Hello gang! I've been given the great task to come up with ways to highlight creations and events from this community. Imagine this: A monthly article with which we can show off some of your favourite parts of the hobby, be it TSW & TSC screenshots that you're proud of Your favourite trainspotting locations and heritage railways / museums Videos of real-life railways and locomotives Model railway layouts, videos and news Railway & modelling events Creators Club submissions for TSW and TSC I gotta say, I quite like the sound of that! Now I should mention that this is still in it's very early stages of the design process, but I thought since this is such a community centered project I'd like you all to be a part of it's creation. There are two ways in which you could help me: Are there any community centered topics you'd like to see in this article? Is there anything that I missed? And secondly: A name. (In before anyone makes a Boaty McBoatface reference) I really hope you like the prospect of such a spotlight, this community has a lot of great things to share and it would be a lot of fun to be able to highlight that. Let me know what you think and put in your suggestions in this thread. Thank you, Jan Edit: changed "Mods for TSW and TSC" to "Creators Club submissions for TSW and TSC" to avoid misunderstandings.
Excuse me asking, but who are you Jan? I've not seen any announcement or introduction to who you are and your role. Your profile has no information about you. It's all a bit mystifying.
Well, a quick scan of the forums and noting some stuff you like is what it takes, me thinks. In the Creation Centre there are a few screenshot threads. Not that I fancy the idea of adding a competition on top of the competition (which shot shall rule them all), salt can turn any sweetwater pond into a proper sea inlet. Similarly, "workshop highlight of the month" and similar stuff could be included, but who decides what's best. Big question, whether you want to embrace third party and retired offerings, or shall we present and discuss official content still published by DTG. I know, I know, DTG doesn't publish physical models or videos on Steam. Some random thought is to spotlight random DLC relevant due to timing. It's inspired by some recent complaints about lesser qualities, and of course a screenshot just shared over your competitor releasing their fresh version of the NS ES44AC. Point is, showcasing the good parts of models could inspire creators and collectors to do their thing. Like how this week the Royal Train was the theme of an unofficial screenshot thread, and how the UP SD40-2 Independence has a recurring spotlight for a day. (Am I to assume that the new side of management wants a bit more of a community management?)
So long as it's not Train Simulator Spotlight I like the idea. Would it be hosted on these forums, or elsewhere? I like the idea of live video from community members... not just train sim videos, but also live video of their local rail activity... we all shoot something, at some point. Maybe reskins/screenshots based on real photos, to see who can get the closest to reality? We could bring back the "Where am I?" game... that used to be fun. I'm sure there's a lot you could do with this idea if there's enough input.
All the things you suggest Jan are a great idea. As for screenshots, it would be nice to see more than just the usual weekly TSC/TSW screenshot contest winners in the loading screens (I'm not suggesting you put more screenshots in the loading screens but show other ones in a monthly round up on the forum or article). It would also be good to show some good real life railway photos from the folks here as well as videos.
Asset of the Month - a slot for folks to show the thing they are building ? Be it ever so small or just their first go at modelling ? It might be a massive steam loco or just a rather nice bench. But something the poster has made rather than just found ?
Good morning gang, thank you for all your answers to this thread, I've been scanning the forums over the weekend an am excited to see you all reply I'll try to reply as many as I can, but even if I did not, please know that I read all your comments and will put your ideas into my little notebook Hi IronBladder, I'm Jan and I'm the newest member of the Community Manager team. Not going to bore you with too many details since others have linked to my introduction thread already. I probably should've posted this in the TSC forums as well, that one is on me, sorry. Don't hesitate to send me a DM if you have any further questions though Yes! Very much so! Be it screenshots from the game, trainspotting captures or pictures of your model kits. Anything part of the hobby, really. I wouldn't want this to be another competition either, but maybe you've made a screenshot you really like and it doesn't fit the current contest theme? In the end this shouldn't compete with other content on this forum but rather highlight it. Think of it as a way for us to put a spotlight on community members and content. The current idea is to have a Dovetail Live article with a dedicated forum thread to discuss it. I do like the idea of a "Where am I?" game as well, very good! Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to do with this Rather than create another competition it's meant to highlight your creations. Highlighting your modell efforts would be something I'd very much like to do with this
We used to have a Workshop Wednesday stream. That would be a great start, bringing that back. You could do the same thing for user-created TSW scenarios too, though that might not fit as "Workshop". Maybe "Fun Friday"?
Anything that will heighten our sense of being a community in a positive way, sounds like a good idea to me. Thumbs up.
Most of the suggestions made so far have no interest to me. If they do interest me I can access them for free elsewhere anytime I want. Videos of real railways? There's more than I can watch on YouTube. Discussion of model railways? Again, more than enough elsewhere. If you want this to be a success it has to be stuff that is strongly TSC focused and not overprovided elsewhere. I would like to see how to do articles, interviews with DTG staff about future plans, or why things are they way they are. Reviews of workshop content could also interest, but leave out average stuff. Promoting the best freeware would also be valuable.
