Midland Mainline - Leicester To Derby & Nottingham

Not whingeing, genuine concern particularly after a well respected member of the community has signed off on the 158 to the effect we are in for a huge treat. For £30 I cannot take another disappointment like WCL and the 150/2, particularly as I’m back on a yellow card with Steam where refunds are concerned, (thanks West Rhine and Trenton).

And I’m glad to see others share my concern over the standard of the interior, crudely modelled and textured and over bright saturation.

I will reserve final judgement until after the stream but I would guess with 10 days left to release, pretty much WYSIWYG.

 

It is very subtle, the cable trunking I agree with you.
Hopefully they have advertising boards down the middle of the line as per reality.
But that bridge and the test of the station is still recognisable as Leicester.

It's never going to be a 100% accurate copy of the route, as long as it gets the correct feel.
I could pick similar holes in GWE for example, but the scenery is still good and definitely feels like the GWML when you drive along.

I've lived in Leicester as well as Reading and know both lines very well

 

The 'idling' sounds are the same as when the train moves off, so I suspect that whoever recorded the video may have left the train in notch 4 when stationary my mistake perhaps. Also, I dislike the overuse of the horn in some of these previews, a cheeky two tone towards the end is perfectly sufficient.

 

I see, thanks!

 

The interior of the 158 does look a bit low quality I must admit and too bright and shiny. The idling sounds would be an annoyance to me. I will see what it is like when we see a release build.

 

I can handle bridges not being 100% accurate as long as they are a good representation but having a straight piece of track where a curve should be is not really acceptable as far as I am concerned.

 

Guys, just want to reassure you all - high revs at idle is because I think the compressor speed up was switched on in the video.
I know that in the game, the idle is lower.

 

Yeah I was going to rewatch today and see how the cab is setup, as I’m convinced that cannot be what they settled on for idling.

That was a monumentally silly idea of a first show off.

Thanks for confirming.

 

The main reason why Leicester Station looks too enclosed, is because the wall on the right should not extend so far beyond the platform.
You can stand at the North end of the southbound platform and quite easily view Leicester loco inspection point.
Regarding the Class 158, I think the interior is far too bright (i.e. tinted windows) as well as the idling sounds which has been mentioned above.
Mike.

 

I'd argue none of these are major problems, honestly, if the biggest compaint you have is the "bridge is different" i'd say it's pretty good.
Obviously they've used a generic asset because otherwise, every footbridge in the game, bar modern modular ones would be different and thus, use more memory.
All of the details you have described are not vital to the overall representation and perfection isn't realistically achievable.

 

Are you also a Beta tester?
londonmidland can you confirm and settle this? (If the NDA police allow?)

 

That's an interesting point and I did wonder earlier actually when walking back from the shops. I can live with the low res interior saloon so long as the sounds are mint.

 

Same here, it’s disappointing the saloon looks the way it does, but I spend most my time in the cab. Will just be an issue when you walk down the train.

 

I don't expect 100% accuracy, but as a someone who has lived in Leicester all their life and travelled out of Leicester northbound hundreds of times I am allowed to want it to look reasonably accurate. The rest of the route looks good, the HST looks and sounds incredible but Leicester not looking like Leicester is a bugbear for me.

 

Ah yes, did completely miss that! Does indeed look like Compressor Speed-Up is on (little odd for a preview).
Thanks!

 

I'd disagree really, they've all been good representations of the cities they are portraying.

Other simulators don't get cities 100% perfect either.

 

Looks v good to me, but perhaps I'd like to see a bit of lineside infrastructure in the countryside high speed running part of the vid, cable troughing etc. Not a massive issue though.

 

I'll never understand why when they do these first previews for a new train they never have the train's proper idle sounds. I remember Rivet did the same thing when they revealed both the 150 and (for whatever reason) the 385. It clearly scares people into thinking that's what the train sounds like when it's idling. Guys, relax. It won't actually sound like that when at rest.

 

You can pick the bones of most stations in game. They're "representations" rather than 100% accurate

 

Ah yep, it looks like you're correct. Thank goodness for that. idk why they'd put compressor speed up on for a preview of the sounds and all that... but yeah, that's good to see. It still doesn't sound quite right for the compressor speed up sounds judging from the AP 158 EP, however, after testing the EP, compressor speed up has the same RPM as notch 4 power, so that's likely why. Can't wait to hear the 158s proper idle sounds on stream. Also, when it comes to the interiors - I'm holding off judgement until we see it on stream and all that. I wouldn't say it looks like something from MSTS, but the textures do look low res. But again, holding off my judgement until stream.

 

I feel like the colour of the livery seems off in direct sunlight. Like it seems too bright somehow.

Other than that I'm still really excited. The sounds seem promising, especially the HST. The idle sounds we heard were perfect to me. I'm not really bothered about the interior. As someone who's ridden quite a few EMT 158s it looks familiar, which I think is the most important thing.

