This is ridiculously long, I thought about just deleting, but it was a cathartic exercise reflecting on general discussions, the roadmap, feedback on the latest release and anticipation for the next so I have left it but added a too long didn't read (TLDR) thingy. I've come up with my top 3 things that are most important to me in TSW and how I decide whether to buy a DLC. Note: I am keen to focus on gameplay and not performance (e.g. blurry textures or crashing) and take it as read that the game must play well first and foremost and if it doesn't, then the rest is irrelevant. TLDR: 1. Realism - it's got to be decent recreation and smaller details add up 2. Completeness - not just route length, but including as many trains, details and actvity as possible to bring it all to life 3. Challenge - provide something that will take a few goes to get good at. Better if there are layers to this or incremental challenges Keen to hear others thoughts about what is important to you and how you decide (beyond performance issues) whether to buy a DLC. Also, if DTG or anyone else makes a new train simulator, what you would like to see as features or gameplay. Ok, here goes... 1. Realism Seems obvious maybe for a sim and this is definitely an umbrella like consideration in that it covers most things. But I feel it is something I definitely want, and it ends up as a general feeling about how true to life the DLC appears. I think best summed up as an attention to detail and commitment to recreate a real world, whether current day or from the past. Scenery assests are crucial here and there are obvious big ticket itmes that if missed or included can make or break it, but it is about the total effort and including smaller but maybe important details that you'll see a lot of from the cab. Vern reminded me of this when talking about tunnels. I grew up in Linslade and when I saw how inaccurate the tunnel mouths were for Linslade tunnel on WCML South, I was really disappointed and it subtracted from the overall realism for me. 2. Completeness This can take a few forms; route start and finish points, timetable and operations, layers or available trains, and sometimes the areas you can access or added relevant points of interest. A lot has been said about route completeness and it is probably the biggest factor here if a route seems to be cut short. Again though, it is not always that simple. My first two favourite DLC or routes were Bakerloo Line and West Somerset Railway, both complete runs. However, looking back, the experience of playing Bakerloo was always limited by lack of over ground trains between Queens Park and Harrow and WSR from lack of steam. Just Trains new DLC releasing this week is short end to end, but absolutely packed with details and inclusions and with branches and freight workings and not to mention additional access points and walking routes. For me, I will love knowing that when I see a line divering, it actually goes somewhere and the feeling that the route is alive with action. 3. Challenge Again, this can come in many forms from learning how to operate a train, keeping to time, stopping accuracy requirements (e.g. short platforms) or even endurance like completing a full Bakerloo line run or making it over Shap. It is best when there are more aspects to the challenge such as learning how to drive steam (acknowledging the shortfalls) and then working express passenger services or long freight trains or even banking. Overall, not just one of these three is most important, but rather they work as a combination and add up to a total feeling I get about a DLC. What can sway it for me is any connection I have with a DLC. This swayed it for me with Trent Valley as I travelled on the WCML a lot as when I was younger. I know developers must balance things and stick to imposed limitations in order to ensure a game performs well and has enough appeal to produce a commercially viable product, but if I was to create my own train sim, I think this is how these important things would manifest themselves in the game: Realism - I would make a game that as accurately as possible recreated a real place. Era is not a deciding factor, but going back to things no longer around adds historical value and potentially provides educational benefit as a form of preservation. Completeness - I wouldn't focus on a route length, but operational completeness. The game would be about completing a realistic task whether that is a driving turn (complete run or section of run according to crew change points) or a job on the railway such as guard, stationmaster or dispatcher, signaller maybe even crossing keeper! I'd allow as much as possible to be operated from doors and gates to tools and machinery. As many places as posible and relevant would be accessible from buildings to walkways to branches and sidings. Challenge - I like the idea of career mode where you start at the bottom and work to the top. Station work, to guard to driver maybe, but it could also be shunting to branchline, to passenger to express or equivalent freight workings. Mastery and expert modes would definitely feature rewards that open up game play or additional content, possibly with options to allow access to all content through other game modes. Dare I say multiplayer and co-op options as well to increase depth in this area too! Thanks if you read all this, just sharing my thoughts of which I have so many more, but this post is already too long !
Realism is all I care about. I don’t care about action points, I don’t care about medals, I don’t care about Mastery and I don’t care about ‘completing’ things. I know people like it, it is a video game after all, but I play Train Sim World to drive trains, not run around chasing rewards that mean nothing - getting a platinum medal does not mean you know how to drive a train properly. I just want a train that feels and drives as it should and has all of the necessary systems implemented. That could be a mundane modern commuter train or something like the Class 86 battling the WCML that you have to drive. I don’t mind as long as it’s simulating real life. Unfortunately Train Sim World rarely delivers on this, and priorities ‘gameplay’, which is why I find myself mostly interested in Train Sim Classic.
