Dovetail Games Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn - Preview Q & A Thread

Which rolling stock in the new DLС in connected layers supports the suspension function?

 

What is the main selling point of the new route that makes it unique among other german DLCs?

 

ICE 3M
- does the power system changing menu work on this variant?
- what exactly are the changes in braking behavior?
- why has it not been considered to implement TVM? would have been an opportunity, especially for future routes.

 

What was the thinking behind setting it in the early 2010s?

Regarding updates to the ICE3M are you also looking to make the ATB system functional now that the Netherlands is going to be a future part of the game? I guess similar to Myron's question about TVM.

The preview shows the TGV as AI. Does that mean the voltage issues behind not seeing this layer on Frankfurt-Fulda have been resolved?

I already have the the ICE3M, 425, and 185 from other routes I own. Will having this route potentially unlock any layers on other routes?

 

How did this route make it through your own LAMPOIL process?

As per the above, what is the iconic feature or function that makes it a stand out "must have" purchase, bearing in mind the much more appealing Mittenwaldbahn is only a few weeks away?

Do you not feel your customer base for German routes are getting a bit fed up with identikit 70 or 80km inter urban electric routes. Is it not time for something a bit different - a diesel main line such as Obereruhrtalbahn, a U-Bahn maybe Hamburg or Frankfurt or something from Berlin, the capital and heart of Germany which DTG has failed to visit so far (Ringbahn, perhaps?).

How do you justify charging £30 for a route which comes with no new locomotive, MU or rolling stock? This is usually the price for a route which includes a new train.

Do you even have developers on staff any more who can build German train assets?

The latest patch does not seem to have done much to address core issues such as stuttering, sound distortion, blurred textures and "one unders" at station platforms. Can we get any assurance these will get another pass prior to release?

Are we any closer to getting more than one save slot, given the constant arrival of new content plus addressing the ongoing bug (which the EP promised some time ago was being looked at) effectively preventing players chaining services and being able to save/load on subsequent runs.

As usual these questions are addressed to DTG to answer and not the self appointed forum spokespersons...

 

Hello,

A small detail that made me jump: the SNCF duplex trains controlled by AI are "200" series trains ... Too bad, the realism is ruined. It would have been necessary to model four-current trains.

 

Will the brake levels show in the MFDs with the updated version of the ICE 3M?

I remember them not working on the 406 from Köln - Aachen and on the 403 on München - Augsburg.
And to be sure I checked those in TSW4 as well, as I keep that installation vanilla - dead MFDs there as well. The only train from that family that has functioning brake displays in the MFDs is the 403 from Kassel - Würzburg as well as the railbow DLC.

Also what are the updates for the included trains that you spoke of in the announcement in particular? New sounds, suspension, physics, lighting, gameplay?

Despite the (yet) unanswered questions it'll "only" be a day-two-purchase for me btw, since I'll be busy the night of the release for it's the German opening night of the new Paddington movie in theaters.

Thanks in advance.

 

What updates have been made to existing rolling stock to bring them up to a higher standard than they are currently? Specially the Dosto cab car, it’s the worst thing to drive and so unlike any other cab car in game.

 

Will the DB 406 have a MFA like the 403 or will it have an anolog dashboard like the SKA 406?

Will it be able to have a nice Railfanning Experience at Mannheim - Kaiserslautern on Consoles? So when will we get back the fast moving external camera on consoles via gamepad?

 

Is there a chance for getting a 101 Expert timetable for that route?

 

- What is the reason we got the same livery for the Br185.2 again? This livery (Railion) has been reused on the 185.2 since Main-Spessart Bahn; so for more than 4 years now!!
The way better livery from RSN was never seen again and would be a nice addition to have at least something new with this loco..
- Why is the Br425 not the accurate S-Bahn version that is being used in real life?
- Is the ICE3M the version that can actually run to France?
- What is the real reason no new stock was included? At least a few freight wagons would have been great; or at least some repainted versions..

