B99 Feedback, Suggestions, & Concerns.

This "Guide" is aimed at giving feedback for the update "B99" that recently came out. We will delve into what's good, and what's bad. So grab some popcorn, because it's a long one. (WALL OF TEXT WARNING)

--Opener--

Hello, first of all, i'd like to say, I love this update, it's truly expanded the game and made the playing experience that much more engaging and interactive. There are some concerns with gadget, and performance which we will get into later, but I'd like to give some feedback and suggestions first after having spent about 20 hours or so playing on this update, so grab some popcorn, and sit back & relax, because it'll be a long one. Keep in mind these are my opinions, and aren't entirely always factual. With that being said, let's begin.

Overall I believe this was a fantastic addition to the game, and really expands on the lore of The Valley, and offers great gameplay elements to support that. Let's delve into what I like about this section, and what I don't like.

What I like:

-The Museum Building ; It's quite visually interesting, and offers a nice home base for players to park locomotives, whether they are owned or valley rented.

-Restoration Gameplay ; The fact that players can find The Demonstrator locomotives and restore them to the former glory, is a very nice addition, and I actually really like how this ties into the games lore, and gameplay as a whole.

-Ownership Of Demonstrator Locomotives ; The fact the player actually owns these locomotives, make it that much more accomplishing when you do restore them, and use them.

What I don't like:

- Museum Is Too Cheap ; For how grand of a building the museum is, it's kind of shocking that you can buy it for a low price of $15,000. When I was going into the game, I was expecting to fork out a good $250,000-$750,000 for the building, including the right of ownership of the demonstrators. It seems a bit silly to me that what seems to be an endgame license, is sold only for $15,000 dollars, where even on a fresh save, you could buy and have access to early on.

- Lack Of Ownership Clarity ; Whilst it's easy to understand that you own The Demonstrator locomotives, it was unclear in the B99 update video whether ownership was planned to be expanded on in the future, i.e purchasing locomotives from dealers, or through some other method

- Demonstrator Stats ; Whilst it's not expressly needed, it would offer an extra incentive to look for and restore Demonstrator locomotives outside of just ownership status alone, to have each one of these unique locomotives, have a unique stat, or advantage that you cannot find on other locomotives of the same type, i.e DE6-D has 200T additional load rating, DH4-D has extra cooling potential, DM3-D would be less prone to wheel slip, etc. These upgrades would be unique to these locomotives, and if invisible stat boosts are made available for other locomotives, other upgrades would go on top of these upgrades for Demonstrators, or for non Demo locomotives, you would not get these unique upgrades applied to them. There would I'd assume still be non unique upgrades of the same type that do the same things, but the difference is that you can stack it once on demonstrator locos for a 2X boost if you will. This would just add more gameplay strategy of where you use these locomotives, for example if the DE6-D has a 200T extra load rating, it would make it ideal for coal runs, or mountainous terrain. If more clarification is needed on this point, let me know.

Future Potential For Gameplay Features:

-Expanded Roles For The Museum ; In the Altfuture (heh), maybe we could see unique contracts specific from the Museum, maybe long term this could look like heritage passenger routes, that require specific demonstrator locomotives, that pay very well, but have specific requirements, like requiring the demonstrator to be painted in a demonstrator livery, having certain demonstrator locomotives on the consist, etc. In terms of freight jobs, maybe there could be Museum merchandise jobs, where you haul merchandise, or post stamps, advertisements, etc to different cities on behalf of the museum for higher payouts. These jobs could also include more stringent speed limits, more or less on the passenger aspect, but exceeding these limits could invoke fines.

-Reduced Maintenance Costs ; The player could potentially order maintenance spare parts, and have to deliver them to the Museum, and could deliver fuel as well, to get a "Free" maintenance, when I say free, it's free when you are actually doing the maintenance at the servicing depot, but you still have to pay for the parts, fuel, and the fuel to transport these, but overall it may reduce your costs by 15-25%

I really like how these were done on this update, and I'd assume there is more to come in future updates, especially for steamers, and as player feedback and suggestions come up. I've found a few things that are iffy, but for the most part, i'd say this is a very good and polished addition.

What I like:

-DPU/Wireless MU ; One feature I've been waiting for, for a long time. Probably one of my biggest wanted features.

-Alerter/DMS ; I love having this on my DE6. I know some people may view it as overly interactive, I find it quite enjoyable, and makes my operations feel more involved.

-Roadrunner ; I love having this too, on my realistic save, it's been one of the bigger gripes I had, and now my F key is saved (not all the time), but overall, I love this gadget.

