Ny-trenton: Usa Content Is Still Severely Flawed

Not me, lol. Got the Acela, but not this one yet. In it's current state, it's clesrly rushed and full of issues. Will probably wait and see what updates/bugfixes they do in the next week and will watch a few more gameplays.

 

Could we get a more detailed description of what has been done here? The patch note is pretty vague.

 

I’m even holding out on the Acela. I know is tempting I’ve been wanting the Acela for the longest for the longest ,but I know if I get the Acela I’m going to want to drive it down New Jersey

 

I actually might give the Acela a chance for Boston Sprinter as well, we see ..as far as this half baked dlc of NY-T..its a DEFINITE no lol....

 

For Boston it's great fun. Increases traffic and variety on an already busy route route and is well done.

 

I’m using this down time to going back to Harlem and checking out those notorious services that usually ended stuck, so far so good. I’m not sure if it was Mondays patch had something to do with it. But I tell you harlem line is so busy. Is fun just watching trains go during rush hour

 

I shall be getting the Acela over the weekend although I was wavering when I discovered the Boston timetable has hard to keep to timings.

I want to want this new route but I will certainly not be getting it, until, if or when there is a busier timetable. Like others I won't purchase anything which has lots of bugs or feels unfulfilling. There are several new routes coming out and I will be probably getting Edinburgh to Glasgow when the update comes, also there is the Harlem and the Bremen route to get. So DTG will still be getting money from me but not as much as they might have.

The Acela does look impressive though.

I just think that it wouldn't do them any harm to hold off some releases for a few more weeks to "finish off" what they started. The NEC NJ timetable is astonishing.

 

I would've picked up Harlem Line despite it has a decent timetable, but it's only to North White Plains!!! Should've gone to Southeast!

 

That would be the best thing they could do. That move would pay off. There would be celebrations like the 2023 London’s new years fireworks

 

I know I wanted to also. But I’ll be honest after BML Harlem is my second favorite route. I might be bias nice I lived near by in the Bronx. But has plenty of services and AI.

 

Ima a long time NYer too(Brooklyn), so I def understand lol...But again I wasn't a fan of it, cuz after it was told they can make 50+ mile type routes at that time especially after London Commuter, they dropped the ball, as DTG gives us a 23 mile dlc to/from NWP, nah I'm good.If they would've had the dlc to Southeast, u would probably play all services since some on rush hours terminate at Mount Kisco, and Brewster also, instead of few ai out the game

 

My thoughts so far:
1) Terminating roads at Penn have no buffers. Not sure if this is accurate but it doesn't seem so...
2) WTF is suppression braking when you lap the brake yourself?!? (ALP-46)
3) Pantographs are optional, not just on AI but also when you drive the Metroliner Cab Car...
5) Lack of static rolling stock is a minus.
6) Trains still clipping platforms. Come on, still?
7) Not bothering to do proper PIS screens. Either go big or go home.

On another (sarcastic) note, who wants to start a money pool and buy DTG's private investors? Quality would surely increase if some concerns for the consumer worked their way up the hierachy.

Overall a 6/10.

 

As I see it, they have sold customers three times at full price the same station and a good piece of route and despite this clear recycling they have not even bothered to correct many of the mistakes of their original construction.

Let everyone draw their own conclusions.

 

Funny i was trying to find a proper review on youtube, such as the youtuber pixelade Rail, on this route. And lord behold, i only got those DTG "ambassadors" that only have good things to say lol.

hmmm sneaky marketing to catch new prey xD

 

I can respect your holdout. Which is what I’m trying to do lol. I’ve been waiting for the NEC and Acela for years but they drove a dagger with the awful timetable. Just horrible.

 

From what I've read and heard, suppression braking equivalent on the alp is to get the eq and mr (maybe it's just eq, idk) down to 90psi or something

 

Same. .I am really intrigued to fill up Boston with Acela.
How many services does Acela add to Boston?

I just cant bring myself to do it though for some reason with the route, and have been unable to do for a few months now.


That said there is a sale inbound.....

 

20 services. It may not seem like a lot but it's realistic

 

Ambassadors do point out bugs on the route and test the route and give feedback to dtg. I wouldn't say they get extremely mad over the bug and complain. Also, many of them just like driving different routes and tsw is like their main hobby which is why they would sound cheerful and seem to talk about positives. It might sound like they don't care but they provide lots of feedback to dtg. Also they aren't going to spend an entire stream trying to find every bug. The average user might not know what the bugs are or what's unrealistic, especially if not a native to the area. Even though routes may have bugs, I don't find them annoying and wouldn't know what the bug is unless it actually stops me from playing and getting from a to b

 

You even held out of the holiday express..........
March 16 for next sale.... I guess I have to wait until then

 

Are there any stabling moves in Boston? I assume some units would stay there overnight, right?

