Dovetail Games Mattel’s Thomas & Friends™ Is Coming To Train Sim World!

This thread has been out for 1 hour, and I have had over 100 notifications from it already.

 

Just with the way the game works the train will act as realeasitcly as it can for steam I know people have big issues with the physics being wrong but I don’t personally mind and it is set on a preservation route I would say it is sticking to the rules of how the original tv show where sodor engines had faces but when the went to the uk or any train from another country came to sodorthey did not always have face

 

And to think we are probably not going to get any announcements until February now. They leave us with disappointment to cry about at the end of the year, go silent for a month, and the cycle repeats it self. I am willing to bet that we get some sort of Skibidi Toilet collab at some point now. This has set a dangerous precedent going forward.

 

Nah it’ll be TSW X Fortshite next

 

and literally only like three of them say something positive XD
As we say in Germany:
Schwach angefangen, aber dafür stark nachgelassen‘

 

I'm sure they are doing ok financially but I can see it being a useful thing for their licensing team to say to train companies they hope to work with that they have worked with big hitters like Mattel on one of the most beloved train brands in the world. If it helps boost DTG's brand as a trustworthy company for more train operators to work with that is something that could work well in our favour in the long run.

 

Thomas is a lot of people's first step along the line to becoming a train enthusiast, it makes perfect sense.

 

And like 2 of those are because the poster has small children that would enjoy this DLC.

 

Hahahaha, I'm glad I translated that, I may start adding it to my daily lexicon

 

The problems with this "big reveal" it's:
- This DLC IS THE BIG REVELATION (the biggest problem), seriously who thought it was a good idea?! (surely the intern...still him)
If the DLC had been announced in other circumstances, I think the community wouldn't have the reaction we have now, a justified reaction.
- After the various known problems like the price (I know we don't know the price but just the fact that it's paid is a problem) and/or the fact that it is fictitious
- This DLC is not made for the majority of the community
So yes it could allow children to discover TSW but these same children for the majority do not know TSW and are more focused on Roblox which is more suitable for them and there are good train simulation games, reason why DTG made TSW Tycoon. Afterwards I'm not saying that children between 3 and 7-8 years old don't play TSW but they are a minority, an extreme minority.

 

It would make sense if:
1. It was not hyped up as a big annoucement for over a month.
2. If it actually had the island of sodor and was not a loco addon.
3. If the target demographic knew what Train Sim World is, which most won't. As many have said, this is a very niche game. I don't know how Gen Alpha are living exactly, but I don't think every single 4 year old has an Xbox and TSW.

 

To be honest the thing that bothers me the most is that the time that went into making these locos could have went into bringing a new German loco to Ludwigsbahn: Br151, Br189, Br120, Br152,……
Saying there is no other rolling stock on this route might be true regarding passenger services- but there is always the chance to bring a freight loco.

Regarding the whole Season of Reveals I have to say I was really excited when it was announced- but day after day it went more disappointing: Great Britain had like almost half of the reveals, Germany got an update on a timetable and a route with no new rolling stock. The only thing that was really nice was the Mittenwaldbahn and the expansion pack.
We had no news on the German loco, nothing on Rivet, nothing regarding the projects from the PC editor projects that went silent months ago (looking at Pilot21‘s projects).
I reaaaaallly hope that this is some sort of joke and later on something worthy will be revealed, otherwise I‘m truly disappointed in this whole story..

 

I think some have hit the nail on the head. If this had been one of the earlier reveals then most of us would have simply moved on and waited for the next reveal. However, I think DTG have made an error in hyping this up so much. I too was very disappointed with this underwhelming final reveal and my fear is with Roblox and now this what is the long-term strategy for TSW? We may all be overreacting and not much will change but I do think this was a strange choice for a final reveal and it was far too overhyped. Oh well, back to looking at future roadmaps for something I might actually want to buy.

 

Hahahaha... Well done DTG...

Way to totally misread your player base.

I will be really amazed if you manage to claw your way back from this faux pas.

 

This DLC isn't aimed at four-year-olds.

 

Okay but will this have new steam physics?

