Road Map Train Sim World Roadmap - December 2023

Check this thread as Matt explains the economics of it.
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...e-its-just-been-pass.76639/page-4#post-764587


Matt's remarks here:

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...e-its-just-been-pass.76639/page-2#post-760422


A little teaser........


DTG Matt said: ↑
Meanwhile, we do have some other pretty exciting US stuff on the go at the moment too, so i'm hopeful you'll enjoy that as it comes out.

 

Indeed. That would make it much more complete and a Day One purchase regardless of my distaste for the modern era. But as it stands, this will be going on my buy it in a sale if the reviews are good, list.

The Class 104 though, I will be joining the virtual queue outside the DTG store waiting for this to appear!

 

I may be in the minority here, but I've always thought the West Somerset route scenery was good enough already, similar to the Trans Pennine (same route builder?) the foliage better utilised than the recent routes. Felt very natural and realistic looking. Great to have free updates though.

 

Yes I always thought it rather charming while pedalling along at 25 MPH, the latter of course being the main issue (not really DTG’s fault) and the makeover won’t eliminate that. However looking forward to seeing the work done and the new timetable.

This also gives the lie to the frequently pedalled mantra that old routes cannot be upgraded or extended, fairly obvious there is an uncooked master copy on ice somewhere. So let’s give TVL, NTP, RT and all the other old routes a similar overhaul!

 

The Class 104 is a rock solid choice based on other routes it can run on. Wonder if a rework for NTP is on the drawing board after WSR is done. Would be a great addition to a good route. Just needs more AI and some more types of traction.

 

Yes to NTP and TVL.

 

They can, but as someone else said on another thread, it won't make them more sales (for the updated routes). Most people who already wanted the route which is being updated likely already got it and others aren't interested, whether it's updated or not. In my case not updating older stuff won't make me buy any of the newer stuff, so relation between updating and number of sales isn't that plain simple.

 

Very sorry that the US gets the short end of the stick again, but otherwise very exciting. Steam on WSR is something I’ve always wanted. The pack for Peak Forest sounds incredibly exciting! Then we get the Br 111. I’m with solicitr - we should have got a 140 for LFR before a 111 certainly, but it’s a (at this point) vintage electric West-German loco, so I will definitely not complain. Exactly what I want to see more of

 

Reminds me of Derrick who did the long term project in TSC Bishop Auckland Darlington (forgot the route name) and such. Not sure he is still at DTG but this is great to see.

If this was done for TSW I might consider buying.

I'd love to see WCML over Shap with Class 87 tap changer.....

I'm happy to see the direction DTG is going in.

Also love GEML Ipswich..... with Class 90/91s.. maybe need WCML Trent on Stoke...

 

I think Donner Pass..... maybe.

And and another dual passenger freight route.

 

The Azuma cabling is still broken?

 

Are you sure? Having been a Train sim user over the years a lot of people I know have bought dlc years after it was produced. They never come on here and don't look to be day one purchasers. If the West Highland for example with 37s was produced in TSW I know several dozen people who would buy it. However that would be over the course of years. Not all of us are day one unboxing social influencer which I know appears to be a target market for TSW.

 

The Goblin Line will be a great addition, but also at some time I would like to see the Overground's other big performer the Class 378 Capitalstar brought to TSW4. It's not the same as the 377 Electrostar and in fact looks totally different. This would enable them to do the run from West Croydon/Crystal Palace to Highbury and Islington. The advantage of this run would be the amount of layering possible with Southern 377's and Thameslink 700's for a fair part of the way and make the route complete with all traffic. Timetable mode would be cool. They could also layer the 378 onto Clapham Jct.

 

I only pass what someone said to me in response to a post why I'm not comfortable buying anything new or old since Preservation Team was disbanded. They referenced Matt saying it.

 

please make a netherlands route. please

 

Fair enough but my point remains that sales still happen, maybe not quick or high enough for the accountants but sales non the less. Model Railways are rocketing in price and for many Train sim could be an armchair opportunity to recreate days gone by. I still think this market isn't fully tapped by Train Sim World but attempts have been made with SoS etc.

 

In the midst of all this, with at least a passing interest in Japanese routes (old Densha de Go and BVE fan here) it's gone very quiet what Union Workshop are working on. Or have they given up? Means I'm probably going to look at grabbing Train Crew in the Steam sale or one of those ghastly FMV games like Meitetsu, to get my fill. (Or give the rather buggy Hmmsim another go).

 

Yeah, Matt said there wasn't much of an uptick in sales when improving older routes, certainly not enough to justify a whole team working on it. It is, though, very good to see DTG allowing it's devs to take on personal projects such as the one that has led to the remaster of West Somerset Railway, it's been crying out for steam ever since SoS launched and the dev in question will have learnt a lot which he can use for future route building.

I'm not going to credit DTG with doing it on purpose, but the WSR work dovetails very neatly with other upcoming releases. It's pretty much essential to have Peak Forest to utilise the new WSR timetable and in turn Peak Forest is going to get a boost from the new BR Green 104. Hopefully from a financial standpoint DTG will at minimum see people who only own one of WSR or Peak Forest buy the other, and the more people who own Peak Forest, the more sales they should see for the 104.

 

Well, I have both of the routes, but I don't have TSW4, so they won't see me in the uptick for neither of the updated routes, but may get another sale of TSW4 instead (when it's discounted). However, will it tell them it's worth updating the older stuff?

