This roadmap thread is for people's guesses for what we could expect. • Summer release? •German Loco? •Just Trains new route? Now I know it's early but made it anyway. Edit I thought to change the title for guesses for what could we expect in the Dovetail Direct.
I always read the full roadmap but very rarely watch the stream. Yes, I also know that things can come out during the stream, but usually someone posts about these.
Why wouldn't you look at the Roadmap? At the moment we are pretty much starved of information about what's coming down the pipe. We haven't even had the precise geographic location and extent of the JT route confirmed.
I also generally pass on the Roadmap stream. All the important information is in the article and/ or ends up on the forum. Nowadays, the stream itself seems very scripted and full of happy talk and PR. I used to watch it when Sam would hold people's feet to the fire and make me chuckle.
This. The majority of folks here (the TSW forum) have at least a passing interest in TSW be that good, bad or indifferent. You'd surely be a fool not to look at it....it tends to generate that weeks discussion.
The Roadmap, particularly the stream, is pretty much marketing and "user engagement" stuff designed to keep the TSW brand in player's minds. DTG will do what it's going to do and release DLCs when it decides to do so and hanging on to their every word and poring over roadmaps and trying to guess when the next release is coming doesn't make any difference and is, IMO, a waste of time. Even this discussion forum is essentially a marketing tool and there is no evidence that DTG bases their product updates on what gets discussed here. The only thing they take seriously, to an extent, are bug reports because every piece of software has bugs and end users can help pinpoint them. Which bugs they choose to fix is another matter. Reality is that companies today are quite happy to put out a subpar product as long as it sells enough copies to meet their profit goals or to sell a base product that requires the purchase of endless addons to be really useful or enjoyable. DTG isn't the worst offender here and as a hardcore rail nerd, train sims are a hobby I am prepared to pay a premium for even if the actual product isn't as great as I would like it to be. I would love a high quality rail simulator that has consistent realism and quality across DLCs offered by a company that takes quality very seriously, and would gladly pay extra for that, but things being as they are TSW/TSC are about as "premium" as it gets so I put up with the deficiencies because there isn't much else out there. Hanging out here all day making demands and getting angry over this and that and trying to influence DTGs decisions is a fool's errand. But I do appreciate the game enhancing maps and spreadsheets that actual players of TSW post here and threads like this one https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/awesome-tsw-service-mode-runs.32010/
Let's hope for the 2nd London Underground route, this time is the Metropolitan, Central, Northern, Victoria or Piccadilly line by the future.
Yes? Why should august be any different. Whilst there may be more to read on there, it’s still a roadmap so should be treated like any other roadmap
Oh how I miss the days when polls where banned from these forums. WIll I spend 5-10 minutes reading a monthly update about a game I'm invested in and get a lot of enjoyment from? Er why wouldnt I?
Yes the official roadmap broadcast is similar in many ways to a party political broadcast these days with the presenters probably as aware of sales as content. I usually watch one or two of the private Youtubers broadcast a summary show of the roadmap, and also add their own non partisan thoughts on the content. Much more balanced and just as entertaining.
The thing is, streams don't have to be just marketing. They could be a useful development tool, serving as WIP QC. Think of all the bungles that would have been caught if users had been shown early pre-release clips! Reigate station, missing fencing, wrong catenary- all not discovered until after release, or in a last minute marketing "preview" stream when it was too late to change anything. I don't imagine the devs at the coalface like having to go back and fix things.
We will see if we even get a August roadmap, I suspect if nothing to announce yet if working on TSW4 like the rumours, then it may get cancelled like last years was.
Virtually every poll is useless, this no more so then many others here. I still maintain the forums were infinitely better when polls where outlawed. No idea why they ever turned them back on.
But the poll what I did isn't even that bad and sometimes people don't want to reply in a forum so they pick voting instead.
