Game Event Train Sim World 5 - October Mastery Challenges Now Live!

Will these work better than the current series of Mastery challenges?

 

I have a challenge for DTG.

make the game work reliably and stop it from crashing.

 

Seriously...... Fix the game first. That should be your priority as a developer. No more DLC, no more Mastery, fix the core product URGENTLY and then start rolling these pointless challenges out.

 

They have different teams working on different things. They couldn't just stop releasing dlc for a few years because it's how they make money and run their business

 

I must admit this feels a little Strange.... Not in a positive way! Its not so fair to bring this in right now. I can understand the opinions as shared above. This is not a smart move to do this at this moment. This type of work is not a good prioritise and there are so many issues and instead of release a highly ask Patch you choose to come with this self made advertisement is for me a little Strange. Please spend y'oure time in other things than this shameless advertisement.

 

Stop defending them, enough is enough. All resources should currently be working on fixing the awful release. I thought the Focus take over of DTG was supposed to allow them more access to extra resources across other studios within the group to help improve the product, clearly this wasn't/hasn't been the case to date.

There are so many things wrong with TSW5. Performance on most platforms is shocking and there's a lot of stuff that needs optimising and fixing with older routes.

That's where the resources should be being used, not releasing mastery challenges. Furthermore, the upcoming DLC's are 3rd party, so there is no excuse for all DTG resources to be applied to fixing the core product.

 

DLCs Fair enough but its not the time to bring in this kind of advertisement and i fully understand the angry reactions. Its not the time for such things like mastery rewards

 

The only reward that we need are patches!!!! No Mastery Rewards!!

 

The upcoming dlcs are also first party

 

Agree with the above. I’m not blind to who DTG are & how they operate, but a line has to be drawn.

I’m really not interested in mastery (that in itself may or may not work based on past experience) while the core content is unfinished & optimisation is at an all time low.

 

Yeah so if there are DLC's that are first party, they should be immediately stopped until the core product is working as advertised.

Just Trains are a 3rd party and their release is now scheduled for "sometime in 2024" which kind of indicates that even they aren't happy to release their product in to the brownstorm that is TSW5 at the moment.

 

Like i said, they make money by releasing dlc. They can't just abandon them for however long it takes to fix every issue

 

No stopping produce DLCs is not the best choice. Otherwise they have to reduce the team what result in less patches either. Also a big part of knowledge is loosing if you have to resize the the team.

 

You're missing the point.

They aren't going to be able to sell their DLC's, as they have blown away the customer trust and support by staying silent on the issues. Any other development studio would have acknowledged the brownstorm by now.

Just look at what Sony did with their 1st party title earlier in September, they refunded and closed it down as it was that bad, we're in the same territory with TSW5 in my honest opinion. Console owners might as well not bother looking at the awful experience they are having.

 

Again you're missing the point, reallocate the DLC teams to help fix the core product, otherwise those DLC's are NOT going to sell and they will be a lower quality to make sure they run on the broken core product.

 

Do you have any source where is this claim is based on in selling numbers by this game in history? I think this is a self proclaimed thing

 

It's common sense. A lot of this community have been very vocal about the ongoing issues with product quality. DTG's constant silence on the issues is hurting the brand as it stands at the moment.

If you bury your head in the sand long enough, the problem might go away, but 99% of the time it doesn't. Transparency with your customers as a game developer goes a long way. Admitting when you get things wrong goes a long way with your community.

Constantly trying to milk the cow for more when it's broken/not producing has the effect of pushing the customer away from your product.

Seen it all too many times in 25 years in the consumer market.

 

How old are you? Im working in health care and its very simple.... A doctor who is responsible for surgery can never take over the work of the gynecologist as an example...... You can think of the same thing at DTGs office with people who are responsible for map design and building trains! They are 2 completely different functions that can never take over each other's work. They both have their separate part. It seems fun to throw everyone on patches but that absolutely never makes sense.

 

OK, I'm not saying everyone in the DTG offices.

