EB East Coast Express Part 5,6 & 7 to Edinburgh

[6rdfar90]

I think this would be an undertaking and a half.



But given that it would be the last segments so to speak, and as Alec has said - value for money will be an issue for me, as well as others by the sounds of things.



Given that, the north transpennine route for instance terminates at Middlesbrough, Hull and Newcastle - there's scope to include these lines also, clearly that would be more mileage added to do though...



I have voted yes - it would be nice to see lots more track, but not so much rolling stock.

[michaelhendle]

I hope both the GNER 225 and the HST set will be corrected as both of these are incorrect in the original ECML prt1.
Or hopefully will be new ones in East Coast Railways livery. or if Copywrite problems then in the original Intercity Swallow livery which when clean looked really smart.

[SDtrains]

Hi to all interested,

I think this would be an undertaking and a half.

For a modern take on the route, not half so complicated as you might think. It depends on how real you want it to be. I have the addons including the Leeds loop, and one of the bugbears is the fact that Hull was not included - just a few miles of track. I worked out what adding this would involve, and discovered that the track work was a bit 'dirty' in this area, meaning that there has been some repair work done and the track on the world tiles does not directly accord with the counterparts on the TDB. Shame, as I would have been able to run a whole extra service, KingsX-Hull, and also Leeds-Hull.

If anyone is thinking of adding the rest of the line to Edinburgh, they might as well rebuild the TDB from scratch, as the world tile to TDB correspondence will then be direct and complete, and any subsequent mods would be much easier to incorporate.

Regards

[craigals]

I too voted yes on this as it would complete my collection of the East Coast Route. Hope to see the full route map soon too.

[craigals]

Going off topic here slightly, but keeping in with regards to EB Add-ons, I would also like to see an add on for EB West Coast Express 5,6 & 7 to Glasgow and Edinburgh via Preston & Lancaster

Add-on 5 would mean Birmingham to Lancaster
Add-on 6 would mean Lancaster to Glasgow
Add-on 7 would mean Extra stations onto Edinburgh with the options of using back lines when on diversion.

Maybe EB would consider this.

[frankin]

Like East Coast Express, Part 3 of WCE and so on should require part 1 and 2.

As for ECE, definitely want to go London to Edinburgh. I live in a town called Dunbar and I would love to see what it looks like on MSTS. (Other than Scottish Central and what it looked like in the 1950's) Keep the whole game/route in the Swallow to GNER era and for Berwick to Edinburgh, include North Berwick, Brunstane and Newcraighall? Then after Waverley either deadend before Haymarket Tunnel or add a couple of Scotrail Stations. E.g Edinburgh Park and South Gyle. Might be a bit much. :L

[6rdfar90]

Hi to all interested,

I think this would be an undertaking and a half.

For a modern take on the route, not half so complicated as you might think. It depends on how real you want it to be. I have the addons including the Leeds loop, and one of the bugbears is the fact that Hull was not included - just a few miles of track. I worked out what adding this would involve, and discovered that the track work was a bit 'dirty' in this area, meaning that there has been some repair work done and the track on the world tiles does not directly accord with the counterparts on the TDB. Shame, as I would have been able to run a whole extra service, KingsX-Hull, and also Leeds-Hull.

If anyone is thinking of adding the rest of the line to Edinburgh, they might as well rebuild the TDB from scratch, as the world tile to TDB correspondence will then be direct and complete, and any subsequent mods would be much easier to incorporate.

Regards

I think it would be actually.



There's taking our views into account, what EB can realistically expect to achieve, getting a balance between the two, then actually putting the track and scenery in.

[gswindale]

and one of the bugbears is the fact that Hull was not included - just a few miles of track.

Doesn't look like just a few to me

Looks like rather a lot of mileage (approx 40) from Hull to Doncaster which is a fair amount extra on top of what is already there.

More of a shame is the fact that the Leeds Loop only does the outer loop and ignores the internal network

With regards to WCE; it would be nice if they considered extending it around Birmingham - maybe up to Walsall/Rugeley/Stafford -> Wolverhampton and down to Stratford/Leamington and out towards Worcester via Kidderminster.

Add on a few extensions to the MML route - what about the loop to Wimbledon? Carry on a bit further north towards Derby?

It is very easy for us to wish for more; but give the guys a chance to do something

[SDtrains]

Hi to all interested,

Looks like rather a lot of mileage (approx 40) from Hull to Doncaster which is a fair amount extra on top of what is already there.

The First Hull Trains route runs via Selby which is very approximately thirty miles from Hull Paragon, with stations at Brough and Howden.

My point about this was that the rest of the route was quite large in comparison with the extra few miles needed to put Hull Paragon in, and EB missed the opportunuty to make the route more versatile.
However, this will not stop me from feeling positively about the invitation, on the EB site, to send an email expressing interest in a 'Part 5' for the series.