Never underestimate the attraction of having things that are generated by the community, for the community, even if similar content can be found elsewhere. It's the feeling of community that matters. You don't get that if everything is disparate and spread across multiple platforms. I see your point, but having things that you personally don't want, doesn't make them a bad idea, so long as stuff you DO want is also included. Don't we already have that on the DTG site and on the streams?
I think he is suggesting we have TSW roadmap and future plans streams, but we only get TSC streams now to promote new content once in a while. It would be nice to see more TSC streams. If no one wants to play it, I'll do it.
Streams have to be fun or informative. Since I can play the game, I'd rather watch a real cab ride. I have several hundred in Watch Later. Streamers usually ignored any question that wasn't fluff, there was no room for nice and casual discussion even. Happiness and satisfaction with all products DTG was mandatory, ideally expressed as random compliments in chat. (Or, the streamers didn't know anything to say. Or forbidden.) I also never learned anything I didn't know - upcoming products, scenario ideas, driving tricks... Of course, if there are people watching it, I'm happy for the creators.
I understand that not everybody will have the same interests as me, but whatever is included in this venture has got to be interesting to a sufficiently large group of people. "Community" is a vague and transitory thing in the context of anonymous strangers who only have TSC in common. I don't think we're going to watch/read stuff were not interested in, or done better elsewhere, just because it's been produced by a fellow player of TSC. I don't know. I found them amateurish and un-entertaining, so I haven't watched them for a while. The last ones I saw seemed to demonstrate how little skill the presenters had at driving a simulated train and how little time they had spent learning the controls of the products they were demonstrating. My advice to DTG is to think what would they put in a magazine dedicated to TSC. What features, columns and regular sections would they line up? Where would their contributors come from, what qualifications do they need, and how would they be managed? How would they use it to draw in new or casual players and deepen their interest and pleasure? If they can answer these questions well then it will be good.
Agreed. Doesn't have to be perfect, just keep improving. I would assume these posts would appear in two places - Facebook (and similar) and Steam. Maybe in-game like the two shop buttons.
Well may I kick things off??? These were taken on a recent holiday in & around Dawlish Warren in Devon, UK... Eric
Hi all... I've got photos on my phone but when I try to upload them to the forum it says they are too large... does anyone know a way round this??? I had to upload the last one as a thumbnail which isn't ideal in my opinion... Cheers Eric
Quite literally, just shrink them to a file size and format that's sensible for these forums. I'd prefer if the forum software did it, I dread the day when I upgrade to 4K and I have to massage all my shots just to publish here. Option B is to use a photo sharing site but given all the malware risks related to using random websites, I prefer not to click them. I'm using IrfanView since forever, I can recommend it for basic transformations. Another freebie is GIMP, available in the Windows Store as well. It also makes sense when viewing a thread. Some screenshot threads, TSW particularly take ages to load. Depending on details, a 2K picture is somewhere between 200 KiB and 1 MiB, ideally around 6-700.
Good morning gang I'm happy to see you all still reply to this and that you keep the discussion going, that's fantastic. I understand that this is a big project, which is why I want to keep all of you in the loop as much as possible. This is supposed to be a way to celebrate the railway hobby in general, not just our games. The aim is to focus on the community, not ingame news, so see this as a way to connect with your fellow enthusiasts. What kind of content would you like to see in that? Fun Friday makes it sound less informative and more... well, fun, which I like. Could this be a pure gameplay stream, something that's more relaxed? That's exactly what I want this to be If you have any ideas or wishes, let me know here! Slow down, we're not there yet. But I like your enthusiasm! Again, you're all knocking this community engagement thing out of the park and I'm super excited to work on this project. But please remember that we're still in the very early stages of development here. Right now I'm mainly gathering ideas and building a concept, all while working on my day to day stuff as well, but I'll keep you updated of course. You can also find the discussion on the TSW forums here.
Well, see what Kim said. It is about having fun with pure gameplay. Currently, streams are only for posting news or talking about new products. Being able to have a kickback stream would be fun. I have been meaning to propose this for some time as it is something I would be happy to do myself. The question becomes whether we limit it to Steam or whether we can include external products, which would REALLY help bring the community together. Also, see the personal discussion thread I sent you.
I think what would be really good is like a stream each week just basically showing off a specific route or train for the sim. You have some excellent straemers who do great streams already and having them relaxed just playing the sim like we love to do would be a good sense of community spirit in that we can see the developers playing a piece of work they have worked on showing it off to the community and engaing with them and not like an official stream where they are previewing the product. We have some good streamers in the train sim community as well such as Alan thomson, Tom from JT etc etc perpahs get them to do a stream hour once a week on the offocial platform rather than there own channel to mix it up a bit if that makes sense.
Tbf they have the ambassadors who are streamers who met the benchmark. They do a great job streaming already and showing off stuff so perhaps they could use them as they are well known in the community already and have a audience base