Those working on anything to do with DLC's has to have an understanding of the core product, otherwise they cannot make DLC's. As a developer, everyone within the DEVELOPMENT team, can be reallocated to work on anything to do with the game development.

Artist can be reallocated to texture optimisation.
Coders can be reallocated to optimise the code, instead of developing code within a DLC.
Audio engineers for new units can be reallocated to fix issues within the existing product.

Everyone within the development team can be temporarily reassigned to provide a faster response to fixing the core product.

How old I am, is none of your business, but I'm old enough to know how game studios should operate.

 

It depends on what’s broken really.

The new map has problems with performance, so that needs looking at.

WCML & SanB both have scenery/infra problems that need sorting.

WCML & KinzBahn both need the timetables looking at (WCML needing an overhaul & the latter has pathing issues with all layers).

The core itself is very unoptimised & generally needs some working on.

The 350 doesn’t even have suspension yet.

Then there’s compiling all the work & testing it.

All in all I think there’s a sizeable workload which does indeed need the majority of the dev team to work on, they’ve released a whole product in a state which isn’t fit for release. I imagine it’s the same teams that would be dealing with DLC’s as a whole.

 

This whole manner is for me the end of this discussion! I have enough about this conversation. Have a nice day!

 

Enjoy!

 

Fair enough they can put more effort in it but that will not give any change that all problems are gone in a faster time. Most things that already fixed are in the waiting room for further processing and thats more the problem i think! They choose to bring only larger patches instead of smaller ones what we have seen in the past what results on fixed things but also new broken issues and than we have to wait again and again. Its not efficient for users but more for DTG it self.

 

At least I'm happy that I'm not the only person who is a bit worried about not seeing another patch this week.

At least we know that a lot of 101 Expert Line stuff is fixed and not released for a month minimum by now.

 

I think it’s easy to say fair enough & make problems seem more trivial, but look at Xbox users. They can’t even reliably go into Euston on the WCML for 2 weeks now.

It’s just one example & it’s a problem that doesn’t affect me, but it’s an example that’s representative of how DTG approach development of TSW.

Like I said earlier, DTG are who they are & ultimately if you’re still around buying their products after a couple of years (many more for some), you should know what you’re getting when buying into them, but DTG have taken it too far with the state of TSW5.

 

Yes, paying 35 euros with many promises about that
"we are faster in delivering patches" That turns out to be a complete lie. How many months are we now?!

 

I can't play the game the way it is constant stuttering hope there's another update this week to fix it

 

Thats exact the whole point why im worried and why i'm written my point above. They need patches and not a mastery reward!

 

I find that very sad and this whole mastery reward is just a slap in the face if you can't even enjoy your purchase normally!

 

Working closely together with the EA FC Team ;-)

 

But you're saying that you don't want them to pull staff members within the development team to temporarily be reassigned to helping fix these issues, and want them to carry on making a DLC, that may not sell well enough due to the issues not being addressed fast enough..... I'm lost for words.

 

Sorry that you don't understand my point.... I have written above already that more men power will not result in faster patches! This patches thing is a larger range of steps and things that already been fixed is waiting for further processing or for testing. Sometimes fixes needs in a hold position before they can go further in the proces to let them test by beta tester or they have to bring it to a second desk for other parts.

 

It doesn't really matter if the people who worked on new Mastery challenges could have worked on other stuff, bug fixes, DLC, whatever...
What really matters is this: are these the same people who worked on route Mastery challenges? Because I have a very long list of Mastery challenges that are broken and cannot be completed.

 

:rolleyes:

1. It's not men power. It's employees.
2. More team members working across a vast selection of bugs will resolve them quicker, and allow for a bigger and better fix list.
3. DTG clearly do not test products in house and it's shipped out to a outsourced test team.
4. Any feedback testers give them is clearly ignored.

Have you ever been involved in the development of any sort of game or software application? I'm talking from experience in both software development and game development from a testers point of view. Having been involved in my younger years (I'm 40 by the way as you asked earlier) in testing many mainstream video games on both PC and consoles.

