An Open Letter To All

[The_Salesman]

Hey everyone. Some of you probably don't know me, and most of you, the latter category probably representing the majority of our older Trainz community, wish you didn't.

I joined the Trainz Community in Febuary, 2002 after finding a certain sandbox game, Trainz, by a then, unknown to me, developer, Auran, in my local Sam Goody, which has in the past couple of years closed down and is now the home of a gym which seems to be mostly deserted whenever I drive past.

In the intervening six years I've been through two jobs and a period of unemployment. I've owned three computers, six vehicles, one girlfriend turned fiance' and Trainz, Paint Shed, UTC, 2004 and 2006.

I betatested a service pack for 04, and was in the first part of the beta for Classics before real life called me away because of real life family issues. I spent my time helping out in the Tech Support section of the old forums. I've been in flame wars with you, I've helped you fix your problems, I've offered support, advice and friendship, all because of my love of Trainz and this community.

I've seen and played several dozen games and sims in that time. I've betatested for three MMOs, and played two of those regularly. I've capped two characters on City of Heroes, and dabbled in other games.

But something always brought me back to Trainz. It might have been my friends I made while being an Op in the chatroom. It might have been my deep-seeded, and as of yet, unexplained love of trains in general, it could have been sharing a bowl of Dippin' Dots Ice Cream with John Banks (I'm quoted in his doctoral thesis by the way) or sipping beer with Tony Hilliam on a hot summer evening in Fort Lauderdale while he watched golf and showed me how to open a Corona "Aussie Style" after a long day on the convention floor where I know that I personally brought at least 80 people into this world we all love.

I think in the end, it's probably my love of the game, the community and the people I met and chatted with from Auran.

I cannot think of a single other game I've been a part of where the CEO of the company took the time to stop and chat, much less email me a picture of the Australian coast he took as he flew over it. Thanks Greg.

I've been very lucky when it's come to Trainz. I purchased the original, my parents bought me Paint Shed. Tony presented me with another copy as I was leaving Florida after the weekend at the Fort Lauderdale show. I was given, by Auran, a copy of UTC and won another, which I had sent to my friend Boco. I bought 04 for a pittance at a Gamestop in Athens, Georgia, and when a disc for that was unusable, Lance Jago, who I knew long before as prr001, sent me a completely new copy of 04. Then, I lucked out once again as The Powers That Be at Auran sent me a copy of 06, as they did to all the Moderators of forum and chat.

So now, things have settled down in my life quite a bit, and I thought I'd pop back into my old community and stay awhile, work on my dream route, and meet up with old friends, and I just have to ask you all, Auran and Community, what happened?

First of all, I've really just had the chance to play around with 06, and I have to say, it is, in a nutshell, awful. I've reinstalled it 4 times in the last two days, and, inspiring me to put this post out, I've deleted it for the fourth and final time. CMP locks and hangs for no reason. Custom content crashes half the time, and the game refuses to launch. When it does lauch, it's ok, but not the quality I have come to expect from an Auran product.

There was a time I was quite the Auran fanboy, I admit. I was head over heels in love with Trainz, and UTC was what I had always searched for in a sandbox, being without the spacial and financial means for the layout I always wanted. Then, for some reason, which, in the intervening years I have come to accept, Greg Lane, and thereby, Auran, decided to turn Virtual Model Railroading On Your PC, into Virtual Railroading and the quality of the series went majorly downhill. What happened guys?

Seriously. You did virtual model railroading great, but the virtual railroad simulator was a step back. If I could imagine that my Virtual Model Railroad represented a real model railroad, I could certainly imagine that my coal hopper was dropping coal at the power plant.

It seems to me that, as most MMO developers do when caving into the very verbal and very much minority PVP crowd, you gave into the very verbal and extreme minority of those extreme few in the community who wanted a Railroad Sim and not a model railroad sim, and from what I have seen, few of those participate in the community any more.

Now, to the community itself, I only have one statement to make.Shame on you ALL!

This used to be the greatest international community of railroad fans (or any game fans) I had ever seen. Now it's a hodgepodge of fans who are segregated into different regions, complaining if one group makes a thread about a certain part of one country's rail system, whining about waffling on one subject while you post about bandwidth being used on that subject when you have no reason to care about since you do not have to read the thread if you have no interest in it.

