Dovetail Games Beta Testers

Hello, is there a limit date to sign-up ?

 

That's down to Sony not letting us have this, definitely a shame as it would definitely help dtg and offer company's

 

Matt, do you have any further progress updates regarding memory and optimisation in general?

 

Famous? Surely you mean ‘Vocal’ fella?

 

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to be honest, in my experience people rarely withdraw completely from 'public' discussion simply because they have insider knowledge - often times people contribute more often as they are more invested in the game.

As long as folks behave and are sensible in handling what they can and can't talk about, there's no reason to 'disappear'.

 

To add to that, any sort of insider programme is about what you put into it, if you only see it as a way to get early access and contribute nothing, you won't get anything out of it.

If you really do invest in it and contribute as best you can and as helpfully as possible you find it a tremendously eye-opening experience into game development and support, and really broaden your understanding into how it all works and how they make it happen.

 

Immediately put forward my form of interest the moment I saw this. Think Xbox players, and hopefully Playstation players could provide an insight to routes on console as a whole as some really do struggle to handle the stress. ECML Milton Keynes for example I had to reduce to HD, turn off motion blur to avoid it crashing from the sheer level of assets on screen from scenery to trains.
Step forward in the right direction for sure.

 

Question: In Russia, discord is blocked, does this mean the chances of becoming a tester tend to 0?

 

you coulkd just enter it click on it a second Time ;-)

 

DTG Matt I know you’re busy but we would appreciate some replies please.

 

Last time I worked in the game industry (2020) these type of work is done by professional testers at minimum wage.

Now DTG wants it for free...capitalism lol

 

I make the Forza Motorsport playtest Events for each Update since this year.
You get 1 Million Credits ingame for each Playtest that’s it

 

Asking openly on the forum is probably not the most diplomatic approach. Anyone successful will be advised privately by email or DM not for all to see.

As I understand this in some ways is more of a play test and what better way to get a respectable spread of hardware than to go to the users, in particular on PC with all sorts of different configurations. I did testing for Auran on Trainz back in the day and felt quite privileged to be involved in the process, never even occurred to me to think of it as a paid occupation.

 

Good point. I probably should delete the post? Didn’t mean to be rude just lots asking questions in here

 

It's paid voluntary work. Voluntary because your volunteering to be a Beta tester and paid because you get to keep the add-ons you bets test for free!

 

I doubt it's done any harm but the protocol in the past seems to be you just don't hear anything if unsuccessful and those invited are told privately.

 

My concern about signing up on a spare PC is the NDA. I’d stick rigidly by it, but fear a witch-hunt if something leaked from someone else.

 

Do you have a VPN app?

 

yes, I sent my application, I would love to be a beta tester for tsw and contribute to improving the game but I don't want to get screwed over because of someone who tried to be funny and leaked confidential things... this is very complicated because I would follow the NDA to the letter but there may be people who don't...

 

You don’t get trouble if you Play the Rules from the NDA without Breaking it.

 

Unless the person who leaked did so under their own name etc., there would be a process where DTG was trying to find who leaked. Now I don’t know what this would involve, but I imagine it would be quite stressful even if you hadn’t leaked, simply because (from what it sounded like last time) the whole beta team got suspended, innocent or not (I recognise this is a temporary necessary step). So while ultimately you would hopefully not be found guilty in a court etc., because the burden of proof would be on DTG and there would be no proof if you hadn’t leaked, things could get quite stressful quite quickly.

 

ISTR that was indeed the case, like the old days at school when the whole class got punished because the person who threw the paper aeroplane didn’t own up and no one dare grass them up. (Snitches get shanked in the playground). More sophisticated software companies I believe put some sort of watermark on beta versions of their games so particularly if videos appear they can track down the culprit more easily. Would seem DTG didn’t/can’t do this.

 

I have 24/7 time because I can’t work since over 2 Years, and playing TSW since the First Release on console.
How would it be possible to Test Frankfurt S-Bahn if we didn’t bought the DLC Matt?
It’s The only German DLC I’m missing with the Gameplay Pack for Frankfurt Fulda

 

I perhaps exaggerated slightly, but one or two places were a bit rough particularly in the north east before my parents moved to the slightly more enlightened south. The junior school I went to in Felling, each teacher had their own leather strap and it got brought out even for trivial infractions!

Could definitely be a downer for me. As noted without deleting pretty much everything else not going to be easy to free up that much space. And with my Steam download maxing out at 9Mb/s I dread to think how long 800Gb would take to download. (Actually about 1700 minutes or 28 hours).

 

Fortunately I have gigabit Internet, so downloads aren’t too onerous

 

I’ll have a think. I play on PS5 currently, but do have a PC that I could give it a go on. I’m guessing any DLC keys that are required for the beta test are provided etc.? Got a pretty hefty PS5 collection, but only very limited add ons (only stuff that was free at some point) on PC. I’m very detail oriented, and if beta tester’s bug reports are actioned I guess it could be a good way to help to try and prevent these things making it out into the public builds. It’d also be cool to learn more about what goes into making the game, having been onboard from Train Sim World’s first release. And I guess if a 91 comes eventually, I’d get my hands on it earlier lol! I’ve not been in an NDA before, which is why it is a little bit scary. I do see why it is necessary, but it is just a little off putting if you know what I mean.

