RSC DLC - Greater Variety Of Routes Needed

[matt1314]

Looking through the DLC:

Fort Kent to Eagle Lake RailWorks Add-on
Railworks Ohio Steel 2 Expansion Pack
northeast Corridor Expansion Pack
Horseshoe Curve Expansion Pack
Portland Terminal Expansion Pack
Rascal & Cottonwood RailWorks Expansion Pack (Fictional)
Colton & Northern RailWorks Expansion Pack
Donner Pass: Southern Pacific

They are all American routes, ad not including the default routes

Trouble is as RSC is a UK company, its easy to get UK routes, you can hop on a train and go to wherever in the UK, but the US is slightly harder.more costly to get to...

Yeah, I know these routes, but I was more referring to some large US routes. Shame on me I forgot the Donner Pass: Southern Pacific route. Literally we have 4 big (!) US routes for RW. NEC, Horseshoe Curve, Donner Pass and Cajon Pass. There are much more out there. Seeing all the massive repaints available e.g. for the SD40-2!

Just heard about the Norfolk Southern - Atlanta North District freeware route. Seems to look nice. Looks like we get all these American subdivision routes as freeware, though containing a lot of third-party assets.

[Retro]

I would like to see the ELR for obvious reasons, but Chris said some time ago he would not be doing a Railworks version.
Kind regards James.

[faedundee2]

I would like to see the ELR for obvious reasons, but Chris said some time ago he would not be doing a Railworks version.
Kind regards James.

Perhaps a community route could be made of the ELR for example having a small team working on it, which I'm happy to be part of.

[jimmyshand]

I would like to see the ELR for obvious reasons, but Chris said some time ago he would not be doing a Railworks version.
Kind regards James.

A top notch RSC version of ELR would be a huge hit for me. In fact ELR is the only route I miss from MSTS, it was a cracker. The ELR has to be one of the most appealing preserved routes in the country, masses of resident locos, interesting features (Bury station, tunnels, the ski ramp) and a decent length too. The diesel gala scenarios from MSTS were superb. Could be run as an official partnership project with ELR whereby they sell copies of the add-on at the railway to encourage more enthusiasts to take the plunge into RWland! Bit messy with the insufferable Steam factor but if someone's had a great day out at a diesel gala and sees they can take home their very own virtual ELR (providing of course they happen to have a NASA powered PC!) then it's sure to be a bonus for all and another way to market the game?

[tnleeuw01]

Not to suggest any particular route, era or geographic location -- I've expressed my wishes elsewhere already -- but I always love railway networks. I'm always disappointed when I see that there's a line going off the mainline, or joining the mainline, and to find out that after less then a mile it ends in a dead end, or a 'portal'.

Even on the Oxford - Paddington mainline, the small branch line from Slough to Windsor stops as soon as it's out of sight from the mainline. I was so disappointed when I found that out, because it's the one piece of rail in the UK which I've used quite extensively... But in general, such pet peeves aside, this is a disappointment to every time I see a branch on the mainline which is yet another dead end, and not something interesting to explore.

So I'm really hoping that there will be more rail networks in future Steam DLC, and that they won't hurt performance on my low-end PC as much as I'm sure that Woodhead will do...

As for rail networks, I think that South Devon Banks is an excellent example of that. It's just too bad that many of the activities that come with it, at least that I have for it, are broken in some way in the current version of Railworks, even though I think I've managed to obtain just about all the rolling stock that's needed for it.

Kind Regards,

--Tim

[pilot37]

How about RSC do an industrial route set in the mid 1950s with only a small bit of mainline with most of the route being mines, exchange sidings and gas works, etc. with track that causes the cab to bounce around more than when riding a roller coaster?

Would it sell though?
Remember RSC are a business, so accordingly they need to make money and to make money means selling routes*.
To sell a route means it has to capture the imagination of the majority, be an iconic route that rail fans will want and still offer enough to tempt the newcomer.
Personally though, such a route would appeal to me.


(*Admittedly there may be more money to be made by selling DLC, but somewhere to run the stuff is still needed)

Now then, why not achieve both the route we want with high sales (eg 50's UK Industrial Route which interacts with a Mainline.....possibly fictional so that it can be made more interesting (seaside, docks, mountain pass, dramatic industry supply routes)).....save money on researching line accuracy and spend it on marketing the product effectively. Yes, I am saying that the current marketing is poor. Most of what I buy is from what I learn on this forum and from independent screenshots and video. The official stuff is quite uninspiring......I mean quite a lot of the questions on the forum are due to missing detail in the sales info? So inspire us with ideas of what can be done with the route. Tell us why we just have to buy this route!

And whilst I am on my soap box.....how many routes advertise the layout...and should they not? Personally I won't buy any route unles I can see what I am getting; an A to B or a network.