When you start your own Trainz Forum, you can then dictate what the subjects of the forum are about, till then, the Forum is free to use for all it's customers, whether they only bought one copy of Trainz, or own the entire Auran library of titles.

Let's bring this community back to what it was. A friendly, caring group of people who not only worked together to make this game great, but to make this virtual little town of ours a friendly place to come together and discuss our common love of railroading, no matter what the origin.

As for me, at the moment, for the first time in six and a half years, I do not have a single byte of Auran content on my harddrive. It saddens me, but I also know that I can reinstall UTC and hopefully find that spark again.

Dave Chappell
aka The Salesman
best known as BadTrash

 

[Ferrous]

Hi BadTrash,

I was about to suggest you pop into the chat, but seeing as you're already a step ahead... :hehe:

I know it's probably a moot point at this time, but SP1 seemed to fix a lot of the issues I had with 06 (ran it on a desktop without internet for about 2 years, and had the same problems with constant crashing--never used CMP though, so I can't comment on any improvements there). For what it's worth, 06SP1 is actually pretty stable for me (aside from the occasional "rebuilding the Trainz Asset Database" or the fact that I can't use the Download Helper, but that's another story... ).

See ya 'round,
Fe

 

[thegrindre]

I, too, am one of those that tossed '06 into the trash after getting fed up with all of the lock ups, freezes, and crashes I encountered and, that darn CMP but, found '04 to be an excellent alternative. It runs smooth and does most everything I want a train sim to do. I believe '04 is the most stable of them all after all I've read around here. The fewest problems encountered are with '04. Add Tafweb's TrainzObjects to it and you'll have a fine train game.
Step up one notch to '04 and give it a try until '09 comes out then, read everything first before you buy it.
Oh, Auran stopped supporting '04 about a year ago but there are enough of us around that will give you all the support and help you'll ever need.

Welcome back, btw...

Have fun,

 

[Mickeya]

I read a lot about the problems of TRS 2006 and can honestly say I have had no problems with it whatsoever,and on my pc it runs far smoother than TRS 2004 and the graphics are much much better.

Just my penny's worth for anyone who is interested

Mickey

 

[aardvark1]

Hello and welcome back Dave :aka The Salesman : BadTrash

First, thank you for your open letter to the Community.

Without a doubt, each of us has our own opinion as to which version of Trainz is best.

While I did beta test 06 and SP1 for 06 and TC1,2,3...I have no desire to force my opinion on the Community. Each version has pros and cons... I use what I like and which one gives me the best enjoyment during my retirement years.

With regard to the Forums....yes, we do see many new people. Many of these new people bring new ideas that enhance the Trainz experience, and I applaud them for their input. Occasionally, we see some Forum posts that are not acceptable to the Community...but the MODS promptly make the necessary actions to correct the situation.

Hopefully, you will find your level of comfort with the Trainz version of your choice and rekindle your love of Trainz.

Good luck, glad to see you back here and in Chat.

Regards,
Ron

 

[deeelare]

The_Salesman
-quote-
When you start your own Trainz Forum, you can then dictate what the subjects of the forum are about, till then, the Forum is free to use for all it's customers, whether they only bought one copy of Trainz, or own the entire Auran library of titles.

Let's bring this community back to what it was. A friendly, caring group of people who not only worked together to make this game great, but to make this virtual little town of ours a friendly place to come together and discuss our common love of railroading, no matter what the origin.
-end quote-

Ayy , there's the rub --
If one does not moderate the subjects , and allows free use to 'customers' , it slowly becomes what we have today .
One caring group coming together to discuss Railroading and help other members with problems , versus another group who are more interested in chatting and increasing their post count (for reasons beyond me ).
I am quite aware that I can easily ignore these threads/posts but it is still annoying ( and unless I have misread some of the Mods posts , I believe they are about to become more aggressive) .

I truely enjoyed your thread , however , I felt a need to add my thoughts .

--- ,DLR

 

[Smileyman]

Yay!!!

Long time no see BT.
There was a time when the likes of you and me were very active on the forums, and there was rarely a thread that I read that didn't have a comment from yourself or Spooney. :hehe:

I remember you changing your username (a sad day), and I think our beta testing for TRS2006 may have overlapped, but I'm not sure.

What was that graphic you had in your banner all those years ago?
I seem to remember it being memorable, but I can't remember what it was. lol
Seriously, it's in the back of my mind for some reason.