1. Realism Realism is the main point of any simulator. But from the developer's point of view, this is a Sisyphean task. When only 5 out of 100 players see small details. Most users have never traveled these routes live. And some of them have never been to England, the USA, or Germany at all... Only the person who lives on this route can assess the level of realism. The second point of realism is the monstrous amount of time that the developer spends creating the add-on. Terrain, rails, vegetation, and objects unique to the route. Unreal engine has dramatically raised the entry level for objects relative to Railsim Classic. Texture, shadow map, bump mapping, reflex. Even for studios whose main job is to create add-ons, it's hard. 2. Completeness The feeling of life on the route is probably one of the most important. Watch real videos from the routes, there are a lot of trains: standing on platforms, driving, maneuvering. This is not enough. 3. Challenge For hardcore players, this is probably not the most important thing Just drive the train and be happy! I would like to point out that if there are endpoints on the route (and not fragments like at MAC), then the pleasure of playing when changing cabins is maximum For example, MAC. Why didn't the developers make a piece of the branch before Hazel Grove? 3 stations, but the route would have felt different. I'm not talking about Krewe anymore Sorry for my English. Thanks
I’ve been around these games for 30 years, give or take, starting with the text based wonders of Simudrive or the SIAM driving games. Have yet to find one that hits the spot in the sweet centre, be it TSW, TSC or the likes of Run 8 and Zusi.The big problem, is it’s a relatively narrow niche and in order to be popular and reach a wider audience compromises end up being made to bring in the funding to keep the project going. All of the train games I’ve played have something to offer, it’s drawing those together into one definitive package that’s the problem. TSW could still be that if they stepped away from the narrow path of content style they seem to be following - A to B modern commuter routes. A rapprochement with steam traction would be a good start, which would open the door for more historical content. Away from that side of things, easier to use route and timetable/activity editors would stimulate more diversity of content development and, while they’re at it, review the pricing level (as in downwards) they are selling the payware at. I still think it’s a great shame MS cancelled MSTS2 (twice). I wonder if we would even be having this conversatIon or that TSW (or TSC/Railworks) would even exist if the World Of Rails conceived for their second attempt had become established.
Realism is definitely the most important factor, it has to feel like you are doing something that happens or happened in the real world. If there isn't enough effort here, then it just feels a bit naff. I thought this when I watched the Class 90 preview and you have to click on a sign to activate DSD I think. That's just silly in a sim and a good example of a compromise that goes too far. Listening to the effort Just Trains have put in to their latest route, not least producing a manual, gives me hope that developers can and will still make better decisions. Hey Vern (sorry, feels wrong to use the Old!), I recently installed Farming Sim 25 for my son, he's 10 and has played it not stop for 6 months now. I can see all sorts of sims on the store from the big ones, MSFS to really niche ones like Lawn Mowing. I wonder, trains must be pretty big worldwide as an interest and given the potential player base across all platforms, surely this has to be a pretty attractive market. Looking at Running Train alone, I reckon DTG could get their act together, possibly using newer development engines and create new game from scratch. I know there was discussion about the pros and cons and limitations, but third parties could probably keep TSW going and DTG could do something even better. Maybe, maybe not?
I'd say the most important things for a rail simulator for me are; - Realistic trains, routes and physics. But having any complex handling optional (such as safety systems). - Diversity; having a wide range of different routes and trains from different eras and regions of the world. - Perfomance; running smoothly and stable software, while still looking at least quite decent.
I think it is realism for me too. Let me point to two or three things I always disliked from nearly every route from TSW: 1.) Yards: Whether for passenger or freight trains, these are often modeled but rarely utilized in timetables or challenges—especially on mixed-traffic routes like those in Germany. 2.) Destination and terminal stations: These are often chosen seemingly at random. There are exceptions, of course, such as Hamburg-Lübeck or the London Commuter routes. If I am driving according to a timetable, it would make sense to design the route to reflect a realistic operational cycle. 3.) Networks: I really miss the network challenge of a real train route. It is never only A to B, but rather B to A to C to A to D to A to B ... I really hope that sometime there will be a route this spread out.
Realism isn't totally important to me. And by acceptable realism,.I mean: Fictional stops (BCC and TVL), scenery not totally true to life, unbranded AI stock in routes etc. Completeness is important to me in the way an end-to-end service works. Routes without end to end services bug me as I like to be able to switsch cabs at at least one end and be able to pass onto another driver at the other end. Routes like ECML, MAC, Mannheim-Kaiserslautern are some examples that come to mind. Riviera is another culprit but I can accept that it's hard to find a proper end point on a route like that since you have so many different patterns, AND you halve half of the Paington-Exmouth services. Challenge: Could not care less. I just want to be able to drive real trains on real routes in the modern day whether it be familiar or unfamiliar to me. Complete
I agree, it’s getting silly now. I wouldn’t mind a master timetable and child ones where you tick off the service across all timetables if they are shared but this isn’t working for anyone
