Horseshoe Curve - Definitive Feedback Thread

We.re nearly there ladies and gents. We’ve had the grade, we’ve got the ramp and now we have the curve coming in fast tonight.

What are you looking forward to seeing?

I think there will be some interesting railfans spots in this one.

 

I wonder if we can access Cassandra Overlook.

 

It's a little drag knowing that the ES44AC's MFD just a recycled AC4400CW's MFD. But well, i'll take it anyway when it comes out at Epic Store.

 

Coal trains are my fetish. Hope to see 100+ cars. Mandatory purchase. I expect a lot of bugs and prepare myself mentally.
Pray for good GEVO sounds.

 

From someone who has fanned the route from Cassandra east many times, I will be looking at that section of the line with close eyes. Hope to see all the landmarks, the brickyard, all the towers, which are still there, main 1 through Gitzen, the pump house at Cresson along with the engine terminal there, the Station Inn and on west.

 

The key is don't expect extremely high on a such details. Set your expectation as low as possible.

 

I'm not so sure about that: Cane Creek is from a scenery perspective an absolutely beautiful route. In particular, Skyhook nailed the high desert color palette and lighting with a painter's eye (and I recognized it immediately, because my grandmother was a desert landscape painter in Arizona). Cane Creek's weaknesses were certain infelicities with the locos, not the setting.

 

Yup. They fixed quite a number of them, but there are still a few annoying ones, like the alerter light not working on the SD40. Wish they will fix that one.

 

I must admit a lot of American freight does look similar to me but I am looking forward to seeing what’s what

 

Cane Creek is what I can only dream Run 8 ought to look like...

I may yet buy HSC particularly with the branch included, which I assume wasn't part of the TS route all those years ago?

 

Cane Creeks stock and location is what did it in. The scenery is great, but that's not much when the stock was as bad as it was, and the fact the entire line barely sees any trains IRL.

I'm also still not over the uranium tailing train stuff either.

 

The issues with the "stock" boil down to a) the AC4400's ride height, which was corrected; b) its reversed truck, which is sloppy and annoying, but not visible from the cab and not really from external views unless you're looking for it; and c) its dire horn sound, copied over from the Sand Patch original. The SD40 is fine, and the only other stock complaint is that the dirt train should have got but did not get the proper cars.

And, yes, the gameplay variety is pretty wanting.

But dear God it all looks so good! And that is why I held it up against a prediction that HSC would look awful.

 

The GP9 at the curve has been corrected to face cab downhill as it should be.

 

How can this be in the same sentence as the rest of it?

 

Ok so I couldn't watch tonight, so what's everyone's verdict? Worth a preorder? Is there working distant counters?

 

Yes. The distance counter works.

 

There are two working distance counters, one behind the driver and one in front of the second man (on the ES44AC, at least).

 

I think it looks great after the stream.

 

Enjoyed the Stream and I did ask Natalie about ES44AC Horseshoe Curve Substituting on Sand Patch Grade

 

I’ve watched a fair bit of the preview stream back but feeling tired so will watch the rest tomorrow. Couldn’t watch it live tonight unfortunately.

I couldn’t discern what I was supposed to be hearing sound-wise with the loco versus running sounds as it all sounded like one long continuous mush of sound without variation even when there was more than one train around. It could have been background noise on the mics drowning out the game sounds though as the horn also sounded very quiet.

I noticed some pale looking scenery objects ahead of the train disappearing as we got closer so it looked like a rogue asset or LOD issue was going on. It was happening a lot and was very noticeable even on my iPad so would definitely be very in your face on a bigger screen in glorious HD, so that looked worrying.

What’s included in the route, services and scenarios etc. looks quite extensive so looking forward to seeing more of that to see the variety it may offer.

 

This is very good news. You really need it to approximate US freight operations.

 

Run 8 with TSW graphics i probably wouldn't play anything else- at least for US freight.

 

Wasn't impressed with the sounds. The gevo engines sounds were very quiet, and the horn didn't sound great either; reminded me of model train sounds. The running sounds of the freight cars were very bland, no flat wheel sounds or rail screech, which didn't surprise me..

But what really disappoints me, is the fact that the route doesn't look like it has the new sky box.. I hope the preservation crew will implement that later..

 

Yes!!! The distance counter is working, but there's one drawback though, it is located on the backpanel behind the engineer seat.

