Announcing Feather River Canyon Enhanced

[GreatNortherner]

and that's why this sim will never improve.
10 years from now we'll be selling new players outdated rollingstock from 20 years ago and so on.
Oh well I suppose.

It's blanket and exaggerated statements like this that make me ignore certain comments, and eventually if some people keep repeating them on and on, also the commenters themselves. And then they complain that we "don't listen", but well, you can't please everybody now can you?

"The sim never improves"? If that's your opinion, then that's how you see it. All I can say to that is that I come to a totally different conclusion when I look at DLC released 10 years ago and DLC released recently and I see a pretty big difference. Including on my own work. Also doesn't matter if it's European or American content.

And that's really all I want to add to this discussion, which AmericanSteam has summed up really well in his post above.

Cheers,
Michael

[GreatNortherner]

Pulled away and there is an animated train washer set up to wash as you pass through.

That is one of Rick's cool contributions to the route. Folks who know the MSTS FRC might be familiar with earlier versions of some of them.

The scenery in this surpasses most if not all of the other North American mountain routes.
Congratulations to Rick Grout, Michael Stephan and Wayne Campbell.

Thanks very much for the kind words and high praise! Gary has also been heavily involved in scenery placement in our team route projects (and in fact, he did the vast majority of it on Saluda Grade).

[cnwfan]

It is a balancing act of price and quality and or quantity.

AmericanSteam is correct in his assessment. But I would also add the median PC spec to the balancing act. There is extremely well detailed 3rd party content out there. That detail comes with a cost to PC performance. A single detailed car in a route or scenario... no problem. A hundred of the same car bogs down performance on lower end computers. I've lived this. The train looks great. Doesn't run worth a dare though. Developers need to balance all 4 points when creating content, whether it is paid or freeware.

IMO only, FRC enhanced and Saluda represent a new era for our sim. Improved route quality, larger selection and variety of locos / rolling stock included with the route, along with more prototype accuracy. Keeping all 4 points of the triangle in mind (the 4th is a mid-triangle DPU), this latest route release is a win, and I hope indicative of what we will see with future content releases. Now back to our regularly scheduled route programming.

[ElphabaWS]

Thanks for the mention Michael, I very much enjoyed spending many hours working on this project and collaborating with the wonderful and talented project team. Meanwhile, I see a certain Steam "reviewer" now proclaims I'm simply a "joker out for the cash" and not a "actual dev." Of course I've actually spent 10,000+ hours working with TSC. This same individual meets himself head-on by being PO'ed that other members of the HIS team are talented (but apparently only in it for the "easy money") ... then proclaims our collective work is garbage. He states the enhancement basically amounts to adding "a few bushes" and screwing up the textures. Anyone who has spent 30 seconds on the new route (or even simply watched the video trailers) knows that and various other such claims are blatantly incorrect. Individuals such as this then wonder why the dev community (which is largely close nit and supportive of each of each) choose to ignores them.

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

I see that several people are mentioning the AP Weather Pack and trouble getting into our route (and, as I've been told, some make it sound as if that was some kind of evil conspiracy on our part... )

First, let me add some background of what we have done (skip over the next two paragraphs if you're not interested in that):

In our past several routes, we have step by step created our own environment overhaul. It started with tweaked weather blueprints and distant mountain colors which we first used on Mountain Sub. The main aim of those was to increase the visibilty in good weather and get rid of the always foggy distant mountains in the original blueprints' weather fog distances and colors. This has been implemented on all our routes since then and also in the latest Hi-Line and Springfield Line updates. Note that this applies only to the original weather system and gets entirely overridden if one selects a Silver Lining weather in the scenario editor.

Since Saluda, our routes also come with completely overhauled lighting, making them less gloomy/dark than the original RW lighting and more in line with the lighting of the Silver Lining environment. I think AP also does this.

There's nothing in our route that should prevent you from using AP environment overhaul (or another one if it exists). It looks like you'll have to install it a bit differently and you probably ought to replace both the weather and TimeOfDay components in our route. Please do let me know if there's a specific thing in our latest two routes' environment asset setup which causes the most trouble when installing AP environment or similar. We'd be happy to try and improve compatibilty as long as that's possible while maintaining our own tweaks.

Cheers,
Michael

[buzz456]

And then there is this little gem.

