Hi all. Been a while since my last post, and I did have a quick look to see if this has been mentioned before, but couldn't find anything (so apologies if it has). Sad as it is I love to just sit back a lot of the time and let the AI take control of everything - in effect I just become a passenger. However, with Spirit of Steam the locomotive just idles the whole time - when pulling away from a platform / going up a hill etc. Due to this you never hear the proper steam sounds, as it's just a low key idle drone. I noticed this on release - and can't believe that after almost 3 months it's still not fixed. Does anyone have an update on this? Many thanks! PS Playing on PC
Yes it is totally immersion breaking sadly. It was mentioned at the time by a few of us and they acknowledged the problem. It is just a race to see if the fixes for SOS come before the dawn of the next Ice Age! Although three months is still in the early stages of waiting for a fix yet.
Thanks for the reply. WOW! They've known about it for months - but still no fix? That to me is a major bug - is it on the roadmap to fix (haven't had time to check yet)?
To be fair to them I think they have a lot on so I wouldn't have necessarily expected a fix yet but they are quite cagey about bug fixing. I don't suppose it is any more or less important than the other issues, in fact less important as some, as it wouldn't be described as game breaking, just immersion breaking. I have just uninstalled it and will wait for the fixes and hopefully some DLC as it is far too quiet. I am just enjoying the BMG Jubilee in TSC at the moment which is almost as good even if it lacks some of the refinements of the TSW version.
This is also one of the bugs that has annoyed me the most with SoS since release, the fact that most AI does not have any exaust sounds when running or moving off. It really ruins immersion and that feel of a busy steam railway. It has been mentioned before as a known bug beeing looked into but I have not heard anything recent of its status. Maybe TrainSim-Matt or DTG Alex DTG JD could you give us an update on the status of this bug, is it still being looked into, and whats its current progress? Thanks Unfortunaly it always feels that lessor bug fixes are not priorities post-release, often taking more than a year to get looked at again (looking at you London Commuter).
Thanks again for everyone's reply. I'm absolutely speechless that this might be considered a lesser bug or something that can sit on a list for months and months. It affects ALL Ai and is completely game breaking for me. How on earth did this get past Q&A?
Missing manual firing and the silent a.i steam locomotives are the reason i paused SoS. Just immersion braking..., thought this gets sorted out within a month.
Yes this and the far too quiet timetable also made me uninstall it. I will wait to see what develops. For such a vaunted flagship release it has turned out to be somewhat underwhelming.
Agree, as much i like sos, it would have needed 2 more months development for polishing. Maybe TSW3 was pushing from behind
This sometimes happens with diesel trains as well in TSW but not nearly as often as it does with the steam. I wonder if this will be present in TSW3 or if they have tweaked the audio system to stop these things happening. You can’t really have a steam train without steam train sounds and they need to play on all the trains not just the one you are driving. There’s a dev live stream about the sound coming up and I’ll be keen to see if they say anything about fixes to the broken sound system in TSW or if it will be more focussed on them having a guy who can get horn sounds for them now and the like. It’s all well and good sending people out to get nice recordings of source audio but not that good if they don’t play in the game when they should. It would be nice if they have finished developing Spirit of Steam for TSW3 because it isn’t a finished route in TSW2.
As surprising as it seems despite the apparent lack of progress, this is a trophy route for DTG. A realisation of CEO Paul Jackson’s dream of a virtual steam age Crewe, with it’s complex lines and non-stop traffic. Except the traffic is the opposite of non-stop; it’s almost nothing. You would die of old age trainspotting at this virtual Crewe before “classing” your Jubilees or 8Fs. It is I believe intended to flesh out the route with other locomotive types and rolling stock and eventually an updated timetable bring it all to life. However… DTG have been busy with TSW3 so we’ll just have to wait, even for something as basic as AI that “chuffs”, or *cough* more credible physics. A driving + firing mode is also on the cards, although personally I am happy just to drive and soak up the atmosphere, but it would be really nice if they at least fine-tuned the driving physics before going further. We were sold the promise of a full steam simulation, towards which a half step has been made but there’s a fair amount of their credibility resting on them going all the way and satisfying players’ expectations.