Introduction Let's be honest. Workshop corruption is a thing. New players are always joining the game to find that they are trying to load custom content, only to find that the content is broken and flawed, with broken text, missing train names, and sometimes corruption so bad that the game itself even refuses to load because of a loading issue of the scenario in the menu system. The fact of the matter, however, is that there are ways to deal with this. I'm going to cover several of them in this post. Hopefully this can be pinned as a guide for new users. As a starter, how do you identify a corrupt scenario? Look for something like this in the ScenarioProperties file: Methods To begin, it's advised to do one scenario at a time. I believe this is also the official stance to prevent the problem from happening. However, I think it can still happen even with one at a time. So be prepared for this. For the first example, I will use a scenario called "[S43] BNSF on Donner Pass" (the S43 is the maker's numbering method). If you look at the URL, you will note that the ID of the scenario is 150715682. Ever wonder what downloads with a Workshop subscription? Let's look. Navigate to Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\24010 (notice we went to "workshop" instead of "common" in that navigation) and then open the folder named, conveniently, 150715682, which appears after you subscribe to the scenario above (go ahead and do it here, you can unsubscribe without installing the scenario as I'm demonstrating using this one, or you can look at any scenario of your choice and replace the number). When you open this particular folder, there is a file called "615019541163852327_legacy.bin". This file looks useless as Windows does not want to necessarily open it, but it turns out this file is easy to open. Got 7-Zip? How about WinRAR? You can open this file and you'll see something like this: That looks familiar, doesn't it? Literally drag the Content folder over to the main directory for the game and the scenario installs. You can then unsubscribe from the scenario and load the game to play it. The reason for unsubscribing is to prevent the game trying to edit this copy that you just placed to add all of the Workshop information, possibly making it corrupt. This is a good way to add an entire series of scenarios at once without having to load the game for each and every single scenario (for instance, the 77 part or so RBJets series on Soldier Summit). Just keep in mind, because the Workshop information was never added by the process DTG uses, that the scenarios will all show up as Official scenarios instead of as Workshop scenarios because the file you're installing is the author's original version of the scenario. By the way, you can find the Content folder for ANY Workshop scenario by accessing this file. Nowadays, the folder ID is given on the Workshop tab, but for old scenarios dating to 2012 this is actually not provided. This is possibly the easiest way to get the folder ID, though you can use third-party tools or look at the folder name in the game itself (Build menu). The method above also works if you download a newer scenario. Instead of a BIN file, you'll find something named "scnr_[FOLDER ID]" where [FOLDER ID] is the folder, buried in the route folder, that the scenario uses. You can search this folder ID from the Content folder to quickly drill down to the scenario. Other Options Another option of fixing a scenario is to edit the Workshop version from the official version I just showed. This can be a tricky process, but if you pick through the file carefully, you can get all the corruption out and the scenario will work. However, there tends to be some corruption left behind even if the file works, and redownloading or replacing with an "Official" version is usually a safer bet. The final option is to find the scenario folder, delete, and redownload. This is the official method. Get rid of the garbage and try again, but with one at a time. Finally, if your scenario file is clean but you can't load the scenario due to missing consists, you are missing a DLC. Do your research on what that DLC is. If you don't want to get that DLC, you don't have to; use a third-party tool like Ts-Tools or others (surely to be recommended below) to swap the train with something else, then try running the scenario again. Provided the missing stock is on a static consist (or even a train) that is not needed for scenario progress, you may also be able to hit F2 and proceed without the missing assets. This is a good way to play an Armstrong Powerhouse scenario, especially one designed to use 15 different internal products as they are wont to do and is a complaint from numerous users, especially newer users. (We are not going to discuss that in this thread, either, as I am only referencing it without commentary. Ironically, having less stock load may improve the experience by not crashing the game! LOL) Metropolitan Line A known beef a lot of people have with Workshop scenarios today is the addition of the Metropolitan Line DLC to their files as a tag. This happens even if you do not own it. This happens to me, as well. I'm going to say this quite bluntly: DO NOT BUY THE METROPOLITAN LINE FOR WORKSHOP SCENARIOS. If you buy it, get the Just Trains version anyway, but not for Workshop use. JUNE 2022 UPDATE: I have started reviewing Just Trains assets on Steam-based copies of Just Trains DLC. I have come to some realizations of some files that break the Chiltern (Birmingham) and London-Aylesbury routes. I have thus removed my bit on the DLC being broken as DTG has also published some updates on Just Trains DLC on Steam. It is my hope that these three routes, which use the same basic files from the ChilternMainLine folder in the JustTrains folder, will eventually have the same template, making the Steam version acceptable for use in the same fashion the direct one is. I still recommend the direct version bundled with the S7 as it works with the freeware Virtual District Line. Just wait for a sale. So how do you deal with that pesky Met Line tag for scenarios converted to their Workshop format? Easy. Unsubscribe from the scenario and find the scenario folder. Open the ScenarioProperties file in a text editor. Scroll down to WorkshopTags at the bottom, as pictured here: At that point, scroll over to here: Delete that, load, and you can probably now play from the Workshop tab. Though I would recommend not going through this trouble and playing from the Standard or Career tab instead, as those tabs do not check for you to own the Met Line. Note that this tag may not appear on original scenarios before the tagging process. (Which makes me ask why you even know about that tag...) One More Thing You can add the Workshop ID manually. See the above image and stick it between the WorkshopID tags. You can even add fake Workshop ID tags if you want your ATS scenarios separated from official content; but this is untested and might break something on the Workshop tab, so I would not advise this (they already show as Official). Conclusion I hope this guide has been useful. I invite the community to add other tips for dealing with Workshop scenarios. However, one tip in particular that I have discussed removes literally 100% of Workshop corruption: find the Workshop folder, copy the scenarios without Workshop IDs and tagging, then unsubscribe (to prevent DTG's code from editing them later). Look for them among your Official scenarios. You won't have a single problem. Guaranteed. Also saves you having to use that dropdown selector, which doesn't want to operate for me on occasion. Happy driving.
Cyclone Good guide Since 2016 I have always downloaded workshop scenarios manually and that way I no longer see the errors that you describe. This is a definitive marker for a corrupt workshop scenario download: Open any workshop scenario file - scenarioproperties.xml and look for this line of code: That tells you that the dl process from steam WS to your install is definitely corrupt and will cause the dreaded OOM!
You can always redownload it then, however. Peter raises a good point, as the tool I'm trying out shows the same thing next to any invalid scenario: But even without that tool, load any scenario into Firefox by opening the XML file there and you will know if it will fail to work by what happens there. So until this tool comes out, you can check your scenarios by this very method before playing them. Find the scenario folder ID, drill down to it using Windows search inside the Content folder, and open in Firefox. You'll know then if the scenario has a likelihood of working. If the third image happens to you, delete and redownload and it should work. Otherwise, to avoid it completely, move the original files without the WorkshopID into Content and unsubscribe and you will have no issues whatsoever.
