Roadmap Update - 6th April 2021

No new info about 101, 182 MRCE, 112 and finally about Hamburg - Lubeck route himself! Grrrrr...
(but achievments in Steam showed already 2 weeks ago!)

 

As someone who is new to the Xbox platform, is the very immersion breaking sound bug going to be fixed?

 

Yes

 

WHat kind of info on the mentioned DLC did you hope for on the roadmap? It is a list of things being worked on and not to give details on upcoming dlc...

 

I have to agree. Quite frankly the fact that the lirr updates have not been released is unacceptable. This route has been broken for almost 7 months. This could've been prevented if they had tested the damn route properly prior to launch instead of releasing it as is and fixing it months later. Also nothing came out in March so surely they had a slot open to test the lirr last month since the fixes were done two months ago. Also I don't get why LIRR fixes are removed from the roadmap yet it says a Long Island Railroad Improvement is in upcoming. It might make people think they aren't being worked on. It should be in Upcoming or next release as it makes the roadmap cluttered. Also if updates for routes are done like pis for east coastway, why not release them soon? Why wait so long?

 

East Coastways PIS has been on the roadmap for months and I'm pretty sure it's been ready to release for a while now so I'm not sure why it's not in the next arrival section or all ready out.

Surely they aren't waiting for the 313 to be finished to release it as that would be the absolute worst thing to do considering the 313 has barely moved on the roadmap.

 

Meh, Clinchfield is releasing this week, which is all that I'm interested in right now, we'll see if any new routes are touched on this weekend during Railfest.

 

"On the subject of Long Island Railroad the upgrades are held up due to a packed testing schedule in April. We're aiming for these to release as soon as possible, but we want to ensure they're fully tested before release so they're waiting in a queue at present."
This confueses me. We have been told there is a kind of release scheme based on core country. The next release is a US release, but the LIRR updates are not yet coming? Instead some German stuff is fixed, a fix for Arosa comes. What is going on here? Is there a lack of test capacity? My feeling is that the lagging after the preserved collection team has finished is long. I feel a trend to make releases big and not keep them small, though reducing release size is worked on for a long time. I feel a bit disappointed. LIRR fixes should have been released weeks ago.

 

This looks awesome. Can DTG adopt this? I know about Trello and you can update it far more easily and we even might insert questions there.

 

I can't help but think a 2021 timetable will mean less services because of a global pandemic...

 

Well according to DB there are 22 departments (all S-Bahn) from Leipzig Hbf (tief) tomorrow between 9 am and 10 am. Seems busy enough for me.

 

I don't think I agree. DTG have the right to keep things under wraps until X time before expected release (even if they are 'in production'). Since new routes come out about once every 2 months, I would expect the announcements of forthcoming routes to be at the same rate.

That could in theory mean an announcement in today's Roadmap, but I think it's pretty obvious that DTG are holding their fire for Railfest this weekend instead. Is four days really going to kill you?

EDIT: It's only been one month (March 9) since the first of the new batch of routes, Cathcart Circle, was revealed

 

I hope they’ve built in enough time to set the trains up properly.

 

I agree, it seems like they have it set up in steps, We are almost to the Hamburg release which I believe was the last route on the roadmap when it initially came out. It makes sense to me that they would have another batch of routes to add for the remaining of the year. I like this idea better then just updating the roadmap one route at a time. We should get some good news from Railfest this weekend, if we are all not to busy driving Clinchfield that is.

 

I don't know why people are having trouble comprehending the Roadmap, or think it's a "mess", with some saying it has too much stuff, and others not enough!

Part of the problem I think is that some have difficulty understanding what the "Upcoming" section is for. It does NOT mean "To be released by the next Roadmap but one, expect it within a month; and in the next Roadmap it will have been bumped up to "New Arrivals." It doesn't mean that. What it means is that "Work on this item has been completed, and it is either in testing OR has finished testing, but in either event it is not coming out within the next two weeks."

 

Yes! They didn’t want to put dates on the roadmap for a reason and I personally think that was the best decision for everyone. It’s more to show us what DTG is working on, and a rough guideline to what may be coming next.

 

They said it was coming out in the next main update for TSW last roadmap stream

 

I really wouldn't call it broken. You can play it. Finish trips from one end to the other. Buggy, yes, definitely. But not broken. Broken means not payable at all/can't finish trips.
As they said in todays stream, they're waiting on quality to finish. If you want a immediate release, prepare to Continue to operate on a buggy route. Personally, I'd rather wait and get a good product then get impatient and go thru this all over again.

 

Looks great!

