Firstly, Happy New Year to all on the forums! So I notice a lot of folks on the forums unhappy about price increases and falling quality and it got me wondering. How many others would be fairly happy to pay a little more for routes/versions/locos as DLC if we could be assured that our purchases were reasonably well finished prior to release? I for one would be happy to wait a little longer for new DLC and pay a little more if the DLC were not rushed and then spent the next few weeks awaiting fixes for bug after bug. I would also be prepared to pay a little more if, when bugs were found and promises made to fix them, could be relied upon to be fixed and not mess up other parts of the game. In other words, I'd happily wait for a fix if we could be reasonably assured the fix DID fix the problem, not make things worse all over the shop.Other's thoughts please..............
Birmingham Cross City Line is actually a fairly good quality and as long as the quality from that route is carried to others £30 is a very good price. I think they got the balance right with BCC as the post release patches were also swift and effective. Happy New Year mate (though I still have half hour of 2022 to finish first!).
Really depends on a lot of things such as the route itself, number of trains, service variety, length, etc. I don't want want them to make a really short route with no variety, 1 train and absolutely nothing to do and then expect us to pay $40 for it, then that's a no buy. I don't want them to have an increase in quality by cutting major corners. It comes down to personal preference really. There are some routes that I think are worth the extra price. Example being bcc. It may feel empty with only 1 train and a couple other layers, but the 323 and route building is really well done. And there is possibility for expansion. Some people may disagree, but I really enjoy all the features that have been implemented on the route and the train. Bro, although "short" has a lot of ai traffic running around set in the older times with a 110 and nwagen. Again, I would pay full price cuz it is a busy route with great trains and something I can complete in 1 sitting.
I still don't feel any great compulsion to pay £30 for a poorly finished 30 mile route. If DTG want my money in 2023 they are going to have to raise their quality and/or lower prices significantly. I've already started my replay of the Mass Effect series and felt no motivation at all last night to withdraw from enjoying the story and action to fire up one of the train sims. Even the quality new stuff I bought for TSC in the Xmas sale kind of loses its lustre in the face of controlling Shephard!
I mentioned this in the Winter Survey, so you're definitely not alone. I'd rather wait longer and/or pay a bit more to get higher quality releases. Things seem too rushed. I understand this is a business, but the customer is the one suffering when there is a buggy, unfinished release.
A Happy New Year to all forumites, from me as well! Thoughts? Beating a dead horse here, but in a nutshell: I don´t mind to pay a fiver more here or there. But the quality must be right first time. Rushed out, all too obviously unfinished and bug infested DLCs won´t see a dime from me anymore. And THEN: Stop releasing ill-conceived "patches" which break more things across the sim than they actually fix. The climax being the installation of a DLC I´ve never owned or purchased. Just tell the customer straight to his face: "Hey, we completely lost control over what the hell we are doing here." DTG, in my book, will have to make a huge effort to regain my trust. They´ve done quite a good job to lose it over the last year. My TSW2 setup worked reasonably well on PS4, until these amateurs tried to fix issues on SoS (which I don´t even own). From there it went down the drain. Breaking MY property, for which I paid good money!. The blatant lies about the "summer-hiatus-for-bug-fixing" didn´t help as well. "How to lose a good customer in one year " would be my story told. I still love this game. I´d even invest in better performing hardware only to adress that resource hog called TSW. And that´s exactly what makes that story so painful. Does DTG care? Hmmmm, doubts are allowed ...
I genuinely think the quality of DLCs at release has increased overall since 2021, and the post-launch support has also been much better since TSW3 came out. Given these factors, I’m personally ok with the price increase. However, that doesn’t change my mindset of generally only buying add-ons if they’re discounted. Also, I know many people who are genuinely upset with the price increase (even though I’m not part of that camp). The thing is: If you increase the price by ~20%, but end up selling 20% less copies as a result, you essentially have the same revenue at the end, but a smaller playerbase. This is mostly what I’m thinking about. But DTG have the numbers and can see if sales figures have actually been negatively impacted. The really well-received route add-ons that came out after TSW3 and the frequent sales on all platforms personally make me vary optimistic. We also have to think about making older content more accessible to new players. They’re extremely unlikely to just spend 35 bucks on a single add-on, and easy bundles like the TSW 2020 and TSW2 Deluxe editions (which personally helped me start my TSW journey) are no longer available. There should be an easier way to provide new players with a “foundation” of good old add-ons after they’ve decided that TSW is something they’d like to invest more money in, either by permanently reducing the price of older add-ons or providing a “classics” route bundle with 4-6 well-received add-ons. I’m actually planning on making a much more detailed post with concrete examples once the devs have returned to work and frequent the forums again.
An excellent idea. Not long ago that was a reality, because TSW2020 was still on the market and was in effect an affordable bundle of five routes. I think DTG's marketing department really should look into discounted bundles of three or four TSW1/2020-era routes: a "Germany Starter Pack" with RSN, MSB, RRO and HRR for example. As far as the accountants are concerned, those older routes' development costs have been largely amortized by now.