 

Honestly this reveal was like a dog poo techno set, really good build up and hype to the fullest and when it dropped it was highly disappointing, This was so suited for tsw tycoon for roblox or a different game for Thomas and friends. This could've been in the roadmap with no problems what so ever. For this to be the big reveal has been ever ever so disappointing.

This would be great game for children but for adults who like to immerse ourselves to a "real world" environment it's a no, thank you.

 

If Dovetail have designed this aiming at the mostly teen/adult playerbase of this game, then they need a massive reality check.

 

I think the announcement is unfortunate because there was no need to create so much expectation for this, it could have been a normal reveal because you only need to see the reaction of the community and the little enthusiasm it shows.
For my part, it's not what I want to see in TSW, nor am I going to spend a single penny on it.

 

No.. The only thing that makes perfect sense about this is DTG know it's coming up to Christmas and the young targeted audience will be turning to Mum and Dad for a guaranteed purchase, it's a shameless money grab nothing more nothing less!

 

I personally have nothing against Thomas and his friends, but when I think of all the wasted development time that could have been better spent in serious and consistent bugfixes, bugs that have been around since TSW 2020, bugs that have been carried over 1:1 into the new TSW versions, bugs that have been ignored for years.

Realization that things can no longer go on like this, THAT and only THAT would have been a phenomenal revelation and the greatest Christmas present for this year, because we have been waiting for this realization for many, many years.

Well, Merry Christmas to you all..

 

Why am I upset? Personally, I think there are plenty of other game products out there to rekindle a child's love for the railway. This shouldn't have happened with TSW. I can hardly imagine a cartoon airplane appearing in MSFS!!!!!
I'm sure Thomas shouldn't have been announced as a "big reveal" that we've been wanting to know about for a long time. It looks like a mockery of the community!

 

Bad announcement timing as all the children were in school, but no doubt when they get home they'll love it.
I'm sure DTG know what they're doing. They have some data from sales of Holiday Express & the TS novelty DLCs.
I'm guessing that if the sales are good, they have an agreement to build the Island of Sodor.

 

In retrospect this 20 days calendar reveal thing was a terrible idea. Nothing groundbreaking you wouldn’t hear from the next roadmap(s), culminating with an absolute anti-climatic shitshow of a reveal.

And here I was thinking about multiplayer, dispatcher mode or even Ebula on German rolling stock. What we instead got was the equivalent of ebola I suppose.

 

When you look at it, everything that was revealed is nothing more than a typical roadmap. In addition, we actually had very few brand new reveals. Nearly everything was already announced or hinted to previously.

 

I think we are all missing the real issue here...Where is Percy?

 

So this is what they have been working on for the past few months.

Not fixing the myriad bugs in the game, not improving the core, not trying to bring back steam and freight.

No sir! They've been spending their days playing with a toy train!

 

Just as an idea how would people feel if they gave the option to remove the faces then you would just have a Thomas painted jinty that you may be able to paint in livery design

 

Thomas isn’t a jinty, he’s a southern E2….. but let’s be honest they ain’t gonna do that

 

Please tell me this is not a free add on.

 

Yea sorry I got mistaken with some of the trains repainted for day out with Thomas stuff.
But they could see the backlash and maybe make it sore the pack could also be just a new steam engine pack for people not that bothered about Thomas was my idea

 

Then who would it be aimed at besides little kids then? The average age of a Thomas the Tank viewer is 2-7 Years old

 

I don't know what pills you take with DTG, what frogs you lick, what mushrooms you make soup from or what you smoke. But one thing is for sure, you should take a lot less of it.

 

I want to see Henry in a bricked up tunnel

 

I did not see that coming!

 

Nostalgic fans. Little kids are not watching the Thomas show with a Thomas that looks like the one in the DLC.

 

Kids still do watch thomas today regardless of the model and may have the toys as well. This is clearly aimed more towards kids

 

I think he means that most of the kids watching the up to date Thomas would not care as much about this model as the current Thomas can get of the tracks and basically walk witch I hate but this one seems to be based of the cgi era Thomas from around 2016 when they still mostly followed the original idea of them being Trains that have to stay on tracks

 

I don’t comment much on these articles but this is such a massive disappointment I really struggle to see how those involved in this could say they’ve fully thought it through.