-Overheat Protection ; I usually wouldn't need it, however, it's a good safety net, as I always run my DE6 hot when going up grades, and I push it as hard as I can, usually getting up to 118C before backing off. So far I've never had my breaker pop, but it's a good safety net again to make sure I don't accidentally cause a traction motor blowout.

-Switch Setter ; I love this too, too many times have I been barrelling down the rails, or not paying attention at slow speeds until last second, only to need to switch the switch fast, and not being able to get my comms radio out in time. This gadget skips an entire step, and allows switching just from a click of a button. I have no gripes with this.

-Digital Speedometer ; this is probably one of the underrated ones in my opinion. It allows me to read the speed quickly without having to zoom in, and it's been a decent problem long term, as it's hard-ish to read off the analogue gauge.

What I don't like:

-DPU/Wireless MU ; Whilst most of my impressions of this gadget is good, there are a few qualms. 1 is that DPU locomotives setup light states initially of the transmitting locomotive. The only reason I have a problem with this, is that I would like if light stages were ignored on the wireless MU controller, but everything else being transmittable, or at the very least smarter transmission of light stages, to make sure headlights that shouldn't be on, aren't on. Additionally, i'm not sure if it's implemented, but coupler stress could be a neat feature to have modeled in game, so that very large, or heavy trains, need these DPU's to ensure couplers don't decouple (Snap off, not sure if the devs want to model couplers being broken.) themselves.

-Alerter/DMS ; I only have 1 qualm with this, and it's that if a throttle change occurs, or dynamic brake, the alerter timer does not reset. In real locomotives, alerter timers reset to 60 seconds if the engineer changes throttle/dynamic brake (maybe brakes too but i've forgotten), so it would be cool if these changes in state would also reset the timer, but if the player doesn't change any of these within the specified time on their own DMS, then it can count down, and alert. Additionally, it could be possible to have a switch on the side of the DMS gadget, to be able to pick if a locomotive state change triggers a reset in the timer.

-Roadrunner ; Again, only 1 qualm with this one as well. It would be nice to see the road runner able to go up to 2km, and have increments of 20M instead of 10M. This is a minor thing, as trains don't usually go longer than that, but it would be a nice thing for specific circumstances. Another alternative could potentially be an extended range version of the gadget, that has the 2 KM range, and 20 M increments, whilst keeping the original one intact. One more alternative is we could have a digital road runner, that you can use an analogue wheel to increase the train length, and a button to engage and another to reset, so that rather then having a set in stone segmented bar on the gadget, it's all just a 7 segment display to reduce the clunky-ness, or extended range that it can operate.

What I'd like to see:

-Distance to Flag tracker ; Similar to the Roadrunner, this gadget displays a distance to an antenna with a flag, that the player can place on the ground, maybe to help the player shove a consist without blindly back up and damaging what they are backing into.

-Upcoming Speed Limit Sensor ; Similar to the digital speedometer, or maybe better yet, similar to the switch setter, this gadget would digitally display the next speed limit, or if a junction is coming up, it would display the speed limit for either direction

-Welding Mounts ; a much more expensive alternative to drill onto surfaces you can't usually drill onto, you could weld the mounts on. For example welding a mount to the boiler casing of the S282 for name one. This would be a much more expensive alternative, and you'd have to pay for welding rods, and 1 rod would be used up per drill hole, and each rod would cost maybe $500-$1000, this would make these kind of locations for mounting possible, but expensive.

-Default Headlights Configurable ; When I first started customizing my DE6 Demonstrator, I was hoping to be able to unwire the current ditch lights, and hook them up to a separate switch to allow myself to control manually whether or not they are turned on. In real life, a lot of locomotives outside of towns, and when not coming to a RR Crossing, will run just the hood light, and the ditch lights are turned on only in some specific cases. It would be nice to be able to unwire certain things like this to give the player more creative freedom. How this could work is the breaker box could have a permanent wiring connection for things on the trains, and if the player wants to rewire something back to it's original state, like the ditch lights for example, it would be as simple as crimping them back to the breaker box connection point.

To add to the last point, it would be cool if we could change the colour of certain lights of the default headlights. maybe we want the main headlight to be on the hood, and the red light to be on the top. Maybe giving the players the ability to "Swap" these lights could be a good thing to do.

This is all I have right now, but if anyone has a good Idea I think should be put onto this list I'll list it here.

What I like:

-DM1-U ; I really like the new railbus that was added. It's cute, able to do small things, and get the player around provided they don't play with fast travel. It also can haul smaller things, like a small logistical haul, but overall it seems quite nice.

-Brake Cut-Out ; I love this feature as well, not just from an standpoint of making self lapping and non self lapping brakes compatible in the same consist, but just from an operational aspect. I like having that extra valve that I have to turn on certain locomotives. It just makes the game that much more immersive.

