Road Map Train Sim World Roadmap - April 2023

I have just looked at the RTT for Syston myself and found there to be more than 20 freights as you said, but again, lots of the freight have wagons not in TSW at the moment. I know there are a few container movements but a lot of these are not operated by EWS but are operated by GBRF and perhaps Skyhook are going down the realistic route when it comes to the timetable. Although I think most people would rather there be more freight which is unrealistic in which I believe will be seen but just as ai. (I know the 45 railtour isn't realistic but they probably thought it would be a missed opportunity not including it)
At least we are getting more realism compared to other 3rd parties like Rivet who chose to make us pay to get extra railtours for Edinburgh-Glasgow.

 

Which is why we're getting railtours, ECS drags and RHTT trips? Seems a bit odd to me that...

Not sure what you mean by that. You will need the supporting DLC to get the railtours, ECS and RHTT on the new route

 

More about how you cannot do the Class 37 railtour on it if you dont have the 'new' Steam Railtour Ripoff bundle, even though the Mk1s used are the *exact same* as the ones which come with Spirit of Steam (a very popular dlc). That whole thing should've just been layers and not a DLC (Considering jubilees never even went to penzance (even for a railtour))

But Ripoff Games need their cashgrabs for their long neglected DLCs i guess

 

I put that on DTG... that they cloistered the loco and other assets with routes has made the situation worse than in TSC, and that was a mess to begin with

 

The new MML and 700 screenshots look amazing, Hope the MML isn't going to be as bad as the DB BR 187.

 

Those are realistic and have been seen before, especially the ECS drags.
Railtours often go to Derby, it would be nice to see the railtour at Derby with the 2 37's and mk2 coaches fro the BCC finishing it's journey.
RHTT's are common during the Autumn season.
The freight however is harder to get when so much of the stock is not included in TSW. Thats why we had a lot of freight on SEHS, because the stock we saw round there is common but for the MML, there is more freight to do with materials and metals which we do not currently have and a lot of the freight is not operated by EWS like I said before.

And Rivet chose to only allow us to use railtours if we get the rip off steam railtour pack which is full of copy and pasted garbage for a price a few pounds off a brand new loco! I am not going to get into detail about why that is the worse DLC to date here but what I am trying to say is Rivet's routes do not have very realistic timetables wheras with MML, it already looks promising because we know we are getting a nice amount of variety with the timetable which is what makes people play a route more, like SEHS where I counted 20 different trains you can see when we get the EMT HST and 700's.

 

Not every day they're not. The ECS drags on SEHS were a weekly thing as an example

The Freight runs on SEHS aren't realistic either because there are ZERO freight diagrams on the CML. All freight on the North Kent lines either ends at Hoo, goes up onto the peninsula or onto the Medway Valley lines. Rochester literally has zero allocation this week!
So even if we have the correct wagons to run through Gravesend, it's a stretch to say the freight on SEHS is realistic

Oh, agreed. I'm sure DTG are working on a GBRf license...

20?
43(AI only), 395, 375, 465, 66, 37ROG... I must be missing a fair few which might be the rail tours, but they're all one run repeated with different locos

 

Whats wrong with the EMT livery imo it looks good then the rather plain green GWR livery

 

I mean they are common there because thats where a lot of the electrostars got refurbished, the freight on SEHS have all run before, there is no freight which has never done that certain run before, but not everything would happen all at once which is what makes the route entertaining. When I say the freight is realistic, I mean that the wagons used are realistic and the services have all happened in the past, the only thing not realistic is the freight.

All the trains spotted on SEHS so far are: 08, 20, 37, 37 ROG, GWR HST, EMT HST (coming soon),47 NTP, 47 WSR, 66, 66 RHTT, 66 ECW, 66 GWE, 375, 375 white, 377 ECW, 377 BML 395, 465, 700 (coming soon), Jubilee, ICE, TGV

 

It couldn't be as bad as the 187. Dtg doing the sounds, physics, setup and they're usually really good at it. Skyhook is responsible for art and animations which you can't really mess up. And they've put a lot of time to make it as realistic as possible as mentioned in the roadmap

 

There's also the tgv

 

I think the colours are gaudy and mismatched and it looks like a tube of toothpaste or a medical ointment packaging. On the other hand the GWR livery is a lovely statesmanlike colour that oozes class and has no unnecessary wavy lines at all. Imagine being in a car painted up like the GWR livery, now imagine being in a car painted up like the EMT livery. In one you would look like an elegant businessman and in the other some sort of clown or independent local radio presenter with oversized red glasses. Urrgh. Those are the images the two bring up for me. I’m more BBC2 than ITV3 you could say.

 

DTG said Just Trains had finished laying over 40 miles of track. I wonder whether that was the length of the route or they're trying to make it sound more of an achievement by literally meaning 40 miles of track, 17 miles there and back and some sidings and all the platforms at Preston.

