USATC S160 is out!

 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/376942/

So, after much waiting we finally got to the release of the S160!
We'd like to thank you all for your patience and also for the messages and screen shots that we've been receiving from happy owners of the DLC.

"Would like to thankyou for creating such a great add-on with the S160 it really completes the Churnet Valley Route that we've made"

 "The War Effort"

"Thank you very much VW and DTG, it's fabulous. Well worth the wait!"

 "By far the most dynamic loco DLC yet. So many options and variations. The details of the whistle and advanced controls are fantastic. The blue FDR gets my vote as well. Worth the wait!"

"Thank you so much for this incredible engine. The best add-on I have ever bought for TS! Thank you VW"

"Well done and thank you for a wonderful pack of locos and stock that was oh so worth the wait. I'm absolutely elated by it"

"What an amazing DLC pack. Bravo!"


Matt Peddlesden from Train Sim Live also took the S160 for a drive on his live stream:

He did a summary of everything in the pack (and there's so much he got a bit confused!)...

And he drove 2 scenarios, one in the UK...

 

And one in the USA...

We've sent a small update today to DTG with some minor niggles that came up which will hopefully be pushed out to everyone next week but nothing show stopping we're pleased to say.

The S160 DLC has 10 liveries with hundreds of options between them all and we've had a few people asking us about changing various components on the locos and tenders so we thought it might be a good idea to give a more comprehensive break down of how it works.
This style of customisation is available on all of our locomotives but the S160 has by far the most options and components.

At the end of the manual there is a section entitled "Appendix 1: Locomotive Numbering". So for this example we're going to edit the US Army livery which is listed on page 50.


US Army – Buckeye/Air
Engine
# # # Tall or Short Chimney [T,S] / Original or Vertical Whistle [V,O] / Firebox cover [Y,N] / Black or Yellow Buffer Plate [B,Y] / Westinghouse location [B,S] / Pilot [W,E,B,Y,S] / Front Steps or Stairs[A,E] / Bell location [F,B] / Reverser [S,L] / Yellow or White Hand Rails [Y,W] / Front Number on Smokebox or Lamp [S,L] / White Wheel Rims [N,Y]
e.g. 607TVYBBWAFSYSN

Place the loco down in the game editor and double click it. In the right-hand flyout  you will see the pre-set loco number which is what we're going to edit.

So let's say we want to create a loco with the number 612.

The first characters in the list above are # # #

#'s are always used to indicate places for a loco or tender number, so in this case we begin our loco number with 612. 

The next part of the code is Tall or Short Chimney [T,S]

This means that the next (4th) character should be either a T if you want a tall chimney or S if you want a short chimney. If we choose a tall chimney our number is now 612T.

Next is Original or Vertical Whistle [V,O]

So the 5th character should be a V or an O depending which whistle you prefer. Let's go for an Original so our number is now 612TO.

You continue like this adding the chosen character for each component until we might have a number like this 612TONBSBAFSWLY

This would give us a locomotive numbered 612, a Tall chimney, Original whistle, No firebox cover, Black buffer plate, Westinghouse brake located on the Smokebox, a Black front pilot, front stAirs on the running board ends, bell located on the Front, a Screw reverser, White hand rails, front number mounted on the Lamp and Yes to white rims on the wheels.

And tenders work in exactly the same way. Do note that changes will not take effect until you re-start the game in play mode.

There are about a dozen options for every loco so you have literally thousands of possible combinations and you can have a loco almost any way you want it.

Have fun trying it out! 

So that's it for this week. Next week we'll return to updates on the GWR Saint and working TPO which is coming along very nicely.