Having watched tonight’s stream, I have the following concerns for feedback… Entering a tunnel, the lighting seemed odd and unnatural. Blue flash in cab, although this didn’t happen in every tunnel. Weather didn’t fully render outside until leaving the tunnel, something that was very noticeable and quite immersion breaking. From external camera shots, the ICE 1 looked way too bright and out of place with the lighting of the route - especially when the route darkened during the rainy section. The new lighting system makes a lot of the textures of the train, inside and out as well as the scenery outside look bland and almost cel-shaded. The menu functionality for selecting the new 185 was extremely poor. If Lukas had trouble finding the right one, how are we lowly players expected to do so. Where was everyone? Barely any passengers on or off the train. LZB had a fault that tripped Lukas up.
I agree I didn’t really notice this Driving the train from the inside I wouldn’t really notice or care. Though I see how this maybe an issue for those who like to take photos. It looked good at the start of the stream when sunny, but when the clouds rolled in it went dull. As would happen with natural lighting, making for a flat looking scene. I think this was because the old version of the 185 was still present, alongside the new one. I’m sure this will be removed. This threw me, 8am run and not a single person on the train? the LZB has been reworked, so there are going to be a couple of niggles here and there. Not sure what has been added to LZB though.
How many services are there? That is a simple question that someone that had a big hand developing the timetable should know. Especially coming on to a stream knowing that would be one of the top 10 question asked. It should actually know how many each loco has. At least that’s my opinion
It would be better if that blue flash were not there when entering for sure, although not all was bad, they seemed to get exiting a tunnel just right, so when it works the eye-effect does look cool so if they can get rid of that flash it will be a fine feature. The weather effect on leaving a tunnel is the same as now, no better no worse, but more obvious because of the numerous tunnels on this route. The train looked fine externally I thought, actually looked much better in the grey rain than in the sun, but in general it looked about the same as I've experienced the BR 403 to look when cast against background scenery in TSW2, if there is a problem it just seems to be the white paint texture on the models is too clean and too smooth, though it isn't a huge issue for me as I do not like when the ICEs look too dirty. I thought the textures looked the same as TSW2 tbh, the only effect that I thought was really off was the brightness of the reflections on the ground approaching Wurzburg, also far too smooth considering it was supposed to be wet ballast (I think it was anyway, if it was a pure concrete viaduct with no ballast then perhaps fair enough though still too bright for what was an overcast sky). I don't think there is an obvious UI solution the different versions of the same loco thing, maybe the names being clearer would help, but basically unless they actually went back, which they have said they will never do, and replace all previous versions with the latest version of the 185, there will always be a need to accommodate a bunch of locos with no difference as locos, but differences in how they simulate being the loco. Passenger behaviours were odd, not very rush hour. The passengers were there though, just in the wrong places. The out of service AI trains were full to the brim, but there was not a soul on the ICE. I am not an expert on LZB, but the reason for the brake trip itself seemed logical enough, he was overspeeding after a restriction. The problems he had resetting it though, they could have been something, but I didn't quite understand what he meant by the LZB being at 0.
I thought headlights on bright setting in a tunnel do actually light up what's in front of you, however not seeing this in the stream. Unless German train headlights are pitiful in real life. In Australia Queensland the trains here on bright headlights light up everything in front, sometimes it's blinding. I should one night go to my local train station and take a short video of it. They mentioned previously the headlights have been reworked but didn't see this.
I thought the route and the train were generally good, but I agree with those saying that entering a tunnel, something was wrong. It seemed like it get brighter for a few seconds before getting dark and this started before you even entered. It was most off putting and seeing it 50 times each run is not going to be nice. i can understand not knowing the number of services. The stream didn’t go well and Lukas seemed a bit nervous. Don’t know why they’re taken the count off the UI though. I will be getting this but certainly at the start, it’ll just be the gamepass version even though most of my German DLC is on PlayStation. I don’t feel like paying for it yet - I really like German routes but this didn’t excite me as much as I expected it to. Positives for me were that the ICE seems very nicely done. I‘ve been looking forward to that. I also liked the dynamite weather but I want to see how that works over multiple runs. I would like to have seen the night lighting a bit more. It looked ok, but we didn’t get to see much of it.