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[RudiJaeger]

Meanwhile, I see a certain Steam "reviewer" now proclaims I'm simply a "joker out for the cash" and not a "actual dev." Of course I've actually spent 10,000+ hours working with TSC. This same individual meets himself head-on by being PO'ed that other members of the HIS team are talented (but apparently only in it for the "easy money") ... then proclaims our collective work is garbage. He states the enhancement basically amounts to adding "a few bushes" and screwing up the textures. Anyone who has spent 30 seconds on the new route (or even simply watched the video trailers) knows that and various other such claims are blatantly incorrect. Individuals such as this then wonder why the dev community (which is largely close nit and supportive of each of each) choose to ignores them.

I call it "Competitive Whining"; the direct opposite of "Competitive Creativity". Some in the community want to be the best at it. Not sure why it's so difficult to contact the developers directly rather than blasting them publicly, but I suppose that would defeat the "whining" aspect and negate any of the "enjoyment" it provides for them.

I think the majority of our community can pretty much see the commentary for what it is, so I wouldn't let it bother you. It's obvious that some do not know the first thing about producing a route, repaints, or anything else pertaining to the inner workings of the sim. Sure, they claim to; but I have yet to see any creative contributions by any of them. They just want to be fed with a silver spoon and spit out whatever doesn't suit their tastes while trying to persuade the rest of the community to do the same; "misery loves company".

I'm actually quite happy with my purchase and thankful to the HIS team for continuing to support our hobby. Uh-oh, ..did I just inadvertently include myself with the "Basket of Deplorables" faction?

Cheers! ..and thanks again for another fine addition to our sim

[ElphabaWS]

Deeply appreciate the comments above, thank you!

[buzz456]

Nothing new for ten years? Try this ten years ago. It would have just all been a blurry mess.

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[ElphabaWS]

For the record:

At certain social media sites where the facts are apparently optional it has been stated that "all the locos" included with Feather River Canyon Enhanced are old retreads. The reality is as follows:

Burlington Northern GP35 - An all-new DTM model making its first appearance.
WP GP9 - A new model from DTM with dual controls, two options on headlight styles.
WP F7A/B - Based on the recent DTM F3 and modified/updated to WP specifications
WP SW9 - Updated DTM model.
WP GP40-2: Originally from the DTG GP40-2 pack, created by Reppo.
WP U30B: Originally from the DTG FRC route, created by Reppo, updated.

All locos feature advanced air braking from Mike Rennie and the F7A/B, SW9, and GP9 appear in multiple liveries. Only the U30B appeared in the original version of FRC.

[jalsina]

I just acquired FRCE and my first visit has been with Quick Drive (QD) from Portola. I know pretty much the geography of the route due to the old extension (with some improvements from myself and named as FRCX).

This is a screenshot comparison of the extension Portola vs the FRCE Portola.

Old Portola:

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New Portola:

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However when you go down to a lower altitude over the yard, the details of the FRCE in Portola, become exceptional.

FRCE QD is a little sparse for those like me that use it a lot (in every route). The old QD I made in 2016 had 16 origin/targets (but never with the detail of the FRCE). A project here is in my opinion desirable. An important spot to add would be Crescent Mills. It would be interesting for driving the Burlington trains up to north (and down to Oroville or Portola).

The rolling stock in QD Portola departure is also very detailed. It´s a beautiful view for those that love trains. Imagine that with stock from third parties.
I´ll keep commenting as I drive more in the route.

Jorge

[Chacal]

Since Saluda, our routes also come with completely overhauled lighting, making them less gloomy/dark than the original RW lighting .

This has been my main pet peeve for years. Always wondered why the game is so dark, even at noon on a clear day.

[AmericanSteam]

I do like the distant mountains now have more detail to them and aren't just blue or gray.
Thanks to the team members for sharing their thoughts on this project and clarifying some assumptions.

[VITORMARQUES]

How to install the Krellnut Wagon sound for all cars in DTG's Feather River Canyon Enhanced Route DLC. Someone can help me?

[jalsina]

While running from Keddie to Portola, I have found an old bug with the speed limit signs (not visible in F3 or F4).
The problem is probably due to cloning the route before release.
To see the cause of the issue you need to go to RouteProperties.xml (inside the .ap) and look for this line of code:

Code: Select all

<HasSpeedsigns d:type="bool">1</HasSpeedsigns>

The number 1 should be 0.
Cloning a route changes this flag from 0 to 1 (we still don´t know the reason).
For more information check this post Feather River Canyon speed limit signs (plus the Extension)
https://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16256&p=225966&hilit=speed+signs#p225966

I have not yet solved the issue in my FRCE route, but should be really easy.
Jorge