Looks tempting. Typical that I just spent £60+ on gear for Run 8 and this will probably land in a couple of weeks. If I can find anywhere still selling Steam vouchers, I’ll have to slide out and spend a bit of petty cash on them, so my missus doesn’t get to see the card transaction!
Also in the teaser, we also finally go to see the box vans from NTP on this route (which are also coming with the route). It appears that they have been giving a new colour scheme for this route as they appear to be more red (like the conflats and plank wagons that we already knew about) compared to the NTP ones which have a more brownish colour:
Can't help but notice that none of the Jubilee class appear to have nameplates yet? Bit strange as we're presumably fairly close to release? Otherwise all is looking well - hope the timetable is nice and busy!
The dirt and grime is looking much more prominent now and I like how they are going to embrace the downtrodden feel of the end of that era.
Nameplates are there and very visable in the first frame of the teaser with the loco's in black and white in the shed.
Personally I’m very impressed with the progress that DTG are making with SoS, one thing that I would like to ask is will all of the locomotives be Raildriver controller compatible? Also will it be possible to enable an ‘auto fireman’ mode in the same way that you can in Train Simulator?
I do feel some excitement brewing for this. It's been a good 6 months or so since I've bought a dlc and this could be the one
It could well be a rare occurrence for me of not waiting for a route to appear in a sale before buying. It is going to be a whole new experience and it’s my local route so that’s got to be worth a day one purchase. Not long now by the looks of it.
I think this is going to be a day one chance for me again to be honest. Just for seeing something different
It looks really appetizing; but to me the sheer quantity of new stuff rather more strongly enforces my "never on Day One" policy. There are going to be bugs; it's inevitable.
My thought is that it looks good certainly, but the real question everyone should be asking is if it will feel good, and honestly I don't think enough has been shown to judge that. And in all honesty I have my doubts DTG are going to pull off things like convincing audio and accurate wheel slip behavior based on previous efforts.
Ladies and Gentlemen... We have a release date! 31st May (3 weeks today), Steam page is up right now for anyone looking to pre-order: https://store.steampowered.com/app/...eam_Liverpool_Lime_Street__Crewe_Route_AddOn/ Oh I so can't wait for this!
That's quicker than I thought. A few caveats though... No price (that I can see) on Steam as yet, so could this be the first "premium" price product? Very disappointed that we are not getting any Mark One catering vehicles, not even a RMB. Really many of the trains would have conveyed these and would certainly have been seen aplenty at Crewe. I just hope they haven't rushed this to meet a deadline and I may actually just wait and see, not least because I'm torn between this and adding to my Run 8 car/wagon collection at the moment.
An rmb would be worth a separate wagon dlc or delivered to a loco dlc. So it would add services with those into the timetable mode and change existing consists to have it more realistic. Probably all express passenger services had a restaurant or buffet car.
I hope the 8F will randomly substitute for the Jubilee on passenger services. I'm sure if a Jubilee was unavailable the shed would send out any available alternative (more likely a Black Five, but the 8F would be a different experience nonetheless).
Not. Enough. Screenshots or in game video footage. I am very very excited! May’s articles and features up till release will be followed close. Hurrah!
Same price as others routes. So be it for the moaners. And a nice bundle for newcomers to TSW2. Now lets hope DTG wont disappoint this time, there is so mich of things that can go wrong... Finger crossed
I will be pre-ordering it, I want to see DTG develop more add-ons of this period. Largely I am looking forward to this add-on and from what I have seen it looks to be very good. However, I do wonder why a catering vehicle is not included, they would have been a definite inclusion in an express train so straight away this eats away at the level of realism they seem to be aiming for. This for me is a test of how far they want to push TSW (which is currently uninstalled on my PC) and how much they want to make a historical route live up to the level of realism they seem to aim for on modern routes.
So some details that came off the steam description for this route, including the final details on what rolling stock is going to be included with the route, which is again also located on the very first post of this thread (I also have a few comments to make about certain rolling stock that is going to be featured here): Route Information 36 Mile (58 km) mile route between Liverpool and Crewe Available Rolling Stock LMS Jubilee Class Steam Locomotive in BR Late Brunswick Green livery LMS Stanier 8F Class Steam Locomotive in weathered BR Late Unlined Black livery Mk1 Coaches in BR Maroon and Blood & Custard liveries (Variants confirmed as the FK, TSO, BSO & BG. I know people will be disappointed that there is a restaurant car include here, but maybe that's something for another time, if we ever see another period UK steam route in TSW2. Plus, we do get the FK as the new Mk1 variant, as the previous Mk1 variants we have seen before, but not in the guise that will be coming with this route. Also, it's good to see that the BG variant is going to be featured here as well, as I did wonder if that was also be included here alongside the FK, TSO & BSO variants that we already saw in the screenshots. This also makes me hope that the timetable will feature a postal service featuring a rake of BG's in tow). 16t Mineral Wagon 5-plank Wagon Conflat Standard Van (Same as the one from NTP's BR Heavy Freight Pack, but has been given a slightly more Reddish tone, compared to the NTP version which is more brown). 20t Brake Van On a side note, one interesting that I saw in the steam description is that it is listed that this route has 15 stations, but from having another count of station that did exist on this route back in 1958, I could only count 14. Those stations I where able to count include: Crewe Winsford Hartford Acton Bridge Runcorn Ditton Junction (Closed in 1994) Halebank (Closed in the same year as when this route is set) Allerton (Closed in 2005, reopened in 2006 as Liverpool South Parkway) West Allerton Mossley Hill Sefton Park (Closed in 1960, two years after this route is set) Wavertree(Closed in the same year as when this route is set) Edge Hill Liverpool Lime Street So I make that 14, so it's either the 15 is a mistake or (if I think this is what it is), there is another station located along this route that I have missed somewhere. But I doesn't appear to be one that jumps off the chart at the moment as most of the other stations that could appear here are either located outside of the boundaries of this route, or have already been closed years before 1958 came around. This is something that I need to do some more digging into as I am curious to see why it's listed as 15 stations when I could only find 14. Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/...eam_Liverpool_Lime_Street__Crewe_Route_AddOn/
I've pre-ordered as I'm really happy to see steam finally making its way to TSW. I've got many reservations as previously expressed mostly around the amount of content - how busy the timetable will be, how local passenger and freight will be handled, if we'll see some loco DLC (which I really think is essential here, moreso than dining cars or anything else). I'm hoping that this will (perhaps after the month-long QA-focused break) herald a push for more loco DLC (and more content generally) as the rate of releases seems to have slowed down dramatically since Rush Hour. Hoping we may see some additional third-party developers that specialise in steam as well throwing their hat in the ring to further increase the flow of new content. One extra thing I'd really like to see - a new steam timetable for WSR so we can make use of these super engines in a different context (if anyone from DTG is watching - some demonstration freight would be good too!).
