Enough Is Enough!!!

I believe manual boxes are still planned after full release. No idea if Poland ever used bell codes and if so how they integrated with electronic control, so I suspect my bell ringing desires will have to be done solo elsewhere

I understand that the TSW4 editor is never going to be user friendly like TSC, there's too much going on in one place and it's based on a very powerful game engine. But currently it feels like there are too many TSW specific quirks that even being well versed in these kind of editors and with access to all of the UE4 knowledge on the internet you just can't get past.
I expect I'll use it one day but currently I don't have the mental bandwidth to be one of the people learning and disseminating the mysteries of such a system - I have too many other stresses in my life right now.
I normally find creative activities to be a great way to de-stress and had plans for a 5 mile route and some stock but after a week of "playing about" the TSW4 Editor was having the opposite effect on me.

 

Couldn't agree more.

As if TSW4 was not a shameless cashgrab from the beginning anyway, most of the advertised features from it don't even work.

The new scoring system is a joke - even more so than the old scoring.
New suspension physics is only on a single train, wonky on even that one, and they admit to it being in "alpha" stage...
New overhead wire rendering is a hit and miss...
Chained paths in scenario editor cause issues.
Custom liveries seem to be broken in TSW4.

Other than the 3 new routes and a photo mode (which is admittedly cool), what was the point of this release?

 

Likewise me Pete. If I put my mind to it I can churn out a model layout or short prototype route in Trainz in a month. But I just couldn't find that vibe with the editor in its current state. Spent the best part of a week getting nowhere fast.

So apart from maybe the Vectron the new stuff in TSW4 has pretty much burned out for me, it doesn't really enhance the older content which you might as well be playing in TSW3. And I was so positive at first, thought DTG had scored a winner with this one but in retrospect, no. I'll still be checking out the JT Blackpool route when it drops, in the hope that can revive my interest but right now I am more drawn to other stuff.

 

The free roam mode is really good, I've been using it a lot.
I'll agree on the scoring system and suspension physics though, pretty bad they aren't properly implemented.

 

Missed two stops on Vorarlberg the other day, still got the platinum! Yay me, as Matt would say

 

I don't think this is looking promising:

 

Ive taken the plunge with simrail. It looks really quite nice from what I can see from youtube videos and the dispatching part looks really good (notwithstanding my total lack of knowledge). I think it'll be some time in the tutorials and youtube vids before I step out fully into the MP environment though.
In the meantime TSW3 remains in my library until such time that the franchise is shown a bit of love.

 

As long as we are into numbers - just some interesting things from looking at SteamDB
Version ------- current live ------- Peak
2020 ----------------- 19 ------------- 1937
TSW2 ----------------161 ----------- 3086
TSW3 ---------------- 297 ----------- 1796
TSW4 ---------------- 626 ----------- 1516

So read into it what you will - I am sure both sides of the debate in this thread will find something in these numbers to support their view.

Sorry for the collapsing of the colums - seems the editor doesn't like extraneous white space or tabs

 

Dovetail Games policy has always being that of quantity over quality for as long as I've been purchasing their content so it's of no surprise whatsoever that TSW4 is seemingly going to be used as a platform to accelerate the process of releasing mediocre DLC's without any thought or consideration towards the consumer. It wouldn't even surprise me if the price of TSW4 and it's exclusive content actually exceeded the price of a Series X / PS5....and in this day and age that's disgraceful (and almost out of control) levels of greed.

 

It still shows that DTG peaked with TSW2's launch and has yet to find that magic again.

Granted the majority of the current Steam player base is on TSW4.

 

If you take over a train in MP it is generally set up ready for you, in fact you just click off the auto pilot and note whether you need to resume acceleration or start braking down.

 

Right, I forgot about that one. While the free roam mode does indeed look pretty fun, it is also not without issues. I've heard quite a few rolling stock are unable to be used as the physics get bugged? In that case, while the feature itself is good, it is once again not working as inteded all the time.

 

Same here I haven't been on TSW or switched on my gaming PC since the core game paywall money grab 37 pages ago.

 

I played TSW3 at the weekend for an hour or so, the newish timetable on Hamburg Lubeck is quite nice and Hamburg HBf is very busy. Even managed to get 40fps occasionally!

But I think the viewpoints are consolidating quite clearly that we shouldn't have had TSW4 this year. If I summarise and extend a bit, it seems that it was probably not ready to be launched until next year, which is better with a two year paywall and a solid and functional set of upgrades that move the franchise on.

As is, I fear they have broken rather a few camel's backs with this release. Goodness only knows at what point they will have all of the TSW4 features initially announced ingame and fully working (formation designer, suspension, plus bug fixes to other new features). I mean, we are still awaiting the manual fireman......It certainly isn't "worth a buy", for me anyway and this is the first time I don't have the current version on launch day.

 

The much vaunted Flying Scotsman actually has worse physics than the existing steam locos from TSW3, which themselves could barely be considered much more than arcade level. We were also told it was getting better sounds which don’t appear to have materialised yet though, if anything like the poor buff the near silent Azuma received, probably won’t notice much difference.

 

Matt streamed for over 28 hours on the weekend, a huge variety of TSW trains and routes. Flying Scotsman was not there, nor were any other steam locos. Its quite sad that I remember everyone on streams was asking "Steam when?". No-one asks any more.

