Greater Eastern - Thoughts

[TechniquestS482]

I've just been on Greater Eastern for several hours and done 10 of the supplied activities. A nice variety of activities included, I even enjoyed the FL 66 one!

I've noticed a few typos and other tiny little errors, although the only major problem I've had so far is with the FL 66 activity, which doesn't seem clear enough with where you go/stop/reverse and what you pick up for me. Got there eventually though, after MSTS decided to crash about 7 miles from Ipswich on the return!

Overall, it has to be said I'm very impressed. Very much worth the money and will no doubt open up plenty of new activities for all of us to try. Indeed, I'm about to start writing one, featuring English Electric power

Anyone else had a chance to have a play about with it yet, and care to share their thoughts? I'm not a member of the MakingTracks Online forum, as I'm already on too many enthusiast forums to keep track of. So I thought it might be an idea to stimulate some discussion here.

Please feel free to move this thread if necessary.

[NiallGray]

I've just been on Greater Eastern for several hours and done 10 of the supplied activities. A nice variety of activities included, I even enjoyed the FL 66 one!

I've noticed a few typos and other tiny little errors, although the only major problem I've had so far is with the FL 66 activity, which doesn't seem clear enough with where you go/stop/reverse and what you pick up for me. Got there eventually though, after MSTS decided to crash about 7 miles from Ipswich on the return!

Overall, it has to be said I'm very impressed. Very much worth the money and will no doubt open up plenty of new activities for all of us to try. Indeed, I'm about to start writing one, featuring English Electric power

Anyone else had a chance to have a play about with it yet, and care to share their thoughts? I'm not a member of the MakingTracks Online forum, as I'm already on too many enthusiast forums to keep track of. So I thought it might be an idea to stimulate some discussion here.

Please feel free to move this thread if necessary.

When you say typos, do you mean the deliberately different-named train company liveries which gets round the copyright rules? If so, I believe there's a free patch coming (if not already out) which will allow you to use the correct liveries.

Hope that makes sense!

[kieranhardy]

When you say typos, do you mean the deliberately different-named train company liveries which gets round the copyright rules?

I think he means typos as in spelling errors. Apparently there is a typo on the map which spells Ipswich as Ispwich.

[TechniquestS482]

Exactly what I meant that, I knew about the need for Frightliner and so forth. Quite liked that!

Never noticed the typo in Ipswich on the loading screen!

[alexnick]

OK. Well, I really like the addon, but I find it really a bit too resource intensive. I have a mid-range year old laptop which will run pretty much all MSTS stuff smoothly with the settings turned up (and Railworks with medium settings), but I found GE2 very juddery.

Some of the activities have issues, and cause my machine to crash (noticeably, the first activity won't load - I go through the normal route loading screen then MSTS just shuts down without so much as a warning). And I feel that more could have been made of the stock provided (and the original GE stock).

However, I will praise the route and stock as it's excellent. I like the revised sounds on some of the locos/MUs, which really stand out for their quality.

AN

[rikwesson]

Hi, I was looking forward to this add-on, but feel a bit let down (sorry MT ),as I have had numerous problems. The first activity will not load, it just crashes the sim, the 1P60 activity gets through Forest Green ( I think ) about 45 miles from Colchester and some other service seems to derail, the night cab in the 153 is pitch black and the brakes in the DVT are a hassle as they have no incremental values, just off, on or emergency. Also I went back to a save game with the 57 starting at Ipswich and it would not load. I have also had very juddery graphics which I have never suffered from before.
From what I have seen the scenery looks excellent and hopefully new activities will soon be written that show off the new part of the route properly. I would like to say a big thank you to the MT peoples for the effort they put in as I enjoy all there products and hopefully I can get Greater Eastern to work OK on my machine soon.

All the best, Richard

[buffy500]

I'm going to reply to a few points in one post just to keep it short.

brakes in the DVT are a hassle as they have no incremental values, just off, on or emergency.

The DVT brakes on my set here show : "Released, Hold, Suppression, Continuous Service, Emergency." It's pre-release copy but no reason why that would have changed.
What do yours show ?
Do you have "simple controls" turned on ? That changes the way it acts (and is rubbish)

And I feel that more could have been made of the stock provided (and the original GE stock).