-Steam Chest, and Oiling ; I really like the new steam chest sim, and while I haven't been able to fully play with it yet, I have seen people playing with it, and it looks really good. I also love the concept of manually lubricating the steamers. It just adds so much more operational stuff to do on the steamers, making them feel like something you really have to take care of.

-Steamer Firing Changes ; I also quite like the looks of the new firing, and I've been able to get a feel for it slightly, as I've restored the Demonstrator S282, but haven't yet been able to take it out yet, but for what I can tell from just having it in the stall in the Museum, I can tell it's quite immersive.

-DE6 Dynamic Brakes ; I absolutely love the fact that the dynamics were buffed. Given the DE6 is my favourite Locomotive in the game (used to be the DH4 prior to B98 due to the powertrain sim not being the best), it's an awesome addition that the dynamic feels more powerful and capable of slowing the train down a steep grade. Same goes for the DH4 as far as I'm aware, but I personally haven't been in one yet since B99.

What I don't like:

I'm gonna be honest, and say there really isn't anything in this section I don't particularly like, If I can think of anything, I'll surely update this guide, but for now I think it's basically all there is.

This is an area I think has been really improved, and I've been enjoying quite a lot. Let's see why.

What I like:

-New Lines ; I love the new additions of extra routes the player can choose to go on. It offers variety of routes, rather then just going on the good old harbour-steel mill line, you all know which line I'm talking about.

-New Industries ; This is an area where I think it's really expanded on the valley's industrial supply chains. An Oil refinery in my opinion was definitely missing, and the addition of a coal power plant, and an extra coal mine, are just added benefits i didn't know I wanted. I think these are amazing features that the developers added, and shows they are making good progress and setting up the framework for the dynamic supply chain update.

-Dispatcher ; This is a great addition too. Given in a realistic difficulty setting, having to hop out, and smash my F key around is an annoyance. With the dispatcher license, again it reduces the amount of F smashing needed to get the job done. All round a great addition.

What I don't like:

-Route Map and Station map switch representation ; Overall I like the design, however I believe it would be better to see the switches orientation visually represented on the route map, or station map, rather then the switch direction popping up seperate from the map, as it's kind of confusing to mentally compute which direction a switch is in if it's "Upside down" on the map, that extra brain power needed to reverse the switch direction mentally can sometimes be a pain, especially for someone like me.

-I Derailed My Demo DE6 ; I didn't know a speed limit was reduced out of machine factory to 60 instead of 80, so it's definitely the devs fault I derailed there.

Overall not much to not like here.

Potential Industries & Map Features

- It would be pretty cool to see an intermodal yard somewhere alone the coast of the valley, where it's pretty much, or expressly flatbed cars with containers. This could be a major hub for intermodal traffic, that is distributed to the rest of the map, this also could potentially be a future extension of the harbour.

- Dynamic routes ; It may be cool to see temporary track closures due to rock slides, constructions, or other things. This idea isn't really developed in my mind fully yet, but figured i'd share it.

Overall, I really like the changes in graphics, whether it be rain, or the textures of demonstrator paintjobs. I like how it looks. Performance is a Concern for me. It's been a longstanding issue for me, and I'm really unsure if it's just my specific PC not playing nice with the game, or if it's the game as a whole that needs improvement.

What I like:

-The New Rain ; I really like the new rain effects, it comparison to the original rain from simulator, it's a vast difference. While I didn't think they were bad originally, they surely were great looking in comparison to other games. Now it looks really good, and I think the rain is in a good place.

-Demonstrator Graphics, and Textures ; I really like the clean looks of the Demonstrator paint schemes, they look clean, but still good texture wise.

-Extra Props & Details ; I love the new details around stations, especially the harbour, given there are now fishing boats, and the likes scattered around, it's quite visually appealing and makes the world feel more lived in.

What I don't like:

Just as a bit of context, so you guys aren't shooting in the dark here, these are my basic specs, along with the settings i'm running.

CPU: R7 3700X
GPU: Gigabyte 4060ti 8GB
Memory: 32GB Corsair Vengeance 3600mhz
OS: Windows 10
Drive DV is installed on: 7200 RPM HDD (I cannot afford an SSD right now)

All settings are currently on "High" with the exception of lighting, and terrain lighting, which are both on medium. Post processing On, and Motion Blur Off.

I've already updated chipsets, and the likes, with the exception of BIOS, so I've covered pretty much covered everything on my PC.