• Battlefield Desert Combat (that went on to become Battlefield 2)
• America's Army
• Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2/3/4
• Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
• Need for Speed Underground 1&2
• The Division 2

 

Why don't you join DTG if you have so much experience? You are apparently so experienced that you could contribute very well to the speed and processes?!

 

Because I have a better paid job driving real trains. They have declined on numerous occasions any help with routes when the offer of making sure it was accurate and real life, claiming they already have enough drivers and helpers on their teams. Clearly by the state of WCML South, this isn't the case. So yeah we'll leave that there.

 

I can fully understand why they don't need you....

 

That's entirely up to them, but when a company turns down free assistance with making things better, from someone that works daily on a product they are trying to recreate, then you know the product is in trouble.

No need to get nasty Xander. I'll put that down to the language barrier.

 

It has already been pointed out that testers have given feedback on issues that players have identified, yet DTG has chosen to ship the product as it was. More testers will not help here. They know where the bugs are, but are incapable or unwilling to fix them. Meanwhile, they announce [EDIT - Jan - Language] with much pomp, as if we've been clamoring for it.

 

dtg_jan
Sure, how would it be to make an official statement on the condition of the TSW5 release and when we can expect any fixes? Would show some respect for your customers.

Sorry but it is as always, DTG is silent, but marketing works fine. Don't take that as a personal insult, you are also only doing your work.

 

dtg_jan
Thank you for your statement It would be great for everyone if we received those without needing to ask. That would give us, as a community, the feeling that you are looking out for us.

 

Well, what's the problem with notifying us about the progress and a list of fixes? It's already the beginning of October, and no major patches, it looks like piggy, kek//

 

Problem again is also that we do not really know which bugs are on DTG's 'confirmed' list and which are not. Something like a bugtracker or a weekly update on what is going on would help.

 

Yeah agreed, something along the lines of what Asobo offer with MSFS 2020.

 

due respect Jan.

It’s not much fun when every time you play the game it randomly crashes to a black screen and Xbox home page with any run progress lost. Not just at Euston but randomly anywhere.

I know it wasn’t intended as such but I find the suggestion that these mastery challenges are fun is a bit insulting. I gather most platforms have issues with the game crashing out.

I’m irritated by the many errors on the route but that’s a bit by the wayside because the game itself not working properly is a far more significant issue. If the game was reliable then I’d have little to no issue with the mastery.

 

Well I see it as a bit of fun. At least it would be if it worked. I did five tutorials in the training centre. All of them tracked for 'All in a months work'. So far so good. So then I did 2 more Training Centre tutorials to complete 'Training Day' - Neither of these have tracked. So then I tried driving a 66 and completed a timetable using one. This could have tracked for 'Class Action' or 'October Drive' but hasn't tracked for either of them.

So it was a nice idea, I don't mind mastery even though I have 0 use for a decal. But as with many things, it's broken for me. Let me know when it's working and I'll try again.

EDIT : All above was on PC Steam. So I switched to PlayStation 5 and tried another 66 service on WCML - This hasn’t tracked either. What is worse is that on PS 5, the Mastery box won’t scroll, so I can only see 4 out of 5 parts of the challenge. So this is going really well! I don’t care enough to raise a ticket, but you really ought to get this working. As I read it it’s aimed at new users to TSW5 to get them involved. It’s not going to set a great impression assuming that it’s not just me that has an issue.

 

With all due respect as Southern has said, mastery cannot be completed by the vast majority of the player base at the moment because the game is just unstable. Even with a top end PC, there are huge issues getting a smooth experience. Yes I can complete runs, but there's massive issues throughout any route with freezes etc. I know it's been said by JD to run a route multiple times to reduce issues, but your RAM optimisation is appalling. Last time I checked it was 48gb of RAM usage and 14GB of VRAM being used, something massively broken there.

I'm running a i9-13900K with 64GB RAM and a 4090 with 24GB of VRAM, I shouldn't really be struggling with this game in all fairness.

Again, there appears to be a massive disconnect between the development team, the community team and the player base.