Forge Simulations BR52 Dampflok and others.

From a post on UKTS, I don't see anything here already.

Hi all,

I suppose I should probably start posting a few things on here about who we are and what we're up to..... we have gained a fairly sizeable Facebook following and news of our work is starting to spread, so we may as well plop ourselves on here as well.

Who we are: a European group of train enthusiasts with our own talents when it comes to content development, banded together by myself over the course of the past 12 months. I myself do blueprints, materials, exports, and all the project management and English speaking liaison etc, as well as of course social media et al. We have a researcher for continental Europe who also handles German speaking liaisons; we have a 3D artist from Hungary who handles modelling, unwrapping and texturing; and we are also partnered/in the process of partnering with a number of developer companies and individuals. We will be producing a wide variety of European content, focusing on British steam and diesel era, German steam and diesel era, and narrow gauge in other European countries.

Our first project is the BR 52 'Kriegslok', built for the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft during WW2 as the German equivalent of our WD Austerity tender locos. We're producing a small number of versions to begin with, and have plans to return to the class to produce more of the absolutely insane number of different versions there ended up being over the many years since these engines started to appear.

A basic look at the pack contents:
BR 52 Kriegslok locomotive in 2 liveries:

• DB black and red (clean and dirty)
• DRG wartime grey (dirty)
• SSyms 80t tank transporter wagon
• Tiger I tank - as loads for the SSyms and as scenery objects
• Omms wagon
• Rifle ammunition, anti-tank gun ammunition and fuel barrel loads for the Omms

Some images to get the salivation going in the thread:
BR 52 locomotive in DB black & red livery with light weathering
Omms wagon with boxes of ammunition for the ubiquitous Karabiner 98 Kurz rifle
The slightly amusing results of minor errors in the coupling set ups in the blueprints as the SSyms are exported into TS for the very first time and taken for a trip round the Academy circuit behind the V200

Click the images to see them in full size.

Please bear in mind that all content shown or discussed on this thread is in a work in progress state unless otherwise stated.

We have a number of other unannounced projects ongoing at the moment in various states which we will be announcing in due course.

Our aim is to focus on producing as high quality content as is possible, to as much a degree as is within our reach, regardless of the resulting output. Hopefully this will mean several locos per year. At this point, we are looking to cover locos that are actually in demand, but that are also accessible for us to make to a very high quality without playing guessing games or making compromises. As a result, some of our ongoing projects are ones we have decided to produce based upon feedback from players as to what they'd like to see - so you may see things opened up for your hearts' desires at some point. Of course, we have a lot on already and so we will be looking to get a number of those projects completed before we commit to anything further; we are making a point of minimising public revelations/discussions of projects until we are certain we will be able to deliver. I appreciate that this reduced level of communication may not be ideal for everyone but I feel it's for the best. We are also going to be focusing on, where appropriate, providing a selection of appropriate rolling stock with each locomotive, especially in cases where little to no stock of that nature exists.

At this stage, the vast majority of our releases for the foreseeable future will be through a third party publisher; we may consider trying out Steam in the future.

Please bear in mind that any statements etc made in this thread by myself or any FS staff are not intended to reflect any view, whether personal or of the company, of any other developer or individual.

We welcome suggestions and feedback - of course, they're key to producing quality products. We also welcome any questions or queries you have about our work, but once again, we will not be in a position to reveal any future products just yet.

You're more than welcome to have a gander at our Facebook page, and give us a like if you're interested. Website coming soon. https://www.facebook.com/forgesimulation

There has been some discussion on UKTS about the role of these loks in the second world war. For completeness I will post the response from the author here;

I cannot and will not force you to take any interest in any product we ever make, nor to buy it, but I will simply echo rkk01's and holzroller's comments. Especially so regarding the specific wagons, rather than locos. We all know that the 52ers were, like the 50ers and 42ers, intended as the German equivalent of our Austerity locos, they were used for far more than trains to concentration camps. In fact, having searched for photographs of these trains, I have found only a single one that actually includes a locomotive: which is not a 52er.

The included vehicles are intended to represent the basic functions and needs of the German war machine, just as those included with the Q1, S160 et al are intended to represent the British, Soviet etc ones. Russia, for example, committed, for a much longer period, terrible atrocities on an even larger scale with the gulags et al - and yet I saw no comments regarding this when Pete (Victory Works) announced Russian vehicles, tanks, etc as part of the S160 pack. I appreciate that the acts committed in this period by the German state and their armies are far more discussed and still more prominent, but even so, I hope you understand my point, there.

What with this being a German loco, hopefully it is quite obvious that this is intended to be a wholly serious and legitimate project, rather than intending to be contentious. We have specifically not included any vehicles or loads that could be linked to the terrible actions you refer to because we are well aware that would be absolutely tasteless and have no interest in causing offence or giving ourselves a bad name. The sole intention is to be able to give a good representation of the period with vehicles that would be of interest to those who like military history etc. I, myself, have long had a personal fascination with the history of the german political party at that time and the German side of WW2 - but that absolutely does not mean in any sense at all that I will or would ever condone a single thing they ever did. Goodness, no - but I still find the subject interesting. We were taught about it extensively in school. I find I am not alone - in fact, I have been told by several people that they will buy the pack purely because of the inclusion of the Tiger I! It is a period of history that, while incredibly unfortunate, is very much real, and no amount of hushing or censorship et al will ever change that fact. As previously stated, no wartime insignia of any description - whether original or modified - will be included in the pack as you download it after purchasing it from the publisher. The wartime loco will simply be grey with numbers on it. If you have no interest in the wartime insignia, then keep it as it is - if you do, and you live in a country where it is legal to do so, then you will be able to freely acquire a patch to add the relevant insignia to the locomotive.

The focus is, by no means, on the wartime period intentionally - you cannot seriously say that there is not already a great selection of existing passenger and freight stock suitable for the vast majority of post-war operation of these locomotives, so we thought we would include something that hasn't been done yet, rather than simply duplicating existing content. Furthermore, as previously stated, we have been planning to investigate and hopefully recreate some of the domestic repurposing of the wagons we are including, but at this stage, that work has not been done.

Dependant on the success of this initial pack, we seek to return to the 52ers in future; for those who are interested we will likely make a pack with more wartime variants, perhaps with a SSys wagon and other vehicles, and we also seek to make many of the modified versions post-war, as well as the Rekoloks. Again, this all depends on the success of this pack.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of our position on this, and the relevant facts, but ultimately, it is entirely up to you to form your own opinion based on this information.