DTG, I'm not sure what world you live in, but in my world, DLC that are so highly priced should not be released within days of eachother. I mean, come on. Every route that releases suffers from similar bugs and new bugs that have to patched. If you just slowed down the release schedule and let the devs and community take a little break, just so we don't go bankrupt or get bug-filled content. If you are unaware of the past 2 weeks releases, and the following week of releases, here they are, in order March 10th: Liberec - Stará Paka (£33) Marth 13th: Expert DB BR 145 (£30) March 19th: NEC New York - Stamford (£33) March 24th: Class 90 Pack (£15) March 26th: Medway Valley Line (£30) Yep, that was just over 2 weeks of releases, 5 in total and all crazy high prices. If you were to buy all of these DLC, that would add up to approximately £141. Is it really that difficult to spread releases to at least every other week? There are so many benefits of doing that I couldn't be bothered to explain. I'm curious, does anyone else think that this is a bit, I want to say, scummy?
Do you need to buy them all at once? Exercise some self restraint. You aren't being forced, how is it "scummy"? I will buy the class 90 and MVL the rest will still be there and I'll buy them when I can afford/desire too.
Youre not obligated to buy all of them, neither should you especially with the state of the world right now. Take skme time to fully enjoy the routes you do have currently. No rush, the routes arent going to disappear tomorrow.
Clearly you dont go shopping in real life then. Do you walk into a grocery store or clothes store and MUST buy everything or are you free to go in and purchase one item and check out and leave or even just go and have a look. Do the store staff hold you hostage until you buy everything in the store ???? no of course they dont you can leave the shop go back at a later date and buy a product when suits you. Shock horror this is the same with train sim world DLC. To call it scummy is laughable and just rude.
Those you have mentioned above are all from 3rd party developers not DTG themselves so I look at these releases as a positive meaning third party developers are interested in TSW.. I wouldn't care if we got a new DLC every week for the next 12 months! its up to the individual to make the decision on their finances to what they can buy/cant not DTG/Developers!
Exactly this. This is what I do too. I only buy the routes I’m interested in. Other routes I will happily wait for them to go on a sale and then buy them.
I do think it would be better for DTG, and most importantly for the smaller 3P, to not release that much content so close to each other. When a new DLC is released it gets articles, showcases, previews, the community talking about it. It becomes the center of attention. If there are many other DLCs released almost at the same time, that attention is divided. Some DLCs will not sell as well as they would if they were released with the normal cadence, not because the DLC is bad but because many people will think buying all that was released this month is too much money in a too short period of time. I think the decision to buy something at full price is made the day it releases. Once it goes into the "it can wait for later" basket it will most likely not get out of it without a sale. Once the initial marketing campaign ends everyone just looks to what is in the next roadmap, not what is in their "wait for a sale" list. So yep, I'm worried maybe some of the new 3P that are doing a great job might not initially sell as much as expected, and earn less money overall as they normally would. Add that the staff at DTG is probably exhauted at this point. If something goes wrong, all the schedule is impacted. The builds team probably has a permanent headache. The build servers about to explode. The community team probably needs a vacation after many articles, collecting all the feedback etc ... Would be much better for them to not launch so much DLC at the same time, IMHO.
If you were a 3rd party and finished your product wouldn't you want to start seeing the fruits of your labor a soon as possible? Considering only 1 DLC is actually a DTG product the rest are 3rd parties. I'm not including Thomas because that is a separate game. And I think targeted to a different audience.
I think I would want the option that makes me the most money in the long run. Of course not everyone is in the same economic position. Some could wait and others might need the money now to pay their bills, even if it means earning less. Another factor is I wouldn't want an increased risk of a bad release of the DLC I worked on for months just because DTG's builds team is overworked.
I kind of agree on both. 1) We don’t have to buy all of them at the same time 2) It would be nice if the releases were spaced out and timed as such I know that’s such a lukewarm take at best, but it’s my take and I’m sticking to it.
