PC Someone’s Got Some Explaining To Do!

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by Trainiac, Nov 28, 2022.

  1. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    DTG really ought to plan on announcing routes the day the Steam depots go in- because they'll leak that day anyway.
     
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  2. trainsUK

    trainsUK Member

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    Enough that I sometimes don’t have enough to buy a dlc , but it’s worth it right :)
     
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  3. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    Talented programmers and other tech people would get to it before steam releases it lol. If you're talented enough, you can go into game files and stuff to leak it early
     
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  4. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Agree 100%. BCC has barely left the building and was published with glaring QA shortcomings, let alone all the older stuff. Given the German routes tend to release with fewer issues (the exception being RT) and more polish, but this is one reason why I never watch these carefully PR managed streams.
     
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  5. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Me too. I used to watch the streams regularly when DTG Protagonist would hold everyone's feet to the fire. In those days, they were genuinely informative and entertaining.

    But recently, they have become, as you say, exercises in PR and very fluffy. Obvious bugs are ignored or glossed over and troublesome challenges disregarded.

    It's more useful for me to read forum posts and reviews, coupled with my own interests to make buying decisions.

    This is no slight meant towards any personnel. It's clearly a corporate strategy.
     
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  6. Mattty May

    Mattty May Guest

    DTG Protagonist was excellent at raising issues live on the stream (and saying what us players were saying and thinking - no holds barred). No offence to JD, but he’s nowhere near as tough.
     
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  7. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    I do iss Sam- he felt like he was representing the customers to the company, rather than vice-versa.
     
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  8. smugstarlord#4202

    smugstarlord#4202 Well-Known Member

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    When will they start making longer routes now that they have the tech to do so with current gen consoles etc.
    It's guff they keep Releasing short routes with the price hike
     
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  9. Mr JMB

    Mr JMB Well-Known Member

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    I wrote about this before but recently the streaming strategy has fallen apart. They had very informative and useful streams that kept information flowing between the company and its customers and they were really making efforts to reach out. It feels that ever since the failed previews of TSW3 they have shut this down and only stream when they have something to sell. I appreciate Alex's stream last week where not only was it a let's play stream but he seemed to be streaming from home, hopefully the guideline that streaming should be from the office will be relaxed and also they will do evening streams again as 5pm is very difficult to watch live.
     
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  10. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I agree. First BCC and now the Bremen route which, although the price has yet TBC, will probably come in at £30 with no preorder discount. The Niddertalbahn will be an albeit interesting but again short route and it's almost certain whatever Rivet are working on will very unlikely be much over 20 miles. (Happy to be proved wrong). That's why I keep getting drawn back to TSC, from time to time. It seems like their project bucket is now running on empty, after the lengthy routes with the Rush Hour pack and the three which came with TSW3 plus Tharandter Ramp for Germany.
     
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  11. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    Dtg can't make a 100+km route each time. Even with the improved tools, still a lot of manual labor involved. Autogen can't build everything. Also, depends on the gameplay and the length should be reasonable. I wouldn't want a high speed route that is 10km. A short route can be busy and have a lot of different service patterns. A short route also appeals to people who like shorter runs. I don't want runs to be over an hour each time with is why I rarely okay American freight or other routes cuz I either don't have time to do it in one sitting or I don't have the concentration. Some routes like Harlem required dtg to get the environment correct so it feels like new York which took away a lot of dev time so they couldn't make the full route. If they had, they wouldn't have been able to get the environment correct. So the length also depends on the complexity and how much they can do in the deadlines that are placed.
     
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  12. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    In an ideal world there should be several teams, one working on a longer project while another works on shorter quicker to produce routes which keep the revenue coming in.
     
  13. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

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    I quite like the 5pm streams as I can get to pub after selfishly
     
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  14. Redbus

    Redbus Well-Known Member

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    Personally it doesn’t matter to me what time the stream actually starts, I can just replay it YouTube. Okay so you can’t ask live questions, but these days it’s pretty much scripted anyway.
     
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  15. redrev1917

    redrev1917 Well-Known Member

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    I managed to get home just as it started, my only question is now, who do I send my speeding tickets to?
     
  16. Inkar

    Inkar Well-Known Member

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    DTG offices at Chatham.
     
