Whilst I'm generally quite happy with what I saw I do have to pieces of feedback. 1. I noticed that the old style of OHLE was used on the route, the wires merge into each other at junctions rather than having termination points, disappointing considering it's a feature DTG have drawn attention to in previous routes. 2. ( mostly FIXED) One nitpick I had with the 323 was that there should be a small dely between apply power and the traction motors starting, now there is a dely, but it's way to big, the reason for the dely is that transformer chunks on which takes about a second or so, the hum now is much shorter than it should be considering the technical explanation for this. 3. Not many buildings around Manchester seem to be lit up at night. Besides those three I have no other problems. Edit on the 2nd point : After driving the train you can disregard it because the clunk is in fact there but now the hum is too short
I Didn't see the PIS working on the AI trains. Can't confirm but didn't see it on any of the AI trains
I haven't seen the stream yet, but that sounds very ominous. Is Manchester suffering the same blackout that afflicts Birmingham?
The OHLE around the Manchester area isn’t accurate for reference see: For reference the gantries need to be edited and the single track span is MK3 instead of MK1 OHLE
I was pretty pleased with what I saw. It looked good at night, I would say better, more lit up than Birmingham but still maybe not lit up enough. I think we will just have to see what it looks like when it comes out. Overall it looks like a well built route which will be ideal when you don't want to drive for an hour. It will be ideal when you want to be a driver for a shift.
Would've been nice of them to try and get the signal buzzer in on doors closing like SHG just to add that touch of realism. Scenery looks nice and well done and as people have pointed out the 323 is a good unit so nice to get it in another livery. I do like the shorter services although understandable that there isn't much variation in a smaller route. Honestly not overly excited by the guard scenario but I get its a cool change people have asked for! The scenario guys have been killing it recently! The photo mode seems really interesting but it'd be nice to have more freedom with the photos Overall seems like a sale route for me if that. But I'm not a massive fan of the one handle modern electrics so much so take it as you will.
Wish we got the full woodhead, but nonetheless I can understand why DTG chose it as they had a license, even though there are better routes to choose. But yea just looking forward to summer releases
I'm looking forward to it. My only complaint is the lighting at Piccadilly station. I know it's likely a fault of TSW3's lighting system rather than the route itself, but it feels a lot more light and airy in real life. It seems too grey and harsh in the game and the shadows are too prominent as well. I think Glasgow Central has a similar problem, however I'm much more familiar with Manchester Piccadilly so it popped out more to me. I'm still excited to see it in the game though. Piccadilly is one of my top three favourite stations in the entire country to trainspot at, the variety is amazing. In case you're interested the other two are York (beautiful station in a beautiful city), and Hadley Wood (very different to the other two, but I love it because it's a busy mainline station that at the same time feels quite peaceful due to it's location).
I did not read it in the stream and cant check right now, but if you read it I trust you got it right. Anyway, I think 20 mins of checking tickets is enough for me. Usually I dont trust the expected duration for scenarios because many times they are not accurate at all. But in this case, after watching in the stream that there were like 4 or 5 next stations to check the ticket destinations, 20 mins sounds pretty accurate.
Glossop is out next week, that's not long at all. Besides they've already said that we'll be getting another update on the 700 in the July roadmap.
For me they've not captured the run down overgrown feel of the line that I recall from just a couple of years ago. The OHLE seems wrong as there's no differential visually in age between the old parts and the new which is a feature of this line. Also is the remnants of Mayfield station included alongside Piccadilly? From the stream it didn't appear to be.
From what’s been said, I really don’t see this as other than a minimum 50% off sale purchase. Out of interest, was the question of, “Why not Woodhead?” addressed, or was it ignored amongst the usual high fives and smug satisfaction of issuing the shortest UK route to date (other than Rivets IOW)?
There is, if I understood correctly, a class 76 under a tarpaulin which will be your reward if you complete the "mastery" thing. I think I heard Matt say he'd love to do the Woodhead route but "no plans at present ".
Scenery looks pretty decent on the route, train might be interesting enough to drive, but still... route is very short (and I already have enough short routes in my library for short gaming sessions) and it's too limited in which trains I can use, so it's pretty much a one-trick pony. I already own Isle of Wight and Cathcart as short one-trick ponies. Don't really need another. Might wishlist it to wait for a good discount, but not sure either. I doubt even a 50% discount could convinve me to make a purchase.
Woodhead with 76s would have me incredibly excited - I’d be over the moon. This release however, not so much.
Same sentiments here. Woodhead would have been a Day One purchase for me but, despite the gimmicks, this needs to be a minimum of 50% off. And judging by the fact they have the 76 as a mastery reward and the fact Matt blurted out "No plans", indicates there must at least be a small school of thought that this route is not exactly what the majority of customers wanted.