-Performance ; In my own experience, this update has gotten worse in terms of performance. In the harbour, previously on B98, I was seeing FPS numbers in the 40-60 FPS in the middle of the E yard. In B99 however, I've seen it get as low as 21FPS, with an average of 28-32FPS or so. It's getting borderline unplayable in these areas. Outside of the harbour and on mainlines, I see numbers around 45-60 FPS, whereas in B98, I was seeing numbers of 60-80 FPS. Interestingly enough, originally when booting up B99, even in the E yard, I was getting up to 75-90 FPS on high settings, until I started running locomotives through them. In general, I believe this is an area that needs work, if at all possible with the state of the game's code, optimizations could be as far as possible at this moment for all I know. Granted I can just run the game at a lower fidelity, but even with bare minimum settings with everything turned down, in the E yard I get maybe 60 FPS max, and the highest at 75 FPS. Anyone who's reading this, let me know if you have similar issues with a PC that on the outside looks like it should run the game fine, but can't and if there were anything you did that fixed them.

What could be beneficial on the developers part, is to perform a hardware survey amongst the community, to see if these performance issues are more of individualistic cases, or if it's a more broader issue amongst players. This could be done in a google form put onto the discord, where there are maybe 20 questions or so regarding performance, and questions on the players hardware.

This is pretty much the extent of what I don't like on this section.

Altfuture, on behalf the the community, thank you. You guys time and time again have proved you guys are in it for the long haul. You guys put attention and detail into every aspect of the game, and if it's not polished up to the standard you guy's have set, you will not ship it until it's ready. I believe you guys are the best development team out there, because you guy's have shown every time that you guys genuinely care about this game, and the community. This is a passion project quite obviously, and your guy's development reflects that. I wouldn't want anyone else to work on this game other than you guys.

With that being said, Mostly everything in this update is good. Apart from a few minor qualms on the customizations, locomotive ownership, and the performance of the game, it's an all rounder win for the game. I look forward to see what B100 has in store for the game. In terms of B100 I've had personal speculations of Electrification, or the USA DLC, maybe both if the developers go all out, but that's something we will have to wait to see what comes of it. One more thing that would be nice if we could see a bit of expansion on the future page in terms of locomotive ownership, additional gadgets and stat boosts provided they still are planned. Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment, whether you be from Altfuture, or a community member. All debate is welcome here. Also if I want to add anything else to this list, I might do it, so things on this list could change over time.

[kettcardriverprofi]

As one whose favorite loco the 282 is: I LOVE the Steam Chest update, not only will it make the loco even more complicated (and therefore realistic), it also helps a lot when you got it figured out for example when shunting with the 282 you can use it as a slowly decreasing throttle (put pressure in, and move throttle to 0 again, then you can walk to the end of the train to couple while it's slowly pushing the last bit to the cars that you wanna couple without having to worry it's gonna run away as soon as you connect the brakes)...

[Eldomtom2]

"So even if it was a higher price, would it really make a difference long term if it was say 200-500k?"
Long-term, maybe not, but it would be a big slap in the face to shell out 500k and then be told you have to pay even more to get any use out of it.
"Keep in mind it's not just restoring the locomotives you'd likely be paying for in real life. You'd be paying for the titles of ownership as well, which in of themselves I doubt would be cheap"
I don't think "realism" should be a concern here - in real life drivers don't pay to be trained on a new class of loco!

[TheOofertaffy]

Personally I think given these factors, it would be much better if the price of the museum was much higher (around the numbers originally stated), because early game it wouldn't have much of a use anyways. If you do need the licenses for each locomotive to buy the museum, then maybe the price should come down a bit, but still should be a decent amount, at a very minimum the same price as a DE6 license. Keep in mind it's not just restoring the locomotives you'd likely be paying for in real life. You'd be paying for the titles of ownership as well, which in of themselves I doubt would be cheap. Just my opinion though.

[TheOofertaffy]

Keep in mind guys that regardless of whether you agree or not, even if you get the museum license for the current price,,you still aren't going to be able to restore the locomotives, let alone drive any of the demonstrators (mainly because you won't have the license for it). So even if it was a higher price, would it really make a difference long term if it was say 200-500k? At this point, from what I see you only need the manual service license to buy the museum, so early game it would pretty much serve soley as a glamorous servicing shed until you are able to get the licenses for the locomotives, and the money to restore them.

[Eldomtom2]

yeah i agree, the thing with the museum license is that you're paying for the ability to spend a lot more money so it should be cheap

[Eldomtom2]

i strongly disagree with the idea that the museum license is too cheap

[Bob Johnson]

Personally I would love to see a return to paper manuals, even if as static decoration.

[frickenGurtdude]

anyone know if theres a way to connect eletrical gadgets to the steam engine?

[TheOofertaffy]

@AyrA That's actually a really good idea ngl

[AyrA]

What I would like to see is being able to click on the distance tracker with a job booklet in hand and it automatically adds the reported length of the job to the tracker.