Biggest WOW in UPCOMING section for me:

1. Upgraded track rendering for Main Spessart Bahn & Rapid Transit (my eyes will stop bleeding maybe + performance boost)
2. [Improvement] [RT] Added LZB to BR182 locomotive! Roma victis \o/
3. [Improvement] [RT] New timetable based on 2021 data & [Improvement] [RT] Added road traffic - now it is lifeless.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. [Route Add-On] DBB-R7 05 - Hamburg – Lübeck. With DB BR 112 + Doppelstockwagen & MRCE BR 182 <3
All I need is love!

 

MSB sound improvement removed from the roadmap means that is included in generic "MSB improvements"?

 

I agree these are looking like great updates, the Doppelstockwagen is something they have added to this route? I know a lot of people in the community referred to it when the route was originally added to the roadmap!

 

So the ECW updates which have been done for 3 MONTHS, we now how to wait until they release the Class 313, which could be MONTHS away. *sigh*

 

It's so silly that we will most likely get the 314 before the 313 when it's been on the roadmap longer Im sure.

 

I am very glad to see improvements being made on preserved collection routes. Additionally, I'm even more happy and excited that Rapid Transit is getting significant improvements, specially new timetable based on 2021 and road traffic. Those two caught me off guard. If only LIRR got the new timetable too because the route still feels dead. But I won't complain since that route is getting improvements/fixes.

Discussion on new timetable for Rapid Transit @ 21:19 - 24:14
Edit: Additional info regarding the new timetable for RT @ 26:06 - 27:29
Current timetable for DB BR 1442 Talent 2: 64 services
New timetable for DB BR 1442 Talent 2: 276 services

 

Schedule provided by We Are Railfans -https://www.wearerailfans.com/c/article/railfanfest2021

 

Railfan Fest event takes place across weekend of 10-11th April - https://www.wearerailfans.com/c/article/railfanfest2021

 

Sure they have the right to keep things under wraps (like they're doing with the Core Update). But in that case they shouldn't be telling us the new batch of routes is being revealed soonish, for over three months...

Nopes, DTG previously stated that they select a batch of routes to be working on over the course of a year. And for the first roadmap, we indeed got a batch of DLC announced, some of which still has to be released (Clinchfield, Class 313, BR101)

No, but it's not just four days. It's been hinted that the next batch of routes would be announced soonish since Christmas. That's 3 months, not 4 days.

While it's true that Cathcart Circle was a recent new announcement, one route doesn't make up for a "batch" of routes. DTG previously said that such a batch would typically exist out of 5 or 6 routes. With Cathcart being one of those, we still have 4 or 5 to go, and I think that even excludes loco add-ons.

 

Do you really expect DTG to announce all their routes for the year in one go? I don't think so. I expect that each one will be announced X weeks before planned release.

----------------
Anyway, Sam addressed your very concern in today's stream, and even apologized for it. He said that it has taken longer than anticipated to narrow the short list down to the six they are actually going to do, and so he hasn't been able to name any of them (except Cathcart) so far, although he had intended to have done so before now.

 

Yes, because that's what they said they'd do when they invented this roadmap. And that's what they did the first time; they announced a batch of routes and locos that were planned, including some of which still have to be released.

That's how DTG used to work prior to the roadmap.

I'm watching the stream right now. Curious to see what answers I'll hear about.

 

Suprised the 313 is taking so long given the 465 was a pretty quick release

 

I am perplexed by the way the release system has been stated by Sam and Adam in recent streams. It seems to me that DTG are sitting on several releases of major updates and the only reason we have been given is "release schedule" without particularly knowing what that means. It could be because of download size limits, or PS and Xbox store only allowing certain amounts of updates etc etc but we're not really being given the whole picture there. Personally I wouldn't care about redownloading the whole game and all DLC again because I have a high bandwidth unlimited connection...

They said on stream last night, the current timetable in game is less than seventy services, the revised timetable is over 200 services. This is available due to remapping of the signalling and scheduler so they can essentially give us a better (if not wholly accurate) representation of the timetable from this year

 

You expect DTG to do QC/QA in time for something that won't bring direct revenue to them? I wish this could be sarcastic, but part of me feels like it's not. I'm sorry in advance if that comment comes off as passive-agressive, but it's just an image which I feel like is being given off to the public.

 

That's not an unreasonable assertion to make. We gain nothing by "sitting on" updates that are complete, especially since we've already invested in the work to put them together in the first place. As mentioned on the stream last night, we're in a challenging period (and have been for the past month or so) because of the decisions taken regarding the preserved collection last year. We've almost caught up, but that has put a dent in our ability to test and release updates in a timely fashion.

