All Aboard Studios Route- Crewe To Birmingham New Street.

PS5 Pro

I don't have all the layers active, Voyager 220 has its own layer though, so it probably needs the DLC WMR 170 pack ...... so 220,170 Scotsmann etc inactive, total active 12/19 layers.

I did a test drive with 350/1 according to the timetable from Birmingham to Crewe ...... here are a few observations

1) Birmingham Street - the blue TDEC panels have a problem with the texture of the fitted boxes, they are just black, only in one case did they have a gray texture ..... I posted in the feedback thread with a photo
2) You can see the effort to model in every direction and I don't know if it is counterproductive in the end, especially the rail holders on the sleepers, or the extremely modeled catenary including the mast etc ..... that must be an incredibly high load
3) On the other hand, outside Crewe and Birmingham stations the FPS was quite decent (approx. 45-55)
4) I carefully watched the external textures in the cabin area and the cockpit textures of the 350 and during the service there was an occasional slight blurring, but especially when zooming in, then it returned to normal, only when arriving in Crewe, when I was using the external camera I was patrolling, what was standing on the cargo group was extremely blurred, but it seemed to me that it seemed to be resolved within a few seconds and then when I stopped at the platform, the situation was practically bearable.......
5) In the map menu we noticed that individual route tasks are not listed, there is only 0/90 so that's the initial impressions for now.......

 

Im missing the cross country 170 services im sure they run on that route

 

Yeah because the world doesn't exist outside the USA apparently, guess we can consider ourselves lucky to get it at all. Said with tounge firmly in cheek. ;

 

XC 170 is AI only on this route

 

Guess I'll hold back buying this route until issues have been fixed (when patches arrive instead of hoping patches might arrive).

 

Oh right thank you

 

Well, if you read between the lines when interpreting the comments over the last couple of weeks, it was fairly obvious that this was unlikely to be a smooth release!

 

Going to sit back and play Farming Sim for half an hour, see if we can get some early Steam/PC feedback in.

 

This is honestly pretty sad to see. After picking up WCML: London - Milton Keynes and the Pendolino and being honestly pretty impressed (i know this route went through the same thing but got fixed), I was excited to see how this route would turn out and maybe pick up the route. But not anymore. Shame.

 

Bought it on XBOX.
Refunded it on XBOX.

My second refund in a week, and think I've reached my limit for this year....

 

I've recently jumped back into FS25 after playing for around 218 hours at launch. The new Saxlingham map on modhub is fantastic.

Hoping I don't get burnt out again playing it before the highland expansion comes out next month.

The other thing I like about FS25 is that you can have as many vehicles out as you like and textures don't go blurry and you don't have the developer telling you to disable layers to fix any problems they seem unable to fix.

 

Saxlingham here too and it's great, though getting into some of the fields can be a challenge! And the map is free to play, too.

Verdict out on the forthcoming Scottish Fishing map, going to wait on the Day One reviews for that.

Sorry folks for OT digression...

 

What kind of jokes are these? I've been waiting for half an hour - they write that the route has already out, but it's not on Steam

 

Just started this map myself it's amazing really fun to play, going to have a few more hours tonight, got to get that harvest in!!

 

Its on Steam, saw it 30 min ago. Maybe restart Steam?

 

You're right, it's not there. I wonder if they pulled it at the last minute then (the honourable thing to do) or is it just another balls up in a long day of ball's ups for DTG?

 

The problem turned out to be much simpler - the route is NOT SOLD exclusively in Russia, the developers are Russophobes

 

So the DLC has been out since 10AM for consoles. On PS5 I am on the old build still with no update for the newest one. Not happy.

 

Just search for most recent TSW DLC, it was there 20 mins ago...I had the same issue, couldn't find it by typing in Crewe, Birmingham etc. Weird.

 

Not good...

Anyhow it's there now but resisting the temptation to part with the £30.

 

That figures, deal with a VRAM limitation by dumping resolution and assets to load. It probably will be the case that TSW *has* to be dropped to 1440/1080p to fix the blurred texture issue.

 

I was playing on a 720P 32" TV

Still got blurry textures and crashing, XBOX Series S

 

The problem with the Series S is that it has less ram than a Series X and PS5, 8GB doesn't go far when you have to share it (I know it has 10GB but 2GB is reserved for the OS). If DTG actually added upscaling then it wouldn't be that bad having to dump resolution, but the Series S would most likely be running at 540p internal and the SX and PS5 running at 1080p internal, upscaling to 1080p and 4k respectively.

