Enough Is Enough!!! The Ongoing Saga!!! It's Almost The 3 Year Anniversary

Pretty sure I'll be giving that a miss.

 

With 9 days to go until the direct, or, as I like to call it “Doomsday”

I think this thread will become, once again, very important for gathering people’s potential anger, frustration, and opinions. As it has with the previous game.

Also on another note: watching this thread go from once one of the most toxic cesspools born out of hatred, to now being an actual good resource for people’s views on the game, that is actually mature, is really inspiring.

seems like the worst things posted on the forums, can sometimes end up being useful and good.

 

What, you want support for free? That's not how it works in the DTG Universe. You better get the paid "upgrades" and they may graciously consider possibly maybe fixing their bugs.

 

To be fair to DTG, we’re in a lot better state than last year. TSW3 had a lot of outstanding bugs and issues (yes, TSW4 has issues, and they won’t all get fixed, but I still think we’re in a better place) and patches basically got paywalled behind TSW4. TSW2 was finally acknowledged as being dead despite fixes being on the roadmap for ages.

But this year TSW4 has had the Core Updates that have addressed long standing issues. I’m thinking of BML 377 rear door open, and SEHS AI PIS.

Yes, again, I get that <insert your pet bug here> hasn’t been fixed, but I’m going to state here major kudos for whoever put forward and won buy-in for the time to do the Core Updates, as that isn’t something business people sign off on readily.

Is TSW4 perfect? No. But credit where it’s due, it’s being left in a better state if this is the end. That’s progress.

 

In the interests of fairness, and I'm fairly outspoken in my criticisms, I'm still on TSW 3 and haven't spotted any bugs.
Now I hasten ro add that I only play on the East Coasstway route so maybe that's in a better state than others, or maybe I just don't notice them (so don't point them out to me, esoecially as TSW3 is no longer supported), but if the quality is apparently getting better with TSW4 then that's got to be a good thing..

 

TSW5, a moment of fate,
Will it bring joy or a weight?
The Dovetail direct draws near,
A time of hope, a time of fear.
Will it be a disappointment,
Or will it be a win?
The outcome is uncertain,
As we count the days, with a grin.
So check your wallets,
And prepare for the ride,
For TSW5 will soon arrive,
Our destiny to decide.

 

With apologies to Robert Jordan… The Dovetail Wheel Weaves as the Dovetail Wheel Weaves…

 

I think me creating this thread is enough and will suffice for future generations lol

 

Its poetry Jim, but not as we know it

 

Keys handed out to Ambassadors cost us "punters" precisely nothing, in these days of digital distribution. If, say, a sock company gave out free pairs of socks, then those socks cost something to manufacture, and there is a finite supply against which to graph demand; but software can be duplicated infinitely at no cost.

 

Developing the software has a cost, but you can copy it indefinitely without any cost.

 

The point of giving keys to ‘ambassadors’ is to drive sales. Those keys are an investment, and DTG would expect a return on that investment. If an ambassador wasn’t seen to be helping to drive sales, they’d be dropped. The keys aren’t a cost-free giveaway. They’re also a drop in the ocean vs actual sales.

 

You could theoretically count an ambassador key as a lost sale but in practise it really isn't.

 

The only sort of cost that would be incurred would be any that Steam has, and from what I understand developers can get new keys for nothing from them. In turn this makes the economics so low that if literally just one person buys a game from a video that wouldn't have without it then you've made your money back, and if a second buys it then you're now making money off it. It's way cheaper than say buying out TV space, a billboard, or indeed using a ACS-64 as a billboard like DTG did. Certainly a lot less risky, there's a lot few movies for example that made back their production budget, but bombed due to massive marketing budgets, Indiana Jones 5 comes to mind as a recent example.

 

Indy 5 didn't even make it's budget back. It cost £295M to make, took £383M GROSS - which when you split roughly 50/50 with the box office is ~£192M net. And then it probably had £100M+ marketing costs on top of the £295M, hence why decent reporting said it needed ~£800M gross to break even.
Disingenuous movie review sites will often announce with a fanfare that a film has "matched" or "passed" it's budget, but that's basically a reality of "it's taken 50% of what it needed to start making an actual profit!"

 

Old Benz, my absolute Kink.

Happy owner of a S124 "Vormopf". Its a bit wasted from the outside but it just refuses to stop working. With the M102 2,3 Liter it also actually delivers some acceleration compared to the na diesels of that time

 

And its brother, the C124 is imho one of the most elegant Coupés ever designed - it is still an eyecatcher and so late 80s



Just like this, the McLaren-Honda MP4/5B V10 (1990, A. Senna, G. Berger) is imho the most elegant and beautiful F1 car ever designed (cannot look at those stretched, broken, obstructed and cluttered cars today...)

 

still going, damn ... anyway, today I have learned that my understanding of Sifa cos of non-expert DLCs was pretty... off ... I perceived Sifa as a benevolent guy who just gently slaps your wrist if you fall asleep, turns out that slap on the wrist is with a steel rod lol

 

To this day one of the most beautiful coupes they did. A good example of timeless design because Sacco was an absolute Mastermind in his area. And the craftsmanship of these models was something else. If you ever had one, its hard to switch to something else.

