You are ultimately right, that it is up to the user to notice if they have things, but I won't be the only person that has a lot of the stuff on offer so before long they will have to come up with something else to appease gold members or subscription levels will probably drop pretty fast as there won't be much point in having the benefits in my opinion. Still it's not like they've catastrophically failed yet.
Which is why Trainz Plus is a thing... Sadly. The e-mail was from a Survey in June?May? saying changes to sub will come in August.
It sucks you've had such a rubbish experience with the vault but it's not as bad as you've made out. I will admit that a much broader choice of content is needed because some of us have absolutely no interest in American locos no matter how good they are, but sometimes they are the only thing available to download. It would take time but they should consider releasing some of the older DLC content for the previous games that was made by them at a TRS19 standard just to add a bit more variety to what's available.
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They should, and should have before they even released 19. There should of been a partnership with JR months before 19 even came out. The ball was dropped hugely there. Also, JR staff aren't the easiest to get a hold of, or announce anything. So who know's when a 19 route is ready from them. According to Appoarch Medium, there is some coming soon. And AM was even approached by N3V to make a route. Again, all so late to the party. Personally I think JR makes the most detailed, proto-like routes I've seen in any Train game. The detail just is 100% right up my alley, and exactly how I'd do it. Quite frankly, everything from N3V is just well... kinda lame. Some of the routes offered in 19... look absolutely terrible even with 19 features.. cough..golden..cough. JR really has a high bar, that I've yet to see anyone or 3rd party cross yet. ONLY one that has come close, is the NS Yard Hump Module off the DLS. That IS IT!!
I 100% agree that the quantity of content is not there at the moment, but then TRS19 is still fairly new and a lot of users still decide to stick to T:ANE or even versions of the game that are earlier than that. They either need more partners or more designers because there is a lot of untapped content that could be brought into this game and frankly this is one of several areas where their competitors are miles ahead of them.
They do need more people. They need more like JR who is willing to put the work in. But the money is not there. The need is there, but the community is small, and its niche. It's not the flight sim community. There is is tons of 3rd party studios like JR who make extremely detailed addons. That just don't happen here outside of JR.
Many are still sticking to T:ANE because some of the 19 features to many of the older crowd, just aren't worth it. PBR is actually a real hassle. TurFX was implemented in the most non-user friendly way possible. 19 depending on GFX card, runs like a god or crap compared to T:ANE. It's also a lot of money for World edition. Hint why Regional's came out. Sales just weren't there IMHO. 19 is what T:ANE should of been years ago. Plus who knows. Maybe the release cycles are shrinking for Trainz, and many are just waiting for TR20 to be announced.
All in all, as vocal as I am about the CV. I still take advantage of it. IT has expanded my library , and on items I would NOT of bought solo. BUT! But it's still horribly well done, and I'd recommend it to no one unless they brand new to Trainz and can't build on their own. 100% buy it outright ASAP with the 25% discount code too. Then downgrade to Silver.
Am tad excited to see what Aug brings to the sub. See if they really listened, or just went 'ehh' about it.