 

Well my wallet has closed and remains shut whilst I continue to read what the guinea pigs say about the route and keep us updated. Maybe my platform (PC/Steam) will have a better release but I'm giving it a few days now.

 

Same here. It's already become apparent the timetables are still without arrival times, there are AI SPADs terminating the player run and this is in the Steam build which is presumably the latest.

TBH best thing AABS and DTG could do right now is pull the route from sale, refund those who have bought it and put the whole thing back in the factory for another month or three to get it right.

 

The release of the riviera route was good this has been a disappointing release ive bought it i will give it a few days if it isnt sorted i will refund

 

I bought the route on Steam, I'm running a service with the Pendolino between Crewe and Birmingham, so far I haven't had any problems, but I arrived in Wolverhampton and I have to wait more than 10 minutes to continue, in addition to the time on the schedule not indicating the arrival time

 

But alas, nothing of the sort will be done. As a disgusting and unloved customer of DTG, I only buy anything at least six months after it's released.I'm not afraid of missing something important. I'd rather read the reviews, wait for a few patches, and then buy it. Yeah, there's nothing to talk about in the current threads. But I'd rather pay for a polished (okay, partially polished) product than be a beta tester with my own money.

 

Very strange, I checked Epic Games and I can buy it-I'm from Russia too and I have russian account in Epic Games

 

That was how some of those Pendolino services were timetabled in 2019. They ran one of those services on the stream. The arrival time thing is something they still need to fix though.

 

I bought it on Steam earlier but then had to wait for it to download then had to go and have my dinner, finally sitting down to give it a spin now.

I should mention that one of the Devs replied on a Facebook post and pointed out that this was originally a TSW5 route that was supposedly ready for July but delayed for TSW6 at DTGs request, if that is true (and let's face it, it most probably is) then it's unacceptable that DTG force devs to delay things to suit their own release schedule :/

 

Not sure what state it would have been in July if this is where we are in October lol.

 

Why would anyone buy this even on pc with the amount of issues mentioned? Boggles the mind.

 

“ready in July”

ahahahahahahah

hahahaha

aha

 

So far I've had a pendo spad on a green approaching stafford and another pendo run it just crashed coming into Basford hall.

Did a voyager run from brum to Stafford without any problems.

Xbox x

 

Because Epics are more loyal to us

And how are you going to buy this add-on in Russia?)

 

I don't think it's about Epic's loyalty, because if the developers wanted to, they would have limited the sale of DLC in it, as did, for example, Bethesda or Saber Interactive with Snowrunner

 

I am debating on whether to ask for a refund on this.
Have attempted three drives with no success.

1) Crash to desktop on arrival at Crewe
2) AI SPAD led to service failure
3) arrived at destination, game wouldn’t finish!

xbox series s. I had been considering an Xbox series x to see if that would make TSW more reliable, but I’m reading not.

 

In a few months it will become clear whether this is a mistake or not. I'm in no rush.

 

I have passed this on to DTG as this seems to be a mistake not intentional, since you can buy it on Epic but not steam is strange

 

We are actively testing a patch at the moment, we want to get it out to consoles asap but its outside our control right now. We will update you when we have more info

 

Honestly, it's not worth it just for TSW.

I used to be able to run ECML fine when it first released on XSX, now I get blurry textures. Same for Edinburgh-Glasgow, same for javelin on SEHS. These all used to work fine on XSX prior to TSW5.

Until/if dovetail get their finger out and start looking at why performance suddenly tanked with TSW5 and undoing what they broke i wouldn't bother, spend your money elsewhere.

 

The route build number from Steam is 531. On this version you can expect more or less what was shown off in the preview stream. Unless they explicitly stated an update would be in for launch, it is not. This means things like the arrival times and modifications to the cab are not here. While this is unfortunate, given the amount of time between that stream and the release it's really not a surprise.

