Enough Is Enough!!! The Ongoing Saga!!! 3 Year Anniversary

I actually fired up Run 8 last night, thought I would give Donner another go. Quite enjoyed myself even though the scenery is a bit, meh. Fascinating to have all the AI coming down the hill towards me then call up the DS board to watch “Otto” calmly sorting the tangle of trains at Truckee and the Summit. Well I had to give him a helping hand to delete one train where it and another were stood off at a loop which was too short for either consist! So thinking my train sim spend this month will be going on adding the Modesto section to SoCal, particularly now the £ seems to be gaining against the US$. That will give a run of what, over 600 miles from Modesto to Seligman. Beat that, Dovetail!

 

I keep meaning to get into run8. I'm bored of nll already, derail valley has me in checkmate. Trainz I just can't get into. Rolling line is a bit like trainz I guess and the editor in tsc has almost driven me over the edge.
I was hoping for some more info on peak forest and the 104. But it seems unlikely we are ever gonna see it.

 

The frequent crash to desktops are getting me down, though I think I may have a mod that's out of date and causing conflicts.
I've now disabled all mods apart from WCML South and Godmode and will hope for the best. The "Live Weather" mod was causing issues, though I hope it's a temporary issue or becomes an actual feature of the game as it's great for weather nerds like me.

 

I still enjoy TSW in part but the content is getting repetitive and less interesting. The Cardiff route was a certain purchase but the route has left me underwhelmed plus I do feel it's quality varies so I'll spend my money elsewhere for now.

It will be period add-ons I'll be purchasing from now on or add-ons which are clearly of enhanced quality.

I have gone back to TSC making quick drives. You can choose a time like timetable mode plus the weather and set them up with varied traffic so they are not always the same. Plus you can follow a timetable even if station stops don't get registered. Real drivers don't get points or a count down on a HUD when loading passengers. Plus you get to drive longer routes from the days of steam to the current day with plenty of stock to run on them.

 

The 2 mods causing crashes for me are the auto announcements and live weather. Without those it's crash free.

Although if I spend to many hours in free roam spawning several trains or more I do get occasional crashing to desktop. I think it may be a memory issue.

 

Well I see we have another patch but still disregarding the biggest issue which is the stuttering and sound squelching. Seems most of the work has gone into prepping WSR for the Thomas debacle, or maybe I’m just being cynical.

Anyhow, with NLL and now the £30 Cardiff mini route both being a pass for me, looks like the Dutch route is the last chance saloon for TSW and my Steam Wallet for the foreseeable future. But seeing how DTG are, they’ll probably fudge that up as well.

Oh and couldn’t help notice, Jamie just locked the Cardiff Q&A without actually answering all the questions. Specifically the core performance situation and how are we supposed to manage all these routes with just one save slot still (plus the other save game issue, very applicable to a network style route).

 

It would seem to me that core issues aren't high up on the to do list. Are they even on the list?

 

The real question: is there even a list?

 

If it isn't on the roadmap, it isn't being worked on.

 

I think we need a counterpoint for that: "If it's not on my wishlist, it's not getting bought."

 

Trains at Stratford nice and clear but did notice some blurry traction at Willesden Junction.
I'm still not sure how I feel about this perfectly modeled Stratford. It's lovely to have both of East London's busiest stations (the other one is Barking) in TSW, but it's really frustrating that they're only there for short and not particularly interesting or fast LO services.
I want to get away from the city at 100mph and drive out to my homelands of North Essex. Or get the bucket and spade out for a trundle down to "Sarrrfend"

I bet West Midlands fans have the same issue at Birmingham New Street. What a waste of a big, busy station.

 

Yes agreed. It looks great but that is only part of the experience.

New Street is a hub and even now is quite an interesting place to be with trains constantly coming and going, not just between Lichfield and North Worcestershire.

 

I think this is a pretty fair assessment. I watched some of the Cardiff preview (not because I was interested in buying it but because I just enjoy watching new content) and I really don't know if it was the route itself, the almost sterile way in which it was presented or maybe me not feeling the inspiration any more, but whatever the reason I had to call it a day after around 30 mins. It just felt so, erm, dull!

 

We could do with that protagonist character back. Some straight answers wouldn't go amiss at the moment. Those of us who have spent a little of cash and would continue to do so are left behind in a wall of influencing fireside noise.

 

I’m going to purchase Run 8 and give it a try. The Amtrak diesel stuff seems cool.