To be honest I’ve never been more disappointed in a DLC so far; although I was very excited about this route finally being one in BaWü, this excitement has vanished more and more over the last few weeks. I and many others simply don’t see why the full price should be reasonable to buy this route.
So as my last question:

What are five good reasons for us as a customer to buy this route and not wait at least for a sale?

 

this already has been negatively answered.

 

Will console players have a chance to finish an end-to-end run on the route without suffering a crash or do we have another FTF / Miles Platting situation?

 

1) Why only 4 regional express services?

2) If there is a construction time table, are there some constructions to see?

3) why both S1 and S2 bypassing Schifferstadt, why not letting one of them let driving through Schifferstadt to Kaiserslautern/Mannheim to bring more varity (even if it means the time table is in this case a little semifictive)?

4) if here S1 and S2 are bypassing, ICE/TGV too, are there any trains using the section from Kaiserslautern directly to Schifferstadt (aka, is this section drivable in the game) or are at least all trains bypassing exept these going south to Speyer?

 

Why does the DB *Vectron* substitute on this route, if it's set in 2014, and DB didn't have Vectrons in 2014?

Have the necessary modifications been done to the ICE 3M to make it look basically like an ICE 3MF?

 

Will we ever get new dostos?

 

How can external PIS destinations still be missing off of new routes? These have been in the game for ages and constantly brought up by the community. Is there not a checklist of features that each route has to go through? Is there no quality control?

 

• Does the route suffer from the blurry textures bug?
• Does the route routinely crash on PS5 like Frankfurt - Fulda?
• Why wasn’t a more appropriate freight loco like a 185.0 or 186 considered - especially given the lack of new rolling stock that many have criticised?
• What is the DB Cargo Vectron doing on the route when these didn’t even exist at this point in time?

 

Or the Bpmmbdzf at least

 

I do feel like, with the absolutely enormous amount of rolling stock still to be made for TSW, creating a route without anything new - not even a new livery, or a unit variation - is a retrograde choice.

You could have included:

* 2nd generation Dostos
* SUWEX Flirt (if set in the present day)
* 5 car ICE-T
* DB 181
* DB 120
* DB 152
* Other IC coaches

 

A few additions:
- A new TGV Version
- Br185.1
- Br186
- Br189
- Br408 (present day)
- Br407 (present day)
And the SUWEX Flirt runs there from 2014 onwards so it could have also been made with the 2014 era

 

And following on from the late announcement about missing features on release.

1. Why the publish and be damned approach? If it’s not ready, have the stones to pull it and set a revised release date?

2. Given the state other routes have been left in, what’s the chance of any of the outstanding items even being fixed? Where is the timescale?

3. How do you feel allowing a route to release for £30 in this state reflects on DTG as a competent and professional software developer?

 

Why is the pantograph not touching the OHLE in your trailer (there is an extra zoom to the modern 111 panto in the particular scene)?

How long do we have to wait for the promised "day one patch"? A week? A month?

 

If I buy this DLC and the textures are blurry, will you refund my money? I'm playing on PS5 and don't want to deal with a complaint through Sony.

 

I think this is one where, if the route actually appeals, wait for reviews (the honest ones) or even a sale. Don’t be a Day One play tester!

Edit: Was this route built in house or was it outsourced? If the latter are you prepared to confirm or deny that Rivet were involved in any way?

 

In one of the screenshots it looks like there is no 3d snow on this route. May as well just have been the snow cover not being 100%. This should be a standard feature from KWG, I believe. Would be nice to get some clarity around this…

 

Asking for the layered AI services of the TGV Duplex.

Can AI services, which either start and/or end in a portal (and do not have service start/stop/ends), ever made to be drivable by the player?

It could have been an interesting extra for the route to be able to drive the two Frankfurt Main Hbf to Paris Est services with the TGV Duplex, even if there are no service stops on the route.

 

The problem isn't that there are no stops on the route, it's that the train isn't compatible with German electrification. The AI doesn't care, but it won't work as a player service.

 

Interesting. And if the electrification would be correctly, it would work?

 

The TGV does exactly the same stops as the ICE as far as I know, so yes.