Absolutley ok with price increase, but quality has to raise too. On the rolling stock side i think its going into the right direction. Just wish the routes would not make the impression of a rushed release. On the feature side i like the direction too. Cant immagine tsw had a time without working pis, wasnt that long ago. Also the advanced brake simulation is a big plus. Tsw is on its way to become a very immersing sim with all its rolling stock. Its gonna be better and better, just keep up the bar DTG. Happy new Year
Yes, I saw on here how swiftly patches came out for BCC. Seven in one hit! So I will concede that point. However, surely there should not be the need to release so many patches were it not rushed out? And yes, it probably is fair quality, but all of TSW looks good at first and then you find things that should have been found pre-release. Check the announcements for the vast number of patches/fixes since the release of TSW3, then check the forums for the great amount of complaints about things still not up to par, not the least of which continues to be ambient lighting in built up areas.
Well since all of you are unhappy with price increase and quality the same or even decrease then go to the store (normal store) and buy some product for the same price like it was year ago... i dont think you will find any product like that... and then ... when the price increase there is the quality better ? i dont think so too ... thats inflation guys since devs got bills to pay they need more money too as everything around is more expensive and even their studio is not running for free. Many products even rise up the price but they even shrink (the package is smaller or quality is even worse because they are trying to save money during production). Of course some of you (like me too) will say ... well i dont need to buy those DLCs for that price and i will wait for a sale... yes they will loose those customers (as i bought usually all DLCs in release date but since TSW 3 not anymore... but for me price is not the main problem... main problem is untrusted DTG because they dont keep promisses and i dont trust them anymore... so if i will buy DLC then it will be only on big sale).
Fair dos mate. Just to clarify I am not saying the game is perfect because there is not one game that is but along with the step up in price there was a vivid step up in quality as well.
I've been playing this game for about a year and half (well, obviously TSW2 then 3) and I must say I'm getting pretty exasperated with the number of issues and the seemingly glacial pace at which they are fixed, if at all. I've lost track of the number of times I've gone through this cycle : 1 - Encounter an issue or problem in-game, big or small. 2 - Come to the forums and search it hoping to find a fix or workaround. 3 - Find the issue\problem was reported months and sometimes years ago and it still hasn't been addressed. 4 - Become more disillusioned. Early on I purchased add-ons only when signifigantly on sale but after they applied some good fixes to Sherman Hill last spring I popped on Horseshoe Curve and later TSW3 Deluxe full price. Now with the issues TSW3 has like the perfomance being all over the place and services that can't be completed at all or to the gold medal level etc, I'm back to being reluctant to pay full price. I was looking forward to the holiday sales but I just couldn't justify buying the add-ons I was interested in even at 45% off because of the above concerns. I put money into other games instead. Would I be willing to pay more if they released stuff in a better state or fixed bugs faster? I dunno, what guarantee would we have that the situation would be appreciably better? I need to see some signifigant, tangible fixes and improvements to what I've already bought before I consider buying more. How they treat whats already been released is gonna inform my decisions going forward more than any future promises. DW
I genuinely feel that the quality is steadily improving with little extras to every release. Even the patch rate is increasing. As to the price increase, it's inevitable. What increasingly annoys me is the release of routes with just the one vehicle. For those like IoW it's understandable, but it rapidly leads to a loss of interest. For years I've passed through Birmingham Int. and it's always busy with a variety of liveries and classes. It's dead without them. Even static models in the background would be better than the current empty platforms.
I can go to my local clothing store and buy a pair of jeans for $30. They have been that way for 6 years. I can go buy a bottle of Juice for a dollar which has been the same price for more than a decade.
"I genuinely feel that the quality is steadily improving with little extras to every release. What increasingly annoys me is the release of routes with just the one vehicle." Is exactly what I'm talking about. Why not release the route with the ability to utilise some of the stock we already own, even if the release date takes a little longer? They managed it with Rush Hour.
Where do you live mate! Petrol is crazy and don't even get me started on freddos: I saw them going for 30p I think it was the other day. Both of these products are more expensive but of no better quality than they were 10 or 15 years ago. TSW too is more expensive but has seen a clear quality increase compared to 5 years ago. Again I am not saying TSW is perfect but it is undeniable that it is better than it was. This is something I don't want DTG to carry on from BCC and completely agree with you here mate.
If you read carefully, you'll notice it's not only the price. Everyone who understands Capitalism gets inflation. It's the increases in price, while maintaining rushed releases which turn out to be unfinished, or need patching immediately after release. It is also about bare route with only one or two trains, ambient city lighting being too dark, cars half submerged in the scenery, fixes for one route which break other routes and most importantly the breaking of promises to fix things and then let them be. See DarkWolf post above: 'I need to see some signifigant, tangible fixes and improvements to what I've already bought before I consider buying more. How they treat whats already been released is gonna inform my decisions going forward more than any future promises'.
