Tsc - The Genesis Diesel

Wish the texturing was a bit better, there's some issues with the Phase 3 paint and the Phase 4 colors.

 

I just hope they get the sounds (including the horn) right. They are so distinctive on these locos.

 

Interesting content, but I prefer waiting something more modern rolling stock))

 

Unless DTM really stepped up their game this probably won't be too special unfortunately

 

So, I'm hearing thru the rumor mills that the loco completely broke in a livestream....

 

Rumor mill? It was an embarassment on stream. Poor Jamie.

 

There's no VOD for it unfortunately, I wonder why..

 

I had the distinct impression that Jamie hadn't read the manual, or if he had, he failed to understand it. When the loco came to a halt unexpectedly, my guess is he had ignored the in-cab alerter. It has a countdown that depends on the speed of the locomotive (the higher the speed, the shorter the countdown) and is reset whenever certain controls are used (bell, horn, alerter reset button, throttle/brake, train brake or loco brake). When the countdown reaches 0, the warning indicator in the cab starts flashing, and if it still hasn't been reset 6 seconds later, an audible warning is given. At 16 seconds past the countdown reaching zero, the system performs and automatic penalty brake application. The scripting for this loco is not simple (I should know, I wrote most of it) and the manual is a must-read. If you run the locomotive in exterior view all the time, it's advisable to hit 'Q' if you haven't used any of the above controls for some time. The countdown length is 2400/speed seconds, where speed is in MPH. The alerter can be disabled using Ctrl D.

 

That's a shame I was looking forward to watching the stream tonight poor Jamie it couldn't be easy for him.

 

Poor Jamie nothing, if it's true he didn't read the manual then what does he (or anyone else) expect? I think it's a poor show anyone showcasing a product without a) gaining an understanding of it (i.e. Reading TFM) and b) having at least a short quick dry run before going live, if you're representing a company (and streaming from an official DTG channel is 100% representing them) at least try and be professional.

 

Maybe on a stream you get stressed and can't figure it out.
Even if this loco is perfect, accurate and all, the player might not figure it out right there.

Sometimes on my end the train did end up in a funny state after going emergency like that.
My favorite was with the Press DB BR 155 where some in-cab buzzer would stay on for the rest of the run.
I may have become stuck a few times as well, but moving the brakes to emergency manually quite a few times to fix things can get normal. As in, you have to turn off everything, then press every possible alerter button during off-state, then keep going. Three rounds of Pzb-Sifa acknowledge is pretty much the minimum I have to press.
One possibility is that in such a state, the player moves brakes to emergency but there is an overlaying script that gradually increases the brakes and thus actually the brakes are not in emergency (100%). Yet.
Sometimes you can get going without stopping, other times you must wait for your speed to reach zero. Given my million train separations with US content (and countless Sifa fails, camera view 2/3/8 triggers Sifa I swear) I had my fair share of both.

That is all on top of, or due to the loco script crashing.

 

I didn't think it was a you problem... Yikes!

 

So much for a release today, I'm guessing.

 

Immediately after taking control of the loco, the script applies the train and loco brakes (this is to prevent the train from rolling if it happens to start the scenario on a steep incline). You have to wait a few seconds for that to complete before taking control yourself.

Restarting the stream couldn't have had anything to do with what happened at the end of the stream. I'm pretty sure that was the alerter.

 

In the stream, before Jamie had to restart the scenario the locomotive refused to accept any control inputs to the throttle or brakes. Jamie already had control of the locomotive for around five to seven minutes so that cannot be the case. Every time the alerter was sounded Jamie acknowledged it and drove without any issues. The second time Jamie lost control of the locomotive was when he was returning the throttle to idle from full throttle near the end of the stream, in which the locomotive again refused to accept any control inputs, both the power and brake handles combined. With the engine RPMs still increasing to full throttle, this caused the locomotive to run away on Jamie. If it really was the alerter there would have been an emergency application that would've brought the train to a halt, but that never happened.

 

Except, Dovetail didn't make this pack.

 

This was a third party make not DTG, so it will come down the third party to fix the issues.

 

I really hope the sounds get revamped if this is the case. The GE 7FDL-16 engine that the P40/P42 use has a distinct sound tone to it

The ones featured in the Miami route 7-8 years ago sound terrible by default. I hope the devs get the sounds right on this new model

 

cool dlc

 

On the stream they were the same sounds as used on the old Kuju ES44 unfortunately.

 

Oh boy, that is not good. I didn't see the stream but based on that, the sound is going to be innacurate because the ES44AC uses the 7FDL-12 engine. Not that far off from the 7FDL-16 in terms of sound but I actually wonder why are very old sounds reused for a new engine in TSC. If I am correct, when the M8 was released, it used Class 395 sounds in Train Simulator

 

Judging from the scripting issues and extremely old reused sounds, this is probably going to be a hard pass from me. Especially since we technically already have all the rolling stock available in the game as DLC (Empire Builder P42s and Dash-8 32 pack for the Superliners and heritage baggage cars, and Raton Pass for the material handling cars).

Not to mention Phase III and IV reskins for the above mentioned P42s available here https://thelocoshop.wixsite.com/thelocoshop/tls-subscriber-uploads.

