Alot has been said about the fact that this route didnt come with any new stock. No IC2 or the likes which I fully agree with. But I have a different grudge aswell. There is quite a bit of S-bahn mitteldeutschland action on the new route yet no 1442 was include in the package. No upgrades were given to this ancient loco that's pretty integral to the leipzig section of the route. The biggest missed opportunity however is no Leipzig city tunnel. We already have fairly well modelled stations included why not give us 2 more to connect engelsdorf and MDR to give us a bit more to play with on the s-bahn side? The station feels so weird without the tief platforms. It's not like this route gave us any other new stock or services so this would have atleast made it a bit more worth it IMO. Even the TSC variant had this included so it doesnt feel like too much to ask
Compared to Riviera and Morristown, this route does seem like a bit of an afterthought. Considering the lack of new stock and the missing parts to the route, it almost seems like the easier option for them to have chosen. That said it's not the first time that a core route has seemed like more of an afterthought, with TSW5's WCMLS being outsourced to Rivet and San Bernardino just being a delayed release to what was supposed to be a standalone route, and TSW3 had almost the same situation as Dresden - Leipzig with it just being an extension to an already existing route with no new stock added, though the difference there was they actually did the extension very well. I think the afterthought routes are probably the result of a lot of work being expended elsewhere which naturally causes at least one of the routes to suffer. In TSW3 they dealt with the creation of what still to this day is TSW's longest route, and in TSW5's case the massive undertaking of Frankfurt - Fulda. It's pretty easy to see how the random events, the level of detail put into Morristown and the likely degree of oversight DTG placed on Rivet for Riviera might have taken up a lot of development time, leaving this year's German entry to be the one to catch the short straw. Bottom line, you could say it's another example of why this annual release model is fundamentally flawed and harmful to the game's integrity.
I still have a gut feeling Stuttgart and the 140 were supposed to be the new route with the Leipzig extension intended as a DLC. But at some point it got changed around.
I just wished that the Leipzig 1442 could be updated and packaged as part of the route. Don't really want to buy a route for a specific train.
I was definitely more excited for it. Has alot more going for it with 2 new stock pieces and an interesting route. This route really should have had an IC2. Probably as loco-dlc later on to squeeze more out of us
Yeah, I'm also disappointed that the 1442 wasn't updated as it's over 7 years old. I can't handle the poor sounds and physics, so I probably won't even touch it. I can also agree that a remaster of the S-Bahn Tunnels should have been included as well, but DTG tend to stay away from a route that has underground stations due to the time it takes to do "light baking." Apparently "light baking" takes a very long time to do which is probably why the S-Bahn Tunnels weren't included. It's the same situation on the "Frankfurt to Fulda" route where all of the underground stations were cut from the route. It's been an issue since day 1 and I think it is unacceptable that there still hasn't been a work around yet. The DB BR 294 is nice, but did we really need another Diesel Shunter?
Since that opportunity already went, they could do a similar gameplay pack like with the MBTA HSP-46. Players without Rapid Transit could buy it separately with a generous price, and the owners of Rapid Transit would get it for free. The physics and sounds should of course be updated.
This, the BR442 is already included, so just a different variant/color should be included too. The sounds of the BR1442 should be upgraded to the sounds of the BR442, now both variants has different sounds and the BR1442 sounds are terrible. BTW, Rapid Transit has still a derailment bug, after all those years never been fixed.
IIRC, Rapid Transit was the second DLC for the original TSW (2020). Updating it probably means making all the scripting again from scratch.