Otherwise, if it's a 40 mile route, it's not going to be Preston to Blackpool. As I said elsewhere the Metropolitan Line clocks in at 41 miles including branches and it'll need the new rolling stock that JT are said to be making.

 

See below an actual car paint job that you can (or will be able to) buy, they did a version of this a few years back and it sold a few...

 

I think the EMT livery is one of the better ones, but I don’t think think it suits the HST powercars. The coaches look fine, and the livery suits the 158 & 222, but I’ve never liked the wave effect on the 43’s.

For me the GWR Green livery is just very…depressing.

 

Many thanks Alex can’t wait for this as am very familiar with this 158 and live on MML with Long Eaton. Actually been my home town lol thanks again happy Easter to all at DTG and our Friends at skyhook

 

Excellent news, if it is as I understand it.
Thanks.
Mike.

 

The GWR livery is so boring it makes me want to fall asleep just looking at it. It's practically black in cloudy weather.

The EMT livery is very pleasing to the eye. Beautiful colours arranged in a pleasing way. You're genuinely the first person I've seen who doesn't like it.

For me, it stands alongside the GNER and TPE stained glass liveries as the best ones in the privatisation era.

 

Dovetail just confirmed the walkaround videos are planned for friday btw.

 

Let’s hope the HSTs have a good amount of clag

 

Agreed. GWE calls to mind a vintage Bentley, stately and elegant; the EMT job looks like a NASCAR entry.

 

I think they bought those trains from the little kids' section of Toys R Us. I keep looking for the windup key.

 

About time imo!

 

And what's wrong with that? People love NASCAR.

 

Hey DTG JD don’t forget about Dresden Commuter. That achievement is nearing it’s 19th month of disfunction on Xbox and PS. And also 19 months of you guys saying you are aware of the problem and working hard on it. You should be working effective instead.

 

19 months is absurd. There go my hopes that any of the other broken trophies will ever get fixed.

 

Quite possibly the single most disappointing thing I've ever read.

 

It looks like I'm going to be able to save quite a bit of money because there's nothing on the roadmap that interests me at full price. My wallet is going to thank me after spending €132 in just over a month on NYT, Acela, NID, TRF and ROG.
I would buy the CLASS 700, but if it included services for BML. If it is exclusive to SEHS, this route already has a large timetable and variety so I will wait for a sale.

Well, I also want the DB BR 420 but I think it's a long way off.

 

I prefer the remastering of the Brighton line and the inclusion of the 700 class rather than the introduction of a new route.

The reconstruction of the Brighton line cannot be shelved. It should be included in the roadmap and should have the highest priority.

I cannot support DTG in their decision. I really hope that the company will reconsider the priority of its tasks and we will get a remaster of the Brighton line in 2023.

 

And loads of people would prefer a new route with new stock, preferably something we haven't got already, maybe nowhere near London or a third rail. There's thousands of miles of track out there which dozens of train types not being touched. Constantly going over old lines might incrementally make that specific line better but doesn't help expand the game as a whole

 

Agree with you mate.
I was just typing out something very similar but you got there first!

 

I mostly disagree with this since all old lines and stock still contain a lot of issues and inconsistencies that could use retouching. I would rather they improve what’s already there than let us pay for more content of the same quality.

 

They are generally improving things over time but without new releases (large injections of cash) the company goes bust and we get neither new or old stuff for much longer.
And where does it end?
So they add in the 700, which means rebuilding the timetable, and increasing the memory load.
Then two years down the line they make WCW, so have to rebuild the timetable again to allow for that
then they add in functionality in TSW4, and have to rebuild... you see where that road leads?
The problem with constant revisting of DLC in that fashion is that the more content you put out the less gain you make from it because every additional bit of content just adds in more to be revisited for each legacy content.

My personal preference would be similar to the "normal IT model for supporting legacy content and systems" which is you put a support end date on each piece of content or system and up to that date you get revisions and updates. After that, no... Doesn't need to be supported or revised
Make it four or five years.
This might annoy people who want GWE to be updated to 2023 spec, but it would limit the issue as noted above as only the last twenty or so in-house releases would need to be maintained which is much more manageable than fifty or more

 

They don’t work between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

 

No of course not.

I mean having them as AI layers for LNER services (when they were on hire to them) from Edinburgh Waverley

 

Oh i see sorry

 

I would agree with you if I was talking about continuous improvements, but what I meant was fixing persistent issues on existing DLC. Either way, DTG should be investing a lot more in properly testing their content before they release it.

 

But why not have both? There's plenty of third-party developers now featuring brand-new routes and rolling stock (E-G with the 385, MML with the 158 for UK content alone etc), so I don't see a problem for DTG to upgrade some existing content - especially justified for those which are most popular. At the same time it would mean some older routes can get new rolling stock anyway and, most importantly, more freshness. I'd also argue that not everyone wants to always see a new route: Boston and the Acela is a great example - it seems people are enjoying that more than NY-Trenton (a brand-new route and rolling stock). In my personal opinion I think a majority of older TSW routes (prior to 2022) have been much better overall which I play more than newer routes anyway.

