Ny-trenton: Usa Content Is Still Severely Flawed

The gap between UK and DE routes appreciation and the US is enormous... US addons are like wastelands in terms of timetables, variety of trains, interchangeability, signalling, passengers system... There is not even one US route close to DRA or BML quality, and that is a fact.

 

I don’t watch them now, but I don’t think Adam is on them anymore.

 

AMEN

 

This is quite an old route... It says a lot about DTG

 

Those shots are pretty appalling. Maybe five years ago they might have been forgivable but not now.

 

Well, the definition of Quality Assurance is " the maintenance of a desired level of quality in a product by paying close attention to every stage of production and delivery. "

To me that means delivering a product that is complete, fit for purpose and is as good as it can possibly be.

Now that route dlc are at the $40 level, this is more important than ever.

I wonder how the QA Czar, who was reportedly hired last year, is spending his/her time. Obviously he/she is not playing through any scenarios or services.

 

Well, according to DTG themselves, QA is only responsible for checking if every button in a train works and if anything causes the game to crash. If "it doesn't crash right away, yay" is the minimum desired quality for them, well, that explains a lot of things, lol.

 

The rest of the QA is done by us, the players that pay for the game, since every DLC seems to release in an beta state.

 

Agreed.

The roadmap streams were a lot better back then, especially with Sam or Adam as regulars on it.

Now it’s just a marketing stream with like a dozen questions answered at the end.


Communication on DTG’s part was actually quite good from late 2020 to just before Rush Hour in spring 2021. After that everything’s just gone downhill.


One thing I’ll say is that Matt’s charity stream last weekend was quite good because he answered several questions from the chat that we’d never have answered on the forums or on the roadmap (sorry, marketing) streams.

 

Ironically I would say 5 years ago the game looked like it has massive potential. I always look back to the SPG as a template for what came after it. That route had bugs, but the craft that was put into it, the nice details all over the place... wish we were getting that now... even though the tech has moved, there are so many problems with each release that it makes me wish for another 2017 SPG...

 

Bugs can be forgiven, because computer code can act in unexpected ways with a complex programme. However, scenery clipping through trains, incorrect numbers of collectables, unobtainable collectables and unobtainable gold medals should absolutely never exist. There is simply no excuse for this and any attempt to excuse this is quite frankly pathetic.

 

Same. When TSW first launched with Sand Patch Grade, the game showed great potential. Then GWE released, I remember reviews said it's a great add-on, though a bit short. But everyone agreed that if SPG and GWE were the minumum TSW standard and it's only uphill from here, then TSW has great future. Yet more than 5 years later we are still struggling quality wise... Sure, there have been many core improvemenets and new features introduced with each release, and it's great. But overall quality wise, it's a constant struggle. Some routes have great scenery, others have good timetables or good variety of rolling stock, and so on. But for some reason there is never a consistent quality that you can expect, and the number of obvious bugs and issues on launch day seem to be growing every time.

 

Couldn't agree more. SPG, which was not perfect, was a paradigm which has only occasionally been matched since.

The team which produced it was able to spend all the time they needed to make it as good as it was. Perhaps that's what is missing these days.

That said, I've spent most of today driving up and down NYT ( a rare luxury for me ). The trains, in and of themselves, are quite fun to drive and well modeled. There just aren't enough of them.

There's no questioning the rush you feel when being passed by an Amtrak express at full speed, for instance. But it's a pretty rare occurrence.

When you see the few lonely freight cars along the route, you realize just how much potential was lost.

Can it be brought to life? Maybe, but it would need a thorough revamping of the NJT timetable and some serious polishing of the scenery elements as well as the addition of some freight and LIRR action.

 

I always see SPG mentioned as the paragon of TSW routes, but seemingly overlooking that was the entire game at the time- probably 95% of the entire team was working on it.

They were launching a brand new game and I'd wager the budget for the route itself was at least an order of magnitude higher than any subsequent route. It came with 3 locos and ALL the rolling stock.

Tbh, i find it hard to believe DTG could make a profit with that level of spend on each route.

I'm really not trying to downplay ongoing quality issues- clearly the DLC release cadence is too fast, or the budget is too low, but i don't think replicating the SPG dev process is at all realistic.

