Cane Creek

[Railfan722]

Mmmmm, well this is certainly an interesting one. The route itself is mostly fine, I guess. There’s a couple of issues with the route itself like the deafening highways and the floating rocks, but that’s easily enough fixed in a patch. My only major issue is with the color palette they’ve chosen to represent the area, while it does a decent job at replicating the area around Moab and in the national park area, the red is far too strong for the sandstone color that’s more appropriate out at Crescent Junction. There’s also a bug with the grass that causes some of it to show up as bright green gemstones in the winter which is moderately funny. The stock included with the route is what really lets it down though. Right off the bat there’s a couple of technical issues. The AC44 has a sick lift job which gives it an extra 6-8 inches, more than enough for it to look stupid coupled to anything else. All of the decals on the new 4750 hopper disappear at a distance of about 200 meters, which again just looks silly when you’re trying to get sweeping landscape screenshots. The EOTD on the 4750 also wants to anchor itself not at the coupler, but at rail height in the dead center of the car. In the AC44, the alerter is completely broken. It counts up from zero to 125, then upon reaching 125 starts to count back down again before sounding. The rear truck is also backwards, and the bearing caps don’t spin despite doing so on the front truck. Ignoring other issues like transporting radioactive uranium tailings in open top ballast hoppers, Skyhook have played it sort of fast and loose with the details of the prototype. The AC44 still has CSX-style reflective striping along the bottom and the horn is a distinctive CSX type. The ditch lights on the SD40-2 flash, which again is a CSX feature. While the ballast hoppers have an unbranded EOTD, the hoppers have a CSX one. There’s a bit of a theme going on here, despite there supposedly being no such thing as a repaint. With better stock the route might be redeemable, but with TSW being as locked down as it is for scenario creation it’s not like there’s much alternative to using what’s provided on the route. It’s an interesting choice of route for sure, but the laundry list of issues consigns this one to the bargain bin for me.

[trev123]

TSW2

[BNSFdude]

TSW2

And?

[Alpenfreight]

Had a nice run down tonight! Real pretty

[trev123]

TSW2

And?

And what? Don't be so arrogant as quite a few from the USA seem to be and have a reputation for being so from that outside of the USA.

[BNSFdude]

TSW2

And?

And what? Don't be so arrogant as quite a few from the USA seem to be and have a reputation for being so from that outside of the USA.

What are you even trying to say?

[Chacal]

Yeah. "TSW2" is a rather cryptic message, hence Buzz's question.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

LOL, over on the cranky board, the grumpy old men came up with Direct To Garbage, which is exactly what I thought after reading railfan772's comment about the AC44 locomotive and rolling stock included.

Those faults are inexcusable.

I really would like to hear DTG's comments on the Quality Assurance applied to this DLC before having it released for sale.

[ElphabaWS]

LOL, over on the cranky board, the grumpy old men came up with Direct To Garbage, which is exactly what I thought after reading railfan772's comment about the AC44 locomotive and rolling stock included.

Those faults are inexcusable.

I really would like to hear DTG's comments on the Quality Assurance applied to this DLC before having it released for sale.

Such an uplifting form of hobby activity, to wander from forum to forum to spew and share venom. In addition to your own comments here, you have now shared with us the negative comments at both the "grumpy site" and Steam forum. Of course, positive comments are never mentioned in your "summaries."

[mindenjohn]

[/quote]
Such an uplifting form of hobby activity, to wander from forum to forum to spew and share venom.[/quote]

Please don’t fall into the trap and tar everyone with the minority brush. Most of us are neither sycophants nor are we implacable critics of DTG (or anyone else) but take a reasoned view before and after spending our money.

Everyone in business is going to be subject to criticism, some fair some not as Harry S Trueman said "If you can't stand the heat stay out the kitchen". Freedom of speech means folks will say hurtful as well as kind

[ElphabaWS]

My intent is most certainly not to tar everyone and the vast, vast majority of the community are both fair and thoughtful. Constructive critic in entirely appropriate and quite valuable. Constantly and repetitively "stirring the pot" is something quite different.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Of course, positive comments are never mentioned in your "summaries."

The modeled terrain and natural features look superb, and that's about all the positive I have been able to find in the video reviews.

But TSW2 isn't a landscape simulation, is it?

Every new piece of DLC should build upon, and improve over, the previous, allowing the game to increase and expand, like the good old TS2021, Derail Valley, Run8, even Trainz.

Now, is this the case here? We get the same concept over and over again, with the same faults and errors. Bugs are being repeated too, and heaping up already.

I know it is a new studio who did the route, and to go by DTG's previous practice, somebody else probably did the rolling stock, sound, schedules separately.

Or even DTG themselves, repainting the CSX locomotives, and then forgetting to put the AC44 together properly and not even noticing it?

We have had non turning wheels and trucks the wrong way before, several times even. Yet QA still let this pass?

I hope for all the Day Zero buyers, who are trying their best to stay positive on all boards, will get a proper patched DLC soon. I'll only buy it in a sale, if at all, since the offered looped loading-unloading operations hardly differ from what has been offered previously.

Perhaps the announced Rush Hour features will have me revive my interest and credit card into keeping TSW2 installed. It's only a couple of months away, and previews should start anytime now.

FYI, I am thoroughly enjoying learning to drive the Bulleid Pacifics they fully satisfy their purchase price, and those UK freeware routes are just perfect.

[buzz456]

And Edwin fell over in a dead faint after he made a positive comment at the end of his post.

[dr1980]

The route itself looks nice, but the same old issues around rolling stock in TSW2 keep rearing their ugly heads. I want to like this sim, I want to want to buy the DLC routes, but the usual DTG approach of “80% good is good enough” makes me pass, or at least wait for a sale. Trying not to be negative but it’s hard…I get that train sims are a niche within a niche, but it’s frustrating that they take things to a certain point and seemingly deem it good enough when a little bit more effort could make it really good, even excellent. One small example is Either provide good horns or let us easily replace them like in TS2021…

[spartantrain32]

i could be wrong about this, but arent most of the 3rd party developers not much better then by some logic? With it being models simply converted or added/repainted and resold.
some routes are the same way that if DTG had release would be met with negativity, but it's the same stuff over and over. not just DTG (at least with what i own) Not a defense of either particular group but dont be so quick to point out the faults when there are faults in the highly praised too. this forum pushes more towards a lump of hate threads more than anything lately.

also i feel like not buying anything and then throwing your criticism into something not owned, but making an opinion based off of another individuals makes you look like an butt.