I have a question to Dovetail... Why not make all non-owned locos NPC's (non playable characters) in the game? This would have significant advantages, namely: 1) Gamers get to see what trains are available to drive while playing scenarios 2) Scenario creators can include any train they like to increase the variation\realism of their scenarios 3) Loco's can be centrally updated\managed with new liveries and pushed to all installations, regardless of weather the DLC is owned or not, reducing fractured locos (e.g. how many times has the class 66 been released, the class 20, the class 390?) The advantage to Dovetail is that all playable loco's available in DLC are being viewed by players, and without purchase, are just restricted to being AI trains within scenarios or statically parked. Just a thought. FatController
Firstly, this would drastically increase the disk load of anyone who had the game (I have every british route and loco that DTG sell and my asset folder isn't small), and also if they put them out as "AI only" someone will crack them and then people will just use them. With regards to "how many times", I think there are four variants of the 66 (one disconned), 1 class 20 and 2 390s released by DTG, although others have been released by third parties. So I don't see the commercial advantage for DTG in this. The other point I would make is that if you stick to DTG released routes and assets they ALWAYS give you everything you need to drive their scenarios on their routes. 3rd parties have a habit of including scenarios with assets they don't supply out of the box so as to drive you to buy other assets from other packs.
They could remove a lot of stuff from a train (cab model, input system, all safety systems, etc.) without affecting it's AI functionality. Protecting content that way is certainly possible.