So I thought long and hard about this. It's time to see the rest of the East Coastway Line added to the game. We have services that go all the way to Ore, but are cut off along the way at Polegate to head to Eastbourne. And it's all right. I understand why that is. A track was removed. However, there have been a lot of requests - also on the TS side - to get Ashford International in the game. This would not get us there (another route to the northwest), but it would get us closer. And this idea goes beyond just a single route. Imagine, if you will, an intrepid traveler traveling from Hastings to Gatwick Airport. First, one travels to Bri-...no, wait. There are services from Ore to London Bridge. Direct. One train, stopping at Eastbourne and then reversing to head through Plumpton from Lewes. So why not just put up the extension, travel via Plumpton, and get off at East Croydon - or even extend further to a newly designed London Bridge that could eventually also work back over to TS? So how do we accomplish this? Ore to Eastbourne would of course be its own route. But the route through Plumpton includes returning to Lewes, and then potentially chopping off the rest of the route to Brighton by adding the Plumpton Branch and ending at Three Bridges, or even at Gatwick Airport. Let's do something else. Yes, this could still be an individual route. But let's do a bonus map. Owners of all three DLC would have access to a bonus map that goes from Ore to Brighton, and all the way up to Victoria. The Plumpton Branch would be fully included. Want to make it even more of a bonus? Add the branch to London Bridge, or even do a South London Network in TSW2 as well (it needs a heavy update anyway and would again be its own DLC). That means owners of all related routes can have access to a bonus map and timetable where they can just hop on a train anywhere in the network and go wherever they want. Traveling from Hastings to East Croydon? Get on, go right there. You live near Hassocks but want to visit a friend in Lewes? Head to Brighton, or even Three Bridges, and change trains to head straight to Lewes. The gameplay options open up tremendously with a merged route, and this route can be designed as a brand new map that requires all DLC (the map would install with the third route and check for the other two lines before operating). This gets rid of merging messes by creating a new single map that the player cannot use without all DLC present. It also means traveling from Ore to East Croydon, if not all the way to London Bridge, is now possible. And for those owning all three, adding the branch to London Bridge is a good option as a thank you. We're talking $90 USD or so of route to which we add eight more stations heading north and curving west to the busy London Bridge Station. Ore to Eastbourne is only a 28 minute drive, and looks even shorter than the one between Brighton and Eastbourne. So this makes up for it by adding the Plumpton branch, then the bonus London Bridge branch, filling a network completely for those owning all three DLC. It makes up the full price for the third DLC in the end. I won't press my luck by suggesting going to Blackfriars, or Cannon Street, or...this is just a bonus. But it would allow the Ore services to fully complete, and also allow for Brighton to London Bridge services. This would be a nice bonus for people who want the open network gameplay and would be happy just riding along, but even doing a shift driving across the entire network. But I will say other merges can take place. You can add Reading to Swindon and add that to GWE (don't just stop at Didcot)). Heading to Oxford or Bicester? Stay aboard. Peninsula Corridor to Gilroy? We have this in TS. Create a second route from San Jose, then a bonus merged map going all the way from San Francisco to Gilroy. Sherman Hill to Speer? Asked Matt about this during his stream yesterday; they ran out of time. Maybe extend that slightly fur-...wait, it's just single track and I don't see much there, that might not work. But still, add Speer and whatever extension might be possible (there are not many options) as another DLC and its own route, merge, and complete the map so #3 track runs from Cheyenne to Laramie, as intended, can take place. Basically. any connecting routes can have this bonus map added as a separate, unique map. Provided the map connections work cleanly, it just has to be populated with new services and you have instantly extended the gameplay options for the player in a very cost-effective option by adding a bonus map utilizing all DLC, letting them travel between routes. And keeping part of the route exclusive to the bonus map gives a further incentive to get all DLC so players can explore the bonus area. Heck, Sherman Hill extension north and east of Laramie could be a bonus in that example, or a Cheyenne BNSF extension to Rawhide Power Station. Though either might be too much as a bonus, it's the same principle. Any thoughts on this?
I would pay for a route merge only if it were to include new track and services, such as this. The trouble extending to Hastings is that you're then cutting the Ashford services half way and inevitably people will then want the second half of that line too. Extending a route as a DLC for a DLC versus the development time that could be spent on another 'independent' route elsewhere may also make this prospect less appealing from a developmental point of view. Might be a good idea as an experiment to see how popular it is though.
