Since, I've done one for most other DLC's, thought I'd do one for Arosalinie! My first thoughts; I was initially on the fence about this DLC, it wasn't an area I knew or a line I had much interest, I wasn't completely wowed by the first inital screenshots, so I thought I might give this one a miss, I even didn't watch some of the streams. Anyway, here I am! I think this is an extremely beautiful line, one of the most scenic we've seen for TSW/TSW2. Just from playing this DLC, I want to travel on it! Positives: GE 44 II model and stock are fantastic, highly detailed, and very immersive to drive, seriously 10/10 for Rivet on this one. There's still an adhesion/wheelship issue, when you first start off like in IoW, is this a core issue? Stations, catenary, lineside structures, viaducts, bridges, again all beautifully modelled. The immediate scenery and lineside scenery for me, this is absolutely beautiful, the scenery that surrounds from driving from the cab is stunning, lineside foliage, trees, stations and structures are really nice, so job well done here. I think Winter weather is better than Spring/Summer as the scenery has a tendancy to be slightly washed out. Now, the blue haze/fog that was mentioned, some people said it was to hide distant scenery, it might be, but I find this accurate, I've been up Snowdon in Wales and Merkur Mountain in Germany, on a clear day, and there is a bluey/white haze in the distance when high up, some low lying cloud, so for me this wasn't an issue. Performance - Performance is the best of any TSW2 DLC which makes me think because of the amount of trees and scenery, was this optimised, so there was good performance on every platform at this risk of drops in quality? However....... see below Negatives: The distant scenery is a massive let down, texturing is awful and looks like something we could have in MSTS or the early days of TS Classic, mountains and distant trees, don't look good at all. Here is Arosa: Look at the train, the station and the immediate scenic details, it looks like really nice, and then look in the background at that mountain, what a shame! Signalling System/Timetable Found it impossible to keep to the timetable, was 15 late at one point then all of a sudden 4 late at Arosa, is that accurate? Signalling, random derailments, service passed signals at danger, at Langwies, I didn't stop in the platform, do you have to manually change the points yourself? I played R1429 1007 Chur-Arosa, and got that at most stations, SPAD's and derailments, luckily I'd saved so when I went back in the game and restarted, I didn't derail or SPAD, strange. Overall: Well done to Rivet, it can't have been an easy route to make, and if this was purely a cab view simulator, then I'd say job done, the immediate surroundings are really nice and just on that and the train model it would get an 8/10. I mean look at my 3rd screenshot in the thread that is really nice! However, if like me, you do like to fly out now and again, take screenshots and admire the scenery, it's quite disappointing looking to the distance. Overall, it really is a nice DLC, lets not take away from that but the only and biggest let down being the scenery in places. Hopefully, we will see improvements and optimisation to this.
It's exactly that ! The real complaint on this road is the green textures not pretty at all. In fact, if the texture was prettier, the mountains wouldn't even be a problem. I add that there are enough trees and that personally I find this road in the whole very good. In short : Like you, I wasn't very excited after my pre-order and the youtub videos. So I must say that precisely the youtub videos, finally the quality of the youtub videos do absolutely not do justice to this route !! The famous ugly concrete is rather not so bad in-game! After having cursed 2 minutes on the mountains (like everyone else I imagine), I must say that I have a lot of fun on this road. I tested all morning, on all seasons at different times and yes, summer is the worst for the distant landscape. In autumn or in winter it is very very beautiful, anyway, it is a mountain road and when I go to the mountains it is to see snow. Once you are in the cabin, the magic operates, there are very beautiful things to see on this line, I walked around and yeah, yeah, I like it. I like more than the WSR, I like more than the Canadian, I like more than the LGV or I fall asleep !! I really think people are depriving themselves of a really good DLC for 3 Ugly Mountain in the summer. PS: I specify that I play on PC in ultra
Short note: I said that before as well, one could have overlooked the lack of trees if there was better texturing on the mountains. Darker texture to simulate trees or tree bedding would have helped, the way it is now each tree sticks out because it is such a contrast to the green ground texture. Might be something for a talented Modder in the future, unfortunately I have zero skill nor knowledge in that regard...