 

Same could be done for NTP, North West diesel legends pack, new loco (the 25 is the one crying out) and a blue 104. Can layer on to Blackpool as a bonus.

 

Yes, it is a shame but as far as I remember, the Preservation Crew was set up to convert TSW2020 routes into TSW2, something that is not required for subsequent releases. Although they often went above and beyond the basics e.g. bringing TSW2 features into routes when they were originally going to be “as is”, I suppose that it is reasonable that, once they had completed their remit, they should be disbanded. This doesn’t mean that fixes and improvements have been completely forgotten, as this week’s patches and the forthcoming WSR improvements show.

 

Very excited to see the class 104 appear on the roadmap, I hope they also fill in all the missing services in the timetable. A BR blue one would be great for the Blackpool route and NTP.

I don't play WSR much but it is great a new free upgrade is coming out. Same for NTP please.

The GOBLIN line whilst short is the sort of route I get a lot of enjoyment out of.

The new German route and the class 111 look very interesting. I agree though a proper period freight loco for the Rhine route is where there is a gaping hole in German content.

It would be good to get an idea of what USA content is coming.

A positive roadmap I thought.

 

Of course that ignores that a lack of support for old routes and failing to deliver on promised features harms sales of future content...

 

It took just trains over a year to create and release their first route. Union workshop is probably the same. I don't think they are a large 3rd party so it's going to take a while to create content

 

Union Workshop is only two people. For comparison the Blackpool Branches dev team was in the double digits.

 

Actually it was 5 devs who worked on blackpool.

 

I agree they more Canadian and routes are needed to catch up with what is already in game for the US routes.

 

Sad yet again yes no Canadian routes being added only having the one Canadian route is not all that fun. Also it would have been nice to have a hint at what the next US route will be.

 

Probably jumped the gun in announcing their intentions, then.

Looks like I’ll be buying Train Crew in the sale after all.

 

I would like to see the BML get an update like WSR is also good to see the 104 coming but overall the roadmap was very positive

 

Loving the new WSR Remastered update and GOBLIN Line for TSW4 sounds cool, the only problem I have so far with the new WSR update is Flying Scotsman in one of those screenshots has 4 coaches behind her, it would make sense to put a full rake (7 coaches) instead to simulate that Scotsman's train would be the most popular and therefore the longest.

 

Have you actually looked at the credits for Blackpool Branches?

 

Well, at least 10 people are credited in the manual, not to mention outside sources and assistance.

 

Salzburg - Rosenheim... Nice, Although I was hoping for a genuine Austrian route, not another cross border route. As I have relatives in Salzburg, I visit it now an then every year. Will be a day one purchase of course.
Goblin Line... Never heard of that before, but sounds good. Will get it too.
WSR remaster sounds good too and Berninabahn is also a day one purchase. All in all a good roadmap. Looking forward to the releases.

 

Goblin Line And for the 1st time an Aventra? to TSW4? HELL YEAH

 

Let me remind you that polish guys with their Sim Rail are already making the German route from Dresden with the Czech (!) locomotive series 162/163!

P. S. I'm attracted to the opportunity to buy once and receive content rather than buying another add-on every time)

 

Really dissapointed about the removing of the austrian loco dlc. Why??

 

i think because of the winter weekend thing. idk what it is in english. the locos probably come in 6+ months just got removed to make more space for other projects.

 

Don't think you are right unfortunately.. There is plenty space and other addons moved up to the 6+ months category.

 

Pretty annoyed about the lateness of the consist editor.
Users expected it (rightly) by the end of the year, as it was presented in the September roadmap. If you start from scratch every month (0-3 months etc.), it seems like a "three card trick"...
Really a clumsy move!

 

It's better delayed then for it to be rushed. Things take time in game dev

 

But not when it was promised as part of TSW4 it isn't. It should have been here already.

 

The problem is that with DTG "delayed" often means "never coming out at all".

 

I´m really excited for the Salzburg-Rosenheim route because i have already been to Freilassing and the museum there! To go around there in the game and take a BR 363 to shunt there for special demonstrations will be great!

 

When ST brings out the 104, I hope they remember a little detail about 1st-gen DMUs until ca. 1980- they didn;t have tail lights, Just a pair of white marker lights each end.

 

The Editor was announced coming together with TSW4. So something is wrong here. We don't have what we paid for and what was promised. The most basic feature of the software is missing - cooking content, it is like I can't safe my Word document or Excel sheet. Improvements and additions to the Editor are another thing. But the roadmap basically tells that a part of the software we paid for is ready 6-10 month after its initial release in a form that was advertised being available day one.

 

Notice the removed "Editor improvements" for the 6+ months mark. I think DTG is trying to let the Editor die or put the work onto the community to do it for them.

 

No they aren’t afaik when it’s 6+ month they said it’s subject to change which can mean stuff appears and disappears from the roadmap

 

Given that 6+ months is around the time for "slowing down to do fixes" and release next version of TSW in the result, editor improvements might be one of the selling points of TSW5.

 

I don't understand!

The editor and the ability to create and share content was one of TSW4's big selling points. How can it be that such a basic function as a storage function is simply missing? How does DTG save the content if they use the same editor? So what is the editor currently used for us? Right, nothing at all.

So what is the problem? And why has this important function and its problem solving been postponed indefinitely? With DTG, an indefinite period of time may mean: It never comes or only comes with TSW5, for which we can then pay again.

Sorry DTG, that's really not a good testimonial.