Eastcoast way, an extension to hastings and merged to london 2 brighton would be a good first network. Dlc1: l2b Dlc2: eastcoastway Dlc3: eastcoastway extension to hastings Dlc4: routenetwork dlc, which merges l2b with eastcoastway and adds additional freight + the wivelsfield/lewes tracks So dlc 1 and dlc 2 are independend. Dlc 3 requires eastcoastway. And dlc 4 requires l2b and east coastway. I know matts answer its impossible. My opinion is if the services and portals timetable) are built up for extending / merging this works out. Of course if l2b has a real world time table and eastcoast way uses a fantasy timetable, the stones are already placed straight into your way. Its not that its lacking of good suggestions and customers willing to pay for that. The problem is dtg didnt consider this part of improvement in their development process for tsw, which was in my opinion a fatal mistake. Networkbased gameplay is required to get tsw2 out of the niche to a real reason for changing from ts to tsw and its future in general.
I would approve of going all the way to Ashford, and at least adding the Plumpton branch from Lewes as a map merge bonus if London Bridge would take too much dev time. The bonus map would have its own unique timetable and it would all be a realtime timetable, nothing fantasy. I am aware that the service schedule on East Coastway at present is purely fictional. Literally got it at 90% off. Also, just so it's clear, existing maps would remain unchanged. This would be an independent map bundled with the last included DLC, and would check for all needed DLC to be owned before operating. Hence why I'm now suggesting maybe they need to add that. This is, after all, a main reason people stick with TS after introducing themselves via TSW. Extending East Coastway is a good excuse for adding it, and then when older routes are updated, they can add expansion points. They can have the full route to Brighton for the first experiment and the Plumpton branch terminating at, well, Plumpton. If all works, expand it to add the BML (Plumpton is already a terminus entering from the branch). Peninsula Corridor is one of those old routes, too. Meanwhile, the Toronto idea I posted in TS and others have posted in TSW could extend to connect to Hamilton as well (I think GO Transit shares the freight lines?). Gives some use to that old map.
Best value the Southern Region Network Pack made up of SEHS Extended to Ashford to join ECW via Marshlink Line comprised of ECW Brighton to Hastings and Marshlink line Hastings to Ashford via Ore. Last Part is ECW and BML merged via Wivelsfield connector line. Southern Region Network pack is sold for the same price as a Normal route.
Great suggestion. Mega connectivity across multiple routes for awesome extended gameplay. Money in the bank for DTG as I am sure that this would sell in big numbers.
It would be ideal if an extension to East Coastway went ahead to Hastings/ Ore. As others have mentioned, it would be good to push it all the way to Ashford International too and we can see the addition of the Class 171 Turbostar. A further extension to include Brighton to London Victoria and merging it with East Coastway that would see platforms 1 and 2 being in use at Lewes would be very welcome. Though on a technical level, this might be an issue when it comes to memory and performance due to the vastness of the map. But if this can't be done, I would propose this. Keep East Coastway as it currently stands as Eastbourne to Brighton and Seaford to Brighton East Coastway-Marshlink as a new DLC that goes from Eastbourne to Ashford International I do not know how I would implement the Plumpton stretch of the track without a complete merger of all the lines mentioned above, but that might come at the cost of performance and may not work on consoles let alone lower-end PCs. Maybe in future Train Sim World games, we will see such a merger where we can drive from Brighton to Hastings, jump on a Southeastern 375 and go to Tonbridge, change there and go to Dover Priory via Ashford International all in one map.
If not for the fact that East Coastway is entirely missing from Train Simulator at this time, it would be close to being possible. We only have a small stretch east of Tonbridge in Chatham Medway, but if another TS idea I posted for the full SEML were to go from London Bridge to Tonbridge, to Ashford, and to Dover, then the East Coastway would be the missing link there. Back to here, I could still see the second half of East Coastway being able to merge with the first without too much in terms of memory problems, and think this would be a nice idea between the two even if Brighton to Victoria cannot be done. Still a third bonus map to the two others, but it allows for a nice mix of real services on the lines as well and the link to part of the Plumpton line can be done (adding Cooksbridge), perhaps terminating just before Plumpton. If, in the future, a full merge is then possible, it could be added at that time. But for now, having the Eastbourne to Ashford route and the bonus map starting from Ore back to Brighton and off onto the Plumpton branch would be a good merge option. This also becomes a good route to test with since East Coastway, I think, was a 2020 route? As a result, it will get improvements anyway, so why not try adding the option to merge the map on that one as an experiment and see how it works?
