West Coast Main Line: Trent Valley From All Aboard Studios

Just looked at some trainspotting videos. That will be a very nice one to watch trains at

 

Yep. Almost forgot to mention Tamworth too, they get a few more XC passing there.

 

Ohhh ofc I totally forgot about that. It’s gonna be incredible having Lichfield Trent Valley and Rugeley Trent Valley. Wonder when it’s due for release.

 

To answer Question 1 for you, the idea is that you can pick up a service from its starting point on foot as well as from the menu so ideally it needs to be ready to be picked up from an accessible walking area for the player. Having it start at a signal prevents this but also can have other ramifications to the timetable itself so its much safer to start a train at a platform

Question 2, can't answer as of course not our train.

Question 3, ask anyone in the team this question and they'd have a different answer haha! This is one I'd have to have a think on though

 

Thank you very much Kezz for those answers really appreciate it! Fully understandable with Question1. Now I see your view point it helps me understand it.
Have a great night!

 

I think Milton Keynes - Crewe is the safer option.

The TT for WCML:S also includes the Bakerloo and London Overground, and probably some extra Euston - Milton Keynes services. I think a lot of people would have a worse experience.

 

It is tbf. Do
Agree the performance could be disastrous if it
Was London Euston to Crewe. At least we got route hopping but I hope Dovetail do add a route hop marker onto the WCML Route at MK. DTG Matt Will you be able to do this?

 

To go further, I hope the route hoping feature would evolve into something more convenient, so as to stay sitting in the cab at the end of a run before continuing on the next leg of the journey...

 

That’s what it should be. And have the same Unit. Shame you can’t do a Non stop run pass MK and then it pauses and then loads the second part of the map of MK to Crewe. But yea the Cab route hop should be a thing.

 

Sadly I fear neither DTG nor the capabilities of the software are good enough to make that happen.

 

When you spawn at Milton Keynes on the Trent Valley (bound for Crewe), it doesn't matter if you chose the service in the game menu, or if you've just arrived from Euston on the WCMLS, it's a simple loading.
What differs are the parameters : time, weather, etc, and, what interest us here, your cab settings.
But I do not see any technical limitation.
What's more problematic is if you're arriving late at MKC, say 10mn (for example 1430 instead of 1420).
By this time, the platform you're spawning at may be occupied by another train (according to the Trent Valley timetable).
At this point, we have two solutions : either you force the spawning on the second route at the punctual expected time (so 1420 ; that's the easiest solution by far), or you create a marker preventing AI trains to get to the spawn place of the player train...
I don't know how the respective positions of AI traffic are calculated when you spawn on a route (so the latter may not be that easy to implement), but what I know is that it works half hour by half hour.
As in TSC for QuickDrive some years ago.
Now you have to make the same step that was done in TSC, ie that you can choose the very minute for spawning...
I hope DTG will dig the matter, that would be a solution for those who are looking for long drives !

 

I do hope in the future there is a way that both parties could create extra revenue like "WCMLS Merge Pack" which could be an additional cost to the DLC but for us to do extended runs for WCMLS. I think this would be the right way to go forward so that all aboard studios can make money via their product and DTG with the WCMLS and perhaps a % for revenue. As this route would have to be put into sections as it's not their product, but I hope in the future for routes that connect with each other. I hope this could be the right approach so that both developers can create revenue on their. But I hope this is possible, this ultimately speaking probably after the release as it's still being worked on. But I'm super ecstatic for this route to be released and it'll be super fun to play.

Some services don't stop at Milton Keynes should it would be nice to get the playability which could help players have incentive to purchase it as additional content.

This is going to be an amazing route and I can't wait to see it

 

Sorry for that, I've just realized this wasn't correct.
First, when you choose to spawn on foot (wherever you want), it's not half hour steps but 5mn (from memory).
And the game can already calculate respective AI positions to the minute (it's the case when you select your service directly from the menu).

It was the old TS20xx QuickDrive system, for which there were indeed half hour steps, that misled me.

 

I hope a solution for merging the routes can be found. In the meantime I think we should get some extra calls at Milton Keynes and Crewe, like the XC 170 that calls at Bromsgrove on BCC. I had a look at the December 2025 timetable and the current timetable is as follows:
Birmingham
3tph: One that stops at Milton Keynes and Rugby, the other 2 don't stop until Coventry
Manchester
3tph, One calls at Milton Keynes and Rugby and then non-stop to Stoke-on-Trent, One runs non-stop to Nuneaton and then on to Stoke, the third, via Crewe calls at Stafford and Crewe.
Liverpool
2tph, One calls at Milton Keynes and Crewe, one at Tamworth and Lichfield Trent Valley.
Chester/Holyhead
1tph, stopping at Stafford and Crewe
Birmingham to Scotland
1tph, stopping at Stafford and Crewe
Glasgow
1tph, runs non-stop to Warrington Bank Quay.

There are some different calling patterns during peak services, but during the day, this would leave 3tph drivable between Stafford and Crewe (which is already in game), 2tph between Milton Keynes and Rugby, 1tph for 7 minutes between Tamworth and Lichfield, and 1tph non-stop for the full length.