 

The Acela is actually quite nice tbh, I’d recommend it.

 

514 is working now? Good. Have you tried 2519 for the M3? I only started it and saw some suspicious trains stranding still near Crestwood (I think, the station where northbound train is supposed to cross left), so I gave up.

 

The newly released US DLCs won't be featured on that sale (not even with -10% off discount), as not even 30 days will have passed since their release. As for TSW3 DLCs released earlier, they will probably get from -25% to -35% off and TSW2 DLCs probably -35% off and higher discounts (so I may finally get Horseshoe Curve then).

If you want to get the new NEC route or Acela when it's discounted anything higher than -10%, you'll need to wait likely until the Steam Summer Sale. Personally, I'll probably wait until Steam Autumn, Winter Sale at the end of year, or the Festival of Rail in January.

 

Some of the ambassadors can be quite critical to be fair especially if it is in their area of knowledge or interest. I think they are just like an average TSW user, they enjoy the content but get irritated with it at the same time. They aren't there I don't think to necessarily be reviewing the content but playing it as you or I would.

There are some youtube reviewers who seem to go to the other extreme and just want to rant to inflate their ego. There are plenty in between.

 

for me is the main problem the missing track joint sounds on all trains on NJT its hard to hear any of them so im feeling that im flying but even then no engine sounds..
isnt it possible to raise the volume up for these missing sounds ? DTG

 

I noticed a few inaccuracies:
1. At NYP, Tracks 1 - 4 have 3rd rail and lack bumper blocks. In real life, tracks 1 - 4 don't have third rail, and they have bumper blocks.
Besides, it looks weird to just have the tracks end like that. If I'm not mistaken, there were bumper blocks in TSW 2020.

2. All AI locomotives are running on what appears to be sorcery since they don't use their pantographs.
3. When you complete a timetable session, your locomotive's pantograph might lower and not raise again.
4. NJT trains are prone to stalling on the steep grade from Jersey to NYP.
5. The catenary poles for East River Tunnel Line 1 clip / impale trains.

6. East River Tunnel Line 2 lacks cantenary on its approach.

7. Be careful near HAM interlocking on approach to Trenton. I nearly rear ended a train, apparently multiple trains can share a signal block there.
I should've known better since I've seen it in real life back in the day. Although that was a practice I normally saw on the outermost tracks.

 

Not for the Acela, unfortunately. In real life there are some sets that get stored in Southampton Street Yard overnight.

 

This might just be me, but it is something I wanted to bring up as constructive criticism, and / or something to think about.
A number of streamers on YouTube had little to no knowledge of the route and how to operate the trains.

Now I understand not everyone lives near that stretch of the NEC, but that's what YouTube & search engines are for, to give you a feel of it.
One thing many not from that area probably won't know is the horn procedure for Portal Bridge along with the East & North River Tunnels, long-long-short-long. Almost no one did that, but that's ok.
I was just a bit taken aback at how a good deal of streamers audibly stated they're unfamiliar with the route (physical route, history, etc).
I'm not expecting everyone to be a walking encyclopedia, but it would be nice if some were somewhat knowledgeable on the route.
At least some sort of balance would be ideal.

Also, this route takes some getting used to. I rode trains here, never operated one. So I had a few hiccups myself.
However, when it's time to demonstrate this route, imo I think it would be smooth if the streamers practiced it beforehand instead of winging it.
The amount of times the speed limits were ignored causing the safety systems to stop the train really made it hard for me to follow. I'm not looking for perfection, I just think it could've been a lot smoother.

Overall the purpose is to sell the game / DLC. As with anything, it's easier to sell something if the seller / salespeople / whatever you want to call them appear to understand what they're selling. Like it would be tough to sell Street Fighter if the demonstrators frequently dropped combos. Or imagine you're buying a car and the car salesperson knew little about the car they were selling you. See where I'm coming from?

Just something to think about. I'm not attacking anyone, just offering constructive criticism.

 

I'm definitely pretty ignorant of most physical characteristics and special instructions here. Once i get to grips with the manual lap brakes, I'll focus more on that =) I'd give people a pass for now until they have time to fully learn the territory.

It is a challenging route to say the least and that's part of the appeal.

EDIT: I'm talking about Trenton

 

Are you talking about DTG's own streams? It isn't any other streamers purpose to sell the route! They are just driving the route like any one of us would!

