The Lake Line

[Andrew Page]

On glancing at the RSC website I see there's an announcement about a 'new train simulator' called 'The Lake Line'. Does anyone know anything more about this? Is it an add-on for RW2, is it really a completely new train simulator or is it some sort of rehash of the old Train Driver simulation (which featured the West Somerset Railway as I recall).

If I've posted this in the wrong place or missed some obvious answer I apologise in advance!

AP

[darkdj]

Looks a bit fishy, wierd that RS.com seem to be making all these "New" simulators lately... Looks suspiciously like an addon with a fancy name, though I might be mistaken...

Dark.

[KeithThomson]

The twitter feed http://twitter.com/railsimulator has a link to http://fb.me/N3B4Hjh8 which has some info and screenshots....

[Andrew Page]

The twitter feed http://twitter.com/railsimulator has a link to http://fb.me/N3B4Hjh8 which has some info and screenshots....

Thanks for the links, Keith. It certainly looks as if, whatever Lake Line is, it either requires Railworks or makes use of the Railworks simulation since, love it or loath it, the HUD is there, as is what appears to be the Class 101 DMU. Ah well, no doubt all will be revealed in due course. However, my wallet is toghtly shut until the Falmouth Branch appears.

AP

[ChrisBarnes]

Darn, while £5 for a route, default black 5, invincible and 101 demu in a complete game package is very good value, I hope the route will also be available in RW2 add-on form as well as it's standalone status.

Regards
Chris

[styckx]

Lock it down like fort knox, make it free, and use it as a railworks demo.

Just my two cents. Neat concept though.

[bigphill2]

Hi all
I guess this must be "Learn to drive a steam locomotive Torado Edition". Indusrial North not the only one to suffer an idendity crisis
Phill

[longbow]

I guess the DLC content bundled in this route won't be the full RW versions but even so it's worth a lot more than GBP5, so I'll be interested to see if it works in RW.

[alexnick]

I'm assuming this is just a short "Railworks lite", which isn't a bad idea for someone who wants to 'have a go', without paying full price. Railworks probably is a little too expensive to appeal to casual interests, so this is a market response, in effect.

AN

[Acorncomputer]

Hi

This seems like an excellent idea for people who just want to buy a game for a modest amount, and play with it without any hassle. Whilst lots of us like to do many different things with our RailWorks, this is perfect for the casual player who does not care about add-ons or content creation.

I can see many stand alone routes coming out, all completely self contained. Perhaps eventually Heritage Railway Routes where visitors can buy a disc in the Shop and take home their own version of the Railway to play with at any time they want.

Good thinking there

[metrobus]

Ah yes Geoff, but what if we full railworks users want to play on that route too
Regards
Edward

[Acorncomputer]

Ah yes Geoff, but what if we full railworks users want to play on that route too
Regards
Edward

Hi Edward

I think this is just aimed at a specific market. Possibly a RailWorks add-on will be published later, but I am only guessing. I am sure that RS.com will let us know more about this over the next few days/weeks.

[1975Supra]

Possibly a Railworks minus the editors.
I can't see the commercial point in creating a standalone if you then can't sell DLC addons easily. When you think that 80% to 90% of RW users won't touch the editors it makes good business sense to release a 'lite' version. Making it a one shot deal (ie no ability to add further DLC, ie upselling in marketing speak) would be a bad idea.
Dave

[FoggyMorning]

Possibly a Railworks minus the editors.
I can't see the commercial point in creating a standalone if you then can't sell DLC addons easily. When you think that 80% to 90% of RW users won't touch the editors it makes good business sense to release a 'lite' version. Making it a one shot deal (ie no ability to add further DLC, ie upselling in marketing speak) would be a bad idea.
Dave

My guess is that RSC's thinking would be to "hook" new users with this (apparently) "lite" version and then persuade/entice them to upgrade to "full" Railworks. And if existing Railworks users wish to purchase this standalone pack as well, then so much the better. All just speculation on my part though

Steve

[ChrisBarnes]

You know, 'lite' editions such as the The Lake Line would work really well on other platforms, where the route editing etc. wouldn't be viable. I would happily buy cut down editions for Xbox (optimised graphics, unlike on this PC) or even iPhone(portable simulation). I guess the main problem would be writing of a new game that suits the format of the consoles and iPhone/android phone, but I think from a business perspective it's something to think about for the future, especially if casual gamers are interested.

Regards
Chris