General North American 3rd Party News (non Dramatic Version)

It's certainly fair to say that issues I and others have with certain developers tends not to be addressed and ends up being rather rote at this point, when a dev continues to fail in the same manner time and again it makes all the criticism end up being rather circular.

Perhaps it would be better if some of us just gave up on American train sim as a whole rather than expecting it to even approach the quality offered in other markets, but I (and I believe others as well) only do this because I care and wish to actually have a decently realistic and functional product to purchase, for all that some people can whinge that we should just reskin it better if we don't like it these are payware products and a certain level of quality is to be expected.

In regards to things getting rather personal, I certainly attempt to avoid personal attacks on developers and stick to criticism of their product. If forum members feel like responding to anything I say by calling it nitpicking or moaning I see no issue with treating them with the same respect they grant to me.

If users are so insulted by my temerity in criticizing DTM or HIS they are free to go to the RWA forums instead.

 

I suspect we were asking for non-pristine units and this is a livery they were willing to sacrifice.
The photos look a bit pixelated or something, and I find the bogies too bright as well. In the low angle pic it's fine (or so), but the higher capture with the reflections makes it stand out a little. Kind of triggers DD35 memories.

By the way it may simply be (iron) dust or something. The picture I shared in this thread about a week ago about NS looks kind of like that. There were also numerous complaints about dark units, so this might be fine. I mean, trying to stay positive, will have to see how it actually looks with the regular weathers.

 

HIS has posted that the fifth locomotive included with their NP route will be the SW1200. As is seemingly standard at this point, the locomotive is missing railroad specific details such as winterized windows and spark arrestors

 

People are expecting a fully 100% detailed ProRange loco included with a route. SMH.

 

It does appear that it should be more blue than black, though that could I suppose be due to the lighting of the photograph. The tarp covering the front radiator grill would be a nice little detail, but I would hardly deem it essential.

 

Paint scheme on the NP unit is wrong. Sill should be yellow, not black. Hardly a “minor” detail.

 

Both of the photographs posted show the window surrounds as all one colour, either black or blue. Do you mean the interior window sill? Because I can't see that at all in the posted image.

 

I think he means the side of the frames where the handrails are attached - that sill.

 

If comments bother you then don't read them. You don't have to have something to say about everything.

 

I take it you've no actual argument against my comments then if all you can do is make personal attacks?

 

That's just fundamentally not what pro range is. Pro range is for locomotives with better than normal levels of simulation and functionality, it has nothing to do with exterior model and texture quality.

 

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room.

It would be nice if people could be a touch more positive though

 

Oh sorry, I'm so glad and thankful for the privilege and opportunity being granted to us all by there being yet more content that has very little proper attention to detail being foisted upon us. Yay!

 

Oh my apologies. I suppose buzz can consistently insult me and other members here but the second we respond its us who need to tone things down, classy.

 

If HIS can't get simple things like a basic paint schemes correct, I can only imagine the backlash they are gonna get when they start developing TSW content that isn't up to par.

 

None? Because no one that plays TSW for North American Content cares enough to care about inaccuracies.

Also, why is TSW being brought up in the TSC board? Who cares?

 

It's admittedly hard to find photos of np sw1200s in NP service, but that's a bn era photo. That's not to say its impossible some of the NP SW1200s lacked spark arrestors, but every photo I can find shows them. That said it does bring up another issue, if the stock is supposed to be late 60s early 70s, where are all the ACI plates?

 

Nobody should be insulting anybody. I'm fairly sure that's against the code of conduct of this board.

But there is an old adage that goes if you haven't got anything nice to say, it's better to say nothing.

Don't like something, don't intend to buy it? That's fine, move on to something that you do enjoy. Negativity isn't particularly good fun for anyone

 

Exactly, isn't it great that people are still developing content for this game 15 years in? Not many games out there that can say the same.

 

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic...

 

You misunderstand. The point of pointing out inaccuracies and poor quality isn't to hate. It's to get the developers to fix these things and bring their content to an acceptable standard for us who actually value realism in this game, so that we will buy it.

It's incredibly pathetic to me that this has become a thing to be mocked for by several members of this community, because at the end of the day we are simply pointing out things that, if fixed, will increase the quality of the products, regardless of how you felt about them beforehand.

 

But that's of no use whatsoever if the developers aren't here to read them

 

HIS (and people in contact with them) are on this forum, and when even the slightest constructive criticism gets you banned from their Facebook or the RWA forum it's not like there's a better place.

 

Yes, far better to contact the developers directly and offer additional reference material than to criticise on a fan forum I would think.

 

If so then what even is the point of a fan forum if not to discuss the products the forum is about? That's like telling people on a model railroad forum they're not allowed to discuss the positives and negatives of an ho locomotive.

