When DTG Protagonist was researching the UI he made a thread entitled “What do you want to do today?” In that I suggested making it easy to select a time range or ‘page through’ a long list of services such as in London Commuter where scrolling through the whole list on console takes several minutes. Seeing all services around 9pm for example is tedious. The ability to page through the list would have been ideal for this. I was looking forward to this ability but it has not been implemented in TSW3. Not only that, the shortcut to the search (Triangle on PS) has been removed and the only way to get to the search bar is to scroll all the way to the top of the list of services, which depending on which service the list defaults to could take several minutes, like when trying to get an evening service. Not only has a specifically requested function not been used (so why ask for such suggestions?) but an existing function has been removed making searching for a service much more difficult.
The way search works is especially bad in Scenario Planner (I'm on Series X), where the only way to select an existing scenario is to navigate through the search bar, having the on-screen keyboard pop up and needing to dismiss it each time I want to move down to a scenario I have. This could easily be fixed by having the search bar above Create New.
I haven’t got to scenario planner on TSW3 yet. These kinds of issues aren’t picked up due to lack of rigorous play testing on consoles.
Revisiting this with an example and further observations… I had to scroll up for 19 seconds to get to the search field on the 377 timetable menu in London Commuter. Using the search field is the only way you can get to evening services and you need to know what service numbers to search or use trial and error entries. That search process is longer now too because the list used to update as you typed in TSW2 but now you have to exit a text entry popup to get the list to update even if you have a keyboard attached. It is a very unsatisfying experience. Can we have the shortcut added as was present in TSW2 and a fast scroll option added to enable players to scroll to a certain time period rather than have to use the search function if they prefer? And at the earliest opportunity too.
Yep, the search button is vital. Seems despite being the biggest user base, consoles are not that loved. All the missing options in the menu for adjusting things like on PC too.
There always seems to be a disturbing number of oversights when DTG release something new. Did no one at DTG think to sit down with a controller and test out the menu? It wouldn't have taken them long to notice "oh, I can't search anymore".
There are a number of places where a click on the ‘back’ button - circle usually on PS - takes you back more than one step. It’s supposed to be a ‘back’ button, not a ‘start again’ button. This makes the process of selecting things harder too. You can tell that the major design and functionality decisions have not been made with controller use as a major consideration. I mean, it’s only a majority of players that play that way, so why make it easy for them. At best they are poorly chosen ‘mouse equivalents’, like the grey for the currently highlighted item (equivalent of cursor position for a mouse) and only after selection it does it change to black with a yellow border (the thinnest yellow border imaginable too) and stand out or goes to the next page. What the current position of the selector is prior to that selection click is the thing that needs to be obvious and stand out when using a controller for selection. I would have thought that would be plainly obvious but that hasn’t twigged for DTG it seems. I bet DTG aren’t even reading this. It’s very useful feedback. Maybe TSW4 will incorporate what’s needed, eh? Maybe not.
Oh I'm sure they'll respond in time with a half hearted response, claiming they develop TSW with console players in mind when this and their previous record shows they clearly don't. Best case scenario they'll say "we're looking into this" and we'll have to wait 6+ months for a fix.
I do recall another UI update they did where there wasn’t a shortcut to get to the search field on consoles and the community had to point that out, so they don’t learn from their mistakes very well. They did fix that but I can’t recall how long it took and that was the only way to get to the search field so players then so we were without a search altogether. There has always been the usual excuse that UI artists are hard to come by, too busy, working on other things etc. for any UI based bugs/omissions but they really shouldn’t be having this happen in the first place. I would hope that there are facepalms in the office and an immediate plan to rectify the omissions but I don’t see them taking on board the more general gist of mine or other players feedback on console UI design.
That's SO annoying. Glad it's not just me. Here's something else. This may only (not) work when you have a certain number of routes: To the trains -> Choose a route -> Down x4 -> Confirm -> Back - at this point the highlighted route is the most top-left, which is out of screen, and directional button commands stop working.
Yes, I noticed this as well after installing my preserved collection DLCs. It’s not a lot of work to go back to the main menu and press on “to the trains” again, but still an annoying oversight. Makes me think they probably didn’t test the game with all add-ons installed. I have about 35 DLCs in total and the game absolutely dies when I try to launch it on my PS4. I have to sit on the “press any button to continue” screen for about 1-2min before the lag is low enough to be able to proceed to the next screen. This might get fixed with the Add-Ons manager since it won’t mount all the Add-Ons unless they’re needed. To add to that, the annoying bug from TSW2 (originally fixed about 1 year ago) where it logs you out of DTG Live every few days appears to be back. At least the actual main menu is much smoother in TSW3, probably because it no longer needs to load the 3D scenery and trains in the background.