I see little to be gained by preordering if there's no preorder discount, not like it will sell out is it. The lack of discount means I won't preorder and as I'm away until the 2nd of June early reviews will shape my decision. Had there been a discount I'm very likely to have pre-ordered. Now I'll either pay full price a few days after release or if there's issues wait until a sale.
I'll probably wait with pre-ordering until at least the preview streams, but very likely will aswell. I'm pretty sure I want to buy this just to see what it's like. A lot looks promising, though I feel like in some shots it feels a little too plasticy or something to me (something just feels off in some pictures), though I'll judge that when I see it in motion for myself, and that might also be because they're only good weather shots.
I’m really excited about the release, and have preordered mine. Very much looking forward to seeing the route and experiencing the TSW2 version of steam power!
For me TSW2 is mostly about driving the train so, although the screenshots I’ve seen look great, I’ll wait before purchasing. I have a slight suspicion it’s not going to be possible to drive without the HUD, or moving the camera around all the time to read different instruments, and for me both of those are immersion killers. There’s also no benefit in pre-ordering without a discount. I’m sure I’ll buy it in the end. Fingers crossed driving steam will be great, but even if it isn’t a good experience, hopefully our wonderful modders will make it possible to run some appropriate diesels in their place.
Not sure how you imagine you're going to be able to read instruments without turning your head as they would have done IRL Sure needing to move about in a 3D environment is more immersive than having everything laid out in front of you in this instance?
Exactly, I suspect it’s impossible, so not a dig at DTG, but I guess it’s going to be necessary to move the camera. I realise, of course, that it’s necessary to move your head in real life, but moving the camera in TSW2 is nothing like moving your head in real life. It’s far more fiddly and awkward, and for me feels nothing like the instinctive act of moving your head when you need to see something out of your eyeline in real life. I think the only way to do it is to use a HUD, but the problem is that the TSW2 HUD is horrible. A HUD should be as discreet as possible. The TSW2 HUD wants to be the star of the show, detracting from what’s behind it and covering as much of the screen as possible. It’s also very determinedly modern looking - completely out of keeping with the era in which this route is set. My hope is that there is an option to just have the key information in small writing - no background, no outline, no flashy graphics - in the very corner of the screen. I think a similar thing is available in Train Simulator, although it’s a long time since I’ve played it.
It would be nice as an évolution to have different HUDs with different graphics, for example : - default - steam - diesel era - electric/modern - minimalist All would have their own graphes, would be resizable, transapancy would be an option. Lets go further and lets imagine a remonte HUD, like we can have in flightsims : be it on a 2nd screen, or a tablet, smartphone...
Yup, there is a very brief text "HUD" in TSC and maybe they can recreate this in TSW although this would be MORE immersion breaking for me than not having anything (at least I don't think they had floating computer graphics in the late 50s...) I guess it's true that the "speedo HUD" and the info banner do take up a lot of screen space, but for me it's still better than the TSC "full HUD". I always preferred the mini-HUD
I know from Derail Valley how awkward it is trying to drive a steam loco without any form of HUD or much in the way of keyboard shortcuts for the controls. You spend all the time twisting your virtual neck and viewpoint inside the cab, not watching where you are going.
Having SDK to allow a tablet or phone app to hold the hud data would be so good. I believe project cars 2 pulled off quite a successful implementation that both consoles and pc could use by pulsing hud data over a home wifi network. 3rd parties then built loads of apps to make use of it, some even managing to include time differentials to on track opponents. Can certainly use a more natural head movement to get the info you need with a second screen.
Zusi also features something like that. It's quite easy to use a tablet next to your PC as an EBuLa screen for example.
That would be a big step forward, particularly if realistic gauges (appropriate to the loco in question) could be displayed on the tablet/phone, as opposed to just a digital style display - but even just having the numbers would be better than having to move the camera to find the gauge. Another option might be a key on the keyboard which, if you press it, causes the gauges (as they are in the cab) to appear in the corner of the main screen, only for as long as you hold down the key. When you release it, they disappear. That way you can have a quick glance at a gauge (as you would in reality) without having them permanently in a unrealistic position in order to be visible.
Just think, it would give some great opportunities for creative work from the community in making such artwork and the apps to use them.