 

I agree. I did bring this up yesterday as some commented how busy the route felt as to really trying hard to sell it to us. Really? Unless you are from the area you wouldn't know that the route is actually only 20% represented from reality on the DLC. just my opinion

 

The one non DTG stream I watched was a service in the morning rush hour where I believe the route is at its busiest. They seemed to not know the furore about the quietness of the route on the forums, they likely don't visit here, they seemed suprised at comments on their stream about the timetable.

Presumably they will notice once they do a later in the day run.

 

I hope so. I mean you can just look at the time table and see only 10 ALP-46 pulling to Trenton for the whole day.... But you are correct they are just there to drive. Is just hard knowing what we know. I really hope DTG brings in Joethefish (the master of timetables) to save this DLC from a timetable point of view. I'm sure it did well in sales as they did a good job selling it with the Acela

 

Thats exactly what am hoping is for Joe to save this DLC. Also the Acela is a pretty good train. Had a blast on it on Boston. Still have not bought the new route waiting to see if DTG listens this one time. Am starting to wonder did the time go into adding freight services to London Commuter instead of adding the services into the new route. Has me wondering.

 

Another local thing besides the portal tunnel is in nj and after 1963 it is required to blow one long before any station even if you are on the middle tracks and not stopping.

 

I got pretty well used to the lap with peninsula corridor and a couple other routes so I was doing ok. I do come into route 128 though too hot I blew the station by 187 yards yesterday. Actually I was hoping I had no cars on the platform because I was a minute early and coulda backed up but was only penalized 96 points

 

I'll give this analogy since I'm from NY......... bringing Joethefish to do the timetable and bringing this DLC to life and proper form would be like the old days, the yankees Bringing Mariano Rivera to save the game 7 at the world series.........

 

NY-Trenton is not being sold to me, definitely, and it's not like Dovetail can't do better. I like to bring up London Commuter in this discussion. With 1,439 (I think it's exact) services, it's a much more lively route to drive than this would be. For instance, I just did a Class 66 run from Wivelsfield to Clapham Jn. (12:30pm -ish) and I was constantly chasing signals. I wasn't doing more than 40mph beyond East Croydon. I can heartily say it's the most engaging freight experience I've had, and the way things are going, this route is NOT going to have that. Dovetail HAS to fix these issues by Q1 this year I would say. Is this lazy developers or corporate pressure? I don't know but I definitely suspect the latter. A small part of me still likes to think Dovetail was about to pull a huge prank on the community.

 

I haven't chimed in on this thread yet, but I've been playing NY-Trenton for a bit now. Now I don't think it's an awful route, or anything near it, but it does have some glaring shortcomings.

First of all I'd agree the timetable feels lackluster. There are some moments where it does get interesting, and you get flying overtakes, adverse signals and overall a lot of nice and challenging signal and safety system interaction, aswell as there being plenty of trains around. However this is really isolated to just a few moments of the day, and only the northernmost section of the route. It really feels like it just lacks the punch that previous routes have had timetable wise, which is a shame, because this route, with the right timetable, has the potential to be one of the all-time greats. As for the LIRR layers, those would be great, about the freight I care less (though the odd CSX boxcar to populate a siding would still be nice). I find it interesting that even to someone that isn't that familiar with the route, the emptiness, especially after morning rush hour, is noticable aswell.

Then there are some 'simple' issues that really make me want to facepalm continously. I'll list them below, but these all are relatively small things compared to the timetable issue, yet still make the route feel so rushed.

• No improved wheel blur on the Amfleet coaches and ACS-64.
• A number of clipping issues, especially with platform edges and pillars in NY Penn.
• No ability to climb up the platform edge at Newark Penn, just the littl stairs (come on, this isnt TSW2020 anymore, I forgot how annoying this is)
• Floating OHLE masts near one of the junctions (the one near Newark I believe).
• Lowered pantographs on AI trains.
• No marker lights on the last vehicles of AI trains.

Now these do fall into the category of things that I think will be fixed in post update patches, hopefully even somewhat soon. However, they just show that apparently the polishing of the route was very rushed, and they take away from immersion quite consistently.

All this really feels like a shame. NY-Trenton had and still has a lot of potential. The OHLE is mostly masterfully done, the signalling system seems to work and the rolling stock is quite decent, with only the quality of the horns being hit or miss on the included stock. The route also gets the right 'feel' across to me, with it reminding me of videos and pictures I see of the NEC online both in looks and ovall 'vibe'. With some polishing and a better timetable this route would near the top of the list of routes I would recommend, even though I primarily like German routes. However, even though it still is quite a fun route, it keeps reminding you of the small issues and lacking timetable, and the way that wastes this routes massive potential. At the moment I prefer not to think about the fact that this is the first release I actually payed the newer higher price for at launch, and enjoy it as much as I can.

