December 2024 Newsletter

Boy it's been a bit since I've written one of these. The fall season turned out to be a marathon of personal to-do's which I'm not sure is even done now that the holiday's are in full swing.

In any case, I figured I should update you all on the latest, so let's go.

What's New?

Work on the NY Cross Harbor Trainz route continues, albeit at a slower pace than I'd prefer but progress is progress 🤷🏼‍♂️. Most of the work lately has been done during Wednesday hangouts or livestreams. My goal is still to have it ready for release sometime in early 2025.

The big news I have to report on is that work on the next major P&B overhaul has already begun! I recently passed the route back to 44Willys and he's quickly updating all the non PBR textures to PBR textures. That will essentially be the first stage of Phase III (or version 3). So hopefully I'll be able to begin trickling out new P&B updates beginning in January.

I think the plan will be to keep the same kuid and just increase the route version numbers as updates are made. I'll have to figure out the naming structure but it'll probably be similar to how beta testing went. So v2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc until I decide I've fully reached version 3. But we'll figure out those details when the time comes.

I know I've covered this previously, but here's a rough list of the planned changes for v.3:

• Update the route to HDT

• Update all textures to PBR

• Full HDT retexturing

• Full overhaul of Allegheny City

• Full overhaul and relocation of Allegheny Steel

• Update the oldest areas on the route including Old Town & Vonny

• Further optimize Junita since there's be a lot of complaints of lag in that area

• Addition of a passenger station at Highland

• Reconfigure PBS Coal at Mill Creek (it's not the most authentic as it stands)

• Further improve ROW detail

• Add additional baseboards where necessary (the world simply ends a little too close to the track in some areas)

And I'm sure I'll come up with more as time goes on but that's just a rough list to start with.

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Patreon Benefits:

Executive: The current download for the NYCH route will be available pretty much right after you see this post. If you've been tuning into the streams/hangouts you should have an idea of what's been added, etc.

Dispatcher: The monthly livestream will be Wednesday the 11th at 7pm. I'll be working on the NYCH build unless you guys have something else you'd like to see.

Project Manager: An MTA subway entrance. This entrance is for the 36th St DNR station on 4th avenue in Brooklyn but should be pretty easy to reskin to your liking.

Station Agent: Hangouts continue every Wednesday through the month. Things get a little complicated since both Christmas and New Years are on a Wednesday this month so I'll have to figure out an alternative closer to then.

Model Railroader: Should have a layout update video done by the end of the month 🤞🏼

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Thanks for all the support and I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season!