USA DLC, 2nd impressions

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  • #17345
    simonmd
    Participant

    To follow up from my first impressions- http://www.train-fever.com/forums/topic/usa-dlc-first-impressions/  I’ve now got as far as 1960 so here are my second impressions. Overall, thumbs up and certainly, as it’s a free addition, we can’t really knock it can we? It does give the game a nice boost and also has demonstrated to future developers (no doubt WHY it was manly done in the first place) that 3rd party payware addon packs can now be put together and sold in one package. There are plenty of possibilities for this, ‘Rural England’ complete with cute Austin Minis driving around, red buses, thatched cottages, stone churches, etc. or how about a ‘Train Fever of Tomorrow’ expansion with futuristic buildings, vehicles, etc.

    Anyway, there are a couple of things I’d like to comment on. The whole thing feels somehow unfinished, even rushed. For example, look at the sky, the new sky texture has an ugly line right down to the ground, something that some kind fan has already fixed and released a patch for on the .net site. Also, mistakes like the Mikado loco from 1898 having the same end date so anyone who doesn’t know how to edit a TF model file will not have it and have a sizable gap in their rolling stock. Also the annoyance of several vehicles having the wrong expiry dates, so you get an annoying popup claiming your train needs replacing when it’s only 7 years old! Did they not play this? did they not even do ONE run through from 1850 to 2000 at least to make sure everything worked? Common guys….. There’s also things like the very nice ‘wild west’ style buildings with cracked wooden signs all adding to the atmosphere, only to have the illusion ruined by having some German style shop next door complete with German writing! Also, whats with the silly brand names? I understand that you can’t just slap Union Pacific or Amtrak on something without legal problems but come on, ‘Common Atlantic’? ‘Artamk’? You guys seriously didn’t think either of those sounded silly? No one?

    Another major anoyance is the change to the mods that came with this latests patch. Fine, change the way it’s done, I even LIKE the way it looks and appears to work but I still have NO CLUE how to actualy add a mod now. I downloaded a couple of things and clicked on the start page that now has the mods section on it, nothing. I put them in the mods folder that has been created in the games directory, nothing. Is it asking too much to tell us whats going on Urban Games? I like to think i’m relatively savy with mods, etc but i’m confussed.

    It seems this has been done the same way as all the other updates have been done, rushed and without proper testing or thought. It’s been the same way since launch back in September and its such a shame because with just a BIT more care and attention, this would be amazing. Overall though, I want to be positive. As I said, it’s free and it does add to the game, so overall, thankyou Urban Games, it can be frustrating but it’s also fun!

    • This topic was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by simonmd.
    #17356
    tomtom
    Participant

    Thank for the tip about the Mikado, I’ve set mine to 1950 for the moment while I test things out.

    So far I am enjoying the different look. UG I will pay for a dramatically improved map generator (that answers the many requests by the community) as well as dramatically improved supply chain systems (more goods types, food, luxury, mail etc). Hopefully these are things you are working on next for DLC.

    258 hours on TF standard, insane!

    #17387
    larry.kubiak
    Participant

    I tested the DLC for 5 minutes, noticed that all the town/street name were in French, as with the regular maps.

    I found some Mods to change the Town names to US, street names to New Zealand (the closest I could find to US street names) … and noticed that all new maps, including European style would now be with US/NZ names !!!!

    I don’t understand why it was not possible to assign local names to a DLC. This should not be too hard to program.

     

    Once I noticed this, I stopped playing the DLC. The gameplay is basically the same than on a European maps …

     

    10 days to go until Cities Skyline release date …

    #17393
    simonmd
    Participant

    Yes, running your wild west style General loco into the dusty goldrush town of Chipping Norton does kind of ruin the imersion! Sure, the gameplay is the same but the change of scenery is welcome, to me at least. I found the default BRIGHT GREEN everywhere a bit hard to take and prefer the more washed out look.

    It’s basically the same as everything else Urban Games have done in TF, half finished. You really do get the impression they all sat there and said “oh that’ll do, it’s free anyway…”

    Nevertheless, I welcome the added rolling stock, I already had the ‘BigBoy’ and loved it and in future games, i’ll be happy to mix the two groups as i’m not really after a simulator, just a fun trainset really.

    It will keep me busy until March 10th though, I have Skylines on preorder! 🙂

    #17411
    Pasi
    Participant

    Same here, when Skylines comes out, that’s it for the Train Fever. Maybe in few months time i’ll check what’s new but considering how sloppy the work from the developers is, i’m not holding my breath.

    #17413
    Geneo
    Participant

    I’ve got Skylines on pre-order too, but you never know.  What game doesn’t feel rushed?

    However, at least the new DLC changed the looks of the game, which helps a lot.

    #17423
    simonmd
    Participant

    Have you seen the interviews with the Skylines staff and the other vids regarding it’s features and development? It looks so well thought out, so well researched, dare I say it, ‘finished’! Thank god  Urban Games didn’t have anything to do with it, they would have released it before Christmas and it would have been terrible!

    #17427
    olahaldor
    Participant

    I can’t believe UG is encouraged to continue development with so much anger.

    #17433
    medopu
    Participant

    >Have you seen the interviews with the Skylines staff and the other vids regarding it’s features and development? It looks so well thought out, so well researched, dare I say it, ‘finished’! 

    Have you played CiM2? I had the same opinions about CiM2 before it got released. It was also so pretty, hyped a lot (for a transportation game anyway), and when it released it certainly wasn’t a game i would call “finished”

    #17434
    Pasi
    Participant

    What was wrong with it then?

    #17435
    Pasi
    Participant

    Olahaldor, there is no anger, just frustration. Game has great potential and it is fun to play to some extent. All the unfinished and half ar*ed things in it will always get you on the game and pisses you off. I keep coming back to it because i like this kind of games, but every single time i play it, i remember why i quit playing it after a while.

    #17437
    Norfolk_Chris
    Participant

    I wish you guys would stop banging on about Cites Skyline on this forum.  This is the Train-Fever forum for discussions on Train-Fever.  (There is a Skylines forum elsewhere,)

    There are still some problems with the USA DLC and handling of mods that I’m sure will get fixed before too long.

    PS: Thanks for the Mikado tip!

    #17440
    medopu
    Participant

    What was wrong with it then?

    It was buggy, it crashed a lot, unoptimised … pretty much, it reminds me of Train Fever.

    Also I agree with Norfolk_Chris, this is a transportation tycoon game, so it’s pretty strange for many of you guys discussing a city builder on this forum. I wouldn’t mind if you were talking about CiM3 or other transportation games but not this.

    #17441
    Pasi
    Participant

    Interesting, as i never had any issues with the Cim2, but then again, if it was all that, it got fixed, right?

    It’s not a city builder forum true, but people are just saying that since this game and it’s updating is what it is, they are moving on to the other games and might be that they don’t come back. Which counts as a lost and unhappy customer which again is not great for the potential future sales. After all, it’s just a question of how developer handles these things and Skylines was brought in as an example of good work by their developer, Colossal Order. I appreciate also that Urban Games is a small team, but so is CO and they always have time to comment on things. Not everything, but into threads like this for sure.

    All i would like to know is why they are doing such a sloppy job? Why the dedication is not there and things made as well as possible with a proper testing taking its place before release. Why not speak with the customers?

    #17442
    Stormrider
    Participant

    Completely agree about the lack of polish. I love TF and the USA DLC but having a European road system and english town names just feels wrong.

    Ruins the immersion in an otherwise awesome DLC.

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