Railworks America

RSC's latest route offering, Berlin-Wittenberg, actually an Aerosoft product, leaves a lot to be desired. To my eyes, this route does not come up to TS2-14 standards; in fact, even the poorly translated users' manual identifies this product as a TS2013 route. The manual also acknowledges numerous route and rolling stock shortcomings. There's a lot more to be said about this, but what I really want to point out is a serious fault common to all German routes and container-loading scenarios.

Put simply and honestly, the Germans have proven themselves absolutely incompetent when it comes to placing container cranes properly. (No, they are not alone in this. RSC is not much better.) A case in point is the "Containers for Berlin" scenario packaged with Berlin-Wittenberg. This scenario combines the ever-boring "rescue" theme with container unloading. Consider the following sequence of screenshots:

1) the unloading sequence begins with the crane's pickup located over the track to the right even though the wagons to be unloaded are on the left-hand track, indicating that the crane has been placed 180 degrees out of line ...


2) the crane has now picked up the container load from the wagon: any idiot can see what's wrong with this picture!


3) the crane has now maneuvered the container load into position to lower it to the ground: yes, that blue/green container hovering over the ground quite a distance from the crane is the load ...


4) this image, which seems out of sequence but is not, suddenly appears as the load reaches the ground ...


What excuse can there be for such ridiculous animation? Obviously, no one at Aerosoft or at RCS ever bothered to take a look at this absurd and senseless action, including the scenario writer!

German scenario writers also have never understood how to use the freight/fuel loading/unloading instruction. In this scenario, the "rescued" train includes 6 loaded wagons. Yet there is only one unloading instruction present in the scenario and when one wagon has been unloaded, the script advances to the next (and last) DriveTo instruction, telling the player to move the train to a nearby siding ... leaving the other 5 wagons unloaded.

This kind of careless and uncaring stupidity completely destroys the sense of the scenario. The only good thing I can say about this mess is that the absurdity of the crane's placement matches that of the scenario's script.

Phooey!

I uploaded a fix for this very issue to the file library here. Another thing about this route is they did not even bother to make it Quick Drive (Which I did and can be found in the file library here as well). Why are we left to finish or repair a route we pay money for.

robbit wrote:I uploaded a fix for this very issue to the file library here. Another thing about this route is they did not even bother to make it Quick Drive (Which I did and can be found in the file library here as well). Why are we left to finish or repair a route we pay money for.

Because you buy things before you see what others have to say about items? If you would wait to see what others critisize maybe they would fix these before they get your money.

buzz456 wrote:Because you buy things before you see what others have to say about items? If you would wait to see what others critisize maybe they would fix these before they get your money.

On what planet might that happen, Buzz? And if all of us did that, who would be able to criticize the product? And what are Beta testers for?

BerlinWittenberg (this is how Aerosoft ... oops, RSC writes it) looks like a 2012-era product even though its manual labels it as 2013 ... RSC should have told Aerosoft that 2014 has been released.

You mean like Donner Pass or some of the many other problems that never get fixed?

I thought Donner Pass got updated to 2014? I have not run it for a long time, but thought I read that somewhere?

It did but took what a year. Plus castle rock never got finished and the list goes on but I am not going to go through them all to get my point across. Too say everybody should wait till what others say before buying is crazy. How would anybody comment if they waited for someone else? I guess it is our own fault because we keep buying first and have no one to blame but ourselves. some of the issues that where mentioned should never have made it into the game. it just proves they do not test before releasing and leave it up to their customers to either complain about it and if enough complain then they will fix it or someone will fix it for them.

Call me crazy if you like but I usually wait several days and see what people have to say about stuff before I purchase. Different strokes I guess.

Additionally they say that this stuff all gets beta tested before it is released. I have said several times that maybe they need some additional beta testers although one of them told me that sometimes they don't take heed of the testers comments.

I did not say you were crazy I said that what you said was crazy. There is a difference but enough said on this subject from me.

robbit wrote:I did not say you were crazy I said that what you said was crazy. There is a difference but enough said on this subject from me.

No problem.

There is a difference but they are not mutually exclusive.

> it just proves they do not test before releasing and leave it up to their customers

I do not think that a statement like that is doing justice to the RSC Beta test team or the RSC QA department. Maybe with all the other releases going on, it did not get the attention it deserved. IMO, It is a nice route that has some flaws. I will still drive it and create scenarios for it.

S.S.D.D.

Unfortunate but true

wackyhuman wrote:I do not think that a statement like that is doing justice to the RSC Beta test team or the RSC QA department. Maybe with all the other releases going on, it did not get the attention it deserved.

Beta testing includes checking the mundane along with the exciting bits, else it's not much of a team effort, regardless of the number of add-ons slated for release. Perhaps what they need is a "Charlie" team to check for items missed by the beta boys? Nevertheless, bugs are bound to be missed and creep into the final, no matter how careful one is. The container issue mentioned above is somewhat puzzling though. That should have been caught straight away, especially since it's part of an active scenario. Obviously, someone dropped the ball.

Hack wrote:Obviously, someone dropped the ball.

Or it could be sabotage! Perhaps by a member of the Blond Businesswomen's Bund that has taken over this route's passenger stations? They look pretty determined to me ...



On the other hand, they're a fair hand at threesome Alamand Lefts ...



On the other hand (how many hands do these gals have?), my whole theory may be suspended in air ...



Regarding that last image: yes, it was snapped in a remote area, but, again, a scenario takes place there and it involves shunting, so a player has plenty of opportunity to spot this bit of absurdity.

What's the German word for "junk", anyway?