First thoughts on the Fremont Switching route and session

[bem2]

I purchased the Fremont Switching route from Pacific Trainz a couple of days ago, and yesterday I installed the route and its two current sessions, Fremont Yard Switching and Branchline Cut Operations. Here are my initial thoughts after using the Fremont Yard Switching session for a little while. (Disclaimer: I'm fairly new to the Trainz world.)

• Overall, I find the route layout enjoyable. It is relatively small, and should support many interesting switching operations.
• I feel the scenery (trees, buildings, etc.) are adequate, but not extremely rich. I would like to see more "realism stuff" around the route (stacks of lumber, junk, construction equipment, etc.), but for me, a switching layout is more about the switching and less about the scenery, so this is not a big deal. If this were a long route like Murchison where one rides and watches for long distances, then more detailed scenery would be necessary.
• I look forward to seeing industry labels in a future version. For example, the instructions for the Fremont Yard Switching session state that you are to collect the boxcars set out by the switcher at the Maxwell Shipping industry. However, the industries are not labeled. So, I looked for the switcher with boxcars and an industry nearby and assumed that the industry is Maxwell Shipping.
• I noticed that at several crossings (perhaps all?), cars stopped or crossing gates dropped for my approaching train, but after the train was on the other side of the route, the cars were still stopped and the gates still down.
• Nitpicking: The session instructions have numerous spelling and grammar errors, and the Branchline Cut Operations session shows up as Branchline cut Opertions in the content manager.

In conclusion, I am happy with my purchase of the route, but I look forward to getting its issues resolved in future updates.

Thanks to Jeremy at Pacific Trainz for his work on this route!

 

[jkuhn]

I seriously want to thank everyone who purchased the route. After reading this, I have a clear idea on what direction to take the sequel of the route, which will be available for purchase next month.

But the current route still gets two more updates. In the next update, were going to address the issues listed, and take your suggestions and implement them into the route.

The route was meant more for function than style, and we wanted to make sure we gave it something to look a bit nice ,but obviously there is more we can do to improve the route.

Now for the ATLS System issue. I've been aware of the issue, and have been working on a fix. Which was addressed in the first update. I believe it's the system simply going nuts, but ill see if I can do more to try to solve the problem.

Now as for the sessions and grammar errors. Our sessions are created by someone else. So blame hert for his spelling mistakes.

We have a ton of plans for Fremont. We have a longer version being created, the sequel to the route, and passenger transfer version of the route as well! Were working on content that will also come as part of the package, and we'll definitely be looking into broader ideas for this route platform.

We also plan on making a more detailed version of Fremont called Fremont-S, which will include more of our in-house Content and lots of extra goodies.

Thank you bem2 for the review! This definitely helps us know what we need to work on!

-Jeremy