Black Forest Route announced

[michaelhendle]

Hi,
I think each to your own when it comes to DTG routes,I will pass judgment when the route is released,and see what you get,after you can always vote with your pocket,no ones forcing you to buy the route.
Personally I would like to have seen the route go from Trier to Konstanz,with V100 & 218 Blue /Cream livery and POP coaches.
Mike

[holzroller]

It's not actually a DTG route, it was originally released on DVD, by an heretofore unknown developer, DTG have aknowledged this on Facebook. The railsim de review page is here http://rail-sim.de/forum/index.php/Thre ... Bewertung/ I have yet to see another review where 60 people recomended against purchase. It was actually 3 lines not just the Black Forest Line, one of which had no scenery for the most part, track constrcution was awful etc etc. Whilst I would like to be pleasantly surprised by DTG's upgraded version I am under no illusion as to how much work would be required, pretty much a complete rebuild of most of it. You are quite right nobody is forced to buy it, but the screenshots so far are less than impressive, hopefully more will follow that show a big improvement. There is another third party developing the Black Forest route, it as been in progress for some time now, it too will be payware, but not yet ready for release.

[holzroller]

According to Scarlett over on the German forums this route is now in the steam database and the route GUID "7400e0b7-a767-4cb8-94cb-58eb7d49ae7e" is the same as the original route on the DVD, and at least one of the original scenarios is included. As already said, it would take a major rebuild to bring the original up to acceptable current day standards. I will be interested to see what comes out of this, hope dies last as they say, although there are both a freeware and payware version under construction elsewhere. Scarlett was the one who found the early info on the 474 and Hamburg Luebeck line amongst others.

[749006]

I was one of the people who have the "original " version thru Aerosoft plus a 2015 patch and it keeps me amused at times.

Impulse purchase and still not recommended:(

Peter

[holzroller]

RLB are building this route as well if you look on their FB page here https://www.facebook.com/RLB-Team-172863982915954/ you will see screenshots , development seems to be well on. Then take a look at the DTG screenshots so far.

[holzroller]

Now available 33% off http://store.steampowered.com/app/376936/ developer is the same as the original DVD version. Given a few had their fingers burnt with the original release this has had a cool reception on the German forum. It is however very cheap if you want to take a chance. Personally I'll probably wait for Prelli's freeware version, it looks stunning.

[MaikG]

.... Personally I'll probably wait for Prelli's freeware version, it looks stunning.

The SWB from RLB will not released as freeware.

[Springer6]

I think this is like the SBB 1 from Simtrain where a developer wanted to release the route thru DTG in their partnership program but like SBB 1 it may not get released unless it makes the (up)grade

Peter

I'm still waiting for the SBB1 Route to be released through Steam indeed, I've been wondering about this just the other day!

--Tim

Tim,
I wouldn't bother waiting for SBB1 to be released through DTG. I got fed up of waiting and bought SBB1 as is, in an Aerosoft sale.

Actually it is a pretty good route as it stands ( one of my favourites ) , provided that you apply a couple of mods that are availabe (see other posts re SBB1 on this site).
One is to apply the "distant terrain mod " to get rid of white hills and the other is to replace the poor crippled platform passengers with the Kuju ones. The other thing that I did was to "cut " the platform lofts where they start to slope. This prevents passengers walking "submerged" in the platforms. This latter is necessary with most early routes as TS changed the way it rendered platform lofts at some point.

A "nice to have", but not essential mods is to apply hidden ( sunken ) speed boards, so that the various speed limits show up on the HUD.

The resulting route is pleasant to use and gives a good and realistic feel of this part of Switzerland. In my opinion, the Spring and Autumn weather, mountain scenery and lighting are some of the best.

Springer

[michaelhendle]

I've just taken the plunge and just bought the route,£7.36 at present so even if it's rubbish I haven't wasted a lot of money on it.
Mike

[Springer6]

I've just taken the plunge and just bought the route,£7.36 at present so even if it's rubbish I haven't wasted a lot of money on it.
Mike

As you say, very cheap at £7.36. I hope you will let us know what you think of it once you have had the opportunity to test it out ?

[driverden]

It appears to have gone up it's £10.04 now.

[michaelhendle]

First Impression of the route,it seems quite good, I don't know if DTG have done any thing to improve it,so far the only thing that I can find fault with it,the mountains in the distance seem to be to green,also the station announcements can be a bit boring,unless you can speak German.

The rolling stock supplied is the usual bog standard DTG German stock, but at £7.36p it's really good value for money,even the full price of just over £10.00 it's still good value,for the average simmer then I can recommend it,if your a die hard purist,then you will find faults.

It's gone up quickly then, as I bought it about an hour ago and paid £7.36p

Mike

[TransportSteve]

Please allow me to put some screenshots up so the community can gaze at this masterpiece of engineering that Mr. Jackson so kindly sanctioned to be put on Steam for DTG customers to spend their hard earned money on. I see that they have outdone themselves with the scenery on approx. half the route, the sunken trackwork is absolutely sublime -



The ground texturing is quite special too, with the added extra of fences being put right across the roads with flickering textures an additional adornment.





I was looking forward to doing some freight train yard shunting, but, due to the lack of junction switches and signals, I don't think I'll bother.



I see that we have a tram included in the route, for the Freiburg area (pictured), nice of them NOT to include any Trampoles in the sections that are most needed and the tramlines are also sunken into the ground, must be a German trait I'm unfamiliar with.





I wonder how long it will take someone to finish the route off, although I admit to deleting all of the Kuju vegetation, not much left to play with for our money now, is there??



And I note that the price has now increased to £10.04p for the privilege of downloading this offering at an early discount.

Cheerz. Transport Steve.

[holzroller]

Seems a couple of German users took a chance in the hope it had been improved, and have promptly asked for a refund.

[Zhayad]

Seems a couple of German users took a chance in the hope it had been improved, and have promptly asked for a refund.

Yes some will never learn