Loco Wmr / Xc Class 170 Dmu Pack Feedback Thread

What do you mean by the off route trains? Assuming you mean after Bournville and turning onto the Camp Hill lines? Are these trains that are meant to be playable and go to Bromsgrove? Some services do go that way on the odd occasion because it loops back around and rejoins the Derby / Nuneaton lines.

 

Personally I wouldn’t buy a full route from Rivet, but this pack should have been an easy win for them. As you say there’s a lot negative feedback for Rivet & I’ve put in plenty of my own - though not for the sake of it. If they can show they’re actually taking that feedback in & working to improve, then I’m willing to support them.

My viewpoint on this pack was that they’ve heard the demand for BCC to be more fleshed out, they’ve come up with a pack that adds alternative gameplay to an otherwise one trick pony route & they’ve done so without another EMU & even delivered a very unexpected ToC to the game. With a train that had already been built & the existing 323 timetable in place, there wasn’t exactly a plethora of things that could go wrong, so why not take a plunge & give Rivet the benefit of doubt for a less ambitious product.

The streams themselves are give or take, I’ve left my comments on that somewhere else but the summary is that it was a 90 minute stream of which only half was actually looking at the 170 themselves. Nowhere in that stream did it show services being pathed incorrectly, nor was it shown on consoles to see the state of it too.

Frankly when you load into the new content & find several things wrong within 5 minutes, it’s disappointing. When you get 10 minutes into the service & discover you’re getting pathed off the map instead of your actual destination, it’s just egregious & shows no one bothered to test XC services in the final build.

So yeah, as I said, for some extra 10 mile runs on an already built map, with a train that already exists & the majority of a timetable built, you wouldn’t think it could wrong - but alas Rivet are determined to live up to their well worked for reputation.

As for preview streams showing anything, they’re pointless in terms of gauging the technical side of a product. They’re cherry picked services where issues are glossed over & non basic questions go unanswered.

 

I bought it to flesh out BCC. Which it does beautifully, especially from Birmingham New Street south to Bromsgrove.

 

I'm going to go against the grain here, to me it's worth £13 to stop New Street looking like a fire alarm has gone off and provide a bit of life.

 

Yes, they simulate the entire timetable.. And as far I understand it, during this simulation snahpsot are taken each service start, and each 5 minutes, containing information where each train is. When you load onto session the appropriate snaphsot is used, and trains are placed on the location they were during the simulation.

The thing is, there is difference in the world. During the simulation the world was running for some time, routes are sets, signals are sets, trains are moving.
Now everything is initializing, trains are stopped...etc. and all in all it is a different state, and the differences can cause these kind of issues. These can be quite tricky to detect, as it most likely requires checking the simulation from every possible start time. Imho, these wouldn't be that much of an issue, IF and ONLY IF, DTG would fix them and deploy these fixes quickly... but that is rarely the case.

My guess would be that if you would spawn on foot 5 minute before the departure, then the service would have no issues, as the offended train would spawn at different place, and was able to continue with its task.

 

I think you would be better off sending in a support ticket, as tagging the entire community team usually results in them running several miles and hiding behind the biggest tree they can find

 

Having fun with the new timetable - nice to see a bit of life brought into BCC!

Main one for me is the sounds, with there seeming to be a mixing issues between idling/coasting, braking and powering.
You'll have the track/bogie whine and as soon as the brake goes in, the sounds of the whine instantly go, making it quite unrealistic. This is exaggerated if you drive with the window open too!

Love the cab variations between the operators.

A nice 'quality of life' improvement would be if the AWS un-isolation shortcut did the isolation switch on the right wall of the cab, saving me looking over and switching it.

Suspension obviously nice to see, though (personally) think its far too bouncy!

 

Yes, I'm going to hold my nose and take the plunge today. I'm also buying the pack just to have something new to drive on this route. And it is a dmu, though not a new one, among all the tedious emus.

If it's really bad, I can always refund it. But if it fleshes out a route that I haven't touched in a while, it might be worth it. And the 323 is not the worst of the one handle emus in the game by any means.

Meanwhile I'm thoroughly enjoying the HSP46 pack which, in addition to being free, is in sharp contrast to this effort. As far as I can tell, no one's had anything bad to say about it. Credit to DTG for releasing a quality product for the MBTA.

 

Brought this up in the preview livestream and Matt gave no indication as to whether this is ever going to be fixed. It's been there I think since the route released so I doubt that they will ever fix this. However I would be happy to be proven wrong

 

Yes! Someone agrees! Not sure how bad it is for you but it really does make it a dismal drive. AWS is annoying (but not as annoying as the permanently on dsd in the 158, which never pips at me). Once that’s patched I’ll be pretty happy with this. BCC was desperately in need of a timetable update and I don’t object to 13 quid more for a route I bought nearly 3 years ago.

 

You are right about the HSP46, it’s a nicely done loco.

Looking forward to seeing your feedback, though this will still be a 70% or thereabouts off purchase for me.

Fair to say this seems unlikely. Been a while since they drove it but assume all the glaring scenery issues south of Birmingham - broken canal sections, incomplete lineside fencing, Redditch branch scenery early MSTS plonk down a few trees style, all still exist. You would have thought the release of this pack focused on that section, they would have taken the opportunity to tart it up a bit.

 

Very mixed feelings on this, wasn't going to buy it at all, but then played the old timetable and quite enjoyed it, so thought I'd give it a go, I play on PS5 Pro and PC and bought it for PS5.