 

Yeah, Sam aka Colonel Failure was great on the streams, took no prisoners

 

Quite ironic, going back a few weeks I was quietly stoking my Steam Wallet account ready for the procession of add ons. Then first Mildmay got crossed off the list and now Cardiff. Nothing in the sale I really need for TSW. Just hoping the Dutch route delivers and wishing there was a way to use my Steam credit to buy some Run 8 stuff (sadly not).

 

They weren't able to get real life sound recordings for the 150. From the wcl stream, I'm pretty sure they said the 150 had Armstrong sounds but because the physics wasn't correct, it messed up the entire soundset. Now dtg have changed the physics so it should sound more correctly

 

You forget your history. The 150 sounds were originally sourced from AP which is pretty much as good as it gets, but Rivet botched the mix along with the physics. And you're missing the point, the 153 sounds identical to the 150, it uses the same engine and power train, the only slight difference is in the mass - a 153 weighs 41.2 tonnes, a 150/2 is 37.5 tonnes for the DMSL and 36.5 tonnes for the DMS. The 153 physics and sounds could have been ported across to the 150 with slight adjustment to the power to weight ratio. These people are supposed to be experts at what they do but come across as a bunch of rank amateurs - or Rivet were too arrogant to ask for help and DTG too timid to insist on it.

 

What comes to mind is the SCS Truck Sims, great sims in a lot of ways, but sounds are notoriously one of the weak points for it. That's despite SCS putting in the actual effort to go across the globe to get sounds, and the game engine itself being very capable given some amazing sound mods have been done for the game. Frankly so much emphasize is put on acquiring good sounds, but mixing very much seems to be overlooked a lot, even though the guy mixing the sounds matters just as much.

Not sure how many people listen to alternative mixes of pop songs, but that can completely change the experience even with the same underlying recordings. The Beatles notably has probably a dozen mixes of each of their songs, and it's quite fascinating to listen to what bits and bobs of the sound get brought out with each version.

 

Aye the drum & bass version of Hey Jude bangs

 

The SCS truck sim sounds went down in quality when they switched to FMod. You seemed to get either an idle sound or full revs and nothing in between. And very tinny too. Some have improved and ATS is slightly better than ETS2, but you really need to hit up the mods to get really satisfactory audio.

Now Snowrunner, that has some absolutely epic truck sounds, even if the physics are nothing like the real thing!

 

Great point!

Which only makes the sound inconsistencies even more baffling- some of the trains really sound amazing, so at least sometimes they get both the recordings and the mix right- but what is happening on some of the others?

They've had multiple attempts to get the 150 sounds right, but to no avail, barring a further patch. Is it truly unsalvagable?

 

For me I’m being very picky and choosy with TSW, as others have said I can only stomach so many shortish and linear emu routes. Cardiff City looks interesting, but generally I wait for the next JT release or if it is retro from DTG too.
I drive a lot more on TSC these days. I love the heritage content for US and UK particularly.
Not interested in run8 as good scenery is important to me for immersion, I want to feel like I’m there.

 

Well they are really starting to take the yellow stuff now with pricing, having just seen the Dutch route is going to be selling new for £35 (the most expensive yet) with no pre-release purchase discount it seems. Charging what many full AAA complete games sell for is not on. I don't expect the content to be as cheap as countries or states for ETS2 or ATS or the bits and pieces for Snowrunner, but sheesh.

 

I think £35 is for the Dutch Regional Edition, the route by itself is £32.99

 

I shall buy a snickers bar or two for the remaining £2

 

£32.99 is still cheeky pricing. Yes it does have two brand new trains and new signalling, but that doesn't mean the route is actually good. Even if it does turn out to be good, it's still a hard sell at the same price as the Mittenwaldbahn and WCML Over Shap.

 

Yes I misread the article slightly but you would have thought £30 as the hook to get the region established would have been more appropriate. We don’t know the history of the development but will this be to the same level as Shap or Mittenwald. Add to that buying a £33 DLC for a core game that isn’t exactly in top shape at present…

 

And people said it wouldn’t go up. It’s laughable at this point.

Death by a thousand cuts.

 

Will wait till the Dutch route is £8.00 as I do with most things.

 

It will make for a nice Christmas present!