About the low volume or the quiet sound, i think Matt already answered that at one point. The team gave us the option to open the side windows for anyone who's prefer loud sound and close the side windows for anyone who's prefer quiet sound.
Or you can tweak the game's ini files as well to bump the loudness of the engines.

 

They had the game volume low.

 

Inexplicable to me- why are the old skies still even an option when developing a route???

 

What's the .ini details to raise the volume of the locos? And does it also raise the volume of the horn?

 

Nope. The alerter light in the SD40 does not work properly.

 

Check the line that i'm blocked, tweak and adjust it on your personal preference, don't increase the number too much. Try 1.5-2.5

 

OMG! UNPLAYABLE!!!!!!!!!

 

Well not unplayable, but shows how sloppily the locos are made if not even the alerter light work.

I found it pretty concerning how they admitted to just copy and pasting most parts of the trains, especially the setups. I have found the sounds weak and very bad. Might've been just the game volume, but the loco sounded like an idling tractor even at full throttle. Horn was the same sound and volume from the inside as the outside.

 

It looked like the new skybox to me....all native TSW2 routes should be using it. Its how the mod worked and it's implemented in core the same way

HSC Stream





OId Skybox

 

I could watch small snippets only, on the phone. Could someone briefly summarize?

1 Gevo sounds | 2 Brakes physics | 3 Trains lenght (+/- 100 cars?) | 4 Scenery | 5 Safety systems, other systems | 6 Overall impression

Thx BR o7

 

I wonder why there isn't a single appreciation for Skyhook to place the stop marker far behind the signal.
Thanks Skyhook, now i can replicate real life situation, when you about to stop a train, you should keep the stretch and the slack action by applying some power while make an application on the auto brake, difficult to be done on Sand Patch Grade and Sherman Hill because the stop marker literally just 10 ft from the signal.

 

Remember as far as sounds inside the cab, these locomotives have the isolation cab so they would be low inside. Personal in the cabs of these and other modern units do not have to wear ear protection.

 

Couldn't see it from the stream, but is it true that cars are driving on the wrong side of the road?

I thought the horn might have sounded good, but I could barely hear it even outside the cab.

The gevo looked a little tired, copy and pasted, not really a completely new loco.

The scenery was OK, disappointing that they didn't fully model the rail fan facilities.

Still believe a great opportunity was missed by setting the route in 2019 rather than 1959.
I think I'll keep playing the TS version with its enormous variety of locos, rolling stock and gameplay. Console players are, unfortunately, unable to compare.

Note: Players should not have to use " ini " mods to enhance the route to where it should be.

 

What do you mean?

 

Well, that's a GEVO, when it comes to GEVO, what is actually shows up on your imagination or on your mind?
In fact, GEVO, especially the ES44AC is direct sucessor of the AC4400CW (With ES44DC being the direct sucessor of the Dash 9-44CW), of course there are few design signature maintained by GE.
ES44AC had larger radiator section compared to the previous AC4400CW, and different prime mover also.

 

I must admit I like what I see and strongly considering getting me another US freight route ...
I skipped the other route from Skyhook but got the (not so well) DB BR187 so this will be my first route from them.

 

The displays, for starters. And the extremely quiet horn.

I would also question setting the route in 2019, simply to avoid modeling PTC. The same thing can be said about Harlem, which has had PTC since 2020. I mean if we're not going to move ahead with each successive route, at what point will the new safety systems be modeled? Next time, the time after that? They're pretty much universal in the US at this point.

 

for this one i agreed, the GEVOS should have been had different interface on the MFD.

 

I am waiting for the ocasion to more IFD functionalities to be introduced. Not this time, like I see.

EDIT Physics is evolving slowly but alone, without trains models complexity

 

yeah you could see from the viewing platform at the curve that the vehicles down in the valley were driving on the left rather than on the right.

 

Meanwhile, ACS-64 releases with no cruise control, because it's on an IFD.

 

It is not unplayable, but annoying for people that use the alerter like me.
Also it does not look like something that takes more than 1h to fix being generous.

 

It has it now.

 

To be fair, it was eventually fixed, though unannounced as I recall.
It was always there, just hidden.

 

That's interesting

 

WHAT? I must have missed that Point taken.

 

I saw enough on the preview stream to justify a preorder. I dont expect perfection and Ive seen enough improvement and passion from the creator and Skyhook to justify my purchase.