 

SPG also had several years of development so that could be a reason why it was made into such high standard. After all, for a new product, you want good first impressions

 

Did NYT get the previous Boston signals. I’m hearing it has the name issues Boston had before. Reducing you to 30 miles when there’s no traffic in front. Sounds similar to the issues Boston had before

 

NYT signals use the Harlem method for pulse coding, some of the elements of Boston signal scripts that made them great, and then some other "magic" to determine the signal aspect. It's not yet perfected, but a decent start.

 

Thanks for the info. Hopefully they can get it to the way Boston is now. Harlem seems to be working much better as I ran the timetable from the 0400 in the morning to 1600 and didn’t see any stuck trains. NYT has lots of potential if the work on it

 

What kind of excuse is that? In what other game do you see their first launch content being the most quality, then the rest just barely hitting the mark years after? Development is supposed to progress and quality improve, not decline.

Is TSC content still pre-2010 Rail Simulator quality? No. Routes are longer and longer, models prettier, scenery better, simulation more detailed.

 

Despite our moaning we rail enthusiasts are quite a nice bunch. If TSW were an FPS or RPG, social media would be aflame, and Metacritic hit with 0/10 review bombs. The game regularly feeds our geeky virtual train-driving needs, but DTG’s working practices are definitely wearing thin.

 

Agreed. While it might seem we are... "toxic"... we really just want the game to do well and the content to be great. It doesn't have to burn in flames. But sadly what we want recently means to criticize almost every release...

 

No surprise that on todays roadmap nothing is mentioned about any upcoming fixes for the NYT route and that is even beng looked at. Like we mentioned, already forgotten and now on to the next, repeat

 

Yeah, after my experience with the last couple of new routes and route overhauls, I've checked out of buying anything again until hopefully TSW4 sees an overhaul of the unrealistic, migraine-inducing lighting system of TSW3, with its tunnel entry flash, washed out cabs, and what I have jokingly suggested is a typo in material definitions where someone tried to write "grass" and instead put "glass", where loads of materials react in bizarrely specular ways to the increased light levels (mortar on the walls in Boston-Providence, for example, which has an unnatural glow in TSW3 post-update). Because at the end of the day while it's not unsalvageable, they clearly have no intention of improving it any time soon. I have plenty TSW2 routes to tide me over until then, it's only going to be another year or so, after all.

 

Jd said more details would be mentioned in the roadmap article and he said a patch is coming.

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/march-roadmap-stream-q-a-thread.65696/

 

Well knock me sideways with a feather, what a surprise as you say. Didn’t see that one coming. DTG = Dodgy-release Time to Go.

 

Very bizarre that it hasn't been mentioned at the beginning of the thread, but only later as a reply. Was it added because of the questions later? Was it not supposed to be part of the article?

 

yea you think that maybe that should have been towards the top of the list or maybe just be on the list to begin with.....

 

Define exactly what is bizarre about it? He gave a brief summary of what would be on the roadmap, missed something out, and clarified when asked. What on earth is bizarre about that? It's a normal interaction. It's something that happens every day in most people's jobs. Sheesh.

 

We know these articles get made over the course of a couple of days, so it's not a 5-minute job. All major topics in recent roadmaps have their own section, so the overview in that thread would be a collection of headers in the article. And NYT problems were the biggest topics this year so far. It is unlikely this one would be forgotten.

 

Im not surprised many still think that bugs can have their reports be compiled, tested to be recreated, search for a fix that wont break anything else, fixed, and tested, in only two weeks.

 

Bremen got TWO fixes within a week. Sure, nobody would expect the new timetable in two weeks, but clipping and missing assets? Yeah, that should've been touched by now.

 

yea what are we thinking

 

They put a few fixes...But how bout the upcoming German routes, looking promising, especially the Linke Rheinstrecke route..hmmm look at that they have layers in both of them...pretty sure they didn't run out of time with this route to include everything needed (although I heard some say inaccurate layers at the moment)....Was there time constraints for this???ohhh wait that excuse only applies for US Lol...Where was this same energy DTG????orrrrrr yall too afraid to admit it. So of course this particular half baked dlc of NY-T would be forgotten with just barely 5 fixes in hand. Ohhh even SEHS getting another loco the class 37/7....like I said again and again...DTG DOESNT care about the US passenger and quite frankly freight dlc...they have to make sure that UK and German gets all the glory....And the fact that SEHS is getting another add on loco hmmm, no surprise.