I guess the August roadmap would be the last possible reasonable date to announce the summer bundle, given that’s when they announced TSW3 last year which arrived in September (which was already quite close to autumn). And there has to be something big 100% because the last few weeks have had “calm before the storm” written all over them. My guess would be some sort of bundle announcement with a release in early to mid September. Both the German loco and the Just Trains route might arrive beforehand. They could even announce one of those DLCs before the end of July.
It was pointless with all due respect. As another forum member pointed out, we are here because we enjoy the game and it is most unlikely anyone is not going to glance at the roadmap. Now if you asked does anyone view the associated stream, then that might be a more valid question (I don't watch it, except maybe highlights mentioned on the forum) but even then what is your particular interest and reason for wanting to know the habits of other players?
With all due respect, if you mean just the article then your poll is even more pointless. I imagine 90+% of forum members read at least the TLDR version or glance at the highlights. Which really tells you and the rest of us nothing we didn't already know. If you're going to do a poll, which I wish you wouldn't, clarity and relevance are the key elements. Your poll has neither. Trying to be friendly here, pal.
I always look at the roadmap. Weird question. For watching the stream, I have too little time. Sometimes I am watching it later.
I always read the article when released and watch the stream as well either live or later when I get home from work.
Perhaps douse the flames as to whether TSW4 is coming this year would be good - save us all a lot of post writing lol. There does seem to be a dearth of future content focus by DTG which makes you wonder what is going on a bit. The roadmaps have gone from big fold out maps to a page torn from an atlas. I hope it's their French buyers asking, no telling, DTG to change direction and stop pumping out half baked diddy routes with rehashed trains and empty termini stations to instead do what they did in TSW2 by producing a minimum of 2 new locos/sets and a route where you can actually get up to speed before running out of track. I'd like to see a 50 mile minimum on ALL new releases from now on, or TSC is going to embarrass TSW even more. A 13 mile route just does not make any sense on any level. I've read a few praising it because they like "driving short routes". Sorry but that is a simply daft thing to say because you can still drive short routes on a big route, just tailor where you start and end for goodness sake. The history of TSW is getting less bang for your buck on every release, length of routes are shrinking, number of new trains issued with the routes are shrinking. now trains are being rehashed too. It's as if DTG are slowly weaning us off TSC and early TSW onto a much leaner diet but using the roadmap streams to have a good jolly up and wean the more easily led players into say weird things like "I like driving short routes". We're being brainwashed to accept less. Is Joseph Goebbels in charge of PR?
The 13 miles was also a complete route and some players like a complete route. Isle of wight is only 8 and it's not a bad route. It doesn't always have to be a long route. To be honest, tsw is more bang for buck since it includes a 24hr timetable. Tsc only gives you a couple scenarios and once you're done, nothing much to do. Scenario creation is tedious and frustrating and downloading scenarios requires a ton of requirements that may or may not work.
I agree that TSW is bang for the buck, as it offers a 24hr timetable with lots of services to run, and there are scenarios to do as well. And length may not always have to be an important thing if you have a lot to do. As for TSC yes, some routes do come with very few career scenarios but can offer some standard scenarios. But you are leaving out all the workshop content that others make for those routes.
I appreciate the roadmap and the concurrent community engagement. Is it a marketing tool? Absolutely. At day’s end - as so many have posted here - DTG is a business that needs to make money. I highly suspect that their marketing model goes something like “roadmap with new DLC > market new DLC > analyze DLC sales > create new roadmap with or without DLC announcement(s) based on sales of previously announced new DLC.” If they announce and market a new DLC - in this case Glossop - and they haven’t hit their sales goals, it makes no sense from a business perspective to begin marketing a new DLC that may cause customer to hold off buying the prior DLC (Glossop) in anticipation of the new DLC. Past performance - the summer announcement of Rush Hour and TSW3 - does not indicate future return. It’s entirely possible that they are still working on bug fixes, and do not have a late-summer DLC bundle coming. Personally, I appreciate their focus on improvements (Trenton timetable, Caltrain update, core improvements, etc), many of which, especially Trenton, were a direct result of community feedback.
