New Sim Demo - Trans Siberian Railway

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by fakenham, Oct 25, 2023.

  1. fakenham

    fakenham Well-Known Member

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  2. orb

    orb Well-Known Member

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    I played it during Steam Next Fest. I thought the demo was removed after it ended, but it appears it's still there. It's quite short driving experience (in the demo), with more time used for starting up the loco. I played it in "survival mode" but apart from fulfilling the needs (bars at top-left), I didn't see much more from that aspect implemented in the demo, like fighting a bear next to the loco depot that appears on screenshots on the store page. However, I bought only food & drinks next to the station and not firearms & ammo in a building farther away. The performance was good on docked Steam Deck (monitor+kb+m). I finished the demo twice - it ends at the same point in driving to the next destination. Maybe there will be something more available in the Prologue.
     
  3. fakenham

    fakenham Well-Known Member

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    Just mega impressed with the loco driving physics and functionality, really does feel like you're driving a heavy train. Couple that with the sounds - excellent.
    Yeah, not fussed abouth the survival mode, just the sim side. Yep, demo is short, just when you're getting into the drive, need longer.
     
  4. fakenham

    fakenham Well-Known Member

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    Prologue is released - still very impressed with this, not bothered with survival mode but the sim only is v good. The physics are probably amongst the best I've experienced in a train sim so far. You really have to pay attention to the gradients (you can actually see them from the cab view with no zoom) and get used to the braking, it really does pay to do a running brake test to gauge your braking action. Very detailed sim.
    Recommend folks to have a try, it's a free prologue afterall...
     
  5. orb

    orb Well-Known Member

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    That's only playtest of the prologue for now and not yet release.
     
  6. Spikee1975

    Spikee1975 Guest

    Looks promising - I thought it'll never come (had this on my wishlist for many years).
     
  7. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Same here, honestly thought it had been abandoned or a trading casualty of the ongoing political situation involving Russia.
     
  8. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    Let me guess the Chairman Gorbi Era VL10s 3kv DC SA-3 coupler loco. Although they got the sister ST42s to get the Physics of VL10 correctly or go to a dual Gauge section of the Galzien Carl Ludwig Bahn in Premzyl for a VL10. I wonder if the Devs want a Honecker Era version with the DR BR211/242 Holzroller locos or Diesel DR BR132 DR BR118 DR BR119 from Romania.
     
  9. orb

    orb Well-Known Member

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  10. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Gave this a try and actually quite impressed with the tutorial, albeit only got to the stage of first moving the loco. Has a bit of a Derail Valley feel to it but I definitely think the full version will be going in my collection on release. Good fun and a bit of humour which is so lacking on DTG’s monotonous never changing A to B one handle EMU runs in TSW.

    With this and the new Mudrunner game coming out, plus Workers and Resources in my collection I can’t see much time for TSW in the coming months.
     
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  11. fakenham

    fakenham Well-Known Member

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    Is it still the same as the prologue I downloaded a few months ago where you drive the freight train to some sidings a few km down route or is it a bit longer now (I had early access to the prologue)?
    Either way, v good sim, I quite like the starting procedure and the feel of driving a heavy train, especially braking physics. The sounds are great too. Looking forward to the full release, although I'm getting a few performance hitches even though maxing out at 60fps. Must be an Unreal thing, Simrail with Unity is generally as smooth as silk.
     
  12. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Got to admit after proceeding further into the demo the lustre has faded and now uninstalled.

    The track laying once outside the station area is appalling, just up and down following the lay of the land. More like Transport Fever 2 than a prototypical profile. Not retaining the custom keys I input and no warning if they conflict with an existing command.

    No way of getting into a forward or rear external view when seated in the cab doing shunting etc. Penalises you for coupling at over 5 km/h which means you have to crawl along at 3 km/h and wait for the clunk.

    No indication of current or upcoming speed limits.

    Dropping the pantograph for a neutral section seems a rather odd thing to do, should just need to run the tap changer down to zero.

    I very much suspect the game and survival elements have been placed ahead of purporting to be a serious simulation, so unless things improve for the final release version I will likely pass on this.

    IMHO Derail Valley does it much better and DTG certainly have nothing to worry about here.
     
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  13. fakenham

    fakenham Well-Known Member

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    I wonder if it's like that in real life though, does seem a tad steep?
     
  14. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I would hope not!
     
  15. orb

    orb Well-Known Member

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    The paid version of the game is releasing in Early Access on May 30, 2024, at 3:00 PM CEST (2 pm BST):
    https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/998400/view/4186736071059087241
     
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  16. tehangrybird345

    tehangrybird345 Well-Known Member

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    It’s definitely an interesting concept. I wonder if they will do the full line or not.
     
  17. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    No mention of price. As mentioned previously I wasn’t that taken by the demo. If it came in under £30 I might consider a second look, though more inclined to wait for a sale.

    However as with SimRail, DTG ought to be taking note of train sim stuff that is selling with very long routes and several choices of motive power, unlike TSW which seems stuck in its niche of offering 25 mile (if you’re lucky) commuter routes with bland one handled EMU’s.
     
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  18. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Apparently early access now out, showing £13.94 on Steam which is a fairly sweet price.
    From what I’ve just read elsewhere, the route is only around 80 miles so somewhat less than the real prototype. Might give it a try later on, just have to get my head round it’s more of a game with (semi realistic) train driving than an intense train sim.
     
  19. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Can anyone remember how you get stuff out of the main inventory into the quick one? Need to access the spanner to fix the speedo in tutorial but I can’t drag the icon into the quick menu and there is no obvious way of grabbing it from the main one.

    Edit: NVM after reloading a saved game was able to drag items between the two inventories. Obviously a bit of a glitchy game.
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2024
  20. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Final update...
    After a bit more play decided to refund. Given the time this has been in development should be a lot more polished than it is, even in early access. Too glitchy and buggy as it stands, not to mention the very odd combination of a fairly technical loco to drive, track layout that looks like a theme park ride and the silly survival and unaliving various NPC or animal characters GTA style.
     
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  21. tehangrybird345

    tehangrybird345 Well-Known Member

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    It would be really cool if the final product got the entire line. That would probably be too extreme, but maybe they can add segments as DLC’s or something. I’ll probably wait until the final release to get it.
     

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