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  17. tof70110

    tof70110 Member

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    I completely agree, there is no photo between the two sorry TSW, lol
     
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  18. tof70110

    tof70110 Member

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    Just a question to date DTG does not offer a pre-order discount for this new line coming out on 06/12/2022???
    Sincerely, tof
     
  19. stujoy

    stujoy Well-Known Member

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    Pre-order discount? That was always just PC only so maybe in the interest of fairness the discounts have been shelved in favour of a smaller price increase for everyone. I’m sure those affected by this new stealth tax can just not order a coffee at the end of their expensive dinner date to save that £3, safe in the knowledge that their sacrifice is for the benefit of everyone else.
     
  20. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Maybe, but I doubt very much that the elimination of the pre-order discount was done in the interest of fairness. If it was, why not announce that in the forum. That would have been an acceptable reason, even good PR.

    No, if it really has gone for good, it's a business decision, no doubt.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2022
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  21. Mich

    Mich Well-Known Member

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    Then announce specific details on the roadmap when they're finalized, that avoids both issues, problem solved!

    And before I hear the inevitable "But they can't confirm everything!" reply here's the thing, they don't need to announce every detail on a route right away. If they say made Marias Pass, and weren't sure if they're gonna make it to Glacier Park, Shelby, or wherever, they don't need to list that detail. They could list it on the roadmap like this.

    Marias Pass: Whitefish to ???, with ES44DC

    Or alternatively not even list the specific locations, and just list it like this.

    Marias Pass with ES44DC

    This would confirm where it's set, and in the former case where they've started building from, while leaving the specific end point (or points) for when they can confirm it. Same applies for locomotives, if they want to have two locos, but can only confirm one, just list the one loco they can confirm. Worth noting that Sherman Hill actually had this happen when it was first put on the roadmap. The SD70ACe was the only engine planned, but the SD40-2 got added later. (Old Roadmap without SD40-2 listed)
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2022
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  22. Dakota

    Dakota Member

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    It would be interesting to see the economics. I'm going to bet that keeping multiple teams of highly talented graphic and infrastructure designers employed long term is beyond their means. You don't walk into a monster project like this off the street and become competent and experienced with the project in one week. Plus people here whine about the price of the add-ons, another factor that may make them hesitant to pour money into new routes.
     
  23. bashful subfiles

    bashful subfiles New Member

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    This is all stuff ive been curious about aswell.

    Theres no doubt that TSW dev costs are very high and likely require a very high number of sales to recoup that cost compared to TSC.

    Without actually knowing the number of active playes and thus the potential number customers. It could be a case of the market cant support the required dev costs for some of the more desired routes at the current pricepoint. Without a substantial increase in price you cant increase your production cost requirering you to sell 400k of something to recoup your investment when your market only has potential sales of 100k.

    Looking at what DTG make for TSC i dont doubt their desire to make stuff like the WCML in TSW. So what we get is probably a result of economics determining the budget and time they can spend and subsequently the type and quality of product they can produce.
     
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  24. Dakota

    Dakota Member

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    Imagine the cost of developing and supporting on PC, PlayStation, and XBox.
     
  25. tof70110

    tof70110 Member

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    Thank you for the info which if it turns out to be correct I understand it and gladly support it, but is this really the reason???
    Sincerely tof
     
  26. stujoy

    stujoy Well-Known Member

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    It’s just a guess from me as to a possible reason.
     
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  27. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    Im sorry but the southern portion of the Harlem line in Manhattan has so many inaccuracies. The Manhattan Skyline is just awful and there are many missing landmarks. Funny how one makes a route short to focus on scenery only to get it wrong in so many ways
     
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  28. malikrthr

    malikrthr Well-Known Member

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    Completely agree. Metlife building, Yankee Stadium, overpass for Interstate 95 Cross Bronx Expressway are all missing. It would be cool if the devs could use some actual NYC buildings. In Trainz, there was a tool that allowed for conversion of buildings from Sketchup using Google Earth imagery. I am not sure if something like this would be possible in Train Sim World but it would be cool if we had more accurate buildings
     
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  29. Blacknred81

    Blacknred81 Well-Known Member

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    I honestly wish DTG would focus on some unique buildings on these routes, various routes are missing iconic structures and it just makes em plain and bland.....
     
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