I have done a run from Crewe to Brum and also explored the New Street area a bit. As I think we can all agree, the detailing is phenomenal and not really an issue. Trackside detailing matches MAC and and JT's routes and in some cases surpasses them. MAC had ballast shoulders, which was a cool idea but they were too pronounced. This route has them too but they are much more subtle and natural looking. There are a couple of things missing which would've been nice but likely won't bee added. As mentioned, the route lacks neutral sections which is a shame, especially seeing as the 86 and 87 layer on as rail tours. It also appears this is yet another route missing Tunnel reverb. It's present in New Street station itself but not the surrounding tunnels, I really don't understand why this is such a hit and miss feature. The way the player is dispatched seems a bit confusing, a lot of stations have a wait task which is then followed up by a load/unload task, not really an issue just not used to the system working like this. PIS/Announcements are also a little bit borked. The services I started out of Crewe didn't seem to play their welcome announcements. Services going beyond Crewe and New Street also don't appear to list their calling points or do so incorrectly and all of New Streets PIS and Announcements will list New Street as a calling point. There's clearly some more stuff to iron out in this system but that may be more down to DTG than AAS. Finally I noticed a few oddities across the route such as gaps in buildings and a few OHLE masts clipping through things, these are few and far between and don't really detract from the route unless you go looking.

In terms of how it ran, I was hovering around the 50-60fps mark between Crewe and Wolverhampton. Crewe ran between 25 and 40fps while Wolverhampton sat around 45-50. Between Wolverhampton and New Street it was between 60-45. New Street, unsurprisingly, took the biggest hit going down as low as 13 although it usually hovered around the mid 50s. Honestly, this is more or less what I have come to expect and while improvements would be welcome, I certainly wouldn't call it unplayable (New Street really does teeter that line though). I am running the game at native 4k on an RTX 3080ti and a Ryzen 7 5800x3D. Most things are set as high as they settings go, except Clouds. I also use a fair few .ini Tweaks so your mileage may vary.

I am personally happy with the money I spent because I can see myself returning to this route frequently and I do trust the devs to deliver on what they've promised. However, I would recommend that those who are weighing up how they spend their money or those who are uncomfortable spending money on something that is not entirely complete to hold off on purchasing.

DTG also really need to get their act together regarding the wrong builds being pushed at launch. There is no reason for this to happen so frequently and clearly the system for approving and releasing builds needs to be overhauled. It's a terrible look for the company, makes developers look sloppy and is unfair on the player. Ramble over

 

It's sad if the FPS doesn't improve after a few runs. It's simply unplayable.

 

Honestly if you're considering upgrading for TSW, I'd highly recommend waiting a bit and spending the extra on a PC, you will have a way better time with it, plus access to mods like the excellent enhancement pack for the WCML-S.

 

I've had a few runs on the route today and I'd like to start with the positive feedback first:

Overall I can see the quality and work that has gone into this route, and the scenary and detail is phenomenal to say the least, and probably some of the best (if not the best I've seen) in the entire game to date. The day time lighting effect implemented in this route, other developers should take a note in, it's not overly harsh and is really in a 'goldy lock' zone and incredibly natural on the eye. The night time lighting is probably the best I've seen in the game hands down. Previous routes night time lighting effects have been offish in some degree or another. The way signs, and lighting work in the dark is really nice. The lighting alongside the track work and beside the junctions when passing at speed is incredibly natural, compared to the harsh lighting beside trackwork and junctions in areas on WCMLS. Overall the scenary and detail met expectations and more and is incredibly good. The 1:1 timetable really offers a phenomenal experience and makes the route a hive of activity. The overall attention to detail really gives the feeling of a top notch and premium route and I hope this sets yet another benchmark for other developers to meet and learn from.

One of the biggest debates was around 'no new rolling stock being included'. But, having gone through the new Class 350 and all of its variants, I can say this feels like a completely new train and puts the original one included with WCMLS last year to shame. My only concern was around how the physics in the new unit had been implemented, but be reassured, it feels like the physics have been completely overhauled/reworked and the handling now feels very authentic. The original 350 had awful physics, but this new variant of the 350 has the new physics implemented really nicely, whether that be in terms of braking or accelerating. A common error in the original 350 (And all Desiros for that matter) is the overly harsh brakes. So absolute credit to AAS in that regard. The detail in the headlights and external lighting has also been greatly improved and it really shows (look at the external lighting and the headlight detail compared to the original 350 model). The internal detail is also very impressive with improved moquette detail on refurbished LNR variants. And the unrefurbished examples have really nicely modelled interiors relevant to their subclass (LM moquette, and Silverlink moquette). The 350/2 also has a unique seating arrangement and unique more suburban seats. Overall the 350 feels like a completely new train. I'd like to commend AAS for the extensive work and detail that has gone into the 350 and all of its variants, and it really shows.