 

What was actually fixed on the 425 and why does it permanently show B for lzb and „Notbremse“ and have the driver screens a dark mode?

 

Are there any plans for the SÜWEX Stadler Flirt?

 

No plans for anything

 

Sadly the platform roofs in Kaiserslautern Hbf are wrong. The roofs in the game seem to represent the olde roofs. But with the integration into the S-Bahn network and the start of the ICE services the station was modified in the early 2000s. Here are a few examples of the real roof:

 

why the ICE3M, and not the correct ICE3MF? as the ICE3M got updated either way, why not make the changes to ICE3MF too?

 

So it looks like you can do power changes on the ICE3M which includes 25kv. Lukas tested it works on Marseille-Avignon. I wonder if it would work on Southeastern High Speed? Joe's October Easter egg in the timetable could become drivable

 

I liked the atmosphere on the stations. Nicely modelled with quite a lot of details, as far as I could see. Something I really liked at FTF too.

Obviously we have the usual logic issues on all sorts of signals. As Lucas was mentioning that they are still working on at least some of them, I would hope that stuff like a 60kph indication into Mannheim, which should be a 40 will get fixed eventually (I have hope).

What I really didnt like (and I dont have much hope that this will be looked at...) were all the lid Fahrtanzeiger (no idea what the english word is for them). I like they are modelled, however, you would need to add a logic to them, otherwise they are just the wrongest thing ever. If they can not be lid when it would be appropriate I would have preferred them off, tbh. Having them lid indicates green signals all the time to all the drivers...

 

Will the 185.2 be fully functional, i.e. will both cabins work, or will it still only go 2 km/h when driving from cabin 2?

 

because it probably requires 3d modeling changes which ends up being a lot of work to rip it up and remake it

 

Why are there people in the tracks in Ludwigshafen?



Why is the player assist saying speed limit is 165 km/h, when it's coming from restricted mode so the speed limit is 85 km/h?



Why are all the platform displays showing "exit signal allows departure" when they don't?



Why is there repeatedly flashing bright light in tunnels making the game dangerous for epileptics?



Why are there no repeater lights on repeaters?

 

I found 2 big issues during the stream.

1. The yard at Ludwigshafen (Betriebswerk Ludwigshafen) is always full of trains like BR425, Dostos and Locos like the BR111. In the stream it was empty, it looked completely dead!

2. At Ludwigshafen Mitte Station, when you go down from Track 1 to the left you are looking at a wall where the road is. Thats completely wrong. Also in Real Life is there no gap between road and station. The road acts as an underpass to go to the Berliner Platz which is right next to the Station and serves itself as a hub for various tram and bus services. Here are some pics

 

Why is lighting in some tunnels straight missing?



Why are there wrong speeds signalled?



At multiple places?



Why are there signs for end of the neutral section also at its beginning?



Why are signals showing 60 when the junction is 40 km/h?

 

It's gotta be said, third party DLCs have been delayed when they've been in a better state than this. DTG look to be applying double standards where they get to release a route that's clearly unfinished.

 

This is actually starting to look like a Rivet quality route...

The passengers on the track now seems to be a core issue endemic across many routes. I really don't know how the senior project management are so complacent about this and declare "the show must go on", with this appalling bug.

 

I'm guessing you play German routes with minimal or no HUD assistance as that has been a bug for a while across all PZB routes. It's one instance where I go by what the cab lights and signals are telling me and wait to be able to release to go above 45 or 85kmh.

 

Kind of feels like they release now because 'we have to release something in January for accounting purposes'. I can't see the harm in just having a double German release in February.

 

On the other hand, there was Fife Circle. A third party DLC that wasn't delayed (enough) where it should have been.

 

Considering that with FTF you only need to attach layers from KWG and Flixtrain to the base map and there are problems, especially on Dostos cars and here there will be both Dostos and ICE1 from KWG and KWG in general will run a lot of additional layers, so even though it is a shorter route and less traffic, at least judging from the stream, I expect problems to be almost limited with near certainty
But of course I'd like to be wrong