Upcoming Release First Ever Netherlands Route, Coming Soon!

Well this is the first £35 route so far as I can tell - it might be a new country and two new trains but its crossing a red line. Exactly because it's a new country and experience they need to be making it appeal to the widest possible consumer base and you don't hook people with a premium price. As others have suggested, throw in a £5 off pre-release discount, otherwise this can join the expanding list of content I'll pick up at 40%+ off in a sale. There is no way DLC should be going for more than the price of some complete AAA games. If this is a consequence of giving away TSW5 for free, we end up with higher DLC prices, then go back to the old model.

 

It's as if people have forgotten the effect of high inflation over the past few years. £30 in 2022 money is a little over £33 today, according to the Bank of England inflation calculator.

 

That's how we pronounce it here in Den Haag..

 

I'm wondering about the choice of termini for the first Dutch route. Although my knowledge of the Netherlands is only at the tourist level, I would have expected a route involving Amsterdam or Rotterdam. How significant are Zwolle and Groningen geographically?

 

Is there already a link to the upcoming livestream for coming Monday?

 

Not very. Matt explains why they picked this particular route here.

 

I think it's a good choice. Wouldn't want the first Dutch route to feel like the original Cathcart Circle or LGV, where you have huge terminuses all empty as you only have one train available. This is somewhat prototypical looking even with only two trains, as these are the ones mostly used on the route.

Though the 4 car variants would've been nice to see, as they also seem to be widely used. I really don't like how DTG refuses to include more variants of a given rolling stock - like how we are often missing first class cars or buffet cars from consists that would have them in real life.

Also, the Flirt could've been repainted and included for AI only use at Zwolle. Would've been a nice addition.

 

The screenshots look great.

Its a real small thing many people may not notice, but: on the screenshots, the Koploper numbers reach from 4035 to 4084. In reality, the ICM up to 4050 are resistor controlled, the ICM from 4051 upwards are thyristor controlled, so the sounds and the driving dynamics differ completely. I cannot image DTG has built both soundsets (would love to see/hear them both though!), so would it be able to have the numbers adjusted to whichever version was built.
On routes like SKA or HRR the numbers were perfect, you could for example only see 425s or 442s which were really stationed in the area. Lately such details unfortunately aren't respected anymore, sometimes you have numbers which don't fit the details of the train at all, the Koploper seems to be the next example for this.

The OHLE looks great, although you can see some places where the wire is "pushed" again. OHLE wires are, apart from a few rare cases, always "pulled", never "pushed" from the gantries. Since the "pipe" between the gantries and the wire is normally freely moveable, "pushing" the wire wouldn't physically work.
This is wrong on almost all routes in TSW though.

But considering I have to write about such details, it really has to be a great route and I'm looking forward to the stream.

 

I recently bought a lot of TSW content at full price; this time, I will wait for a great sale. I am waiting for the S-Bahn Strecke, but first, I will play the new routes I bought and save my money. But thank you for your effort DTG & TSG

 

Well, to be fair. Groningen is a relatively popular university town.

This route actually features 3 provincial capitals. Zwolle, Assen, Groningen.

It's just that the Randstad area is the conurbation most people know and visit when they're in the Netherlands.

 

I think in general, DLC prices are going to reflect development time and expense. Most are priced the same because they were given the same dev budget to work with. Some smaller routes, like Isle of Wight (and Holiday Express!) cost less to make and were priced lower as a result.

 

It's £33, Vern.

 

It's better to start slow than to take on a bigger and more complex project. Lots of the things are completely new. Dutch signaling and safety systems. Dutch custom assets. Dutch operations. Dutch train. Also if they created a busy termini with no trains, it would be very empty and you get a cathcart situation again or any route that feels empty because there isn't enough traffic

 

Okay, must have misread the article.

Still, a bit pricey putting it on a par with Shap and Mittenwald, plus dropping it into the core game that continues to have numerous issues.

 

My post was deleted, all you need to know about the [EDIT - Jan - Insulting] from DTG is they don't want to see useful criticism)

 

I won't buy ANYTHING else from you, [EDIT - Jan - Insulting]

 

you have just reminded me how my wallet is going to weep very soon ... anyway, I forgot, have they revealed the release date on the S-Bahn route yet? I definitely want that one day one as I dig German and Austrian content the most

 

Not sure I've ever seen DTG refered to as the Greatest of All Time before, but to answer your question about prices in different markets, if you can see the price for Preston - Carlisle, this one will probably be the same price, SteamDB lists the Russian Ruble price for Preston Carlisle as 1500 P.