Constructive Feedback:

Now for the honest negative feedback... The more common stuff has been commented on by others in the thread already, such as the blurry textures (which is a core issues and is highly frustrating for players, and I hold DTG directly responsible for this for making all the right noises about 'improving optimization' but not offering anything of real substance in combatting it). Second to that, the build which was released on launch earlier today was an embarrassing repeat of what seems to be a common theme with DTG releasing the wrong build for a number of routes over the last year (once or twice is acceptable, but this seems to be a continuous problem). An issue I've found is that when calling at a station you will close the doors ready to depart, and will be instructed to reopen the doors and board passengers again... Is this to do with the wrong build being released? And obviously the timings for calling at stations not being included. Last but not least the wrong numbering is featuring in the cabs, for example '350310' will have '350210' appear inside the cab. For the most part these aren't big issues and can be easily corrected. A few of these are a AAS issue, but I'd argue some of the issues are DTGs issues for publishing the wrong build (which I've still not received the update for on PS5 I should add!)

Overall:

Overall, I'm still completely sold on this route and it has lived upto every expectation I've had and more. The more frustrating issue (which again is NOT a AAS fault) is DTG mismanaging the game by releasing early builds with more faults into the game, and the underlying core issues that continue to persist in the game.

Question for the developers:

One question I have got for AAS, is, we were told on stream a 'Day 1 Patch' would be out. Has that been implemented yet? And a second one, I'm not to sure about, is the majority of services are only 4 carriages long is this intentional (as in the trains split/join together somewhere in real life), and why aren't there many 8 car trains? I thought I would add it as a question, rather than a constructive piece of feedback as I am unsure.

 

I noticed this as well (I'm playing on Steam). It reminds me of how the timetable was implemented for the WCMLS enhancement pack mod where you have to wait for the second "lock door" command before you actually lock the doors. I believe it was done as a work around for something, but I don't know what.

 

This is really my only major negative so far- i was 2 miles from Wolverhampton before i realized it was asking me to load passengers again, so i just had to quit.

Otherwise it's been quite good so far! Pc/steam fwiw

 

I think, keyword being think, that it was a workaround to prevent ding-ding & away, in that TSW happily tries to despatch you against a red starter signal (it clears after you've already closed the doors which is not prototypical).

Anyway back to the route, I have just completed my first run 9M53 from Crewe to Brum and was very impressed. I am on Steam using ultra/high settings but not on 4K. My system handled it well, the fan kicked into high gear briefly approaching Wolverhampton and Brum but settled down again, I wasn't tracking my FPS however it ran smoothly with very little/minimum stuttering which occurred every dozen miles or so I assume as it was loading in a new area/shaders.

My only gripes (so far) are the timetables are "up the wall", in that it looks like the journey time for a lot of the diagrams is exactly the same as the start time (so a 06:49 departure is expected to take 06:49hrs to complete) and this is particularly obvious on the 153,158,86,87 and steam timetables. I also found myself sitting outside of Wolverhampton for 10 minutes as a train ahead of me (LIV-EUS) wanted to use an occupied platform, however I still ended up sitting in Wolves for another 10 minutes so had a quick explore.

It seemed busy at first near Crewe and the first few miles but then it was dead until approaching Stafford where a 350 came the other way, I did overtake a 66 hauled freight near Crewe and it looked quite prototypical in length which was nice. Things did get a bit busier towards the Midlands but it still felt a little "empty", it's probably just the way the timetable is in that era, it didn't appear that anything was glitching and not running/holding things up.

On arrival into Brum (I was very impressed with the texturing inside the tunnels, it looks like actual brickwork and not just a slab of black paint) things ran smoothly and the station was very busy (I had all 17 or so layers enabled) however the stopping position was laughable, the marker on the track must have been put in backwards as it wanted me to SPAD and stop with just the rear two coaches on the platform, fortunately though I was able to squeeze the train up to the signal and get it within 5 yards to trigger the ending.

On the whole, it looks very good so well done to the Devs

I am of course probably going to eat my words, I'm going to try and do a run in the opposite direction

 

Same here whats that all about.