Spot on, at least from my perspective. DTG isn’t perfect, but they are highly engaged with their community, committed to quality, passionate about their product, and further, do very well with the negative and non-constructive criticism that these forums are ripe with. Re DTG community engagement, I point to Exhibit A, Trenton. Shortly after release they stated that that there were no immediate plans to update the timetable. The community was rightfully upset because the product was materially sub par, so they pushed up the timetable updates in response. To me, the Trenton response and action does not describe a firm that doesn’t listen to their consumer base. They’ve fallen short many times in the past, but they’re getting this one (Trenton) right, particularly from a consumer engagement perspective.
I hope so too. I love the urban routes, and would love to see more rapid transit content. A second London Underground route would be great, so would a NYC subway route. They have the licenses to both, and have taken great advantage of their MTA license (LIRR, MNR Harlem/New Haven/Hudson). More rapid transit please!!!
Nope. It was announced before the August roadmap. There were then two August roadmaps on consecutive days.
The 24 hour timetable can only fulfil its true potential when the save game is fixed not to lose your objective data on trips after the first one. But I agree with the earlier sentiments, DTG need to settle things down with the next Roadmap, if not before.
Stourbridge Jn to Stourbridge Town is a "complete route", doesn't mean it's acceptable as a route DLC for £20 - £30. We shouldn't be letting DTG think we are complacent enough to accept minimalist routes - coming right on top of PFR not going through to Derby. The Glossop Line was very much pushing the edge of what they can get away with, IMHO. There was plenty of scope to add a bit more and make a fuller south Manchester network. The cynic in me still feels it was a bit of a cashgrab to reuse the Class 323 with a new skin
The glossop line was cheaper than your regular dlc. So was isle of wight. Short length doesn't make it terrible. West somerset railway isn't terrible either even though it's only 20 miles or niddertalbahn which is around 20 as well.
So long as there is a balance, IOW and WSR are genuinely self contained whereas Glossop gives us the classic TSW empty terminus station with just a handful of trains. Niddertalbahn is nice but after a few drives it has fallen off my playlist, unless it comes round in a Quick Play lucky dip.
I know there are some short routes that can't be helped such as IoW and WS. But let's be honest here, all the routes that aren't short in nature are better made longer and with some playable branch lines too. At the moment there are too many shorter than necessary linear routes in TSW3 where you just drive from A to B and find an empty termini at the end. If for some weird reason you only want to drive 13 miles in a session (the save works now you know as long as you stop), then it's easy to pick a short service on a longer route (or the ones above), rather than praise DTG for releasing a 13 mile route when there is so much more that needs doing properly. I don't remember anybody asking for a 13 mile route in the suggestions thread which says it all really. I disagree that TSW is more bang for buck when most of the timetable can't be driven beyond the limit of the route. For example the Victoria to W Croydon service is forced to end at Balham. Not in TSC it isn't you can drive all the way. You can also drive a 100 mile route in your HST. Way better.
Yes, I agree with these sentiments. I can't help thinking that we've been somewhat cajoled into accepting shorter and emptier routes, fewer trains, cut -down timetables and reused locos in the last couple of years. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I can't ignore the feeling. The last " bang for the buck " was " Rush Hour ", flawed though it may have been. BML, BPE and DRA were a value bundle. Nothing close to that has happened since.
That might be too soon since the last update was that it was still in development, requires extensive testing and a dispatcher update for it to work properly
Looking at the Roadmap? Yes. But only the written one. That takes only a few minutes. Don't have time to watch streams.
Speak for yourself. I often watch the streams and they're pretty informative. If there's nothing juicy on them I might not watch live but instead watch the next day while on a long tedious work teams meeting
I always watch the stream, because I think it is very entertaining, mostly. Normally I'm a big fan of reading but in this case I like the stream. I rarely read the article.
I'm getting my ration of that in Stray, though at least they are not pink! And entirely OT but does anyone else hate Zurks with a balluddy vengeance? Took me 15 attempts to get past the first encounter with them. Had to retreat to TSW afterwards to calm down!
