What do you think TSW could do differently to make it better, what features need to be added? What would make trains in the game more accessible and easier to manage? For example, should we be going around the outside of the train doing checks before we start the day? Should there be something on the hud that tells us that a certain train is A.I only or if we decide to ride it as a passenger it won't take us off the map. How about breakdowns in timetable mode and you have to drive the rescue train to recover it? Should you be able to select any train in timetable mode within reason i.e no powerlines no electric train. What do you suggest?
Simply put, in my eyes, the best way to make the game better is to make the game... better. Meaning: 1. Before releasing something new, test it more thoroughly. A bunch of recent releases have been plagued by rather obvious bugs and/or stability issues, which definitely should have been caught during testing, and fixed before release. 2. More care and maintenance for existing content. A lot of older routes and vehicles still have more or less severe issues despite being many years old at this point. Also, by updating or even remastering beloved old routes, they could keep their relevance (and value) for a lot longer. I've been going on about this a couple of times in a couple of threads now, but only because it's important to me and I care for TSW. That's why I want it to be its best self
Yes, so beta test content better before release, yes as this can take away from your overall experience. And looking after the back catalogue should be a given, DTG and third party companies have created a large catalogue of content which is great, but not much love has been shown or even general repairs to old content.
My hot take on this is sort out service chaining with/without the save game so you can actually immerse yourself in extended operations. Otherwise the options available to make a train sim more interesting are fairly limited. Multiplayer of course comes to mind even though the majority, myself included, don’t see much point to it. For the US routes get away from the A to B freight runs and consider how Run 8 (or Railroader) do it with rolling emergent gameplay serving industry and giving some purpose and structure. A proper career mode and structure not just accruing abstract AP or achievements. That could include a detailed record of your performance including infractions such as speeding, SPAD’s or missed station calls. Ultimately DTG also need to embrace the “World” in the global geographic sense and stop bringing us identikit routes from the same old regions. As an example mentioned the old Densha De Go games in another thread. I know there are licensing and production issues with Japanese content (only one developer moving at a snail pace and the competition from Ongakukan with their drive the video clip game), but something like the Yamanote line in Tokyo or the Osaka Loop Line would bring something new and innovative to the “bus stop” side of TSW.
Multiplayer is a fantasic idea!!! But how exactly would Multiplayer work? Everybody driving trains on the same route or playing as guards? What might actually work is get rid of all the A.I passengers and replace them with players, the problem is you will probably get 30 passengers all wanting to drive the train
warpshell Multiplayer sounds fun, but with the number of players TSW has, the server costs to run it are truly a financial challenge. On top of that, multiplayer isn't some kind of holy grail. It has many downsides that ruin the gameplay people who treat it like a joke or hackers trying to mess with things. No doubt, this is something that wouldn't be a profitable investment on a large scale for DTG, but rather a major expense. And with costs rising sharply, it’s unclear whether it would even be feasible.
Well I never said I wanted multiplayer, just that it's the one significant thing DTG could bring in to change the nature of the game. It's kind of okay in SimRail but the servers are mostly deserted these days with the bulk of trains and signalboxes being operated by bots. And as discussed many times before, the focus on MP by the developers has been to the detriment of the SP game. And MP in Run 8 seemed largely a chat room for the "good ol' boys". I didn't stick around but fortunately R8 has a solid SP game.
I would upgrade every route and move to a new version of Unreal engine just like TSW2 so there will be new feature set and better optimization.
Multiplayer would be great, but there are a lot of problems that come with it including players who just want to mess around and then DTG would have to police that and it starts to become a nightmare for all involved. There could be a great role play aspect, but that only works if all parties in your route agree and as you say you might get some jokers who will ruin it.
I think one of the problems is the actual subject itself as it is a bit niche and not everyone is going to think the same or value the subject the same. Some players might just want to log on and drive trains while others know all the rules around rail operation and want it followed to the letter and across the player base then that can form the them and us way of thinking, then play together not work so nice. It is not just the technology of creating a multiplayer game, it is how to get players to play together, you can solve the technology problem easy-ish. GTA online is a prime example, it has a very toxic player base and Rockstar have struggled trying to control that, changing and nerfing things all the time.
Optimisation. Optimisation. Optimisation. We’ll be seeing TSW 6 before too long and the game still runs very poorly in places. I know DTG have been working on this recently, but they still remain too focused on releasing new content rather than pooling all resources into making what we’ve already got, great.