Is NY-Trenton severely flawed? No. It's just fallen far short of it's potential.


As for the Acela release, which also has been talked about in this thread: It's really good . The Acela is very much an on-par DLC, and I'm happy to see more loco DLCs. They also really nailed the looks of it IMO (see picture attached below).

 

The route itself is gorgeous

irl you wouldn’t have any bottlenecks of note unless you’re moving from express to local tracks south of Newark. Once you leave Newark Penn you’re just about spread out enough that the only delay would be something abnormal.

it’s getting between ny Penn and Newark Penn where the congestion lies.

what you describe though is the exact reason why it’s disappointing. You’ll have these random meets and fly bay all the way to Trenton and then like crazy past Rahway with the proper timetable.

for example driving to work this morning … I work in secaucus … there were 5 trains visible between where I come down the hill and to where I got off the exit. 4 inbound including two stuck at signals and one outbound.

this is what it should normally look like

if you railfan in secaucus on a weekday you shouldn’t wait for more than a couple 3 mins to see a move peak and maybe 10-15 mins off peak. The line is THAT busy.

of course it doesn’t hold a candle to someplace like London where it’s rare to not ever see a train moving. We Americans don’t quite understand volumes on railroads like Europeans do. It’s fun to railfan passenger operations in England and Germany because the volume of trains is mind blowing. I once shot a video in koln that was 45 minutes long and at no point was there less than two simultaneous moves. Crazy

 

Question I have is in the event they decide to add other services, branches, and AI services from NJT to the NEC NY-Trenton route, do they have the paths needed for the Morris&Essex,Montclair-boonton, and Ratitan lines? I think they do but I can be wrong. I know they already have it for the North jersey coast line since is already on timetable. I think they can even do AI trains going in and out towards hoboken like they do on Dartford for SEHS. Yes I know I'm dreaming again......

 

The shame is just that not that long ago I wrote a thread acclaiming Hamburg-Lübeck for the massively improved timetable around Hamburg Hbf, and how I thought timetables had gotten sooo good with recent releases. I was honestly surprised that NY-Trenton didn't follow that trend. From playing those German routes with impressive timetables, I just know what's possible, and I think that one of the few places in the US that actually sees traffic like that, should be represented as best as possible timetable-wise.

 

100% agree on this statement.

 

You know why these routes are released in this state? Simple. The majority who were moaning about the route pre-release bought it anyway. DTG has your cash, investors are happy. The rest is wishful thinking.

It's been like this for over a year without any improvement - people who left won't come back. The rest will buy the DLCs (and that's the majority it seems).

 

I hate to admit it but you are correct on this. I don't feel is our place to judge or advice people on what they should or shouldn't do when it comes to purchasing content. The only suggestion I can make is when DTG is telling us they admit they just ran out of time, they know and hear us about the timetable, but at the same time state that the are no plans to improve the DLC......and you buy it, then you are acknowledging and accepting to lackluster content. Again this is my opinion and no judment on my part.

 

I agree 100% with this. Trenton could be incredible with a little bit more TLC.

 

So, in English, for someone who has not yet bought the DLC for NEC: Trenton or the Acela DLC yet

Avoid NEC at all costs
Do get the Acela

 

I wouldn't say it that way.

Acela is great. Definitely get it if you like the Acela, or trains of that type in general (higher speed/express electric).

Trenton:
For an Amtrak fan the Trenton route is pretty good, it fully replicates the proper Amtrak timetable and also includes a bunch of Acela services.

If you are buying the Acela anyway, and you want to experience it outside of Boston, I'd say this route is worth it. So far I've just done Acela services and enjoyed it since it gives you a different feel than Boston.

If you are a NJT fan or are very concerned with an accurate world/busy traffic maybe hold off to see if DTG addresses the commuter timetable.

It is not a bad route, it just has a unfinished timetable which needs attention. At least that is not a fundamental flaw and can be fixed afterwards, the question is IF DTG will fix it. It is surprising they let this happen considering some of the masterpiece timetables they've put out over the last few years, but I guess the big question is if this gets shelved the way it is or do they put more work after the fact. I hate to say it but I almost feel like if it does poorly in sales they will have less incentive to fix it.

 

If it sells well, DTG will be happy. -> Let's move onto the next project.
If it doesn't sell well, DTG will try forgetting this route as soon as possible. -> Let's move onto the next project.