I’m really sorry to tag you DTG Alex but words cannot fully express just how frustrated a lot of the community feel about this. I hope you’ll strongly reconsider this and make some sort of apology/statement to the community because this just is not the content most of the community wants to see.

 

I don't think kids would care if it's a older model. Even then, given the reaction on here and elsewhere, I don't see this being popular with "Nostalgic fans"

 

Not arguing with you, but a small hard-core demographic on the forum is not a good sample of 'most of the community'.

More of a concern is if it doesn't sell well (which it may not), it will likely get blamed on steam traction not being what the core base wants.

 

It’s less likely for kids to care about the model but the adult fan base is huge and they are the ones that would have the biggest issue with using the absolute newest design for Thomas so using the cgi one is new enough for the kids to know it and close enough to the original idea for the character that the adult fans will be happy with it and therefore increase the possible amount of sales

 

While I agree this was a poor way to announce it, it amounts to trolling the community in my opinion. But the community on here us quite small compared to the player base.

A lot of people are being very narrow minded though. In my opinion this is great for the future of TSW. Thomas is a massive licence, it will bring in a lot of money. It will bring in a new audience, kids will want to play this with their parents / uncles / grandads etc. This is likely to bring in a new audience in both age groups. My grandad would have been straight out to get this if it was available when I was a child (back then it was model railways). Did Hornby stop making real locos when they started making fictional ones? No, and DTG won’t either. It may well subsidise the development of things we’d really like.

So poorly executed announcement at least from the forum point of view. But potentially very good news for DTG.

 

A lot of people do want steam, this isn’t what we wanted

 

So I feel like this is Dovetail's Diablo Immortal (AKA "Do you not have phones?") moment.

The first 14 reveals of the season of reveals revealed barely anything new, except a few screenshots here and there. Not even release dates, not counting "soon". And then the grand finale is a paid DLC featuring a fictional steam engine from a children's TV show. Frankly this belongs in TSW: Tycoon, or whatever DTG's Roblox game is called, not here. It's frankly mind boggling to me how out of touch this reveal is.

Reflecting on the whole season of reveals thing though, it was a good idea, but poorly executed. DTG, please, for the love of god, don't hype up your community if you have nothing to show us.

To the Thomas fans of the Community: hey, we're really happy for you, and at least this wasn't made by Rivet.

 

l agree this is extremely disappointing. I am 78 not 8. Think again DTG. You have a wide audience that surely 99% are over the age of 8 and this is an massive insult to everyone who plays this game and wants authenticity. It extremely disrespectful to us all.

Please DTG think again about the serious implications that this is detrimental to our wonderful TSW5 community and you will make TSW5 become a joke. If you want to release Thomas and Friends make it a separate game but please no no no way is it suitable to the community of TSW.

 

Oh. Dear. Although it was mooted in the speculation thread, I didn’t for one minute think it a real possibility.

Well for the positives first. Could be a money spinner for the younger customers and if that puts investment back in the core that might not otherwise have been there, good thing.

Could mean steam traction getting a revisit sound and physics overhaul. And tl:dr if already mentioned but it can hardly be Thomas if we don’t get a tank engine. Something like a Jinty or LMS/BR Standard 2-6-4T could then be sold in its more conventional form for use on the two existing steam routes. And some matching coaches, maybe some suburban type or GWR Hawksworth/Collett.

And the not so positive. Well, this should be coming as a complete package including a proper Isle Of Sodor route. There are plenty of islands where the size and shape could be adapted to represent Sodor. I already mentioned Arran, but you have other islands like St Kitts or Barbados in the Caribbean that are similar size and shape. Or they could have used the Project Platform location from TSC - Portland in Dorset - as a basis. But a slow 25 MPH drag along the WSR…

The decision is only going to further reinforce the derision with which TSW is held in in some quarters. I bet the die hard TSC players are either splitting their sides laughing or looking on in disbelief.

I mean I wish DTG luck with the enterprise and suspect it may have been driven from Focus level, but of all the features that could have enhanced the game for the adult players, a complete miss. And yes it actually did turn out to be content based and notionally UK after all.

 

It says 'Ages 3+' on the box

 

this has to be the most backlash I’ve ever seen for a dlc, ever!

I’m not against a Thomas dlc. But branding it as a “grand reveal” was a stupid choice.