Originally, GE2 was intended to be stand alone so there was specific reason for not using the original stock.
If we write all the acts, what are you guys going to do ?

Has anyone with poor performance tried anything to improve it ?
I did get a significant improvement by turning down sound quality for one set of sounds, I think it was the 86 set.

In relation to the performance comments, more detail has more cost in PC power, there is no way around that unfortunately. With the right machine, the route fly's along.
(I get 50 fps in LLS )

[rikwesson]

Hi, yes I do apologise, you are correct these are settings I get, but what I was trying get over was the controls are not like on most other locos which have percentage numbers. Also, sorry to ask a question not related to greater eastern, but when I go into options and change the keys that control the brakes, I can save the diesel and steam controls but the electric wont change and stay on the default settings. Is there any reason why this happens and is there anything I can do to change the electric controls

All the best, Richard.

[40058]

Brilliant.......... nuff said!!!!

40058.

[buffy500]

Hi, yes I do apologise, you are correct these are settings I get, but what I was trying get over was the controls are not like on most other locos which have percentage numbers. Also, sorry to ask a question not related to greater eastern, but when I go into options and change the keys that control the brakes, I can save the diesel and steam controls but the electric wont change and stay on the default settings. Is there any reason why this happens and is there anything I can do to change the electric controls

All the best, Richard.

To be fair, most trains do not say 50% brake in real life !

[TechniquestS482]

Just been and finished the 12th activity, 4 more to go. The first activity crashed for me too twice. The work-around for that was to turn the World Objects Density down to zero and see if it loaded. Which it did. I then went a few miles out, saved and put the same setting back to the previous setting (which for me has to be 6, this poor laptop doesn't like anything higher) and carried on as normal. Thanks must go to expressboy1983 for that tip.

Thankfully, I saved fairly regularly. This proved hugely useful when MSTS then decided to change a green signal at the west end of the platform at Chadwell Heath to a red one as I got to it. It took me quite some time to get used to how the brakes worked on the 86, as compared to the 90 it was an entirely different beast. Loved the sounds off it though. Managed to make it to Liverpool Street, with some unintentional speeding through Chelmsford (due to that braking problem mentioned above), 4 seconds early, even though it meant leaving the DBSO off the platform!

I've enjoyed the activities I've done so far, although I was ready to just save, quit and come back to the 170 on the Harwich to Norwich stopper after departing Ipswich! That was another train I had problems with braking with, the sheer amount of braking required for stopping in places seemed to be maddening huge.

As for the DVT, once I worked out (surprisingly quickly compared to the 86) how the brakes worked I had next to no problems there. That 153 cab on the late night Norwich to Ipswich stopper is far too dark, although for most of that activity I was bored enough (sorry, but it's hardly an exciting act!) to use views 2/3/4!

I've now started my own two-part activity using a Deltic and an 87, although there's a lot of work to go until it's ready for uploading. expressboy1983, tubemad, if you're reading this I'm going to need some help and expect some of my hair to be pulled out!

[tubemad]

I loved a few of the acts, especially the late night Norwich and the GBRf Tanks.

To be fair, the brick night cab is probably dark as it's dark outside and you usually don't drive with the cab light on. That in turn can darken the cab alot, with just the dials and bits illuminated. Tube trains (or at least 1967 stock) is just as dark as that brick in the tunnels!

I note on the back of the box that it says crown point and Stratford depot's are included, where is this in the sim? I thought it might be Thornton Fields but I can't see it

[TechniquestS482]

Indeed, I've driven through the Stratford area too many times to count (already!) and have failed to spot where Stratford depot is.

EDIT: Also, I keep forgetting to mention it, but the final activity in the list, the 153 one from Sudbury to Crown Point, has no timetable! Hopefully that'll be fixed soon

Good point that regarding the 153 cab there tubemad, I hadn't thought about that.

[gswindale]

Sudbury - Crown Point is fixed now with the update on the MT forum.

[TechniquestS482]

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll have to pop on over for the update then.

Hope no-one minds my posting the link to the relevant place on the MT forum (if so, please feel free to remove it):

http://forums.makingtracks-online.co.uk ... 5&start=15

EDIT: Done as suggested in that link, downloaded the .txt file and re-named it to .srv, putting it into the Services folder. I must have missed something, as it still doesn't work as it stands.