 

Anthony I only comment about 1/10th of the silly comments by some individuals on here who are about 95 % negative particularly about some of the creators. It's not only insensitive it's just plain rude.

 

So far the "discussion" seems to be merely a lot of spleen venting rather than an appraisal of any specific product.

 

I agree, I pointed out some issues with the product and a number of users jumped down my throat. It would be nice to be able to raise issues with a product and not get dog piled but here we are I suppose.

 

Plural...
...also, who defines (defined?) what level is certainly what should be attained?

 

I think a fairly simple standard would be to be roughly equivalent in quality to payware products in other markets, and while the HIS routes themselves are decent, the included stock (specifically the locomotives) and scenarios fall far short of what is expected.

 

To get our minds off of HIS, Milepost shared this.

 

I'm curious how well the electrics will be simulated, I've been pretty disappointed by by milepost locomotives in the past.

 

Think along the lines of the stock and scenarios being free gifts when you buy the route; makes those minor little errors (going by what you've outlined in the recent pages) much easier to live with.

 

That only works if there's high quality alternatives available. In the case of MILW, there aren't.

 

I have seen better and worse content. IMHO is nestled quite nicely in mid range quality. This is their norm and what is to be expected.

 

Yeah it's what we've learned to expect from HIS at this point, but that doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't do better. It then ends up being especially problematic when there isn't higher quality alternative stock available.

 

And because of that I'm not allowed to talk about it?

 

It appears that there are several people who are ‘experts’ in US vintage rolling stock. I would have no clue that a specific element is missing. I’m personally happy to have any US routes which are available. Sub-par rolling stock I might just purchase to enjoy the scenarios available. Apparently there are some of us who are gullible enough to purchase HIS product since there is not much else and TSW ain’t cutting it. Negative comments about these products make us lower level train geeks feel that we are being called idiots. I would second the emotion of having less HIS-sy fits about everything they produce!
Respectfully

 

Why so rude? Nothing said here is going to convince a modeler to do anything with their work. They follow several forums and read the comments. This has been going on for years and still things are what they are. One YT reviewer tried this and was not successful. The only thing that will make that happen is when things don't sell. Right now many people are buying it and will continue to buy it. I have not seen any developer state that we are making changes to their product because Gary doesn't like it. Thankfully there are a group of hobbyists that can make enhancements as freeware to make these products better.

 

Hang on...read through again!
I'm not saying I don't like it, I'm on the side of the poor guy getting lambasted for tiny omissions/errors

 

Care to post a list of what you've been happy with?

 

The point was, no mater what anyone thinks here nothing will change. Details are left out, time period errors either by intent or otherwise. A lot of things are opinion and most people do not care. What matters is entirely up to the individual.

 

..until a change is made using (but not limited to) one of the options I outlined. As you've written, up to the individual so anybody who feels so aggrieved that provider 'X' doesn't produce models up to what they consider a useable standard has to find an alternative solution.

 

Oh gee, there is all sorts of back and forth about fixes, improvements, and additions over on FB politely suggested instead of snarky comments here. Who would have thunk it.

 

For every comment you see there are 5 deleted. For every 5 deleted comments there is one blocked user. Ask me how I know.

(unless it's Milepost, he's very good at responding to and correcting errors)

 

[Edited; insulting - DTGHarry]

I still see pure white headlights on 1950's locomotives and nothing shown by HIS will convince of buying any of the bundled DLC at full price.

Is the DRGW Tennessee Pass (another pass route, LOL) somewhat crude 2-8-8-2 steam locomotive touched up by now?

PS, looking forward to the "Super Fleet' GP60's announced by Reppo. At least this developer takes pride in his work. Hopefully, the GEs four axle high horsepower, high speed equivalent will follow.

 

Some new station shots, for the most part they look decent imo, though the switch lantern seems quite out of era for the 60s and 70s when it's supposed to be set.

-edit: seems that switch still had lanterns in 1971, honestly quite surprising.

 

Those station buildings do look nice, these are the custom assets. Most of the other assets are stock Kuju, RSC of old, supplied by DTG to keep development time down I suppose.

The baggage carts on the platforms indicate a passenger train could arrive any moment ....
Will there be a surprise passenger train included? Or offered as a separate DLC later?
Or do the empty platforms indicate the last passenger train has long since departed?

In this era and area, I suppose a lot of plain and sturdy 1950's cars, pickups and trucks with their more rounded forms were still around with the farming folk around 1970?

Since this is another 'pass' route, how about the mountains? Rocks, trees, rivers, the scenery that can make or break a trip over the pass. Esp in winter, which can be long and harsh at this latitude?