 

The route looks very cool. I do have some doubts about the Dutch translations in the Vectron on the displays. Some names sound a bit strange. Like "Opgelost" instead of "Gelost" on the braking tab. And the fonts on the display in the SNG with "Groningen Europapark" looks a bit cramped, just like the display on the ICM with Rotterdam Centraal on it, which should normally be on 2 seperate lines. Also the drving behaviour with the icm, I hope they have taken the resistance driven sets and the chopper sets into account properly,
oh yes and the chopper acceleration sound in the icm you only hear from cabin 1 in real life, because that's where the motor car is

 

Route looks promising and I don’t mind paying extra for great work to devs we can trust. See expert 101 and the recent JT route.

But a dtg-made content price hike was always going to rub people the wrong way especially with all of the outstanding issues and problems with so many of dtg’s tsw5 releases that have gone unresolved. Can’t say I have a ton of faith in you guys to get it right but best of luck, I’m off to see the wizard

 

Groningen is the capital of the province Groningen and a major university city, so lots of fun and railway wise it gives access to the local lines in the province.

Zwolle is the capital of the province Overijssel. It is a fairly old town, which used to be important because it was part of the Hanze alliance., a North European trade organization cover also cities like Hamburg, Scandinavian countries and so on. Nowadays it is a significant node in the railway network.

So both are important cities in the Netherlands. They also are worth visiting, I think.

 

On the 37th second of the first-look video I found a small improvement point. The departure light (light with a V below it) is blinking evenly, but in real it is a second on and a few milliseconds off.

It don't call it a complaint, error or bug, because it doesn't bother that much. It is just that I hope it starts with all expectations happening.

A video about this light (in Dutch unfortunately)

 

Fine. Thanks for that. I'll remember to visit those towns on my next visit to the Netherlands.

Not really relevant to TSW though. I was thinking more about traffic and AI. How busy will the line and the stations be? Is it single, double or quad track?

I guess I'll wait for the preview stream.

 

Entire route is twin tracked. except for, of course, the approaches of both ends.
There is also a small piece of triple track at around Haren, but that's for freight leading from a large yard.

As far as traffic goes. There's 2 sprinters an hour and 2 IC's an hour for the whole route.
There's also 2 more sprinters and IC's an hour between Zwolle and Meppel, but those split off off-map towards Leeuwarden from there on.
There's also a few additional sprinter services running up and down inbetween Groningen and Assen at peak hours.

For freight. There's not that much IRL, but it's there.
Over 150 services for NS ICM, and over 170 for NS SNG, with a total amount of services being 339, leaving about 19 freight and (freight)shunt services, which seems about right.

They also announced something I'm very happy about, which is that not only do they depot moves, but there's some coupling and uncoupling moves as well to upscale or downscale for peak hours.
I really like that, as it's actually dynamic and brings life to the route.

 

which reminds me of one of my old suggestions, that the screen where you are selecting a service should also show you what kind of consist you are about to ride... for example I enjoy driving consist which have more than one EMU coupled to each other... sometimes you can tell (on Vorarlberg REX are usually single 4024 and S-Bahn are double)... but atm you cant really tell... and I love driving longer trains

 

I get that, and I agree, but from a slightly different angle.

What I'd wish the game would give up before starting a service, is a list of objectives.
I want to see what stations I'll be stopping at, maybe even what platforms, and if I need to couple at the end or not. Things like that.
Basically, I want my driving plan ready!
And with that, I'm also really wishing they'll finally come up with a way to add driving plans in the cab for hudless driving.
Even if it's just in the form of a piece of paper clipped to the table that shows you the stations on which you have (un)loading objectives.

 

I guess the S Bahn Frankfurt route will come to TSW around April or May

 

Can’t even see it coming that soon. Don’t be surprised if Frankfurt s bahn is a tsw6 route and the 420 is part of the deluxe edition

 

Thanks, very informative, in fact more so than the DTG article.

It sounds as though you really need all the German dlc to make it busy, so I'm looking to see what I would need to pick up. I'm still conflicted about the price though, so the preview will need to be at the JT/TSG level to persuade me.