Part of the problem here is the increased visibility we're now giving over what we're working on. Historically this situation occurred but you wouldn't have known we were holding completed updates to release. The situation is not normal, but neither is it the first time we've been in this position.

Obviously, we're going to give priority to add-on releases in the test schedule, that stands to reason, however it's only out-of-line at present because of the current log-jam.

 

True DTG gain nothing, but they're actually losing the faith of "the community" by saying that the fixes are done but not released or QAed.

I am very much appreciative of the work you, Matt and Adam do in making sure the community at large are up to date on the technical work that goes on after the DLC are in the wild, but I am sure you (and through you everyone in management at DTG) are aware of the frustration caused by knowing something that is wanted is "ready" but in the same breath "not ready" because of some nebulous (to us at least) factor.

 

Previously DTG used to post 'teaser' screenshots for new routes - in a similar fashion is this a 'hint'?! IIRC "The Surfliner" was a route suggestion requested on the forum?

 

Won;t read anything into that as I don't know if wearerailfans is an internal DTG product

 

I wouldn't count on it. Looks like wearerailfans website isn't a DTG product, and wearerailfans mentions Amtrak as a new collaborator for this years event, which is probably why they're showing a picture of an Amtrak train.

However, Surfliner was indeed one of the top suggestions a while ago, and fills in the gap of a much desired US passenger route. And since DTG already made the route for Train Simulator, they probably already have everything required for research. So yeah, it would be a possibility.

It would also be too good to be true, so it's probably not true. :P

 

Very easy actually. The fixes for HRR have implemented groundwork for the DB BR 101 timetable and Lirr update not coming with Clinchfield is down to Preserved crew work not being connected to anything else that is being released. They work on their own account and not need to abide to release dates from main/core dev teams, which is also why currently QA team is getting more and more items in queue.

 

It sounds to me like there are four teams at work here. The main dev team, the preserved collection team, the QA test team and a release schedule team...

 

We can hope and dream. Fingers crossed.

 

"quick"
You will never completely know for how long it has been worked on. Both releases might take the same time to complete, but are not in full development at the same time. The 465 team could have switched over to 313 now for all we know. And we won't know. It is a misleading thought to believe that both locos are being worked on at the same rate and at the same time ever since they appeared on the roadmap.

There is probably a lot more teams involved than four I guess...

 

Making the issue visible, helps to solve it. We now at least know about the hard work for the benefit of the community. I appreciate the open way you discussed yesterday what is going on. Not all customers will show their understanding, but now at least we can talk about it it and share views. With TS our experience in general was that bugs and issues were rarely solved, so this is a big improvement.

 

Did I miss something or is TrackIr not yet back on the roadmap? Maybe time for a new request in the suggestions section. You really need this for steam engines.

 

Maybe save the suggestion until steam is in development then, else you're shouting into a recently vacated void

 

Steam is in development.

 

Very very early development...
OK, wait until they get to the active control portion of the development. They haven't got past particle physics yet!

 

I’m wondering why the new timetable on Rapid Transit isn’t a paid DLC like the Diesel Legends pack. I already know the answer and it’s not exactly the same thing bit I just wanted to be cheeky and point out that I’ve essentially paid for the research and development of the tech so that the Germans can get free content. The Diesel Legends pack still needs work to bring it up to scratch, so I’d expect that to be done too, since it was a paid DLC.

 

Because in the DL pack you also get GWE copies of the 52, 08 and 101
Presumably in the RT timetable you don't get any new assets so you would need to have bought the originator DLC to be able to use the assets on that route (or it just uses assets already on RT)

 

Are you sure wearerailfans is not a DTG affiliate? The same typeface and character size is used and I actually thought I was still on Dovetail Live... Then I scrolled to the base of the page and guess what?

 

I just don't see it happening due to the lack of services, Amtrak Surfliner has during regular times 22 trains that run between Los Angeles and San Diego between Monday and Friday . But DTG most likely cant get licensing for the other 3 railroads that run that line, BNSF, Metrolink, and Coaster. They could add the Southwest Chief, which runs from LA to Fullerton before branching off to Riverside to run to Chicago, but that is only 2 more trains on what would normally be a busy route.

Timetable from 2010.



Example on the traffic around Fullerton Station (Pentrex claims at least 72 trains passed thru the station)


They could also do a route on the northern part of the Surfliner, from LA to SLO, but that reduces the amount of Surfliner trains to 10, but adds in the possibility of Freight with Union Pacific (While they no longer send mainline freights down the Coastline, they do run locals on the line). Though Metrolink would still be out of the question.