In other news, reading between the lines from a response by Chris in the Troubleshooting forum, does look they are scratching their heads over the performance issues, sound distortion etc. No one on staff sufficiently versed in UE4 code or how it’s been applied to TSW to untangle the spaghetti. Yet they still expect us to part with £30+ for new DLC!

Anyhow I’ll pick up from feedback on the Dutch stream as to what the route is worth. But so far as I can see there’s nothing iconic about it to justify that price tag. Shap had, well Shap the fact the WCML is a bit famous and the Class 87, even with sound glitching. Mittenwald gave us the Krokodil and a route with scenery that takes your breath away. But an everyday Dutch inter urban route, not touching any of the major cities; well we’ll see.

 

It passes the lampoil test I presume, when S & C, West Highland and many more iconic European routes fail it. Still always baffles me as to why the early TSW routes (NTP and TVL) were selected for the BR stuff. Then we got the BR doesn't sell quote.....

 

All good things come to those of us who wait, and bad things too....

 

I tried using the Live Weather mod, but in fact in 100% of cases, regardless of the route and time of year, it set me 100% - cloudy and strong wind. Given the fact that the sim flew out every other time, at the end of the trip, I had to get rid of it. But it's a good idea..

 

I've always wondered what coders they hire, is it those just out of Uni and are paid a pittance, they go for the experience then leave. I mean how many features have we seen that get introduced and don't work properly and don't get fixed!

Maybe it's time DTG opened their wallets and got a highly skilled UE4 expert in to untangle the spaghetti and fix it once and for all

 

For the Dutch, the Koploper included in Zwolle-Groningen is just as iconic as the Krokodil.

Of course we still need to see how the route turns out. But based on the latest screenshots a lot of effort has been spent to capture the ‘Dutch-ness’
The stations seem to be build with all new Dutch and NS assets.

If that’s enough to warrant this price is up to each to deside for themselves.
But for me this is (again based on what we know now) not an example of DTG doing lazy cash grabs.
Just compare it with the last German DLC without anything new rolling stock or other new features.

 

I cant help but think at times that when a post like this reaches a 143 pages there's probably equally as many happy players that don't bother coming here to look or if they do they're beaten into a mental submission before sharing a positive thought.

Irrespective of ones opinion of game (to which everyone's is their own) there is what can only be described as a group of elite feedbackers who will make sure the slightest negative connotation lingers like the worlds worst text based flatulence for years here(issue fixed or not).

I'll pop back in a month

 

After 13th update the PIS of 350's are messed up again showing "not in service"

 

Yep, I have to say I tend to agree here. I once thought this a brilliant thread to corral all the occasionally humourous spite but it’s become a bit of a parody of itself…. Still amusing at times but bordering on eliteist bullying at times too….. It’s almost no wonder that the DTG team struggle to respond to issues sometimes when they also have wade through some of the tin foil hat nonsense!

 

The forum is just a small minority in reflection to the tsw player base.

Keeps me amused day by day though.

Good to see you come out of retirement.

 

Meanwhile I am still happy to be having fun running all of the glorious TSC 3rd party routes:
https://sites.google.com/view/trainsimulatorcontent/europe-routes

I for one shall NOT be purchasing the new TSW Dutch route. The existing (free) routes [https://dutchsims.nl/] is my happy place. I care not for all of the rollercoaster ride of DTG updates to get things working.

 

If I do get the Dutch route it’ll be on PS5. Looks like the Steam price where I live is the equivalent of £40 (thanks to steams 30% surcharge on top of US prices in Switzerland). At least on PS5. They use a reasonable exchange rate. For anything other than JT or TSG route, that crosses a line for me.

The game core is in such a poor state at the moment especially on consoles and while a new country is nice, the only interest for me in the Dutch route is the loco.

Too much money, not enough quality.

 

it’s got out of hand now, for that amount you can buy a very decent new game with many levels and efficient ai programming to challenge you, that will keep you occupied much longer, for years even (try Age of Wonders 4), than chugging up and down the same section of track which is basically what TSW offers you.
When rivet do it then it’s getting pretty close to a scam in my book. They have no idea of timetables and ai traffic, and what seems their latest offering looks hardly different from the scenery in TSC even without RW enhancer 2!
DTG are in danger of pricing themselves out of the market and by employing rivet clowns are destroying their reputation too.

 

I take it no one here plays msfs 2020. Where a single plane can set you back £50 or more.

 

I hope it makes cups of tea and flys itself for that price, and I'm sure those planes never have any bugs.....