 

Very likely possibility.
I mean, we knew about San Bernardino line for a bit before it turned out to be the American TSW5 route too.

Thanks. Appreciate the compliment
Though, this is also mentioned in there as well, at least the services part.

As for how busy the route is, the Vectron mostly adds variety and a familiar loco for people coming over from Germany. But other than static wagons, looking at just the services themselves, things are pretty complete as is.
The only thing I think it really needs is an NS DDZ due to its IRL prominence on this route IRL, whether as a loose loco addon, or as an updated layer if it ends up getting included in future Dutch routes.

 

Same here. I mean I've pretty much relegated the Cardiff route to a sale (even though I want the 153) but the Dutch route I'm less on the fence about. Well there's two things that might persuade me - it comes across well on the stream and our resident authorities like Cyril above approve, or there's a pre release order discount this time around.

 

I'm still holding off, but I will be watching the stream.

 

Or is it something to do with that ridiculous ‘subscription’ model DTG were yapping about last year? Push up prices to get punters ‘onside’. Either way, I’m not a fan of where we are heading.

 

Agreed, the biggest gap vs reality is the absence of the DDZ as they service about a third to half of the IC services on this line (not mentioning the odd VIRM that appears here too).

And to add, the Vectron is a nice addition, but it will only show up in game in two services. One per day towards Onnen from Zwolle, and one on the way back. And with a short tanker train. This is however as it is in real life: not much freight on this route.

 

We locals will surely watch the stream closely and update you all on it's validity

 

Thanks Foggy. Travelled around and through Holland a fair bit in the early 80’s so while this route is more modern it will help to relive those days. Hopefully it will be a success and we will see many more Dutch routes. I would pay £33 and Day One a retro route from Hoek Van Holland to Rotterdam and Amsterdam when the international D trains still ran to and from Hoek.

 

Happy to see more new countries coming on game but i probably buy this on sales

 

What happens here?

In a normal 2-track portal system, one of the steady tubes (that provides the zig-zag path) always hangs directly from the mast. Like this:
https://treinposities.nl/foto/93918

 

that has been suggested numerous times in Ebula suggestions thread ... as for stations, thats a part I like to be surprised by on some routes... like sometimes I would turn on a service and am like yay, I havent stopped at this station before, and it is so cool ... or some services have different routings even with same train (like yesterday I would play two ICE1 services on Frankfurt Fulda, one time it took me through a slow 40 kph freight track, the other service took normal 100 kph track )

April would be nice, since it would be after next payday

 

Incredibly happy to see the first Dutch route in the game. As a daily SNG and ICMm passenger, the atmosphere feels exactly the same as in real life. Hopefully the chopper sound will be right. Let’s hope for more Dutch routes in the future!

 

Very true, IRL you would see an NS series 6400 here (see picture). The G6 is the closest we have to that in the game. Personally, I would rather have this than not being able to drive those services at all.

 

maaan that looks nice... hopefully they also release a nice manual with signalling/safety stuff explained... I know we have a good comprehensive thread here, but still, a manual would still be nice

 

Would love to see a VIRM in TSW. When I was travelling from Amsterdam to Arnhem on my visits, they were always the units I travelled on.

I just wish they'd chosen a different route to start off in Netherlands, but at least those who have been crying out for a Dutch route will have at least one they can have something to start things off.

Btw, for those Dutch experts on here, between 2016-2022, I often used a local service between Arnhem Centraal and Ede-Wageningen, as I was travelling to Wolfheze and Oosterbeek, but some reason I don't have any pics of the sprinter. Anyone know what class of sprinters were used on those local services? I'm assuming they are not the SNGs which are coming with this new route.

 

I understand why they have chosen this route, as it is ideal to first experiment with the new Dutch trains and ATB. Using more complex routes would have complicated that process further, which could have heen bad for quality.

I don't know which trains they used on that line at the time, but it could have been a Sprinter Light Train (SLT) or Stadsgewestelijk materieel (SGM)

 

Of the two, the SLT looks more familiar. But I have travelled over a lot of the country!

 

I mean, to be fair, they already have
https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/train-sim-world/articles/article/zwolle-groningen-atb-guide

 

daaaamn nice, thx for the link will bookmark and read it repeatedly to get it into my head so I can jump right into action once the route releases ))