Regards

[EuropeanLoco]

Thanks to everyone so far, we are noting all your comments!

[expressboy1983]

Hi,

I am interested in ECE being extended to Edinburgh in stages and have voted accordingly.

However I must stress that purchase of the end product, for me at least, would depend on a number of key factors.

1: The route has been tested FULLY and there are no silly mistakes included which should have been noticed. (Fences accross the track, OHLE Masts within the 4 foot, trees blocking the view, signals facing sideways, etc...)

2: The route is not full to capacity with nothing but TREES. Some form of open scenery would be nice. Fields with animals in, working farmlands, variety in ground textures, hillsides in the distance and such like. The good part with adding screnery is that you can make it up as you go along and trees don't make up most of what you see from a train window.

3: It's not just a straight A-B route, add some branches to other places. Hull's been mentioned, Scarborough also. On the way to Newcastle you could go both ways, via Durham and via Sunderland, this would be good for diversionary acts and would enable us to do a complete run with GC. If this isn't something you want to implement with the initial plans as they stand currently then maybe consider them as a future patch, or maybe parts 8 & 9? At Edinburgh try and make sure Craigentinny TMD is included and that we can actually use it, and add the North Berwick branch for even more acts. Make sure there's plenty of scope for activities outside of what you guys supply on the CD.

4: More attention to detail on bridges, buildings and stations would be good also. These aren't so much of a problem as in the last few releases from EB there have been significant improvements, but there is always room for more!

5: Lower poly counts on line side trees. If you're going to have vast areas of thick woodland and forest use some low poly trees so that more equals less, in terms of frame rates! Remember that some of us don't have and can't afford super computers. Also if you're going to use those auto-gantry lineside trees and bushes again like what where used in LSC and parts of ECE, consider lowering the polys or reducing the texture size on them too as they seem to hit frames quite hard.

6: I'm not sure this would be possible because of permissions and possible problems with the previous versions of ECE, but it might be worth investigating anyway. Have a word with the makers of the DBTracks system and see if they would allow you to use thier track. It is far superior to anything currently available in MSTS in my opinion and would help to improve the route even further still, bringing everything bang up to date!

7: Try to make sure that all scenery objects have different ESD_Detail_Level values (in the related .sd file), so that when we move our 'World Objects Density' slider it actually has an effect on what objects load and what objects don't. Further increasing frame rates for those on lower spec machines, and further widening your paying audience. ECE currently doesn't have any organised structure for it's objects, from what i've noticed during tests, and you either get everything loaded or virtually nothing, there is no middle ground and that middle ground needs to be there for feedback to be more positive.

Please do not take any of my ramblings to mean 'This is what you should and shouldn't do'. The above are concerns and findings that I've had over past products from EB and are meant purely as constructive critisism in order to try and help things move forward rather than linger where they are or fall back. From my perspective if I'm going to pay for something I don't want to have to find things wrong here there and everywhere and then wait for patches to be made available to fix the broken bits, so attention to detail is key.

I wish you luck with extending the route if that is what you chose to do and look forward to seeing shots of WIP in due course and, eventually, getting that plastic out and giving you lot money. I'm sure it will be well worth the wait, Lord knows a lot of people including myself have been waiting for someone to do York to Edinburgh for a lonnnng time.

[bonan]

I am highly interested in this! I have all the previous parts and are really hoping for more! I have noticed the swedish MSTS community, hopefully you can expect some help from there! Good luck with the project!

[tubemad]

Woah :shock:
I'm sorry to say but at £29.50 or £89 for all three...my interest is going down!

£12 for a membership will knock it to £18 (or £24 including the membership price anyway) but then it is £12 per year, so it soon builds up after 3 years etc.

Not knowing if EB will decide to stay with MSTS is one thing at the moment, but I am registered with too many things at the moment so I will wait for second hand copies in the future for this...otherwise I shall await RW3 development and see how that matches for price first

[NiallGray]

Woah :shock:
I'm sorry to say but at £29.50 or £89 for all three...my interest is going down!

£12 for a membership will knock it to £18 (or £24 including the membership price anyway) but then it is £12 per year, so it soon builds up after 3 years etc.

Not knowing if EB will decide to stay with MSTS is one thing at the moment, but I am registered with too many things at the moment so I will wait for second hand copies in the future for this...otherwise I shall await RW3 development and see how that matches for price first

Sorry, but what are you on about? Have I missed a post about membership or prices?

[gswindale]

Take a look at the eb website Niall.

Must admit though that those prices do seem somewhat on the high side. Especially when compared to RW routes (I think comparison is just here - we are talking about more money for an add-on to a 10 yr old sim than for a 4 yr old one).

I'm with James in that my interest is waning. Especially as I'm not a fan of subscription gaming which seems to be what they're after (although I understand it from their financial viewpoint).