London Brighton Express, first impressions / queries

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 7:32 pm

JAMTHEMAN wrote:nice idea

I thought it was a object placed, as I couldn't see it in AE...

JD

Thats why! I rest my case!

mikey2001 · Post by **mikey2001** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 8:14 pm

Wow! What a route. Ive only driven part of it so far but Victoria station looks tremendous as do the models of the trains. I especially like the nice touch of the billboard reminding you to register the product!

Well worth the money spent on it. Lovely DVD style case and manual is the icing on the cake.

A big congratulations to all involed. Well done!

decapod · Post by **decapod** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 8:53 pm

I have to say well done you lot.
Modern trains are not normally my scene, but it was really fun driving a thameslink instead of sitting on one every day.
(though my EMU driving skills need a bit of improvement after derailing at sand tunnel while speeding)
Lovely models and scenery - must have taken ages to do all those stations.

Nice to see battersea power station has been rotated back to the correct orientation since the beta

...one slight niggle I had was that on view 4 or 2 I could see the overhead wires up in the sky, though a small change to the TRK file should make them disappear.

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 9:54 pm

Thanks - we will get that sorted!

RobindeJones · Post by **RobindeJones** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 1:01 am

Wow - what a route!
Picked mine up in Game, Surrey Quays, (...other side of the river!) Went to do some shopping and they had three copies - cost Â£22.49 with an NUS card!

Thus far - my impressions.
The route is fantastic and pushes MSTS beyond any of the default routes (...even my Dad could see that!). It feels like you're driving in the uk, in the Southen Region - what more could you say!

Stock - the 377 & the 319 arr fantastic - some of the best I've ever seen. Im a tad disapointed with the MPV. It gives me the 319 cab and sounds that seem rather like the khia31! Is this just me and too much MSTS stuff?

Overall though, I'm loving it. The best time Ive had on MSTS since my Mideast CD arrived

RDE

bigvern · Post by **bigvern** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 7:04 am

There was no sign of it in Bridgend Game yesterday (bought a copy of Links instead!). If I can track down a copy in Cardiff Game on Monday, now I've "retired" from route building I'll try and get a review posted on my site.

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 8:00 am

RobindeJones wrote:Wow - what a route!
Picked mine up in Game, Surrey Quays, (...other side of the river!) Went to do some shopping and they had three copies - cost Â£22.49 with an NUS card!

Thus far - my impressions.
The route is fantastic and pushes MSTS beyond any of the default routes (...even my Dad could see that!). It feels like you're driving in the uk, in the Southen Region - what more could you say!

Stock - the 377 & the 319 arr fantastic - some of the best I've ever seen. Im a tad disapointed with the MPV. It gives me the 319 cab and sounds that seem rather like the khia31! Is this just me and too much MSTS stuff?

Overall though, I'm loving it. The best time Ive had on MSTS since my Mideast CD arrived

RDE

Thanks for the comments - with regards to the MPV cab, it has the 319 cab installed because the finalised MPV cab was not ready in time for the disk being pressed. This was due to lack of available info on the cab features of an MPV. A purpose built MPV cab will be uploaded to the EuropeanBahn site and all those who register the product (which also gives a months Premium UKTS access!!!) will be advised when it is ready and where to download it from. Meanwhile, if anyone out there has access to an MPV and can get some decent shots to work from rather than the poor ones we have currently, we'd be really pleased to hear from you!

simont · Post by **simont** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 9:38 am

Mine arrived today, and I'm really impressed by the whole package- trains, route, activities.

One minor criticism though- could you have added platform markers to the non-Southcentral parts of Victoria and Clapham Junction? So that when AI trains run on those lines, they'll actually stop there (not such a problem at Victoria, where they don't have too many options). It's also a necessity if you're trying to make the 'Spotting at Clapham' activity mentioned earlier.

Could this be included in any future patch?

buffy500 · Post by **buffy500** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 11:06 am

RobindeJones wrote:Stock - the 377 & the 319 arr fantastic - some of the best I've ever seen. Im a tad disapointed with the MPV. It gives me the 319 cab and sounds that seem rather like the khia31! Is this just me and too much MSTS stuff?

Just to confirm, the MPV was NOT intended to be a drivable unit, and the choice was made late in the day to make it drivable, as such certain compromises needed to be made to ensure it did not delay production.

The data I have of the MPV shows that cab is similar to the 319.
A full MPV cab will be provided later.

Post by **fgrsimon** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 5:58 pm

Well I must confess to being quite disappointed with London-Brighton. The rolling stock and stations are first class but beyond the stations, scenery is virtually non-existent. There's just a 25 yard strip, generally with just a few trees, either side of the tracks and beyond that is a featureless flat green void. It's not too bad if you stay in ther cab but very noticeable from any external view. This is well below the superb standards set by the recent German Add-On's, such as German Railroads 2 and ProTrain 2/3 and nowhere near the awesome Cambrian Coast and Barmouth-Ruabon routes.

I was particularly looking forward to seeing Redhill where I live and was even hoping I might be able to see my street which starts 20 yards from the Redhill slow-lines. However 'Redhill' in the route consists of 5 buildings! Even some low-res backdrops as used in ProTrain1 would be an improvement.

