Welcome back to the Train Simulator Screenshot Contest! This week's theme is: Christmas and Holiday Time You can vote for next week's theme in the poll attached to this thread. What is your choice? Follow us on Instagram (instagram.com/trainsim) to see your screenshots featured on our feed! How does it work? You can submit your screenshot to the thread, and every Monday we will choose which screenshots will go to the loading screens. Shortly after, we will open a new thread and announce the winners. Each week has its own theme which is voted for by the community. Competition Rules: Limit is 2 screenshots per person; 1 screenshot per post. Include in your post the route the screenshot was taken on as well as the name of the train (if applicable). Screenshots must be in a 16:9 resolution, at least 1920x1080 pixels. Screenshots must fit the theme of the week, as stated at the beginning of this post. In order to qualify for the competition, screenshots must be taken from products published by Dovetail Games that are currently on sale. Other Rules: Official content only. Please make sure anything that is not available on the Steam Store or Dovetail Store is not shown in the screenshot. - This means no reshade, repaint mods, track upgrades or workshop routes. View excluded content: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/screenshot-contest-excluded-routes-and-locomotives.31092/ Your entry may be disqualified if it is deemed to not follow these rules. Please limit chat to only when absolutely necessary. Competition closes at mid-day Monday (UK time). The winner will be chosen every Monday. Winner's Prize: The winning screenshot will appear in the game as a loading screen for 1 week! (Please Note since the new update which changes loading times we have decided to change it to 1 week) T&C: Please refer the terms and conditions for this competition here: https://dovetailgames.com/competition-terms-and-conditions/ Note that by submitting an entry to this contest, you are consenting to us using your screenshot as a loading screen and showing it on our social media channels (such as Instagram)
The Christmas Market Express pulls in to Settle Station with some unusual passengers waiting to board. Loco:- LMS Rebuilt Royal Scot Route:- Settle - Carlisle
Turns out a slightly restrictive theme alongside a lull these weeks (judging by other traffic, a few people absent). All of the above would be perfect load screens, and my relevant shots are rather old, just want to add a little life here. So, the first shot is from the 2013 Holiday Express. Technically an F7 or so with bulkhead flats, but. Given the silence and the above, I hope you don't mind me adding a thumbnail here with another one. I like the coziness of staring out of the window in winter. Bonus points for snow.
The second shot is, well - Richie Rails Holiday Train at Darlington (East Coast Main Line, Newcastle-York, 2007/2012). Super basic but I hope it inspires some similar runs. I ran this down from Newcastle, where I also installed an oversized Christmas tree and a few decorations. Given the top speed of this train, took a while! I was streaming to a friend but if I recall correctly, I also went to the shop while leaving this running. I wonder, do other holiday trains exist in the game? Upon first seeing the CP one, I was in love with it.
Some fantastic Christmas shots well done everyone. This weeks winner with this lovely shot of Royal Scott meeting Santa is cscarpenter , congratulations! This the last contest of the year thank you for everyone who has entered this year had some fantastic screenshots this year! Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and Holiday Time and see you in 2024! Contest till January :https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsc-screenshot-contest-december-2023-week-49.77252/
Indeed, congratulations cscarpenter Something I knew in advance but want to point out, when arranging for the weekly, it's important to leave some room for the info bar at the bottom. It works perfectly well with this shot.
Thanks guys for your kind comments they are much appreciated. It has been a while since I contributed to this thread but, Hey Ho, tis the season to be jolly etc.etc. LOL I just felt regurgitating my shot from last year may be fitting and hopefully enjoyed. I was hoping there would have been more competition to compete with but sadly this has not been the case. May I just take this opportunity to wish you all my very best wishes for this festive season, and may 2024 bring you everything you wish for. Happy Christmas to All
Competition is dropping off in the TSC comp. Several reasons I think, but the popularity of APs scenery enhancement packs is likely to be one. I also think some recent uninspiring subjects don't help, which I think are being partly voted for by people who have no intention of competing. Take this week's theme of rescue runs. I have no idea how you'll portray that other than some form of double heading. None of the cranes or snow ploughs in TSC are available through Steam.
It doesn't really help that pretty much everyone's game is modded with AP weather, Tracks and now Vegetation. I'm guessing it'd defeat the purpose to allow entries with AP weather etc. Maybe the comp could be modified to allow AP weather, Track and Vegetation, however locomotives and rollingstock must be from the steam store with no mods to the stock itself? Thoughts?
I can accept lifting the restrictions, just try to judge offerings based on concept and execution, not prettier add-on pixels. Same about 3rd party and workshop. I keep thinking about this competition as a marketing tool, but at this point it makes sense to position TSC as a framework anyway. The reason I'm skeptic a little is how the Unofficial should be busy if this were the only issue. Themes may evolve into a problem, only a few have expansive collections or the willingness to put effort into arranging fresh. Creators may gravitate towards better graphics - TSW is getting 2-3 pages weekly. TSC is perfectly fine to play, but clearly behind and also the lack of content - even new content is just the same assets distributed differently. Some scenic (US) routes being the exception. About a year ago I noticed a lull in creative / consumer activity, might be a winter thing. Pictures and likes are visible metrics. While we had a busier summer, stats are way down in all departments for the last month or two. Several regulars are more or less on a break. General Discussion is fairly active, though. So I think it's a bit of everything. At this point I'd simply allow people to just post two weekly and be done with it. It would result in some double posting across the threads, but anyway.
For me personally my biggest gripe is what is the point of spending time planning and creating a possible winning shot when if successful it is replaced on the loading screen within 24 hours with the latest DTG Advert?. This week is the first time I have contributed for the past three months, I was announced as the winner on Monday 18th Dec, my winning shot was uploaded on Tuesday 19th Dec and replaced with the poxy winter Sale advert on Thursday 21st Dec. Basically my prize for winning this thread was to have my winning shot posted top of the loading screen for less than 48 hrs. The motivation to continue supporting this thread is waning for me.
I totally agree with your post, I too have stopped posting for the very same reason. I agree AP enhancements have possibly had an impact on this thread, as in your vanilla shot displays this:- with AP enhancements and 3rd party reskins you get:- I know which version I prefer but each enhancement discludes me from the official comp. Not sure how long this competition can survive in only vanilla format, as you rightfully say, most of us are moving to the AP / 3rd party world of TSC
I think most people would say the cloudscape looks better in your AP enhanced version. I'm not convinced the AP track pack adds that much, but other opinions are available. DTG understandably don't want to be promoting (via the loading screens), what they aren't selling. It also makes them vulnerable to claims of misrepresentation of their product, unless they put some kind of disclaimer on the screens, and I can understand why they wouldn't want to do that.