DTG chose to have this as a loco DLC in TSW, and very well knew how much it has been requested for London Commuter. I certainly don't see how it can be unreasonable to want it for such a route it's synonymous with in real life?

 

Dev time. I don't want to have to wait two years whilst every last person who has any issue with any current route or train or timetable or asset has their issues address and tested and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
And in the meantime I'm sitting here wondering why I haven't got a decent sprinter, pacer or something that drives outside of the commuter belt.

Fifteen more types of electrostar isn't freshness. Sorry, it's just not

Probably true, but I would also bet that the people who are most invested in the route you mention live on or near said route. Personally I keep going on about the bridge just outside of Gillingham station (it's on SEHS between the station and the depot and in game it's a blue metal construction whereas in real life it's a cast iron bridge painted in black with detailing over the top where lights used to be fitted) or the way the stairs are at Sawnscombe or the fact that the cliff above the Higham tunnels are half the height they are in real life.
The question is whether these things would add to the driving experience (no they wouldn't) or are they just bean counting nit picking details only really picked out by people who've stood there or seen those things day after day

Absolutely I can see that people want this, but it's also not the route it's synonymous with
People in this game like to make that out, but IRL no, because it shares that route with others. Go to the MML and there's only the 700s that do the stoppers, with just about everything else running fast to at least Luton
That would be "where the 700 is synonymous with"
But back to the point of "people want it". There are plenty of people who want a deltic, or a flying scotsman, or a pacific, or more steam routes, or the Kyle Line, ECML, WCML, Eastern Region... People want everything so to pin any single one as more major than any other is probably erroneous

 

Yep, no disagreement here. I've advocated then stopping principal dev a month or more before release, having the previews streams for a few weeks and letting the "community" rip it apart...
I've even pointed out where this was done by DTG in the past and made changes which helped (class 47, Minehead route where someone pointed out details that were wrong and they got changed before release)

 

A sound idea in principle, but does it work that well in practice?

Take the recent NYT route, for example. A few weeks of the community " ripping apart " the route would have certainly revealed the long list of bugs, fixes for some of which are in the recent patch and which might have been addressed prior to release.

But it would also have revealed the glaring problems which DTG announced after release would not be fixed in any patch no matter how much we might have pointed them out in the run up to launch.

So, in the end, it's only the things that DTG want to fix that get pre-release attention, not the issues that we, the players might want fixed, no matter how many previews and how much time is allowed before launch.

There are other examples, like the SD70Ace, which the community " ripped apart " before release, but the bugs which we found were ignored and it was released anyway.

This is likely to happen with the upcoming UK routes too. I'm already reading about issues with MML and Peak Forest that UK players are pointing out from pre- launch articles and will certainly be amplified when the previews come out, issues that will likely not be addressed either by DTG or 3rd parties.

I would suggest that the amount of influence players have before something is released is fairly minimal these days, especially when the rush to market seems so hasty.

 

Then no matter what testing and retesting happens it won't matter. Kind of ends the conversation

 

This is the crux of it to me- DTG chose the 700, knowing exactly what the reaction would be to it not appearing on BML.

Fairly ironic that it was announced in the same roadmap as their breakdown of how they choose to release content- they clearly ran through a couple of red lights on this one lol

I guess they figure it'll sell enough no matter what.

 

The route it's by DTG i think Blackpool-pristol it's by JT

 

you could be right about that actually

 

Haha indeed, let's just hope they prefer to wait for a potential /1 and the necessary optimisation for any possible London Commuter TOD 4 upgrade. Then again, it still worries me that they aren't even considering just a handful of /0 services regardless rather than nothing at all for their brand-new loco DLC! A handful of services on SEHS is still great nonetheless, but certainly no comparison to the plethora of different services with BML.

 

And you think it's a good idea to bring 4 UK tracks one after another?
I think you should always have a good mix of regions, but this breaks that up. Such a strong focus on one country, without anything else in between, rather risks over-saturation and a too long "exclusion" of other interests.

 

Only two of them are DTG routes mate.
We haven't had a British route from DTG since mid November last year.

 

The DTG thing will hopefully be something different (100 mph AC running under wires hopefully) and a section of the network where realistic driving turns can be done. BML, Birmingham Cross-City and Edinburgh-Glasgow are great for working a shift. I don't like middle sections of larger routes.
I think the Greater Anglia area is ripe given the lack of diversity of rolling stock nowadays. 2 different Aventra Mk1 configurations and a 745 for either WA or GE mainlines. Throw in 37s on RHTT and 66s on freight (though much less on WA) and it'll look pretty convincing. It could even just feature the 345/720s at release.