Alastair in TRS2006 etc.

[SeanW]

Hey everyone;

I've been working for about a year and a half on a large Trainz route, Halisburg, and I just remembered something and now have a question about.

As most of you know, when you start a session in "Driver" mode whether from the main menu or from a "Quick Drive" command in Surveyor, you end up being assigned to the head locomotive/car of the train under the care of the driver whose name comes first in alphabetic order.

In TRS2006 and previous to sometime in Trainz history, this was a driver named Alastair. But I read in 2007 that Alastair, a real person, died in 2007 (may he R.I.P. ) Further to that I also read that his surviving family was not happy with all the threads on this forum bashing "Alastair's" driving (because he was the default driver) and for that reason in Trainz versions following TRS2006, he was maintained in the driver list but his name was changed to Harry or something beginning with H anyway. While I respect those wishes, it raises an obvious problem.

Since other-version compatibility (including forward compatibility) is something I consider important in my project, I need to know if provisions have been made in subsequent trainz versions for Alastiar-first sessions designed in TRS2006?

Obviously I don't want to set up a session where the player is supposed to drive a coal train but a TC/2009 player ends up on the Metro or something.

Edited to ask: I forgot about TRS 2007, a small Germany only release of TRAINZ. If I have to set up different sessions for TRS2006 and TC3/TRS2009 players, I'd like to know where TRS2007 fits in as well.

 

[JCitron]

Hi Sean,

I can't answer your last question, but the first I think is pretty obvious. Alistair is no longer the default driver Adaire or someone else with an A for their first name. It's no big deal because even if you put a driver in a sessions, and Alistair is no longer there, another one with an A should replace him as the first driver.

He was one of the biggest contributors to the forums and the Trainz community and he is sadly missed. The day we received word of his demise, was like one where the whole world stood still. The forums, other than a condolences thread, were quiet. Even now we still think of him often as he was like a brother to many of us here.

John

 

[PerRock]

Its based off from KUID number so you could call him (the driver) anything you wanted really; heck you could name them all the same. and it wouldn't matter.

peter

 

[SeanW]

Its based off from KUID number so you could call him (the driver) anything you wanted really; heck you could name them all the same. and it wouldn't matter.

Thanks PerRock, that's exactly what I needed


But hang on, if Alastair/harry's/whoever's KUID is the same, wouldn't Harry or whatever the new name be the default driver?

 

[Midland]

The drivers are merely representative of the AI; the real Alistair was a competent driver. In effect the 'drivers' are simply photographs of people but because the AI can be stunningly stupid and anoyying and because the 'A' driver was the default driver Alistair tended to get the blame for all sorts of things. I can kinda understand the family's position on that.

Incidentally someone modelled an Alistair memorial which is on the DLS and makes a good scenery object as well as being a much nicer and more sensitive way of remembering Alistair.



Cheers

Nix