 

Shocker

 

If you read the posts after Blacknred81’s especially by Smokebox you will realise that it did not “completely broke” (apologies for the bad English, I am quoting) and it did what it was intended to do. Manual reading would have avoided the event.

 

I never said it "completely broke"

 

Yeah, which was immediately rebutted by people who watched the stream, and Jamie himself..

Regardless of the stream issues, this DLC does not show a level of polish that it should. I even tried giving Cesar artwork advice but even with the use of Substance Painter, it visually isn't improved from his other products. Inaccurate geometry, colours that don't reflect reality well, and weathering that somehow looks dirty and shiny at the same time..

 

Where do you guys get all this information from?

 

There was a stream last week that was taken down. Only was able to get the discussion on it in pieces from the TSC discord. Anyone who had watched that stream probably has more info.

 

Currently it's a matter of trust between Jamie and Smokebox (or rather some supporters).
Possibly the truth is a bit of both.

This is careful wording.

This is fairly explicit denial.

I had a similar suspicion earlier in the thread (given my experience of breaking scripts, most obvious with alerters but the P42DC has a tendency to completely freeze visually, and two occasions of audible engine RPM being stuck as well), and then others started repeating to read the manual.

 

The script never loses control of the locomotive.

 

Fully agreed, Mike. Having had the opportunity to run the P40 for a month in preparation of this article, I've never had a failure of control.

 

Unfortunately damage to reputations by mis-information are not so quickly or easily repaired.

 

Exactly. Even if the brake problem wasn't present the DLC itself doesn't seem all too promising. When Armstrong Powerhouse and Searchlight Simulations (yes, you guys are awesome) put out something of double if not triple the quality of DTM's offerings for a similar(ish) price there really isn't much excuse.

 

So? Just because it didn't happen to you doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Simply dismissing what everyone saw on stream like it's nonsense is not a wise decision.
This isn't some sort of slander or "misinformation" you are so quick to point fingers at. The thing broke on stream twice, simple as.

 

Would be nice if DTG didn't take down the stream from Youtube, what a nice way to hide what really went wrong with this flawed product.

 

Is it too much to ask for some US content that is at least even half way decent?

Hell, look what UTS did with the Reppo contract DTG AC44 from Tehachapi.

 

Or did he return the F4 HUD throttle slider from the top (full dynamic braking, which at the speed the loco was travelling would have been fairly ineffective anyway) to the bottom (full throttle)? The slider, just like the handle in the cab, is a combined power and dynamic braking control.

I watched the stream and I did not see the loco "break". I saw it being mishandled repeatedly and it did what I'd expect it to do if treated that way. It seems to me that some people didn't understand what they were seeing. Not everyone saw the same thing.

 

Yes, because literally not being able to control the locomotive is mishandling, that makes perfect sense.

 

Regardless of the debatable scripting issues exhibited, there are a number of other problems that were made apparent on the stream and articles.
Noteably to me, was the fact the HEP generator sound did not turn off with the main engine sound. How that got beyond testing is frankly, beyond me as it should really be one of the first things picked up on during development.
That's not to mention the graphical bugs that I was able to deduce purely from the screenshots, such as the headlight flares clipping with the geometry of the nose, which is easily fixed by increasing the extrusion offset of the flare, but I can see hasn't been done here.
To add insult to injury, it doesn't appear that he's made an effort to take on advice and feedback he's recieved on Facebook in months prior either, from myself and others, though he did use a horn I provided to him, which proves to me he's at least aware of the feedback.
I don't intend to needlessly dump on developers and their respective add-ons, or personally attack anyone, but given DTM's track record, I'm not surprised at any of this.

 

This sounds total confusing.
In every single loco, despite physically being the way you describe, the slider is pulling power at the top (100% position) and brakes at the bottom (0 or -100% position). I don't even use F4, I press A to add power and D to reduce it or add brakes.
If one loco works differently, it's going against standards and I will consider it bad. Having one random loco where D is accelerating...

Would anyone consider a car road ready where the pedals are shuffled?
No. Big, fat, no. You're not even allowed to drive with two feet in cars without a clutch pedal, even if you have karting and simulation experience.
A = acceleration
D = deceleration

 

It's done that way to be consistent with the handle in the cab. It looks silly if the slider is moved up and causes the handle in the cab to move down, and vice-versa. As for standards, when it comes to Pro locos, there are no standards. I stress again, that Pro locos come with manuals, which are intended to be read.

 

Nothing about this pack so far seems pro-range quality to me.

 

In that case, your understanding of Pro Range differs considerably from mine.

 

I'm sick to the teeth with this thread. You can now say whatever you like. I'm done with it.

 

Mike, I have nothing but respect for you and your work, but it seems quite a stretch to call anything aside the brakes from this pack "pro-range" when it exhibits all the issues it does. Does it have any other non-standard features included? Because if it does I'd love to know what they are. Like I said previously, I'm not trying to personally attack or ridicule anyone, but at the typical pricetag addons sell for I can't see anything here to justify it.

 

To elaborate on LP's point, does it have more advanced traction physics, HEP simulation which affects power output, significant systems modeling on the MFDs, etc? Having good brakes is nice but does not singlehandedly make something 'pro range' to most players.

 

[removed - JD - antagonistic]

Simon and other DTG staff have previously done a great job of highlighting what features one can expect prior to the release of a product.