I stopped using TS quite a while ago due to extreme frustration with the Workshop, which refused to upload scenarios I had created despite numerous successful earlier instances. TSw's appearance also influenced this decision. Yesterday, however, I watched part of Matt's introduction to the revised Workshop filtering system and decided to give TS2021 a try. After discovering that I enjoyed it again, and considering that I was not about to pay extra to acquire the deluxe addition featuring a passenger-centric route, I also bought the new HIS - CSX - Hanover Subdivision route and its accompanying scenario pack, which is strictly freight and includes a lot of switching activities. I'm pretty sure that I'll still launch TSW2, but for now I'm simming around Hanover. The only thing I really miss is being able to open the cab windows and stick my head out!
I agree that the new workshop search capability is going to breathe new life into TS202X for many of us. I, as many others grew frustrated with lack of a reliable search interface using Steam’s search capabilities and basically stopped using the workshop. Unfortunately the scenarios that are distributed with new routes are all career and are usually less than inspiring to be nice. Many workshop scenario creators are master story tellers as well so those scenarios usually have a higher entertainment value and now are much easier to find. Last night I fired up TS2021 and found many great scenarios for one of my favorite routes -London to Brighton created by DPS which are filled with appropriate AI action and utilized the network well with several shifts to different lines during the run. a much appreciated improvement over TSW2 “Hey Guys!! Let run from point A to point B.... then for some real fun, lets run from point B back to point A. I mean timetables are nice and I do enjoy them - but add in a bit of story telling goes a long way to give some purpose. It was a pleasure driving once again with my raildriver and TrackIR working while documenting my run on the ThirdRail application using Bing mapping data to “see” the real world I was driving through. I sorely miss these features in TSW2 and seeing the lack of support for these peripherals and applications on holding many back for full adoption of TSW2 as their primary Train Simulation.
I fired up TS2021 after the Steam update for the first time in a very long time. Yes, visually there are issues but it felt good. It was good to get away from timetables and having more freedom - plus of course the idea of mining that long neglected fleet of rolling stock I have. Lots to relearn and a certain amount of trepidation in opening the editor again; so much forgotten. It felt like having a big giant train set again.