For PS5 I'm going to say it's worth it, just for the timetable. It really brings the route to life. The train modelling and liveries are good as well. There are minor improvements to the sound, but it's really not good enough. At over 85 it sounds horrible. I can't believe that DTG couldn't at least have patched the glowing benches though. I know that this is not a route upgrade, but this has been there from the start and ruins the experience of driving through New Street. I haven't experienced the blurred textures that others have reported, so 6/10 for PS5.

For PC, I really can't recommend it at all, it's very poor value. Get the mods from TSC, they are better in almost every way. The timetable is just as good in the mod, the scenery mods enhance the route a lot (and fix the benches in New Street), the only thing you don't get is the updated 170s, which I can live without. (But you do get an HST in Cross Country Livery which looks fantastic) In my opinion not worth spending the money on the paid version, it adds so little to what is already available for free. 2/10 for Rivet's version. 10/10 for the modded version

So, if you like the route and are on console, then I'd get it. For PC, I definitely wouldn't bother.

 

Tried that I still lose the score as any unchecked passengers when the train arrives at the next station you can no longer check those passengers.

 

Looking for some clarity here.. I’m running XC1L98 Bristol TM to Stansted, there’s a WMT on the same path from Bromsgrove 3 minutes prior with the same calling points too, however. This service is green lights all the way up to about Longbridge / Northwood where the priority goes to 2U13, a 323 stopper, and it undertakes you before the slow and fast combine at Kings Norton. Our XC is now pathed behind it all the way to New Street, with a total journey time between Bromsgrove and New Streer at around 30 minutes.

There was a small window of opportunity for the XC to continue on towards New Street that would have only briefly delayed the 323, have I been held back because this timetable was built with the 323 services first? Or is it a case of this service being pathed slowly because it’s an ‘unconventional’ XC 170 route?

 

I would assume that this is in some part down to Rivet altering the train to stop at Bromsgrove. Compared to the real timetable services you have to think not only of the fact that this one stops but also that it then naturally takes the incline slower, whereas the non-stop real services get a running start and probably go up at double the speed. So in the end I think that on the real timetable the XC probably gets in before either of the WMT services even cross its path.

 

I’m glad this DLC has made me dive back into Birmingham Cross City, as it’s a route I’ve neglected. The new timetable works absolute wonders in bringing it to life.

Anyway else (on PC) noticing some strange sound reverb issues though? It seems to be when a 170 is in the area, but I noticed it at Duddeston too in both directions.

 

I'm not sure about that particular service but I used to travel regularly between Cardiff and Birmingham and I know we had to follow a Bromsgrove service into New Street from around Kings Norton. Arriving on time into New Street was a challenge because we would still follow the service if it was running late. In fact, this still happens today with a Redditch service. I happened to take this screenshot around 5 minutes ago. 1M84 is the service from Cardiff and 2U62 is the service from Redditch.

 

Yeah from what I've played so far I think a lot of the Birmingham bound XC services in this pack probably have delays due to having to start from 0 before going up the incline. But as mentioned in the post above the pathing can be tight regardless so it's not totally unrealistic and certainly gives you some practice at stopping for reds!

 

That’s a very good point. With the 170 being the ‘express’ but struggling so much it felt a little counter-intuitive from the signaller to bring it down to red! Although the service could also have been unique and I feel more tempted now to run other services - which is a compliment to how busy this route has become now!

 

No, there is smoke on the train you drive

 

Oh and one more thing, please fix or remove the whining rail sound at 85mph and above, it does not sound right (everything else up to then is fine though!).

 

Well, against all my instincts, I purchased this pack today. I guess I just wanted to find out if BCC could be improved by a new timetable and a dmu.

I've driven from BNS to Bromsgrove and back and overall I experienced mild disappointment.

The train itself is OK, even though it's one handled. Not really different from the original except for the colors inside and out which I couldn't care less about. I'm always surprised by how narrow the cars are on UK trains, guess that's the loading gauge.

Anyway the engine sounds are better than I recall them on the stream, louder and more like a diesel engine should sound, though I did have the windows open. And the one AI train I passed had sound, again unlike on the stream. Unfortunately, the sound in the cab made it impossible to hear the horn. Wasn't loud outside either.

As to the drive, which was rather short, it was OK except for a very weird glittering effect in tunnels, something like gentle snowfall. And if there was any reverb, I missed it. But the track sounds weren't too bad. Plus there was a fair amount of adverse signalling to keep you on your toes. The AWS actually became quite annoying it was so frequent.

The main disappointment was the lack of AI. I remember passing 1 train. And, despite what some are saying, New Street was very short on both trains and passengers. And I have every train that layers in except the CC 150. I did see a 390 rolling in as I left, which was a highlight.

So, as I said, somewhat disappointing, though there were warnings in the threads and my expectations were not great.

I'm past the refund mark, so I'll be keeping it. But I honestly cannot recommend it to anyone except in a deep sale.

 

no clag? not at 3 5 or 7

 

Still annoying the destination PIS doesn't work on none birmingham cross city routes.

 

They fixed that though...?

 

Just to be clear, this was a genuine service at the time and has been correctly implemented in the timetable in this DLC so the pathing is spot on.

So well done to the TT creator. I’ve just played this very service and loved it!

It’s one of four XC services that genuinely did stop at Bromsgrove in both directions.

 

Yes noticed the sound reverb issue , when driving the 323 and whenever a 170 is nearby , like a rumbling sound!

Otherwise the timetable seems good .

 

Nope just says not in service if used on any route that is not birmingham cross city.
Or maybe I'm missing something?

So double checking the list isn't the one the train uses, so it works for the birmingham route but I'm not sure why my custom route isn't letting it work.

Will have to investigate.

 

This is the the only error to my knowledge after buying this Tuesday
this is on the Xbox-PC Store version

 

Oops I accidentally processed "non cross city routes" as non cross city destinations". My apologies