This is one of the more interesting threads i have seen so far, the topic is general and open, no matter if some disagree with some others which is not bad, humanity would never make progress if we were only agree. I feel the need to share with you my experience with this simulator-hobby. Everyone has his own angle of view as everyone has his needs and expectations from this game. I said in another thread that for first time, i saw and used Trainz simulator 2006, shared from a magazine demo. At the time i saw that demo the current title was Trainz 2010, i managed to download a not legal version of the game Trainz 2010 Engineers edition. That was the ultimate hit for me, i remember i was shocked from the quantity of the content that version had, almost everything was included except of course payware staff. After 2 years i created a steam account, i am a hardcore gamer since 1992 when Commodore Amiga 500 launched on my desk. The newer and first title that appeared in steam was Trainz 12. I thought that it was about time to give this game the chance and buy it. Though Trainz 12 had many problems mainly stability and performance, i don t remember that i was disappointed, i really enjoyed that title spending 2,322 hours (steam stats). That period economics were not good in Greece and for me also, i was unemployed and i was depending so much on content creators who were producing freeware content, routes and locos, so to make my collection bigger. Exactly then i started to appreciate the content creators for their efforts and the game engine also, which was so welcome to host others people creations. I understood very well at that part, that the game was offering the engine but the quantity and the force was through the contents in content manager. I realized later the power of the forum, i remember when i was cooperating with a member and we managed to make the stubborn Br9f standard to finally appear in Trainz 12 railyard. Later Tane came, i bought it with service pack 4 and platinum edition, 1834 hours of playing ( steam stats), after some years i started to spent few money on payware content, mainly to support the company to develop the game further and some content creators that i had used freeware in the past. Tane was a big step forward, much better than Trainz 12 but without the railyard which i found was my biggest disappointment, hopefully it was only this. I passed Trainz 19 totally because my pc was not good enough to support it so i stuck with Tane until this November. I moved from Greece to Germany last year and for practical reasons i bought a HP Victus laptop for gaming, i was not so sure if it could handle Trainz 22 but i took the risk for one reason, backwards compatibility, so not to buy again the dlc i have bought already in Tane. Hopefully the laptop can manage very good on high settings. Trainz 22 for me is the best Trainz i have seen so far, numbers are telling the truth 485 hours in 2 months (steam stats). I am not hesitating also since economics are better to enrich the hobby that at difficult times and now keeps me company and helping me to relax from the problems of life. Concluding from all the above, the main power of the title was, is and shall be the content. Secondly comes the engine of the game, and after graphics and sounds. All the previous without the good team spirit of the forum, everyone to play good his role, content creators payware and freeware and advices to solve problems even sharing our thoughts as we do now in this thread, would make the game less interesting and important. Priority to team spirit, N3V needs the content creators and the content creators need the engine they like and feel comfortable all this time and all we need the forum to communicate. Thank you all for being such a good company for 12 years now.
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