I'm sure it will be a low rez version lifted from TSC in much the same way the mastery steam loco for WSR was done.
The gimmicky nature of this route is what's turned me away from it and why like you it needs to be 50% off at least before purchase. I'd much rather they'd spent the time and energy making the route look more like the real thing. Needs far more rust and discolouration in the OHLE, from the steam it just looks too new even if the general design is roughly correct.
Delighted to see the static Class 76 as a Mastery Reward. I only hope that we will get the full Woodhead Route at some point in the future. This is with one caveat however. The full Woodhead Route should be set at a point when the route was at its peak and include all sections wired for 1500v DC with Class 76, 77 and 506 traction as well as any appropriate steam types in order to get the maximum experience out of it.
I like (and don't have yet) the train (especially the view in the cab and the sounds) and I like the scenery so I guess this DLC will be aquired and fun will be had
It crossed my mind that they could've used the Glossop Line as a stepping stone to a full Woodhead line, with part of the line (albeit in a different time period) already created and thus able to reuse certain assets or parts of the landscape. But I fear that may just be wishful thinking. Also thinking how much value there is in Matt's saying there are "no plans" for a Woodhead line. If there were plans, would he admit it?
I never quite liked TSCs Woodhead in BR Blue era time period, with half of the stations already shut down. I very much prefer the older TSC Woodhead line set in the 1950s, which, I believe, is also the time period where electric and steam trains were both in operation.
This is the period I referred to above. Much preferable due to many stations still being in operation as well as yards etc.
I was mostly surprised by this one, Piccadilly looked decent, they’ve done a better job populating the station than with GCC & CCL - the 2 trains on one platform was a nice nod to accuracy too. Overall the route looked busier than I was expecting, but it’s still not great really. Some issues are pretty much the usual ones, the lighting is horrid, over exposed in the day & no light pollution at night. Fortunately as this is Manchester we can just run it with overcast & rain. The skyline seemed very empty, the buildings in the immediate vicinity of Piccadilly are pretty accurate but Manchester isn’t looking great as a whole. There was ALOT of stuttering on the stream which really put me off watching, let alone playing - I’ll have to watch for day 1 players streaming this to see what the end release is like. Scenery and track pop in is terrible once again (is this getting worse? It’s Certainly no better)
Yea what is with this over exposure looks terrible can they not see this when they are playing it. The first shot last night of matt pulling out the station looked like a nuke had gone off. What are you looking at do you think this looks good or exceptable.
Hopefully there shouldn't be too much stuttering it's only a short route. My isle of wight route plays with no stutter at all and that's short.
TSW 3 has had the nuke lighting from day one. Looks horrible imo, it only looks good at dawn and dusk. Even sometimes with overcast rainy weather, the nuke lighting will suddenly flick on and off.
Yeah the lighting kills some of the newer routes for me. I love PFR but the lighting is so washed out. Didn't mind the old lighting on older routes tbh. I think they need to tone it down a bit
The washed-out lighting you guys are talking about mostly comes from the fact that the clouds are covering most of the sky. In my experience the lighting looks absolutely fine with no clouds or light clouds. Kinda similar to real life in my opinion.
I don't disagree but I think it is a fundamental problem with TSW 3 and not something that will change on any new routes.
Actually it was, at least indirectly; the two major factors in choosing this route in its modern state were (1) a desire to add a shorter and cheaper route to the catalog, and (2) find another use for the very well-received 323. And that's a real pity: compare that to NTP, where part of the "charm" of the route is the grime and rust and decay. But it seems that back then DTG put a lot more love and care into routes than they do now.
Oh absolutely. The halcyon days of NTP, TVL and SPG are looking like " the good old days " compared with the current output of simple AB routes and lonely, squeaky clean crackerboxes. And the images of Manchester fill me with dread. Dark, satanic mills instead of a modern, brightly illuminated city. The apparent plethora of layers and AI might make it worth a peek at some point in the future.
Absolutely. SPG still takes some beating as the best all round US route. Having a run on there yesterday after it popped up on the randomiser and in the failing light of dusk it looks sublime, twisting through the wooded curves with the destination distance actually increasing at one point!
I watched part of the stream but it does just feel a bit of a one trick pony which seems to have that extra detail (e.g. OHLE) missing and so not something I'll be buying on release even at the cheaper price. As many others have already said this should have been the full woodhead line with the 76s, 77s and 506s. Personally if we had got either a 50s, 60s or 70s Woodhead line I would be buying it without a doubt for 30 notes, but instead we have got a 15 odd mile emu commuter route again, which I haven't an interest in. Anyway my eyes are now firmly set on JT's route which I think is going to be a real cracker!