 

I noticed the same about the livery.

 

Actually I think the biggest issue with the colouring is the lack of weathering or in the case of the interior, wear and tear. Even ex-Works, not going to look so squeaky clean.

 

could be a licensing thing

 

That’ll be the nuclear lighting. It’ll look better in not so bright sunlight in the game.

 

Good point, though surely EMT couldn't object to a bit of wear on the seat cushions or headrests or slight grime on the outside.

 

Just got round the reading this thread - I’ve been away to Dawlish for the day today!

I can confirm that when this video was filmed, the compressor speed up switched was enabled on the 158. This is why you can hear the engine excessively rev, as it is building up air.

This has since been fixed in the latest build, so it sound very much like a 158 which idles, as you’d expect to hear in real life. It no longer has the compressor speed up enabled by default.

All I can say is don’t judge a book by its cover.

 

I'm more concerned about how and why it was allowed into the preview in the first place. Surely someone must have noticed?

 

Think they were rushing this video seen as RailAdvent posted the release details earlier on that day and weren't supposed to

 

To be fair the previews are for the widest possible audience- the average person isn't going to notice extraneous compressor noise.

Anyway, i'm quite excited about this route.

What do we think about layers/AI for MML?

The AI EMT HST has been confirmed for St Pancras on SEHS.

Any other obvious (not requiring re-skins) layering opportunities?

 

When it comes to showing stuff off for TSW, and devs are showing these pre-made videos, why on earth do they purposely show off broken versions.

I’d totally get it if I could be confident it is stuff that will be/has been fixed for release, but the amount of times we’ve been in a situation like that and it hasn’t been fixed is astounding.

 

Virgin Trains East Coast once hired a bunch of sets from EMT to run their ECML services, these would make great layers at Edinburgh Waverley imo

 

I have been asked to join the beta testing team a few weeks ago yes.

 

londonmidland can you please confirm what type of timetable they have implemented.. is it AI based timetable, or human based timetable (where we get set up time and are not breaking the speed limits to get to the next stop)?

 

I’m not convinced that there is a straight bit of track where there should be a curve. It certainly isn’t possible to tell from that screenshot. It has happened in the past in TSW of course.

 

I don’t think I’m in a position to say unfortunately. Plus there are NDA’s I have to adhere to.

I’m afraid you’re just going to have to wait for official information/live streams.

(I’m not even 100% sure myself)

 

I think it’s great you’re involved. Hope it’s not only this route going forward either.

 

It's not an idle sound though. Note the position of the "compressor speedup" switch in the cab.

EDIT: Compressor speed-up will run up the engine to an RPM that is equivalent of notch 4. This is to increase the performance of the compressor since the compressor RPM is directly tied to the RPM of the engine.

EDIT2: This is what happens when you leave the forum page up and come back after a few hours and don't notice that your reply is redundant

 

Double sided coin as while you gain an edge on input behind the scenes, it limits the capacity to comment or criticise on the open forum when your feedback still gets disregarded or judged not to be a showstopper. (And no, I haven't been invited - probably regarded as too much of a rabble rouser these days!!).

 

the 158

 

We hope.

 

knowning its a 3rd party it will be a small timetable

 

They've already released how many services there are... you're not wrong

 

It is, to be honest

 

from the road map article
The Skyhook team have accurately simulated the 158 and HST playable timetable for this route, equating to:

• 72 playable BR Class 158 services
• 59 playable HST services

And, if you like variety, there’s a lot to be found with content layering onto the route:

• 2 playable Class 45 railtour services (1 each way, requires Northern Trans-Pennine)
• 2 playable Class 66 railtour services (1 each way, requires Southeastern High Speed and Northern Trans-Pennine)
• 5 playable Railhead Treatment Train services (requires Railhead Treatment Train)
• 5 playable ROG Class 37 services (requires Rail Operations Group BR Class 37/7, and mixes with Northern Trans-Pennine, Southeastern High Speed, and London Commuter)
• There is one freight service, featuring Southeastern High Speed’s Class 66

 

That doesn't seem a huge amount of services for a route covering three major east midland stations.

 

I’m not from the area but you are probably correct. They haven’t reveal how many of them are actually passenger services.
On the NJT 1/3 of the 300 services are sunny side moves.

 

On an average day there is on average two trains between Leicester and Derby per hour with three an hour between Leicester and Nottingham. Not sure about services between Nottingham and Derby

 

2-3 per hour

 

I definetly prefere realism over "make it busy nomatter what". If its 2 trains per hour, it should represent that in the timetable.
I think they made a good variety with rhtt, railtours and the rog services. Currently even with only 1 freight service, at least its represented.

Skyhook managed to implement the "true to life timetable", so i dont get comments like "its a third party dlc with a low frequent timetable.."