Anyway, you make some good points in your post above.
Concerning TRS2006, some people will tell you that you can get CMP working, others will tell you not to bother.
All I can say is I have gone through reinstalling TRS2006 many, many times, and eventually went back to TRS2004.
At the end of the day, it's about enjoying yourself, and once I went back to TRS2004, I found myself enjoying it again.

I even briefly used TC3, but I'm back with TRS2004 again, and I couldn't be happier.

I guess it will be up to you how long you fight with TRS2006 (if you bother again), but times too short for that nonsense.

BTW, there is still some of that old community spirit here, but you have to dig a little deeper for it these days.

Welcome back mate,

Smiley.

 

[Dermmy]

"Old School Trainzer' - love it!

Like you I reverted to TRS04 (mostly) although to be fair I do usually run my routes in 06 - there is a tweak or two in the graphics engine and/or assets handling that smoothes things out a bit. It was on and off my computer a half a dozen times though and the disks lived in the box a long long time before I plucked up the courage to persevere with CMP.

On the community thing - sad ain't it! The old spirit is still there though, you just have to dig a bit deeper to find it....

Andy

 

[meridious]

Nice to see you back !

Like Smiley and Dermmy said, the spirit is still there. Digging deeper means you may have to look at other forums as well to find it. Can't remember if you were still around at the time of the "great forum crash". Since that time, many people have left to their own forums and many have been banned.

As for 06, don't use it myself. I've been working in TC3 and working with the 09 dev build. By far, TC3 is better than 06 and 09 will be even better. that's just my opinion though.

 

[Euphod]

Now, to the community itself, I only have one statement to make.Shame on you ALL!

Nice that you seem to think you have the right to insult everyone here. I'm amused that no one else bristled at that.

How dare YOU wag your finger at us? We are the community now. Your sense of nostalgia not withstanding, you left and have no right to look down your nose at those who stayed. You're acting like you moved from your hometown and are outraged to find the ice cream stand closed when you moved back! Where were you to support it? If you loved it so damn much why didn't you stay and drum up business to support it?

The forums have changed because the community has changed. Established members are often taken aback by the actions of new members because they are used to doing things a certain way. It all sorts itself out (with help from the mods), and it's perfectly NORMAL in any society confronted with change.

I'm glad to see a "prodigal son" return, but you really need to heed your own admonition:
"When you start your own Trainz Forum, you can then dictate what the subjects of the forum are about, till then, the Forum is free to use for all it's customers, whether they only bought one copy of Trainz, or own the entire Auran library of titles."

We all have a history with Trainz, whether it's long or short or includes personal anecdotes about it's creators or not, so your long and storied history grants you no license to pass judgment. If you want to create
"A friendly, caring group of people who not only worked together to make this game great, but to make this virtual little town of ours a friendly place to come together and discuss our common love of railroading, no matter what the origin." Then stay and do so, but realize you are then imposing your own will on the rest of us, just as you seem to be criticizing in your post. If you find the forums and the community so abhorrent then perhaps you should consider your own involvement.

Welcome back. Peace.

PS:

That's me on my "High Horse", do you a picture of you on yours? Thanks to Smileyman for reminding me to post that!

 

[Barney]

This is one of those "deja vu" threads, isn't it?

Barney

 

[Smileyman]

I'm amused that no one else bristled at that.

Doesn't bother me.

I've no more of a problem with him getting on his high horse than I do with you getting on yours.

Freedom of speech and all that.

Smiley.

 

[7121239]

Well said Euphod, a response which I believe is and should be representative of most of the membership here. Longevity of membership or association does not in itself give any Forum member any additional rights. I hate name dropping as a means of trying to establish a kind of ranking position from which one can then proceed to criticise others. This particular post, to me, gives me the feeling that 'God', has returned and is not happy that in his absence.....what have we all been up to mis-managing everything. It's like being told-off. It's not like that at all as most of us 'have' been adapting and trying to 'go with the flow' and remain flexible and most impotantly, adaptable.........
I respect all members off this Forum, mostly those with a long-term involvement, but mostly those who have remained continuous members through the ups and downs this Forum has presented.
Moderation is what keeps a Forum focussed - dare I say it, this Forum does need much more moderation just to control some of the probs mentioned earlier.
I also hate long posts so calling it a day.