Or with a controller. I don't think it's a problem if you use a mouse. Other issues for me with having many routes is that filter and sorting reverts to default. I'd like them to save my choice until I change them. And I'd be glad to see the "New" label gone after clicking on the route once. Yep. I've been forced to log in 3 times since launch. I use password managers and all my passwords are different, long and very complex.
Thing is, if they tested the latest TSW2 patch without any addons, you would have expected someone to notice SPG has no locos now. They'd only miss that if they had the ones from layers and DLC and they didn't know to expect all the CSX locos to be there. It seems more likely there's basic testing steps that are wholly overlooked.
Absolutely. These “New” labels are getting quite obnoxious, especially because I’ve already played these routes countless times on TSW2 and imported my progress. There should be a simple “Has any progress already been made on this route?” check, and all content where that statement is true should have its “New” Tag removed accordingly.
The NEW tag… If I could just click on everything that says it is new to get rid of the tag I would but even playing a service doesn’t work. I wonder how much I have to use each route and each loco before I can bet rid of all the yellow. If DTG don’t update it I reckon there will be lots of these NEW tags there in a year from now. All this for a tag that nobody needs. Nobody needs it. If something is genuinely new I would already know it was because I would have just researched it, bought it, downloaded and installed it then opened the game to play it. I’m sure I would be fine, just like I was in TSW2 and how I am when I buy anything else new in life. I don’t need a tag on anything to tell me I haven’t used it yet. I shouldn’t need one here either. But if I did I would only need it for the first use. The tag that might be on a new pair of trousers can easily be removed, I wouldn’t be expected to wear them a dozen times before the tag could be removed.
Forgot about this one until I encountered it again just now: To the trains -> Rail Journeys -> Any route -> Any journey (not continue) -> Back -> Filter -> Confirm filter - now your back button stops working. This is something I'd understand beta testers not picking up on. And I probably wouldn't have encountered it myself if my filters were saved and I didn't have to redo them all the time.
I hope others agree who are on console too, but anyone find selecting the time in free roam/scenario planner more tedious than it should be using a controller? The constant scrolling to a desired time takes forever. I mean, this is nothing new, has been like this for years, but considering the new UI/menu in TSW 3, it's about time this was updated for those not using a mouse. My suggestion is as follows: If I want, say to start at 22:00, scrolling from 10:00 takes so much longer than it really should. I suggest being able to move each number independently just to make selecting night times quicker. Example: Current: 12:00 -> 12:05 -> 12:10 etc. Suggestion (vertically changing each individual number): ^ 12:00 13:00 14:00 V
They originally tried to solve this issue by increasing the time intervals of the on foot selection menu from 5 to 15 minutes, but thankfully reversed that change following community feedback as this would have significantly lengthened wait times at stations for players who want to catch certain services on foot. The problem should be easily solvable by using the same mechanic that is utilized in the day & month selection: By default, the selection is monthly, but you can hold down the options button to switch to a daily selection. Just do the same with the time selection, except with hours and (5) minutes obviously. Easy!
It is a little tedious but I can live with that compared to other difficulties such as the example I use of the timetable service selection and the search field being scrolled to (already entering it way too many times by accident when scrolling to the top of the list just to get to the first service) plus that being the only way to access the search. That’s nothing compared to trying to getting to evening or night services in the timetable for the 377 on London Commuter. I haven’t scrolled all the way through the list but it would take several minutes rather than a few seconds. Scrolling up to the search field takes 19 seconds and then you need to know what to search for. There is no way to get to a certain time of day just to browse the services there. With bigger timetables being a thing now there needs to be a way of quickly scrolling all selection menus and inputs. That’s what I suggested to Sam when he asked for suggestions but it was seemingly ignored. Utilising the controller controls in some manner like you describe shouldn’t be too hard. There are two sticks and the direction keys to play with so there should be plenty of options for DTG to consider. The console experience needs to be as easy as the PC experience. Anyway, here goes an attempt to be heard… DTG Protagonist TrainSim-Matt DTG JD Anybody care to comment on this, or take on board how difficult using the UI is on console, or consider making improvements to it in the near future? Not just my observations but all the others above and more do need serious consideration. Cheers.
Matt, could you please also pass on to the team the possibility to display the number of services available with each train/locomotive, once inside the menu of each route? This was previously available in TSW 1 and 2 but not in TSW 3. A couple of pictures taken with my mobile phone of what I mean:
The issues with accessing services i've raised with the UI team (no info on plans/dates yet to report but they are aware) and also the number of services on the trains have already been added to the trains on the train-first screen but via route-first screen when you get to the trains they didn't - so that's on their list to look at now too. Again no timescales to promise, but just wanted to confirm raised with the team. Matt.
Is there any info on how long it takes till the „NEW“ tags get dropped from the routes and trains? The routes from the first batch of PS Store releases on the 6th September even still say new. Only the TSW3 routes don‘t show as new, and they were only installed 4 days prior.
