End of the TSC?

[Chacal]

Thousands of people are still running MSTS.
Why yes, all in retirement homes, but still.

[buzz456]

I still poke and prod at my routes. I plan on releasing my 100% genuinely final version of the T&B (and throwing in an extra little goodie) just in time for Christmas. I’ve got 28 days to do that so, someone hold me to it!!!

Route building is fun but also time consuming. I spend a good third of my time in the process thinking of what I’m going to build, then rethinking, then realizing that the assets I’m working with are limiting. I’m also, unfortunately, never pleased. I assume similar sentiments might be held among other builders.

Unfortunately (perhaps unbelievably) I also have a life. I’m ending my first semester of junior year at college at which I run a club (nothing to do with trains, funnily enough). I do what building I can.

Conclusion: don’t fret, we’re not dead and neither is TSC.

You need to take a good look at what Minerman did on his route as far as buildings and stuff. He was and is the master kit basher at putting existing assets together to make buildings and other objects that he needed to look like the real world buildings and stuff. After you do a few of these you find looking at existing objects in a different way.

[Mikeov1985]

Mike, I was going to answer by PM but others may be interested so....

GBW has always been of interest to me and I had HO models of the C424s. I have wanted to do a TS route and I started off with the intention of covering Green Bay South of the Fox plus North of the Fox from Norwood out to Wisconsin Rapids plus the branches up to Stevens Point and Biron. Track and terrain done but the scenery is a massive job (Over 100 miles!). I suffered at the start with a lack of info. I have the only 2 books I can find on the GBW but the detail around Norwood was low and no track plans at all. I worked a lot of it out from Google Earth and studying photos. Then early this year I came across a track plan for the Norwood terminal and "All Change" (nearly). I have now decided to cover Green Bay (both sides of the Fox) out to New London interchange with the CNW but phase 1 may be only as far as Howard (because this is nearly finished) and South of the river giving plenty of industry switching opportunities with CNW interchange next to North Green Bay CNW yard and a MILW interchange West of Norwood.
There is no suitable swing bridge for the river crossings but (after much searching) I have used Lift bridges instead. The other reason for slow progress is because until recently there were no suitable locos in the game, even now for the period mid 70s to the end (1993) the only one really suitable is the recently released C424 from Diesel Workshop (gratitude) as the RS2s had gone and the RS3s were chopped nosed and uprated to RS20s even the great RS11 was chopped nosed by then and they only had 1. An RS27 would be useful but...
The other "scenario" I "imagined" was a What If? In 1974 BN wanted to merge with GBW the offer was accepted but MILW, CNW, Soo all squealed unfair and the regulators stepped in. When they eventually decided in 1978 that the BN bid was not unfair etc. BN had grown tired of waiting and had other fish to fry. What if BN had merged GBW some BN locos would have worked through from the Twin Cities etc - exciting possibilities and until the C424 arrived the main locomotive option available. In view of the GBW experience of Alcos they were very familiar with GE electrics so 4 axle Uboats and some of the BN Alcos could have been drafted into Norwood to boost their usual engine shortages as well as EMD run throughs.

Now I have come to a suitable break off point (from Adriana CRR) I can get back to GBW but thanks for the offer.

John

John,

You are right about the locomotives. Besides the C424, the RS3 is the closest thing for a 'modern' GBW realistic scenario, but you could use the RS1, RS3, S2, and FA1 models as well. Sometimes a little fiction can't hurt, right?

I also like your route and scenario ideas. I look forward to giving it a test run someday.

[mindenjohn]

I saw some routes, but after that, no more. For example : ....

The number of new/updated entries in the library this month alone tells there’s lots of life in the old sim yet. Chacal wears out his keyboard uploading.

[AmericanSteam]

In my opinion, 3rd party is the heart and soul of TSC. So much love and pride of the hobby shows in each and every asset made. This inspires many new developers to bring their ideas to the hobby. In the last few years there have been some new and excellent products that raise the bar in quality and detail, if only this old game engine could do them justice. There are the old standbys still making content, I wish that they would step up their quality a bit to match some of these newer guys. DTG will keep it going until it becomes a liability. Steam DB shows a peak of about 2000 players on line daily. Thanks guys for staying up past midnight and creating those reskins, locomotives, routes, and other assets.

[Overshoe]

Thousands of people are still running MSTS.
Why yes, all in retirement homes, but still.

LOL. True in my case...

[kris120]

I just saw this link on rail-sim.de :
https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/tra ... the-future

My opinion:
DirectX 12 instead of DirectX9 would be a great step forward.
But there are more "construction sites":
The dispatcher (no forward and reverse trips, shunting scenarios).
The lua script engine, which is very idiosyncratic (what a word deepl gave me ).

Edit:
I am a bit sorry I did not see viewtopic.php?f=35&t=24393#p273693
I suggest discussing changes would be better in this thread.