 

Let's read the words, the words... of the developer

 

I remember those things were buzzing with just one tone while colors in those small windows changed, but not sure how they integrated with electronic control, but I guess they did somehow, as some time later in the same signal box (no longer existing) I saw a rack standing behind having plenty of lights, while those buttons were still being pressed and related mechanical handles moved to set the blocks.

 

How do you know?

 

Because we are now on page 37 and he hasn't yet. Unlike some think, differing opinions are allowed

 

He's going to wait until page 49...

 

Do we have reports that the prayers on the Wailing Wall are ever heard?

 

To be honest the most toxic this thread has been (which wasn't that bad anyway) was many pages ago.

 

Don't forget the formation designer that was awkwardly cut from a pre-recorded announcement stream. Yet they left mentions of it throughout the stream. That feature must have been cut last minute. Who knows what state that is in and what it will break?

 

Lol, I didn't even know that.

Why, why on earth insist on releasing a "new" version when most of your new features aren't even done? I mean not just one or two, but most!

And then some people wonder why this thread is going on for 30+ pages... It's because of all the ridiculous things lile this.

 

You know, I would have given TSW 4 a positive review (from me, as a somewhat harsh critic of DTG) because of the first steps in the right direction (public PC editor, Sandbox mode, new Scenario Designer, etc) - but holy moly, there are so many bugs and so many bugs that HAVE NOT BEEN FIXED. How did no one notice that you can create more than one service on the same point in the Scenario Designer?! How did no one notice that you have to open the doors on a passenger service after switching sides ON THE WRONG SIDE?! How did NO ONE notice that the game just flat out crashes if you remove NPC trains USING THE SANDBOX FEATURES from the map?!

It would have been fine and not a problem if the game was marketed as Early Access.

 

As long as no one breaks the forum rules, then I shouldn’t see why not.

 

yikes

 

I can think of three reasons:

1. Poor QA;
2. No QA;
3. Good QA, but results of QA's work ignored.

 

4) They just decided ypu can still play the game, so keep wanting money.

 

Well, if the bug does not result in game's crash, then I can understand game/DLC can be released, and such bug fixed later (yeah, right).

But, the fact that removing AI operated train results in game crash - such bug should not pass via QA without noticing.
The one, where you can set the same start point of two services - I cannot tell if it results in game crash, but it's quite easy to be detected by QA.

 

This thread is as good as any…

Wasn’t TSW4 meant to have had a new TSC style passing shot (the 4 camera), or did I dream that?

FWIW I’m pretty sure I didn’t.

 

I don't remember that, it might have been a dream.

Then again, I was spending most of the announcement stream coming up with a mental list of reasons to spend my money on Wetherspoon meals rather than TSW4 - the verdict: Empire State Burger, Chicken and Smokey Chipotle Mayo Wrap or Halloumi Fries.

 

No I think that was something Matt wanted adding, I might be wrong on that though.

 

I really hope they add this. I really enjoyed this feature on TSC

 

Interestingly TSC player numbers tend to peak in winter so TSW4 may not peak until Jan/Feb.
TSC was averaging about 3,000 in mid winter 2020/21, 2,500 in 2021/22 and 2,000 last winter, so it will be interesting how the two compare by the Spring.

 

Decline of the TSW series, players are becoming unmotivated with what has been happening, the numbers show that.

https://steamdb.info/charts/?compare=530070,1282590,1944790,2362300

 

Maybe it will shove a boot up the proverbial bum going forward. One can hope

 

The number of Euro Truck Simulator 2 players is impressive (Release Date: 18 October 2012), perhaps DTG has to understand the storefront of a game and not sabotage several compilations of the same game with the same Unreal Engine version.

https://steamdb.info/charts/?compare=227300,231120

 

Just one reason to explore other train sims, budget permitting. I do keep on coming back to tsw and it still has the edge, but I did really enjoy my first foray into simrail. Kind of interesting to see the difference and it does feel different. More chunky less plasticky if that makes sense, but it's naturally not without issues. Derail valley ditto. But that's money dtg could have had, but didn't. Its a drip, but drips have a habit of becoming worse over time unless rectified.

 

That sir, is an excellent point.

 

Can't use that as evidence players are becoming unmotivated as it doesn't account for other platforms where TSW is available.

 

How’s about providing some evidence that those numbers are not representative, rather than keep repeating the same old tropes over and over again? Just because people keep saying something repeatedly doesn’t mean it’s actually fact.

Looking at it critically, given that the PC has escaped relatively unscathed from the usual mess that DTG create for themselves, and that both console platforms have been plagued by pretty serious issues for a long time now I’d say it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that the numbers on console paint a bleaker picture than those from Steam. I hope that’s not the case but it’s not impossible. DTG have to sort this out and start providing a stable game, and start delivering on what they promise in the glitzy sales streams.

 

I completely agree with Jetwash (and others) that DTG need to up their quality control game.
Its so hard though to not love this sim (TSW3)...
Just did a quick stock move to Seaford from Brighton now that I've fixed my sound issues (self inflicted injury so apologies to DTG for banging on about rail joint sounds on the East Coastway). The pleasure of that early morning run with the clackety clack of the rails with the windows open- if there'd been a cool breeze blowing against my head I wouldve been totally immersed. Pure pleasure and a glimpse of what could be all the time.
I mean whats not to love about this..

 

The same happens on other platforms, as the impact is identical.

 

Yes, but you only used the data from Steam to say players are unmotivated without even mentioning other platforms TSW is available.

 

So PC players aren't happy but console players are all as happy as Larry?

I would assume that the proportion of those happy to not as happy will be very similar across all platforms.