Dresden To Riesa Is Growing On Me…

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by OldVern, Oct 20, 2021.

  1. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I must slightly recant the previous view I expressed about “Dreary Dresden”. I’ve been doing a few more runs on it and definitely enjoying the experience. If you do a dawn or pre dawn run in Autumn and fog set in the weather conditions, it is very atmospheric. The route seems to be assembled and finished better than BML and at least you have a variety of trains, even if they are all modern, compared to the Plastic Star experience on the Brighton Line.

    If the same team are working on the new German route, could be a Day 1 purchase for me. I hope when the 420 EMU and 232 diesel eventually release, that Dresden Riesa gets a layer. And the icing on the cake as others have suggested would be a merge between the two routes.
     
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  2. joerg.lange

    joerg.lange Well-Known Member

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    A merge may not necessarily make sense here, as both routes start from Dresden initially in the same direction. To travel from Riesa via Dresden to Chemnitz, for example, you would have to change trains and tracks in Dresden anyway. So it doesn't really matter if you have to load a new route.
     
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  3. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Pleasantly surprised my save game restored okay. Nice touch departing Radebeul towards Dresden, was held at a red signal for a few minutes to be pathed over to the fast (?) line after a car train went ahead of me.

    Just curious if I make it to Dresden and my save game doesn’t cuss up, where do I need to walk to in order to find a freight to take over back towards Riesa. Always said it’s a shame there is no PIS (FIS?) for freight workings on any of the routes, not even a simplifier you can call up.
     
  4. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Always thought Dresden was a very well modeled route with excellent gameplay, variety of traction and some beautifully modeled stations ( Neustadt especially).
    The downside for me is that horrific night lighting, which everyone but me seems to love.
    The other problem, not with the route, is that it highlights the inconsistency among releases. We cannot count on that high quality on every route going forward. The next one might be very good or a disappointment, we don't know ( or we'll know pretty soon, I guess. ). Let's hope the next German route is made by the same team that created Dresden.
     
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  5. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    It actually pulled me off Snowrunner!

    Tempting fate probably with a third save game resume!
     
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  6. Quentin

    Quentin Well-Known Member

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    I don't have any inside knowledge, but given that it's another Dresden route, it would surely be a bizarre decision not to use the same team, as far as possible.
     
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  7. doublefine7

    doublefine7 Well-Known Member

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    The ET420 never ran on Dresden-Riesa so it wont be layered in there I think, but the 232 has a fair chance :)
     
  8. junior hornet

    junior hornet Well-Known Member

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    You’re not alone. The lighting’s certainly an improvement but personally, I think it’s a bit OTT. I prefer what they’ve done with BML, which is a bit of a halfway house.
     
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  9. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    In the end, to grab a freight I just started a new timetable. Decided to grab the 2700 tonne monster at 0936 from Dresden. Wish me luck!
     
  10. Tom Fresco

    Tom Fresco Well-Known Member

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    That would be a huge step from the low level platforms into the high level 420, you'd need to carry a steep stool to the Station to get in :)

    But the 232 would be absolutely great, almost necessary. Also for Dresden Chemnitz its a very realistic layer option.
     
  11. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    My experience with this route continues to improve.
    Didn't realise until working the freight service there are actually two separate routes for a considerable portion of the way. The one taken by the freight is much more scenic and has some challenging gradients. Sadly I blew it as approaching where the lines merge again I got a caution signal onto a red and couldn't stop in time so ended the run with a SPAD. Braking distance seemed a bit tight to be honest, 1000m to slow from ~100km/h with a heavy freight, though I know from Zusi you have to react quickly and severely on the brakes under German signalling. Have picked up my save again and will take it a bit more slowly.
     
  12. Callum B.

    Callum B. Well-Known Member

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    With this monster in particular, I think you should actually be running at less than 80km/h. 105km/h is the maximum allowed by PZB Mode U, but the speed at which the train should be operated will often be lower than that given by the gradient and the summed brake weight. This thread has a lot of information about the matter and I would recommend it for a player like you.

    Cheers
     
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  13. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I shall study that Callum, in the meantime I will bring my speed down a bit.
     
  14. doublefine7

    doublefine7 Well-Known Member

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    Indeed the 2700ts train runs on a Vmax of 80 kmh and I recommend to bring the brakes into full service while passing a yellow signal.
     
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  15. dubsox

    dubsox Member

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    I really don't care about route mergers, otherwise I agree.
     
  16. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I restarted the service with my newly purchased BR155, kept speed down to around 75 - 80 km/h and didn't encounter the stop signal this time. I must have been quite early on my first attempt!
     
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  17. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

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    The freight trains are nice to run on here. I need more time to run more services but I foolishly keep leaving the house
     
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  18. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Well the BR155 is quite nice and a change to drive a more traditional German loco with the power wheel. Makes me smile and think of many happy hours spent driving in Zusi 2 (never got round to buying 3 as rather expensive).
     
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  19. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    One slight downer which is more of a core issue I suspect, is that once again we have a route environment where the nights are Pitch Black. The lighting around the stations and some of the built up areas looks okay if a tad orange, but there is zero ambient light anywhere. No hills or trees silhouetted against the night sky as everything is just coated with black tar. Added to which even on high, your train headlights do not project any forward illumination whatsoever. Yet oncoming trains do seem to have a light cone illuminating the track ahead. Outside the stations, as I’ve said before, you might as well be driving Simudrive or one of the other old text based games.

    Second only to the save game issues, IMHO this needs to go high up the priority list for DTG to take a look at. Give us an option for lighter nights or some sort of in game gamma adjustment, please.
     
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  20. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    And I thought I was banging this drum all by myself.

    The glaringly unnatural orange light around stations and the lack of any ambient lighting elsewhere is the one real drawback for me. Otherwise, during daylight, this is an excellent route.
     
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  21. doublefine7

    doublefine7 Well-Known Member

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    Well, the night lighting is actually realistic because that is the reason why the night is night: Its dark. And a lot of people were waiting for DTG making a realistic night lighting route. But I can see why that can be annoying. I personally love that night lighting because the night feels like its a night and not half-a-day. If you are on PC you can change the the darkness and gamma with .ini-settings BUT the downside of that is that brighter routes get brighter and it can mess up the day lighting.

    Also: There are 2 routes having this night lighting: Cathcart and Dresden. All the other routes are day bright at night.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2021
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  22. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Yes, you're certainly in the majority here. I guess I and most other players of Dresden will have to agree to disagree.

    I'm one of those dinosaurs who prefers not to mess with the core software, so I don't do " . ini " adjustments.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2021
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  23. doublefine7

    doublefine7 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, in the end its all subjective and every player has his/her personal view on that matter.
     
  24. JustWentSouth

    JustWentSouth Well-Known Member

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    I don’t have any ini settings relative to lighting. I love running DRA at night, but always do so with mimimal cloud cover. On my PC, I get just the “right amount” of ambient light from the stars and moon.
     
  25. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    The station lights look fine but the point is, night is not truly dark unless you are out in the middle of the country on a moonless, starless night. Certainly in the towns there should be ambient light showing up the surroundings but as it is even the light from the stations etc stops abruptly. I’m another who doesn’t really want to mess with ini files but I would like DTG to at least give those of us the option who want brighter nights.
     
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