I wasn't actually alive when those cars came around, but growing up on my uncle benz D) rear bench, i had to had one at some time in my live. I love that they are pretty much fully analogue, its a completely relaxing experience, something that modern cars are missing imo.

 

Another one for this thread: Swiss license scandel: How can I confidently buy payware add-ons on Steam, if I always have to live in fear of train companies revoking licenses and my content beeing downgraded in the future? This is outrageous and will engourage piracy.

 

But that's nothing DTG can do anything about, other than immediately drop SBB.

They are victims of these silly policies just as we are.

We need the KLF back (aka Kopyright Liberation Front)

 

yes sure, I totally agree

They should get the money back from the original license.

 

Well thats nothing in DTGs Power is it? Maybe SBB Had a good read of this thread and thought well we should pull out of this, and is convincing its other TOC friends to follow as we speak. :p /s

 

Maybe the Trancentral line could be a TSW route one day

 

BREAKING NEWS

DTG Alex has just confirmed that the suspension update (for real this time) will be this afternoon. This is NOT a drill

 

Only one week before Dovetail Direct, the motto for these last days is: the first line of this song ^^

 

It’s about damn time

 

Aaand there you go, suspension is out.


The question is though…

does it work as intended?

 

Look forward with some hope to hearing the feedback, maybe even a video or two.

 

Just seen and YES, suspension actually works.


Finally, the feature, (which definitely wasn’t delayed for 12 months) is finally out,

all seriousness though, well done dev team for at least getting it out before the next game.

 

Anyone rmembers the International Rescue scenario which got a "fix"?

It still doesn´t work...

 

It's grim up north

 

Normally, I would agree, but especially because they churned it out narrowly before announcing yet another title with yet another set of delayed features, I can't really give them credit. It was released now just because if it were released any later, it would be extremely on the nose with the next paywall announcement. The list of supported trains is laughable, not even all the TSW4 core trains. This was rushed to get it out before DTG Direct and TSW5. And let's not forget that JT Class 142 has had this functionality for almost 10 months.

 

And don't forget the 323, for some reason only the Training centre variant has it, but that's had it since day one. Why not the Cross City version as well?

 

I thought that about the 323.
Maybe Cross City is getting an upgrade with additional types of traction at Birmingham New Street that may or may not be coming to the game. So it kind of makes sense to update the BCC 323 then.

 

Cross City will likely get an update for suspension and AI pendolinos.

 

Btw. Was the working escalators always a thing on BCC? I didn't think it was. Wonder if they're upgrading it for a future route (WCML *cough cough nudge nudge wink wink*)

 

And 350s...hopefully!
730s wouldn't be unwelcome either.

 

Just chanced upon a Class 66 service on ECML in Quick Play. "Perfect," I thought. "Let's see this new suspension in action."

Nope. No suspension.

I distinctly remembered "ECML — Class 66" being advertised in the suspension announcement post (let's disregard for a second the fact that this feature was promised for TSW4's release last October), so I went and checked how various Class 66 variants behave on the ECML.

I drove over many switches and gaps at <5 mph, looking closely at the front bogie. The only variant that had working suspension was the ECML one.
Not the GWE one.
Not the SEH one.
Not the SEH (RHTT) one, which is the one I drove initially.
Not the ECW one.
Just the ECML one.

People have been complaining about how there are too many variants of singular locomotives/MUs technically divorced from each other for ages, and this is yet another example of why they're right. I think that this problem should've been addressed somewhere between TS2016 and TSW2020. Yet here we are.

 

Regardless of the extent of the UK route we think we are getting with TSW5, BCC would benefit from a SEHS style extension. Put in the Walsall Line, plus Coventry through to Wolverhampton (if not included elsewhere!) for an expanded West Midlands network. Layer in the two trains that might be arriving in the near future and, yes the caveat it’s all one handle EMU’s, but still a nice little domain to play around in.

 

Funnily enough, this probably also doesn't work for the pink and blue versions, which are some of the newest in the game... I skipped TSW4 and will skip TSW5, but if they announced unifying classes so you have one tech for each type of train that is up to date, I would reconsider.

 

With the line to Wolverhampton you could also add the 158 and 170, with the correct licences (although I think the Shrewsbury trains are class 196s now).

 

That should be happening with way more routes. Combine them into networks so you have more freedom in choosing services. NYC comes to mind, so does Edinburgh. But nah, A-to-B every time.

 

One of my favourite routes in BVE/OpenBVE was the West Midlands Network. Although semi fictional, not hard to figure out where most of the locations were. BCC could be extended in several stages, the first as mentioned then you could drop down to Worcester and the Malverns, followed by the line via Kidderminster to Snow Hill then on to Leamington Spa and Stratford.

 

Can't have that without Severn Valley Railway and PPM though

 

And George, the Stourbridge Junction cat!

 

Oh I should've had this information last year when I was there...

 

It does feel a bit like "Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album"

 

Wonder if the Save Game issues will be fixed lol