One thing I really wish was provided with the Dash-9 was a proper paintkit. The liverys provided are a total pain to work with and the only way I can figure to repaint them is destroy the textures with ugly fill blocks of paint. I'm a picky fool when it comes to keeping a textures integrity intact and just can't go on a fill fest destroying it as that not only looks like garbage it destroys all visual cues that are a necessity for me to properly repaint it. It's just impossible to properly remove all this color, logos, pin stripes etc without making the textures look like a blob of paint. I don't mind working to reverse engineer a set of textures down to basic gray textures but this is just too much. I've tried 3 times now, done, put a fork in it. No repaints out of me with this one. I'm a defeated man.
Want extra cash? Start selling these things. I'll be the first in line to toss $3.00 for a proper paint kit. I don't believe this is an unreasonable simple request to consider. Sell them or provide them please. A lot of times I'll see written "We'll let the repainters fill that void". In turn a lot of the times we really need to do some considerable prep work breaking down the original textures before they are even in some sort of condition to properly paint. Repainting is an art in a sense, it's a obscure hobby this game has made me love doing and it's really frustrating sometimes when you have a visual of the art you want to create but you have to first destroy someones elses in order to do it, and yes, sometimes it's just not worth the effort, or in the Dash-9's case impossible for me. Route builders get a clean canvas to create their art on, please please consider giving the repainters a clean canvas to create their art on also.
Well, the I have to say the Dash 9 is a breath of fresh air in my opinion. See my review for better details. But, back on topic, the sounds are the best US sounds I've heard so far, it makes me look formard to what may come next in the US diesel series. (Crossing my fingers for an SD70M )
It's a very, very nice model indeed; great profile, great detail and absolutely cracking sounds.
I still stand by my original comment regarding its timeliness; for me, they could have squeezed-out something rather more different (maybe with an EMD badge on it...) and still sold a hod-load of units, especially if it were to this standard, and then kept this puppy up their sleeves until the sales needed a boost.
Mini review-let:
Visuals
Nice, crisp versions of both the second-generation BNSF Heritage livery and also the retro-look Santa Fe "Warbonnet" schemes, the latter getting a clean and weathered rendition. The porch and step/ditch lights are a nice touch and nicer still, the latter two only come on after a second press of the "H" key. The computerised display screen in the cab works, albeit (as has been stated by others) in a limited fashion.
As described elsewhere by Bill and others, the exhaust and lights do screwy things dependant on the orientation of the units in a consist, i.e. have them all facing the same direction, no problem; smoke from all and lights on the lead unit. Have them back-to-back and the lead unit has smoke and lights as do any other forward-facing units, trailing, reverse-facing units have neither lights nor smoke.
Performance
After my initial thrash session and the couple of scenarios provided, I've no complaints, however, neither of these scenarios are a particular chore for the lash-ups the scenario designer threw together for the consists they're hauling; at least twice the length would probably be closer to the mark where the D9 is showing its worth.
I would like to see a bigger 'gap' notch between the idle position and the first step of the dynamic brake -- I keep nudging it into d-brake when I just wanted to chop the throttle (I use k/b controls, btw).
The d-brake 'spool-up' noise is clipped and cuts off too soon; it should stay wound-up until you cut it back out again and then 'spool down', IYSWIM. It'd be nice to see an MSTS-style "setup" mode lockout for the d-brake, wherein you cannot advance the d-brake any further until it's finished, er, setting up. Whilst I refrain from whanging the power handle all the way back to 100% d-brake, it *is* possible to do in game and this sees several hundred amps appear near instantaneously on the meter with the resultant lock-up. I acknowledge that this isn't unique to the D9, but it'd be nice to see a fix for this.
Sounds
Oovee deserve much kudos for what they've achieved here. Simply put, this is the most complete and slick sound set on a 'factory release' diesel locomotive to date. I'm not talking about authenticity here, either -- I'll be the first to admit that I've never witnessed a GE C44-9W up-close and personal-like so I'm hardly an authority on such things -- but more the way it all works together; from idle through to notch 8, it's pretty darned seamless. The only minor criticisms I have is that of the aforementioned d-brake sound and also, whilst the horn has a great tone to it, I don't like the little 'jump' in the middle of it.
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