A license from Mattel is a major coup for Dovetail, and despite the pre-Christmas countdown shenanigans, I think it’s been a broadly welcomed addition to the game. I’m think we can expect Thomas and his Friends to stay for the foreseeable future, especially because of how highly the devs talked of Mattel and their relationship, and how brilliantly the collaboration between a fictional character and a train simulator has been executed. There have also been some early clues to back it all up.. notably, on the preview stream, the answer to the ‘is there more to come’ question was appropriately PR shoehorned into the ‘check future roadmaps’ response - which usually soft confirms without explicitly stating so (no smoke without fire). So my question now is; how does future Thomas content / add-ons / DLC fit into the established TSW add-on development and in what capacity will the content be released? Early musings have had me believing it would be something along the lines of (the TSW standard approach) that is a new loco or two featuring appropriate wagons or carriages, on a small but compact section of the Island of Sodor (it has to be done - the gaps between stations and objectives on the realistic WSR are a little too distant for my 3 year-olds’ liking!) and the whole package of content to revolve around the ‘story’ element (that we see with the Thomas on the WSR). With that being said, I wonder how much creative license the two parties will allow with creating the fictional infrastructure of Sodor. Although maps have been made, creative licenses have most definitely been afforded in Thomas media past and present, so a little tweaking to locations may be necessary!
It seems a no brainer to create a scaled down version of Sodor that features a mainline, branch line and the docks etc. I am sure it would sell like hot cakes.
They need a route based on Sodor. There are plenty of islands around the UK that could form the DEM terrain basis for such a route - turn Arran in Scotland on its side and the shape is just about right.
Sodor could be interesting (as long as they don't try to shoehorn in some modern electric passenger routes onto it ), it is probably the only non-modern content DTG will ever make If they do I hope it isn't too short, so it can appeal to a wider audience
I'd definitely purchase some routes based on Sodor. I think the Ffarquhar branch alone would be a good place to start, including the quarry. You've already got Thomas, Annie & Clarabel and the Troublesome Trucks. Percy & Toby could be new characters that come with the route, add Henrietta for Toby and the mail vans for Percy. Bertie and Terence would need to cameo somewhere on the route too. That route could then be followed up with a Diesel pack that adds in Daisy & Mavis which fills out the route's stock completely. When it comes to Sodor route layouts, I'd personally do a combination of using Awdry's original maps for basic track laying while using the early model era seasons as reference for visuals and scenery. I feel this option would give Sodor the most justice. The CGI series strayed from the original Sodor map and outside of the notable set pieces, most places on the island looked the same in CGI.
Agree, although whether they make it for the ‘oldies that grew up with it’ (like some of us) or the ‘current batch of kiddos’ remains to be seen. Simplifying the controls was a great first step, but would that simplification continue with track switching, distances between objectives, way-finding, terrain or generally just the layout of the routes? Maybe there will be influences on Sodor from famous railways around the world.. like the Swiss mountain railways.. or the Mauritania desert tracks.. perhaps even Mattel would want fictional routes based worldwide, to appeal to kiddos worldwide?
I mean, Mattel tried that with the show during Big World, Big Adventures, and simply put its failure is why the OG series got canned. I can't imagine Mattel touching anything to do with those foreign locations with a mile long pole if they have any sense to them. And while admittedly I don't think Mattel are especially smart as a corpo, the fact they seemingly are moving back toward the OG series look in the merch lines seems to indicate that at this point know how much people value the original at this point. In general I feel avoiding anything that's exclusive to select eras of the series for the time being is in their best interest. Max engagement is to do Awdry's 1 through 7, plus maybe some more consistent secondary's like Emily, and maybe even Mavis. Similarly locations like Thomas' branch line or the Knapford to Maron section of the mainline make the most sense for the same reason, they have locations everyone knows on them. That's two or three years or so of content as it, plenty to rap their head around for now. If we reach that point then it might be worth thinking about doing other more era specific things.
Here's a compromise. Make Toby and Henrietta for the kiddies and simultaneously make the Wisbech and Upwell railway for us grumpy oldies. Lots of shared resources there and even the route shouldn't be that complicated as it's, more or less, deep flat. Come on DTG you know it makes sense
Despite a fair few posts complaining about this add on, it's a shame we don't know what the wider world (TSW players who don't use the forums) thinks about these things. A lot of the other complaints I see about 'immersion breaking' things, I never found to be a problem as I didn't know what the original sounds are like, or what something looks like exactly. I came into the forums a while after playing the game, which I like being able to pick up and play for both short and long routes. It will be interesting to see how this Thomas add on goes, if it makes money for DTG then great, people don't have to buy it if they don't want to and I imagine not everyone will buy every piece of DLC anyway.
To really pee off the whinging rivet counters, get Gordon and Henry on the Spirit of Steam route. Put James and Edward on Peak Forest, Percy on West Somerset and Duck on West Cornwall!
I think Thomas & Diesel was to test the waters and then DTG can decide down the road as to whether they want to expand on Thomas & Friends. I for one, think they should expand and bring the rest of the trains in along with the Isle of Sodor. I would even include Bertie the Bus, Terrance the Tractor and Harold the Helicopter, who could all have their own scenarios interacting with the trains. Even if you are not a fan of this DLC, recent infantile threads have shown as much, investments into DTG can help create better "traditional" DLCs in the future. So its a win win for everyone in the end.
Don't see how you reached that conclusion. Its not as if they're going to go down the path of doing Thomas-exclusive content and nothing else.
Yes. The timeline of future releases would be significant enough to provide clarity on what Thomas + TSW like! They’ll likely still approach the releases in a PC way - some of the more ‘diverse’ characters ahead of the more ‘traditional’ ones - which is no issue personally, but I can imagine some grumblings about on here! Based on my own child’s experience so far, I’d hope that any route featured a good variety of ‘things to do’ or ‘things to see/interact with’.. and not too many long straight stretches of single track.. Sodor seems pretty dense anyway!
I thought the backlash was justified when they made those changes to the show. They wrote Edward and Henry out of the show, two of the three characters that started the franchise and are firm fan favourites. Keeping it to the original, fan favourite Awdry characters would attract the most sales. Characters like Toby & Duck are more popular than the ones that replaced key characters, as Nia & Rebecca did to Edward & Henry.
If they release Duck but don't give steam enthusiasts an actual GWR Pannier, it will be a very bitter pill to swallow.
They didn't even give Henry a good send-off - all he got was a single line of dialogue. Edward at least got an entire episode.