There does seem to have been a rush to push things out, plus we can add to the list the Class 171 pack though that might have been late February. It wouldn’t be so bad if the content was being released in tip top condition but we know at least some of it has been a bit buggy or needed a bit more polish. However, it is quite possible to be sensible and triage the purchases, only two on that list are/were Day One which was the Czech route and MV next week. Rest can wait for a sale or just pass them by, in a game already awash with so much content I could probably never play through it all in my remaining lifetime!
They're on sale forever (or certainly for a very good while). You don't have to buy them all in one month.
Quite simply DTG wants to get as many projects as possible released before the end of the financial year (31st March) to keep the bean counters happy. It helps balance the books by maximising revenue for work done in the 25/26 period.
Oh and add to the list Wonders Of Sodor albeit that is another one I passed by. There is definitely a danger though this could backfire in terms of revenue as people who might have bought each item at full price if reasonably spaced, do decide to triage or wait for a sale. In the wider world, I’m also trying to keep funds aside in my Steam Wallet for Transport Fever 3 which seems to be getting close and Century Of Steam, if it releases this decade!
As much as I can sympathise with the OP, the DLC are not like buying eggs. They dont have a use by date. You dont have to buy them now to ensure they are fresh. Treat them more like wine - Chose which one you want, savour it and then come back later if you fancy another bottle. It still going to be good. enjoy!
Two very valid points in my opinion. It would be interesting to know, to which extent the money the third parties make differ, regarding time of release. The attention argument is huge though. The amount of voices regarding the exceptional work of the czech team, for example, has already faded away with all the new release. Pretty sad, because they set such high standards! Let's just hope, they are going to continue with new DLCs, reagardless to what could have been if the release were at another, more "stand alone" point in the timeline.
What even is this post?. Honestly, all this proves is that you simply cannot win with some people. Also, considering the amount of time and effort, which goes into producing a loco or route - £15 & £30 respectively is not expensive whatsoever. Totally bizarre take.
I believe it still comes down to DTG though. DTG held onto the Skyhook 158 TT (can't remember the Scottish route) for quite a while before it was released. I think even Kezz said their first route was completed and ready at the end of the TSW5 cycle but was held on to be released for TSW6, but I might be wrong so he may be able to correct me if so. Pretty much all the DLC release through DTG unlike in TSC.
Anyone else rememner when they were releasing content for TSC on a near weekly basis? How on Earth did we cope?
The only downside ive seen from releasing so much in a small period is what we've all seen happen, things don't get finished and get pushed back and becomes a mess especially with preview streams. I think they should pump out more of a variety instead of just 1 UK route 1 month and another next month. It allows more players to get interested and keep interested, in my opinion.
Who asked you to buy every new dlc ? Should I buy every new iPhone every year? Should I buy every new game out on steam?
As others say, you don't need to buy them all and even if you want to, you don't need them all at once. My only concern with so many back to back releases is if there are any issues will likely take longer time to be addressed. From DTG's perspective I think this is not ideal either as attention gets divided, but it's likely these DLCs are behind schedule and they rather prefer to release it all within this financial year.
As I pointed out in the other thread about pricing, another issue is that TSW itself is starting to get stale. More routes, more locos adding to a game already awash with content. But most of the time, no matter how nice or authentic the DLC (and not all of them are nice) it’s the same old gameplay, A to B back and forth two or three times then get bored and crave something else. That’s why I’ve suddenly found myself back in Railroader. The steam engines may be simplified but no more than TSW and at least they consume fuel and water. And find myself looking forward to Transport Fever 3 and Century Of Steam far more than any TSW DLC, at premium price levels.
For me, the more content the better. More content means more choices and when something comes up that I like, I'll pick it up. If it's something I just need for layers, then I'll wait for a sale. Certainly can't agree with the game becoming stale, at least for me, with releases Like Liberec and Medway valley + much needed freight loco variety with the 90 and the upcoming 70. My only issue is that DTG still don't seem to be able to turnaround fixes in a timely manor. With 3rd party fixes taking months to arrive + real immersion breakers like the core PIS, which DTG broke because of their own errors not being treated as a priority.
