for AP to make scenario just using the stock for the route and whatever add-on they have produced. Personally though I like realism so seeing a class 166 in Scotland usurps the reason for having a simulator for me. If I want that level of realism I can use certain routes in TSW!
Whilst I can appreciate the difficulty that newer players may have in running the AP scenarios, our views on this subject must be heavily influenced by our own experience. My first AP purchase was back in 2008 and over the past 14 years I have been able to slowly accumulate most of AP add-ons. This means I am in the fortunate position to run the AP scenarios with realistic stock. I realise that not everybody will be able to do this but having the correct rolling stock for a route really adds to the immersion and I would not want this to change. As has been pointed out, Just Trains do offer ‘default stock’ versions of their scenarios and this does offer the best of both worlds but I don’t know whether this adds to development time and ultimately cost. I’ve now bought the AP class 87 and it really is outstanding. For the scenarios, I was missing the ICD-D wagon pack and the Mk3 coach pack, both of which I had been meaning to get. The scenarios are very good with an excellent variety of AI traffic.
"Introducing the Class 43 HST Enhancement Enhancement Pack. You will require all three prior enhancement packs, a first-born child, and a lack of care for money to be able to use this pack."
So narrow minded are the cynical, I mean, they couldn't possibly be working on a HST Pack?... (note the lack of the word enhancement) It's the obvious next step imo.
I wouldn't say something like that is the plan, probably just some updates to the enhancement packs or a rolling stock pack that will replace the enhancement packs.
Personally I think the current HST enhancement packs are very good, a complete new model would be welcome but the one we have is good enough in my opinion and there are more deserving causes for enhancement. A class 323 enhancement pack would be nice or maybe some more of the classic diesels. The sounds of the various Sulzer type 2's are poor, the class 31 could do with a replacing as the model is old without many functions like opening windows more recent releases have, the class 33 similar. The Western region Hydraulics also have poor sounds. There are gaps in the DMU and EMU fleet which could be filled.
Haven't there already been a model upgrade? AFAIK the LNER HST DLC (and the South Wales one?) is based on the TSW HST...
Yes, although apparently that has scaling issues. I would still have preferred it to the current model which is from 2007.