Another thing I noticed when watching this is the horn in the tunnels. There is no reverb. At least I couldn't hear it unless I missed it, it sounded the same as it would outside.
It was asked at 8:10 minutes into the stream how many services are there? and the answer was he wasn’t sure because it was supposed to be on the menus and it was missing and he also mentioned that he can’t promise that it would be there. So again on the first show of a brand new route they should know this. No excuses
Further feedback… The game still asks if you want to give up control and defaults to Yes. The PIS showed Lukas’ train as being late when it was on time. AI trains in tunnels seem to ‘glow’ in the dark. No lights in the tunnels as in real life. Stopping points are still way too close to signals. None of this feedback represents a deal breaker - it’s just feedback.
Haven't seen the whole of the stream yet, but I saw the piece where even Lukas had troubles selecting the new 185. With layering and subsitutions the old one showed up in the list as well. It's a shame DTG doesn't clearly label the different versions. Even Lukas had to point and shoot and hope he had the correct one. I have the same problem with the two versions of the 143 in TSW2. I always want to use the newer version, but as both are labeled exactly the same, I can only see if I selected the correct or incorrect version once I spawn into the train. Problem would be easily solved if DTG adds a few extra letters to the label (NEW or TSW3 e.g.) Other first impression was that it all looked very very bright with the new lighting. Also they seem to have foolproofed PZB with the new messages on the HUD. I can understand why they did it, but I can't help having mixed feelings about it. I feel this takes away the feeling of acomplishment of having mastered the system by yourself... Will report back once I've seen the whole of the stream.
I think the HUD elements for PZB can be toggled on/off individually, JD seemed to say that, or he could have meant turning the whole HUD off, but usually stuff located in the top right can be turned off individually from the rest of the HUD elements so it figures they put the PZB elements there for that reason.
Wouldn't it be easier if they would leave just one version of the loco, the latest one? I don't understand why there are different version of the same model available. Is it due to the routes from which these locos are coming from are settled in a different time periods, hence there are differences in these locos equipment?
Not presently possible. It may in the future, with complete decoupling, become possible, but for now each route requires the version of a loco that it released with; MSB (for example) won't load unless its versions of the 146 and 185 are available.
That doesn't mean it is a pre release build. It means it is a dev build but it does not say if this is a build that precedes the one that goes live. This could already be a later build.
I agree with several points made on this post... • The whites in daylight look over exposed. The detail on the ICE1 was burned out in the sunlight. • Asking if giving up control of the loco should default to 'No' • Number of services available should show in the UI • When you select a loco, for newbies, it would be nice if in the UI it said whether it was a passenger or freight loco to help get to the right service. I have often opened a German route and don't always know which of the many locos available to pick for freight. • Really disappointed that they haven't fixed the accelerometer in the HUD by changing the scale and adding colour when goes over/under. In one of Matts streams he said he too wanted this feature. Changing the scale helps when you are sitting 6 feet away from the TV & can't see it move. A set of vertical coloured LED's might look good here? Whichever, it cant be that hard to implement. Other than perhaps showing double yellow lights as well as single, the rest of the HUD is OK. • Regarding the 2D new clouds the PS4 will get, I am not sure if they will impact performance on Gen 8 but I would like a setting to use the old 'newer' static cloud set (which I actually quite like) giving the user a choice of either. • The bright flash entering or leaving tunnels will soon start to annoy after a while unless toned down a bit.
looking at that stream just reminds me why this release felt so cash grabby. They really did have to dig for things to say were "improved" Although, the new lighting is quite disappointing. I don't like how it looks going into the tunnel because my eyes definitely don't adjust like that. New UI is nice, but the last one really wasn't that bad.
How about requiring 182 101 DLCs for the Nightjet trips? Passenger wise the ICE1 DB BR401 should have been filled instead of vacant. I wonder to why they did not run a 182 freight service. At the end of the stream, there was an MRCE BR182 at least JD and Lukas could have taken it for a run to show an LZB freight train.
Thanks and in the future that problem can be fixed by using 182 Austrian cousins the OBB Baureihe 1016 1116.