Look, I know no one is forcing you to buy any of these DLCs, but my point is, TSW is not a perfect game. So, spreading out the releases and getting them released with as few bugs as possible would give DTG more time to work on the underlying issues, such as blurred textures, poor optimisation, terrible NPC passenger actions, the list goes on, instead of worrying on releasing patches for DLCs that should’ve been found and patched before release. I know people have strong opinions on this, but I hope you can see where I’m coming from.
Frustrating as it might be for some people seeing all this DLC being released at once, and arguments about financial year aside, I'd still rather the content be out and then its there for new people arriving into the game (no doubt when the 'new TSW7 releases) and having more choice of the things they may want to buy. Think of it this way, for people who may only have been playing for a couple of years, how many people went and bought all the content available when they first started, or did they get drawn in by a route they particularly liked, and then broadened out etc. It's interesting that we're getting to the point where a lot of the older stuff is starting to get remastered, the classics many of you would have started playing on but say for me (started with TSW4) my first encounter with East Coast way was the re-master. I think the more doors that are open to give people an opportunity to get involved with something they like, eg trains rather than my point just appealing to the games, then the better,
Would have been nice if they spread them out instead of having 4 this month and probably another 4 next month, the past few months have been pretty dead which is painful when they do this
More choice only matters to a certain degree, eventually you start overwhelming the customer and start turning more customers away than gaining them. Dare I say Thomas probably is doing sell well because it's divorced from TSW, and is actually such a simple package compared to TSW. No need to think about choosing routes, it's just "buy the game" or "Buy the game with James added in". And the nice thing is Thomas is well known enough that James is something most people can recognize and know immediately what is being up sold to you. I don't think casual players realize what a 390 or a Vectron adds to the game in the same way.
Agreed on that, I do wonder at what point the average casual player becomes casual no more after x amount of DLCs etc?
Silly sausage! Stop ranting that DTG are giving us more content to buy. You’d rather have the opposite, no new content for the whole month? You’re not obligated to buy them all.
I’ve just got into Transport Fever 2 recently, wow what a game. It’s so satisfying to play and highly addictive. Even though the game has air, sea and land transportation, if you really wanted to you could just focus on train networks, which is what I’m doing.
When the 145 & NEC Stamford are pretty half-baked, and the 90 really needs another timetable to bump up value, then yes, I'd rather have them be forced to be improved. And thing is at least the loco DLC would've likely gotten my attention under normal circumstances, but when I've already spend $50 on Thomas, and have seriously debated whether or not to finally jump to TSW6 with the Czech DLC. Plus I've been eyeing up a quite a few other games lately for the Steam sale, well yeah, at a certain point I'm picking favorites. To bring up something said a few days ago in another thread... How you nail your launch matters, and that includes putting care not to accidentally bury your game behind a bunch of other releases that cannibalize from each other. Companies like Nintendo do strategically delay games all the time to fill gaps, so that they have a filled game lineup though out the year. And to avoid cases where people have to choose between multiple heavy hitters. See 2023 where a new Zelda, Pikmin, and Mario all launched in a six month period, but each were given about three months separation from each other. Not saying gaps have to be that wide, I think even doing small things like delaying Medway a extra week into April is enough. But I do hate how one sided of a conversation this tends to be when it comes up, there's a much more interesting discussion than. "You don't have to buy them all".
There’s also a ton of mods available including a very nice Class 26 which features authentic sounds. Just set up a route, attach the view to the train and enjoy the ride!
The peaks and pacer as well (Xbox compatibility for them as well ^^) a lot more German stuff though on pc you have way more since you don’t have to deal a lot of the problems linked with Sony and Microsoft
I agree with this as well. NEC New York-Stamford is clearly a route that needed more time in the oven for example. Sure, nobody has to buy DLC, but some of the recent DLC's have released in a rough state to say the least.