Btw I like how they investigating bout a few bugs in the NY-T dlc, but according to many whoever they are have the dlc is pointing out like 20 more bugs lol....Meanwhile, they investigated in lots of bugs on the Scotrail Express dlc( although I hear some weren't really fixed).

 

Meh, to be honest, the new german route also has some interesting shortcomings. Once again no period correct PIS, and express passenger locomotive used for freight... Also if the post-2010 looking scenery cars are still in the route, that will be quite an immersion breaker for a route that is supposed to be set in 1997.

But I do agree, it's sad that there still isn't anything about a timetable update for the route. Do they really plan on keeping it like this?

 

Yep they are lol...and yea im surprised at the PIS for this upcoming dlc and I don't know why they put express service for freight..But yea they keeping this garbage of a timetable the way it js...Probably because they too stuck on that Acela may have saved them but the reviews don't lie lol

 

so no plans and no promises for PIS on the new german route. I guess they might get it at the same time NYT gets a new timetable

 

So 5 DLC being release before the next roadmap..... release and forget full steam ahead.......

 

They didn't even mention fixing AI trains (running with pantos down, with doors open, without lights...). But not fixing platform clipping is a big sin. I mean the biggest sin is the timetable, compared to that the platform clipping should be a much quicker fix.

 

West Cornwall getting a steam railtour hmmmm...interesting another UK getting another loco add on...

Well remember they did reuse part of the LIRR dlc instead of building this from scratch, technically being lazy to begin with lol...So I'm not surprised the clipping still there.

 

Meanwhile on Steam:



They said they were very proud of this DLC.

 

Very proud of rushing a half baked DLC with numerous bugs and inaccuracies and they think they proud of this dlc???lmao...Thats a great joke if ever.

 

as I mentioned before I think that is even worse now that they know the DLC will sell no matter what negative feedback they receive or......not sure about how things will change for the better.

 

NYT has fallen into the LIRR zone........ another US forgotten route........ I see a year from now we will still be here talking about this DLC and what it could have been ...... is really a shame........

 

New York Penn station is cursed. Every route that features it ends up bad, lol.

 

Well u know DTG has to find more dumb excuses for these unfinished dlcs...the fact they said they very proud of the job they did speaks volumes and let's me further know, this wasn't even priority when being built, since all other UK and German dlcs getting a lot of share and accurate type timetables(except the upcoming Linke one, I see ppl not happy with a few)...If this dlc had accurate timetable, and maybe part of added NJCL(as far as South Amboy), Newark Broad St added, LIRR ai layers, and of course accurate timetables, I probably would've had the green light to buy it, but nope DTG and their biasness/excuses for the US content continues. ANd I don't wanna hear excuses cuz Dresden-Riesa got that added branch almost a month later to the dlc. BML has many ai and playable layers including the section to Reigate. SEHS being rebuilt with added sections of few routes...NO EXCUSES!!![/QUOTE]

 

May as well give up guys. The route is as good as it's going to get. For those that bought it, lesson learned (and shame on you ). For those that didn't, be happy that you saved some money that you could spend on other things / hobbies of better quality.

 

That's my take on the situation as well. Sad that the route is a flop, but happy that I didn't buy it and I am saving myself a lot of frustration. If DTG says they are proud of this, well... good for them, I guess? I will continue playing other TSW content and other games instead.

 

Can’t understand why they made what appears to be a beautiful route with great stock only to give it a LOVE**y timetable. Doesn’t make sense and NYT will probably be definitively removed from my wishlist as they confirmed tonight no changes to be made.

 

if you listen to them without hesitation or remorse that no changes to be made. So here it is. they are basically telling us that this will be the new normal. take it and take it. I find this very difficult to comprehend since usually this doesn't end well but in their case. doesn't seem to had made any difference.

 

In the world of the shareholder driven business, it's all about going faster and higher prices (margins) as much as you can get away with with the customer. After driving away a massive percentage of customers six months ago I'm surprised we haven't heard another typical canned corporate message along the lines of "clearly we have missed the mark" and "we commit to doing better", etc. But who knows. Maybe their sales numbers are still fine therefore expect more "NYTs" every month ad nauseam.