Regards to all,

Ian M
7121239


I

 

[The_Salesman]

Thanks for the replies. An open letter deserves open responses.

My opinions are exactly what I feel about the game and this community right now, however I wasn't name dropping so much as naming people I had become friends with because of this game.

I could go into a long spiel about why I haven't been around, but then I'm pretty sure Ed would consider me then trying for a sympathy vote, but I can assure you I had good reasons, and no way possible, to maintain my presence in the community during the above mentioned family emergency.

But now I'm an outsider looking in, and maybe the community hasn't changed, maybe just my perspective of it has. Regardless, from my point of view, it doesn't seem to be the happy, friendly community I joined.

I wish you all luck in Trainz, and in life.

 

[Euphod]

I could go into a long spiel about why I haven't been around, but then I'm pretty sure Ed would consider me then trying for a sympathy vote, (Snip)

Well, if you care what I consider, then you are the only one in the world that does!

I don't question your reasons for being away, I only question your indignation at the state of the forums when you return. As has been frequently pointed out to me, "Change is the new Status Quo!". We are all still learning how to get along with each other, the new guys and the old guys and the young guys and the ancient guys, (not to mention..."the ladies"). It will all work out in the end.

Believe me, I'm one of the most offensive members here, and if we could get a statistic listing who is the "Member Appearing on most Ignore Lists", I would have to figure my name would be pretty high on the list!

Really, welcome back and let's forget all this "High Horsing Around"! Myself, I'm waiting for someone to knock me off mine...I'm afraid of heights!

 

[axe1970]

Welcome Back BadTrash.

I will say that I agree with ED. Although I would probably dance around the subject

Just as life has thrown you curve balls, life has also had that effect on most of the community. (Dare I say all). It really is a testament to the community that we have stuck around for so long.

I have been a big Auran fanboy in the past and continue to display that on a casual basis, but I will say Auran haven't always been holding there end up of the "Community Spirit" bargain as time rolls by.

Things seem to be changing, but again, Time will tell.

Regards

AXE

 

[sethmcs]

Wellcome back Dave,

I joined the forum few month prior to the great crash and from that day to this I have found the forum to be helpful and quite entertaining. There are quite a cast of characters that belong to this forum. I can picture myself now on a high horse with a lance charging Ed on his. Joust. I assure you most of it is done in a spirt of fun.:hehe:

Now for a quote:
"There is a principal which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguements and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance....that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer

Please give us a chance....

Again wellcome back....:wave:

 

[pommie]

Hey Dave, cheer up mate

The forums have changed over the years, and so they should, I think your problem is more to do with the fact that you are out of touch with who to take no notice of.
I post very little nowadays due to some harassment I received a while ago, but the mods are doing a reasonable job of the weeding at the moment so things should show some improvement soontm :hehe:
I have 06 on my comp but only use it for some content beta testing, when 09 gets here I will take a serious look at it then decide whether to give trainz away or not

This is more for Tony than you, I still look at TRS as a MODEL Train Sim and therefor accept its limitations a lot more than the realastic Train Sim crowd.

Cheers David (who still pops into the chat every now and then)

 

[scorpio48]

Another Open Letter.

CHANGE!! Of course our forum is changing, our planet is changing and if we didn't change, we would all still be living in caves.
Its no good moaning about the changes going on around us, its up to all of us to embrace the changes and ensure that we all do our best to tweak them to our advantage.
There are many members of this (and the old) Forum, who have shared their family crises and bereavements with us, and they have received nothing but sympathy and compassion from all, the old, young, new and long-term members.
Perhaps you should read some of these before complaining, it might reinforce your belief in mankind (and womankind).
I am proud to be a member of this Forum, and I beleive it's one of the best available.
I have many who I consider friends, who are only to willing to give up their time to help someone out.
Its true, everyone has a right to an opinion, but none of us can live in the past, I am a few weeks from my 60th birthday, and I have often wished I could turn back the clock, but reality asks me why.
Welcome Back
Pete.

 

[leeferr]

Dave
Welcome back. Yes the community has changed, but name me something that hasn't changed. Some of it is for the better and some for the worst. It doesn't matter where you go, there are going to be wafflers and flamers and we seem to get our share here. I just ignore them for the most part.
So, come on in and join the fun again.
Mike