That’s the concept on 99.9% of routes that get released. Release it in a sub-par state then fix it later. If people are moaning about that in 2026 still then they might as well stop buying DLC altogether lol. When I buy a route I expect there to be issues, goes with the territory, but if it’s a route I want then I’m happy to pay full price day one. I couldn’t wait 3+ months for minimal tweaks/fixes and £5 saving shaved off the price. As long as it doesn’t crash and restart my game on the route, had that on WCMLS last year and that was unacceptable.
Well when you compare those prices to other games, then TSW dlc's do often present poor value for money especially since most routes are linear a to b runs with often very little in the way of service variation. For $35 for example, I can buy The Bus with comes with a 1-1 scale of berlin. 9 bus lines in their full lenghts and multiple buses in various lengths. A route like Scotland express for example costs $40 and gets me 47 miles of track but comes with one train and offers very little service variation so after you play it for a while, it does get boring. I could probably name other games that offer better value for money
i was like this when I first began TSW (TSW4) really didn't know much about trains outside of Ireland, especially anything on the continent. I have learned so much from TSW and it took a while for me to understand all of the different trains and routes and layers and understand their significance.
Oh I personally haven't bought any TSW 6 DLC's. I did pick up a few older routes when they were on sale. I do get both sides of the argument though. I don't think DLC's should be releasing with the issues they have though and I think it's good that players have more standards than "if it doesn't crash, then it's good enough." If costs of DLC go up, then the quality in my view should also increase
Not to mention the Class 385 has some of if not the worst train sounds in the game, which both Rivet and DTG have turned their backs on ever improving.
Same for me, I'm playing it more than ever and there is a lot to look forward to. Agree about the fixes too. I wonder how long the PIS fix will be. The other problem is new features some of them mean that some fairly recent content feels dated. It would be nice if things like suspension could be applied to older trains.
This is stupid. ‘Sub-par’ is not something I’m looking for when I’m dropping £30+ on a price of virtual content that DTG could decide to stop supporting at any moment (granted, they wouldn’t just decide to that for a new piece of DLC). But, seriously, it’s a loose, loose on both sides. 1. The community is having to cough up more and more money for content that is getting more and more lazy and 2. The developers must be stressed to pieces with higher-ups constantly breathing down their throat ‘ get this route done in 3 months to make the investors happy’.
I agree, it’s honestly going to be a hard sale for DTG to convince me to depart with £32.99 of my hard earned money, if this is the new norm pricing. I would have to really want the route in question or somehow resonates with me. I only have MVL, MK to Crewe and Tadami Line on my day one purchases.
I fully agree with the first comment on this thread about having some restraint, and if it's a financial issue that's more on you then it is a company/developers. You've got to take some personal responsibility for your own impulses. Whether they released 1 add on or 5 add ons in a month is irrelevant. Using myself as an example I have a 'priority list' for this month for TSW, based on what interests me more and I will get more gameplay value out of. Medway Valley is the number one priority on my list (and budget) for this month, and next month the Class 90 will be next on the list. Stamford I've already budgeted and purchased. Also, there's many games on on PlayStation 5 library I don't own although I'd like too, but just because they are there it doesn't mean I need to buy them all at once. You've got to have a level of personal restraint over your 'gaming' impulses. My only gripe (if I can even call it that), is that with several DLC releases over the space of a short time is that patches/updates tend to take because of the amount of information that needs to be logged around several DLCs and then patches/updates being released into the game. But again, it's not the end of the world, just a minor irritation for now.
I agree with you on the quality control, there has to be a certain standard if you’re going to make customers cough up the £32.99. I don’t think more content is a bad thing though, more the merrier I say. I understand it’s more work load for the team to fix this new content, but at this point most new content gets released broken and we expect fixes later. As a paying customer that’s our reality.
The last thing I bought was the 171 pack, purely to enjoy the ECW remaster more, haven't touched it much. The 805, MVL, WOS are also on my list to buy. However at the moment I'm enjoying doing the services on Shap and SEHS so nothing else is really a priority. All this new stuff I don't see as a priority if I'm currently happy with what I've got.
