Bidstack? Where?

Can anyone enlighten me? Been playing TSW for quite a few years, and turning on / off BidStack never made a difference for me. I've not come across one of these ads once. (No, Pringles is not Bidstack)

Where are they supposed to show up? I tried ECML Peterborough, the DTGadboards still feature the (great) funny pseudo ads.

Can anyone name me one specific location where such an ad would be displayed? (Station, Platform)

I've seen a screenshot in another thread by mattwild55 , but I cannot make out the location where it was taken. The HUD is off and the station sign is illegible, so no info. (EDIT: It's Rochester)

 

It all went very quiet about Bidstack. Have a feeling the idea might have been dropped, TBH don’t think I have ever switched it back on to check whether the ads are showing again.

 

Yeah, was suspecting that. Not that I'd need ads, just curious for technical reasons.

Stopped looking for the billboards, disabled Bidstack and cleaned my appdata folder from the related files.

 

I think it was mentioned on a recent live stream by Matt or JD that they were no longer working with Bidstack for live billboards and displays.

 

Then it should be removed from the UI and the gamefiles (Bidstack plugin is still in there).

 

Bidstack never appears for me in Switzerland. Though I remember visiting my parents in the UK a while ago and they showed up then. I turned them off and forgot about them.

 

I've always playing with Bidstack on since it was added. I don't remember any real world brands on billboards since... I guess never.

 

Maybe it was regionally locked out indeed. It never worked for me even in TSW2020 when people said Bakerloo Line would show Bidstack ads, it never did for me.

So it's a thing of the past, fair enough. Was just wondering how it worked - would it send data how long you're looking at a specific billboard to Bidstack for example, or did companies that advertise via Bidstack pay a fixed amount, maybe based on product activation numbers.

 

This is actually one of the only few times I'd be ok with being advertised to in a game. Replacing fictional adverts with actual product adverts would be good for immersion.

 

I'm on the other side, we're getting bombarded and manipulated by ads too much anyway. So I prefer the funny pseudo ads, and as each route only represents a certain era in the game, recent ads would probably break immersion. How would the system work on NTP for example? It wouldn't, as for immersion you'd need contemporary ads - which nobody would pay Bidstack for.

So Bidstack needs a game whose contents get updated permanently to work - not an era-depicting railway simulation.

I admire the creativeness of the devs in making up fictional ads - often much better than real life stuff. I was just playing JT's Metropolitan Line in TSC, and you won't believe how often I had to laugh and smile seeing the massive amount of really funny ads in there.

 

Think I finally actually saw a Bidstack ad, a random Mcdonalds ad in Meyersdale on SPG......

 

Wait, so the Bidstack thing is still working?

 

Probably only for players in the US, who knows. Don't like McDonalds anyway

 

That's kind of a shame. Real billboards give the game a little more authenticity and immersion. I'll have to look for that one on SPG, hadn't noticed it.

 

Never noticed those before. Too busy getting caught out by the speed signal traps and the occasional CTD. May pay a visit later.

Although the one thing that makes me smile on the TSW4 ECML are some of the humorous ads including the one that references Stray as a movie which, funnily enough, is at least rumoured to be happening.

 

Have never noticed one; have always had the option on.

 

There is also 2 more further down line as well.

 

What was the reason for the lack of interest after it was first added? Was it the backlash for having ads in the game, or perhaps the problems with getting it working?

 

I honestly liked the idea, even if people kept bringing up the same point of "dangerous and malicious" ads.
Though I barely noticed, if ever seen one while driving. Usually I'm focused on keeping PZB happy or monitoring speed. I may have passed a few ads without noticing.

Either way, I'd love to have more custom made advertisement billboards for Fictional brands, makes the game feel a bit more inhabited.

 

The fictional brands in TS and TSW vary between not very good and quite realistic. On the latter end, the fictional brands on the containers in TS such as Wave, Farshore Logistics and Energy Line seem quite realistic, whereas other fictional brands like the terrible perfume billboards are a bit distracting. Unfortunately TSW never had fictional container brands (unless the Energy Line truck asset made it across) so I don't know how they would have looked there. I haven't seen the new billboards in TSW4 much but apparently they're quite funny. The one about the 'newer' car that's the same but blue is very funny, although it's a bit of an allegory for TSW4 itself.

 

Here is an idea, why not get the community to design fictional ads for TSW? I'm sure there will be some good ideas and even if they need a bit of help from the art team it will make for more variety and fun on the routes. It could be a competition and have voting etc. No real brands or very close look-alikes, nothing more than PG humour etc.

 

That's a great idea! Providing that, at least in my case, "if they need a bit of help from the art team" can mean "must be completely carried by the art team."

 

Why not use it for charity advertising?

 

Yes, I saw a few of these but haven't seen any for a long while. I rather like the fictional ones, and this one in particular was rather funny on ECML, after searching up why a scone would be called a biscuit!

 

That's a brilliant idea, I can already imagine what I'd make for that. Matt, please get on this!

They really have stepped up their game with the ads haven't they! Not only does it look professional, it's funny as well.