Railworks America

I am a bit tired of all this passenger service DLC that has been released recently. I am not interested and have no desire to purchase any more of this type of content for TSW. I am interested in US freight routes and scenarios. This cookie cutter approach of passenger service for me is less challenging that assembling a consist then dropping off and picking up freight cars. May be a bit simplistic but start, stop, open doors, close doors and do it again is not my cup of tea.

Have they even fixed the cruise control like throttle on the "Heavy Haul" locomotives yet?

In a few words, not altogether. As well as many other nagging issues. I believe they are under the impression that they have done enough and have moved on to crank out cookie cutter DLC. Maybe US freight is too much of a challenge for them.

AmericanSteam wrote:In a few words, not altogether. As well as many other nagging issues. I believe they are under the impression that they have done enough and have moved on to crank out cookie cutter DLC. Maybe US freight is too much of a challenge for them.

Their biggest challenge is developing the aids and techniques to make longer routes faster. Many US freight lines are much longer than 40 miles unless you want to just have a repeat of scenarios that are all "drive this loco and this train between this end of the route and that end of the route".

Peddlesden has addressed this several times about figuring out ways to make longer routes in a more desirable time frame.

For British and German routes, it's not too much of an issue in most cases, but as we all know, neighboring american cities with big yards can be 60+ miles away. Which is almost 1 and a half times longer than sand patch, and most of these with little switching opportunity outside the cities on class 1 mains.

Shortlines in TSW would be absolutely fantastic, but they are going to sell routes that appeal to the general railfan base, I.E UP, more UP, BNSF, CSX, NS, and other big rail companies that railfans tend to go crazy over and are more willing to spend money on.

Delay In Block a while ago did a video on some of the ALCo based shortlines in upstate NY here, but with shortlines, they tend to only be popular with people who are from that region. The Alaska Railroad is a rare exception to the rule.

They stated tonight on the new British route Twitch stream, that there are no limits as such as to the construction in UE4 for the length of any route, HOWEVER, to get a route DLC released to the community takes a couple of month's research plus 3/4 months of construction, so, they might need a year to do a really long route, which would eat into their budget per route, plus the time frame to construct them, would fans wait a year for a route to be built, anyway, you know what they're like, and I guess that DTG would still probably only be able to sell them at the current price for ordinary routes, so, they won't get any extra money for doing this, I personally can't see them doing any really long routes for a few years yet, to be fair.

Cheerz. Steve.

I agree with you on this. Those of us who want this US freight routes will need to wait until 3rd party content is released. Would the guide lines for creation be the same for the console versions as the computer versions? I believe they are cranking out passenger routes as quick as they can to develop a fan base. But for me the lack of variety leads me to boredom in driving these routes. I don't know how you would do a free roam scenario on a time tabled route. I don't believe they have added any free roam or quick drive to any of TSW, have they?

AmericanSteam wrote:I don't believe they have added any free roam or quick drive to any of TSW, have they?

Nope, this has been the most annoying thing for me, and many others, is that DTG have restricted us to just being able to drive their services and scenarios, we can't change junction levers to allow us to drive everywhere on the maps and we don't have the ability to drive any locomotive of our choice, or, make up any kind of train of any description to haul around, we just sincerely hope that this will be implemented in this new editor thingy.

Cheerz. Steve.

I would also like more US freight routes. Even a SW1500 with a small shortline route would be nice.

TSW clearly has limitations on how long the routes can be. What Boss1 said is actually a really good idea DTG wise, the fact they can't produce long routes presents an opportunity for a really cool short line operation route. Industrial switching, slow speeds and smaller route. A small but detailed route with lots of features could really show off what the unreal engine can do. So far nothing DTG has released has even come close to showing off what TSW is capable of.

DrewG wrote:TSW clearly has limitations on how long the routes can be. What Boss1 said is actually a really good idea DTG wise, the fact they can't produce long routes presents an opportunity for a really cool short line operation route. Industrial switching, slow speeds and smaller route. A small but detailed route with lots of features could really show off what the unreal engine can do. So far nothing DTG has released has even come close to showing off what TSW is capable of.

Your 100% correct. TSW has the American freight cars set up for industrial switching. Wheel set brakes. Manual coupler release, air pressure to set brakes, and being able to ride the last car to its destination. I think DTG is afraid to release an editor, hence the many creative people here will out do them in a matter of weeks with a working short line industrial route. On top of that, offer it free to the grateful fans of Train Sim World. Their in-house only creations are holding them back and showing how completely self-centered they are. Look at the extreme number of routes created in rail works by talented users.

IMHO, trying to keep the biggest piece of the pie as long as they can. Once the editor is open and 3rd party becomes available in house will suffer a bit. However 3rd party has proven to to increase player participation. Just look at the stats for TS2019. The game is still going strong. I do not believe DTG would have released a 64 bit version otherwise.

AmericanSteam wrote:Once the editor is open and 3rd party becomes available in house will suffer a bit. However 3rd party has proven to to increase player participation. Just look at the stats for TS2019. The game is still going strong. I do not believe DTG would have released a 64 bit version otherwise.

You say this, but the labor of properly bringing something into a UE4 environment, especially after looking at the UE4 tool kit they're making, looks laborious to say the least, and a pain the butt to take the extreme.
It's gonna be a hard pass from Searchlight Simulation's part.

Also in this matter, don't forget most of your big "Western" freight lines are now in the hands of BNSF or UP, both of whom impose very stringent restrictions on licencing in particular sales outside the US. It is doubtful DTG would even consider making a route that they couldn't release to their worldwide market. So while routes such as Tehachapi or the Front Range out of Denver might seem ideal studies for a TSW length route, probably not going to happen at least as official DLC and by no means certain what elements of the licencing will also limit 3rd party payware or freeware from tackling these areas, particularly if DTG have dibs on distribution. I suppose you could make it semi fictional, change the place names and run the CSX stuff, but it's not quite the same...

Without putting forth for a rival product, at this moment in time if you want reasonably authentic Western US heavy haul freight railroading, then Run 8 is pretty much the goto product. (And not sure how they got round the licencing..!).

UP is not a problem just BNSF.

buzz456 wrote:UP is not a problem just BNSF.

Ah, appreciate the clarification. Not sure where that leaves sections such as Tehachapi which are jointly operated, or at least BNSF have access rights.