Matt said it on a live stream a while back. He was listing off the some of the critera as to why some routes were picked over others.
I must say I do like the way Rivet tease their releases. It's better than how DTG do it, where it either leaks or an article pops up out of nowhere revealing everything. I really like how Rivet post teasers which lead speculation in the right direction without giving too much away.
Absolutely! DTG did this really well with the TSW3 announcement, but for the routes that came afterwards, absolutely no teasers at all were shown. All the forum threads talking about the Rivet teasers show why this is such an important part of a route DLC release and can significantly increase excitement in the community. You don’t even have to put in lots of effort… just post a picture or video that shows some info, but not too much let’s hope we get lots of teasers in 2023!
They actually sound quite good! Can't wait to hear the traction motors. Hopefully they sound just as good!
I'm really excited for the new route, especially with the Class 385. However, what I wonder (or slightly worry about) is what the timetable will actually be like - this is the main factor of how much re-playability a route has in the long-term. This regards not just just playable services, but AI traffic across the whole route (especially at larger stations) as well as variation (such as interesting ECS/depot services) and potential layering of rolling stock from other routes etc. I was wondering, with it being a third-party route, would DTG with their experience of epic timetables such as London Commuter, Dresden, SEHS Extended etc would have been able to help in creating this new Scottish route's timetable?
I have read another user comment about the Something New line that introduced the first trailer. Something New - 385, Something Old - HST, Something Borrowed - Class 66, Something Blue - Railtour? Maybe I am dreaming but maybe..
So now that we know both 385/0 and 385/1 are on the route it increases the possibility of the Stirling station being included in the route and not sure how far their office is from the train station……that would be something
Good point and for Rivet Games why not make it 2019 that's when the Class 314s are on their way out and the start of Class 385 services on Cathcart Circle as seen on Scotrail Twitter
I am hoping that they'll either layer the 385/0 into CCL, or create a new timetable (hopefully the first one, like the 101 and 150 sharing services on WCL).
A new timetable is the better option since Class 385s did run on Cathcart Circle in 2019 when the 314s are ageing and needs to retire.
The new timetable for the 385 layering onto CCL could also include the carmine and cream livery option for the class 314.
Better option? yes Realistic option? no If it was a loco only dlc, then sure, I would expect as such, but as it's a new route in of itself, I'm expecting it will just be like the NTP locos and you can have any one of 4 in that service config.
Fictitious routes seem off the cards at the moment for TSW, so I don'tt think the GARL was ever likely.
That was not included for licensing reasons. Even though all but 5 of the 314s stayed in blood-and-custard all the way to retirement, DTG didn't include it because, even unbranded, it was a First Scotrail* livery (inherited from SPT). The game's all-Blue Saltire look is just wrong; to get some realism into the line (assuming you are on PC), use the Livery Manager to install one of several good CaC liveries (like mine) and then make 3 or 4 clones in Livery Designer to increase its spawn rate. _____________________ * No relation to the present ScotRail
Personally, I don't like the idea of fictional routes. Holiday Express was a step in the wrong direction for me.
How on earth can you claim license to such a simple livery with no logos????? First aren't the only company that uses that on old trains.
I reckon there is something of a diplomatic dance involved: while, in theory, DTG might be able to win a court fight, in practice they don't want to tick off First Group, which controls a number of TOCs DTG use or might want to use. Alternatively, "Don't use the old livery" might have been a condition ScotRail placed on its license. After all, when TOCs play ball, advertising themselves is a major factor. (See, e.g., First's kibosh on the old blue Great Western livery)
Holiday express is for me a little extra for people with children or maybe modelrailway fans. Why not, saves a lot of space. About fictional routes, i wouldnt be interested in them, also didnt buy holiday express. Whats the point of a simulation when crossing the line and going fantasy? If DTG might release an editor, well so everybody can just (re)create a route of their choice and thats fine. But i personally dont need any ufos, big cheese buildings and other immersion braking things in my favourite sim. Only exceptions im ok, are maybe diverted hsts in l2b because construction works, stuff which is believable. Well Rivet did also well with the slightly different livery on iow2022. For that we have a livery editor. (Better a close representation, rather than none at all)
I'm pretty sure ScotRail's license isn't really one they place many demands on - they'll just want it done right. It's not owned by any private company, instead it's Scot Gov, who pretty much give it out to whoever's asking. (As far as I understand, anyone can use it for anything, so long as they follow the brand's identity guidelines.)
It could be but as dtg are only coming back to work this week I don't think enough progress could be made this week for the roadmap, I could be wrong though. Ps. Really looking forward to driving that 385.
Ok, guess we will have to wait and see. You probably right though. P.S: Me too! As a Scot, this is one of the best DLC's to come to TSW for me!!!
I actually used this comment as a motivation to get a bit familiar with SteamDB! Buckle up… At first glance, there are no obvious signs of the new DLC(s) such as concrete file names, achievements and statistics. But perhaps they’re just more careful with that stuff now because DLCs were often leaked that way in the past. If we look at the depots (essentially an internal listing of all the DLCs for the game), we can see multiple unnamed ones near the end. This is standard practice, like keeping some parking spaces ready for future content. However, multiple of these depots are constantly being edited these days, and one of them even has a size (above 4GB, so could be a route). If we look at the history (https://steamdb.info/app/1944790/history/), it’s also very interesting to see which existing DLCs are being updated at the same time as the secret depots. We can see changes for WCL and SOS (presumably Rivet’s UK expansion pack and accompanying steam improvements/fixes), Boston Sprinter (Amtrak Acela Loco DLC), Class 20 and TVL (Class 20 Livery Designer Functionality). It’s a bit more difficult to find traces of Glasgow-Edinburgh and the Niddertalbahn because these are standalone DLCs with no major connections to existing content. As I said, I’m not experienced at all with SteamDB, so I’m not able to jump to any more concrete conclusions here. But I think it’s fair to say we might see more concrete stuff appear in the coming days as all the developers return to work after the holidays and start making changes to the game again. Maybe some more experienced “data miners” can jump in and add things I may have missed.
Maybe have a look and see if Cathcart has been changed at all. Presumably the Class 385 is going to layer onto CCL so surely there is some changes made for it???
Cathcart was last updated 3 months ago, so, it's not looking likely. Unless it's just a straight "replace a 314 with a 385 and 20% chance to see ai 385s". Or just a simple coding change for the Newton and Neilston services. Am hoping for these layers though.
It is unlikely that a layer for the 385 will be created in Cathcart as layers for newly available trains are only added to an existing timetable (or a new timetable is created that includes it) when the older route gets an upgrade. If it can automatically substitute into existing services on Cathcart then that won’t require Cathcart to have any changes but substitution of multiple units isn’t something that usually happens.
I'm just going on the fact that if it existed at the launch of WCL with the 101/150, then there's no real reason why the 314/385 can't work. It would be a real shame if they didn't do a substitution layer for Cathcart, as I would much prefer that to a new timetable
I hope so too, but my main concern will they finally add more realistic train track or joint sound into it, such as the rumbling, and screeching where you hear the click-clack sound of the train. I really do hope so.
Is this your hometown train? I wonder how accurately they would portray to the one in the real world?
I think adding all the different train sounds would not be an easy task. Not only do you need the actual recordings from the train, but it also needs to be implemented correctly as in looping properly, a nonaudible loop, etc. Given how sounds already take a long time to create and a limited amount of time for each dlc, it would be not possible to implement every single unique sound for each train unless the devs had like over a year to create sound.
In the modern era I would imagine 99.5% of the Glasgow to Edinburgh track mileage is CWR, apart from loops and sidings.