One small fault easily fixed I hope, is that 'Salford' stations should be named 'Salfords'

X2000 · Post by **X2000** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 8:53 pm

Well, I'm certainly not dissapointed with this route. I'm very pleased with my purchase. Of the 2 commercial UK add-on packs out currently, this one is most definitely my favourite. I thought the Cambrian Coast pack was fantastic, but this is much more my sort of route. The Cambrian Coast route was much too "quiet" for me - you could drive for 2 hours and only see 1 or 2 other trains, on this one you'll see loads of other trains! There's double track sections, quadruple track sections, a good number of stations, a good scope for future activities, the included trains are excellent, stations and scenery are excellent. The activities are excellent - only played one of them so far but I'm sure the rest are excellent. An excellent all round package in my opinion. Well worth the Â£19.99 asking price.

I only have 2 negative points to mention about this add-on though.

1) There should have been a Gatwick Express trainset (either a Class 73 with mk2's or the new Juniper trains, or both) with custom cab views and sounds included with this add-on. There could have then been some Gatwick Express activities possible to run.

2) This route will now distract me from working on my own route!

mikey2001 · Post by **mikey2001** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 8:59 pm

Plenty of excellents there Marc!

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 9:12 pm

X2000 wrote:Well, I'm certainly not dissapointed with this route. I'm very pleased with my purchase. Of the 2 commercial UK add-on packs out currently, this one is most definitely my favourite. I thought the Cambrian Coast pack was fantastic, but this is much more my sort of route. The Cambrian Coast route was much too "quiet" for me - you could drive for 2 hours and only see 1 or 2 other trains, on this one you'll see loads of other trains! There's double track sections, quadruple track sections, a good number of stations, a good scope for future activities, the included trains are excellent, stations and scenery are excellent. The activities are excellent - only played one of them so far but I'm sure the rest are excellent. An excellent all round package in my opinion. Well worth the Â£19.99 asking price.

I only have 2 negative points to mention about this add-on though.

1) There should have been a Gatwick Express trainset (either a Class 73 with mk2's or the new Juniper trains, or both) with custom cab views and sounds included with this add-on. There could have then been some Gatwick Express activities possible to run.

2) This route will now distract me from working on my own route!

Thanks for your comments re the route. With regards the Gatwick Express trainset for the route, it was very unfortunate but despite many attempts at contacting someone within the company to obtain permission, we were unable to do so before the deadline for getting the disk sorted for publishing had passed. Therefore, it was decided that we would omit this from the route rather than risk problems with the TOC. There are downloadable freeware Gatwick Express sets according to Matt (NeutronIC) so activities can still be made and if anyone does, they are very welcome to send a copy to us at EuropeanBahn and we will put them up on the site for purchasers of the route to download. The other problem we had was with the 'Darth Vader' Gatwick Unit - Buffy (Dave Babb) was unhappy with how it had turned out as he is getting very meticulous with his building now! Therefore, it got left in the siding. I am sure that the unit will appear sooner or later!

I am awaiting with anticipation for John Dibbens Class 73 which he threatened - I am sure a collaboration between John, Dave Roles and Gary Cox would bring us an excellent 73!

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 9:24 pm

fgrsimon wrote:Well I must confess to being quite disappointed with London-Brighton. The rolling stock and stations are first class but beyond the stations, scenery is virtually non-existent. There's just a 25 yard strip, generally with just a few trees, either side of the tracks and beyond that is a featureless flat green void. It's not too bad if you stay in ther cab but very noticeable from any external view. This is well below the superb standards set by the recent German Add-On's, such as German Railroads 2 and ProTrain 2/3 and nowhere near the awesome Cambrian Coast and Barmouth-Ruabon routes.

I was particularly looking forward to seeing Redhill where I live and was even hoping I might be able to see my street which starts 20 yards from the Redhill slow-lines. However 'Redhill' in the route consists of 5 buildings! Even some low-res backdrops as used in ProTrain1 would be an improvement.

One small fault easily fixed I hope, is that 'Salford' stations should be named 'Salfords'

I am sorry to see that the London Brighton Express route did not meet your expectations. I had not noticed the Salfords mis-spelling prior to the finalised route going out. This will of course be rectified within a patch that is currently being put together and will be made available to all purchasers of the route who have registered (and obtained their months free Premium access to this site). The route was always meant to be designed as a 'drivers' simulator for the route as that was what we were asked to provide. It is true that the scenery does not extend that far out but it was deemed that it was enough for driving and for the immediate area for external views. We had to find a balance between how much peripheral scenery was used and what the frame rate was going to be like for those users whose PC equipment was not 'top of the range'. I am certain that when the developers of Pro-Train started out, their first efforts were not as good as progressive ones and they learned as they have gone - the same as we are doing. Also, the biggest area for learning is from feedback - and when we have constructive comments to work from we take it on board and try to rectify it. Indeed, as a number of users have found out, we have tried to be as pro active as possible when dealing with basic shortcomings such as the spelling error which crept in and the AI conflict in one of the activities.

It is regrettable that your house in Redhill did not make it into the route. I used to live in a house west of Basingstoke that was near to the line that we are currently working on - and which will have more depth of scenery - I have in fact dug out the pictures in the hope that it will be modelled and put in, but somehow I doubt it. I totally agree with you that the Cambrian and Barmouth routes are awesome and I have enjoyed using both. Perhaps if we had both lived near to the lines on those routes, we might both have been lucky enough to have seen where we lived...

alan2 · Post by **alan2** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 11:25 pm

well, I bought the route last Wednesday, Only got to drive it last night. Can say only thing I thought was wrong.

was that I wanted to drive a steam train along it

A southern Schools with full rake of Mk1's would be just about right

Nice route, I liked the FPS.

*high end M/c* only the few little problems which have been reported. Oh and also, Found I hadn't got Europe1 route installed in MSTS routes folder

so I got an error on install