 

The NDA is pretty easy if you don’t Cross the NDA
I make the Playtest for Forza Motorsport and all is good.

 

I'd love to do this as I have a semi decent PC for gaming but I primarily play TSW on PS5 and don't have TSW on PC.

 

but I intend to follow the NDA rules the point is that I will be harmed by someone else who has no such intention
dtg should have some kind of tracking tool, surveillance with a unique ID or unique fingerprint for each beta tester so that if a leak occurs, there is a way to know who leaked it without harming people who follow the NDA rules

 

See Matt's post above

 

Hardened you up for a career on the railroads, though, right?

 

Late running 155? Ready the belt!

 

If this is true, and I don't doubt it for a moment, why do so many obvious bugs and issues make it through the testing process on to release. It would seem to many of us that the Beta team would spot them in the same instant that eagle eyed players do on the forum when dlc are launched. They're essentially the same people.

 

I feild out the form but think I might of forgot to fill one part out so I did it twice just in case

 

That is a very good and pertinent question.

 

What hours are you expected to do as a beta tester? Is there a minimum?

 

Out of interest, what qualities does DTG look for when selecting a beta tester? Is it someone who is particularly active on the forums/with tickets, or someone who's put in a lot of time on the game already, etc.? What makes a candidate stand out on the application form?

I'll add I've submitted mine already - just curious.

 

I'm not interested in becoming a Beta tester (I'd consider it in another life, but I have quite demanding day job).

On a side note, having a little nosey at the application form is quite reassuring in regards to future quality of the game, asking for frank and honest feedback about issues and routes, and most importantly optimisation issues... It certainly plants a seed of positivity in my head the issues are being taken seriously with a long term plan for the Beta testers to bring the game upto the standard we all know it can be.

 

That answers a number of my questions, so thanks for taking the time.

I should point out that those of us who might often be critical of the game are usually people who've been around for a while and we are never motivated by anger towards you or anybody else at DTG. If there are a few individuals who throw a tantrum here and there, that's on them.

 

Rapid Transit need more Love and many fixes or new Sounds for the Talent 2 and Dostos still or the Blue Roof is still a thing on the old Dostos or the PIS get broken on This Trains too

Many days i played over 10 Hours each day when I have no interest to Watch a Movie or Series

 

I appreciate the sentiment here, but in reality (in my experience) it doesn't bear out. There are two crucial issues for me on TSW5, one of which I provided feedback on the forum and was personally acknowledged by you, but it still remains a problem, and is a function I personally need because of physical issues, being the digital screens on trains that have them not working on PS5. Upshot being that I have to revert back to the normal method which is so fiddly as to be unuseable:

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-5……-digital-display-screens-and-the-r3-camera-bug-still-remains.84573/#post-907500

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-5……-digital-display-screens-and-the-r3-camera-bug-still-remains.84573/#post-907747

The other is crashing on the 2d map. I'm a nerd so I like to hover over the platforms there to see what services are arriving and leaving etc., and without fail on any route while doing this, the entire game will crash on PS5 after a few minutes of doing this. The last I tried this on was NTP at Leeds after a long 90 minute haul from Pic, and as I was pulling in the station I looked at what was going on at the platforms on the map, and crash and I hadn't saved in 40 minutes. Since the game takes a long time to load now with having a fair chunk of DLC, it was the straw that broke the camel's back and I've loaded up TSW5 about three times since then, mainly just to checkout the remasters (WSL/CCL). TSW 4 is currently entertaining me (trophy hunting) and I haven't loaded TSW5 in about 3-4 months. I'd like to play the game to get the benefits of those new features, but at the moment unfortunately I'm one of those that "lost interest and walked away" until and unless those issues are not only acknowledged, but also acted on with resolution

 

The Digital Screens also Not Working on Xbox Series X, it has always Problems to use the Interface to Click anything on it.

And This texture flickering on Xbox Console never got fixed since TSW 2 Rush Hour Matt on the Führerstand for many Trains
But the Most awful issue on TSW Next to blurry textures is the annoying BR 187 Sound, it hurts so much to listen to this Audio sadly
​

 

Thanks, and I appreciate the candour, but on the flip side its been almost 9 months since that digital screen conversation. In the grand scheme of things its a minor issue (especially compared to optimisation), but the lack of it means I can't use the content to its fullest in a feature that was (rightly) lauded at the release of TSW5, leading to disillusionment and shifting of interest due to perceived lack of progress. I have to chase people reminding them of tasks that need completing but haven't been in my day job, so I have zero interest in doing the same thing in my downtime. I reported, it was acknowledged, and no progress was made, thus I moved on somewhat

All that said however, the map crashing is the biggest issue for me. For further info, this happens primarily at stations with significant number of platforms (eg. terminii) and appears to be after moving cursor over a number of different platforms. Small stations seem unaffected, and the crash has occurred on different routes even when my avatar is at the other end of the map (eg. I might be looking at Leeds while my avatar is at Huddersfield)

Either way thanks for the response, its good to know that engagement is back and is appreciated - I'll leave this thread for now as I've taken it somewhat off topic

 

When will the selected peeps be notified if theyre successful with their applications just out of curiosity?