[bigvern]

Perhaps they should take the old Dobwalls layout and blow it up to full size! Actually there is some merit in that, that is taking a model railway layout and expanding it out. That I believe was the concept Richard Garber used on his first couple of RW projects. The other good example is Transport Tycoon where people have represented a larger area by folding it around itself, thus saving all that time and labour applying detail to long linear miles of route. I guess Phorum Peninsula finds itself in that paradigm - lots of fun in a small space. Perhaps that's an area they need to look at if they were to be nterested in the smaller, cheaper route.

[faedundee2]

I would like to see the ELR for obvious reasons, but Chris said some time ago he would not be doing a Railworks version.
Kind regards James.

A top notch RSC version of ELR would be a huge hit for me. In fact ELR is the only route I miss from MSTS, it was a cracker. The ELR has to be one of the most appealing preserved routes in the country, masses of resident locos, interesting features (Bury station, tunnels, the ski ramp) and a decent length too. The diesel gala scenarios from MSTS were superb. Could be run as an official partnership project with ELR whereby they sell copies of the add-on at the railway to encourage more enthusiasts to take the plunge into RWland! Bit messy with the insufferable Steam factor but if someone's had a great day out at a diesel gala and sees they can take home their very own virtual ELR (providing of course they happen to have a NASA powered PC!) then it's sure to be a bonus for all and another way to market the game?

Superb idea Jimmy, I'm sure the ELR board would be up for it if presented to them in the right way and maybe Chris could allow for the msts buildings to be converted for use in Railworks. Perhaps even if it does become a viable then some of the money made from the sales can be donated to the ELR, seeing as every department needs money at the moment to keep doing what they do so well. Not too sure if it would become something RSC would consider, seeing as it would have limited scope for sales but you never know.

[ashgray]

Great idea in theory but one practical problem might be that anyone buying an ELR add on from the railway would obviously expect it to work "out of the box" - a lot of the stock you'd need to make it realistic is only available through payware.

Ash

[Retro]

Good point Ash.
Kind regards James.

[jimmyshand]

Just want to add a strong view I have in light of some recent remarks, fictional routes are not the way ahead in my opinion. Fictional routes were all well and good when the sim was in its early days and we all needed a release from the default routes, but now the sim is in a mature stage and route development is at an all time high in terms of quality and accuracy then switching to fictional, make believe routes would be a major backward step. It's an absolute pleasure to be able to drive a route in the game and know where you are just from the scenery. Just my personal view but I am loving the accuracy at the mo and don't want to see a shift away from that

[faedundee2]

Excellent point Ash, if anyone does want to have a go(even RSC) I'm happy to lend a hand, I have my rulebook in a draw ready for such an occasion.

[FoggyMorning]

Just want to add a strong view I have in light of some recent remarks, fictional routes are not the way ahead in my opinion. Fictional routes were all well and good when the sim was in its early days and we all needed a release from the default routes, but now the sim is in a mature stage and route development is at an all time high in terms of quality and accuracy then switching to fictional, make believe routes would be a major backward step. It's an absolute pleasure to be able to drive a route in the game and know where you are just from the scenery. Just my personal view but I am loving the accuracy at the mo and don't want to see a shift away from that

You're entitled to an opinion, but please don't try and tell people what sort of routes they should be building. If you don't like the look of a particular route, you are under no obligation to use it.

[jimmyshand]

I'm not trying to tell anyone what to build Steve, I suggest you read my post again. I'm pointing out my personal preference for real life routes in response to several people talking about fictional routes being a good idea. I disagree entirely, especially where powerhouses like RSC are concerned, they have the resources to create remarkably accurate recreations of real routes, would be a loss in my opinion for them to focus their might on made up routes just to shave maybe a fiver or so off the price. I'd rather pay 25 quid and get something sensational and accurate like Settle to Carlisle.

[Rockdoc2174]

I'd love to drive a route that I know like the back of my hand but that's not vital for me. There's no intrinsic reason why a fictional route can't be immersive and enjoyable. A lesser-skilled author could make a real-life route unusable where a skilled one could make a fictional route that cries out to be driven.

I don't care whether thy are real or imagined but I want routes that are a challenge. Ones that don't let you set the regulator or throttle and nod off for an hour. I'm not saying that isn't realistic for some of the flatter routes but it's not as satisfying an experience as a hilly route, even if the scenario creator has you stopping frequently.

I wouldn't be the chap who decides which routes RSC go for for a big clock. This thread demonstrates very clearly that for N players there seem to be at least N+1 thoughts on what makes a saleable offering. It boils down to that ancient but true saw:

You can please some of the people all of the time. You can please all of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

Keith