Auran too obvious? (Don't let title mislead you)

[FlyingScottmond]

I recently figured one thing out while on my adventures in the RSOF.
Auran has one fatal flaw, it is too prone to being buisness-ish.
I am simply stating this as a hope to ignite a certain side of Auran and the community that will hopefully revolusionize how we think of Trainz.

A good role model here to work on is Jagex, a quirky (please don't godsword-own me mr Mod Mark!) little british company that started from three dudes aptly named Andrew Gower, Paul Gower and Constant Tedder. They did a quick job of creating a little game called 'DeviousMUD' and then they evolved so it is now the most popular online game of all time, RuneScape.(World of Warcraft has record for most subscribers) Reason for their success? First, they actually play the game, infact, they also held a contest where the winner got a trip to Jagex studios.* Another thing, they make it look as though they love making the game, and they do!!! They explain everything down to the tiniest thing and whenever a bug goes up, every single project they are working on stops completely and they fix it. If you don't beleive me, go read thorugh every single news post here and decide. (Note, if you stumble upon something called 'Summoning', even Jagex admitted that they over-hyped when it wasn't actually as good as it was.)http://www.runescape.com/

Now, let's look a Auran.

They started off with two guys who most of the community don't even know who they are. They built a game called Dark Reign, and now EA games took that and built the most successful RTS strategy of all time, Command and Conquer and Auran gets no profit off that. They later ,after a few other games, built Trainz, their main money maker. Where did it all go wrong again? Second sentence, they lost the biggest cash potential of all of Auran's history and now they make the game look perfect in hopes of maximising sales. So look Auran, Trainz just ain't perfect, Auran has got to become more community focused and for once, say something is wrong with it. Just do it.


*It was a video contst and I sort of see a link between Auran and Jagex as both are holding a contest to make an advertisement this year.

 

[Red_Rattler]

RSOF = ?

Auran has one fatal flaw, it is too prone to being buisness-ish.

That's what Auran is, it's a business, and they are in the game to make money. It's just that if I figured out by the information for TS2009/2010 that they are more like buying layouts separately, and with TS2010 possibly now buying scenery such as trees (not that I really understand what Speed Trees are - don't really want to know at the moment) instead of buying a collection of layouts for the one price (ie: to make more money by not including what use to be included.)

In summary (ie no long essays) is that what TS2009/2010 basically are?

 

[Lo_Poly]

I can understand that you have to make money to survive as a business, but it's as if Auran is almost entirely in it for the money now. It feels like the last major changes to Trainz (as well as it's core) were made in '06. Each new release gains several new features, a new design for the GUI appearance, a bug fix here and there, as well as multiple new bugs, and that's just about it... it's very disheartening to me.

Heck, if Auran were to just release a version of Trainz which almost exclusively focused on squashing bugs and improving performance I would buy it.

Or perhaps I doth protest too much?

 

[NSWGR_46Class]

but it's as if Auran is almost entirely in it for the money now.
quote]
Well they tried it the other way and almost went belly up.

 

[Lo_Poly]

but it's as if Auran is almost entirely in it for the money now.

Well they tried it the other way and almost went belly up.

I meant something among the lines of finding an equilibrium, not going to one extreme or the other.

 

[Paulsw2]

It feels like the last major changes to Trainz (as well as it's core) were made in '06. Each new release gains several new features, a new design for the GUI appearance, a bug fix here and there, as well as multiple new bugs, and that's just about it...

I think this does a serious injustice to the development that has gone into TS10 which is clearly a significant improvement on TRS06. Texture compression and other improvements are not just cosmetic changes.

Or perhaps I doth protest too much?

Yes, you do!

Paul

 

[Lewiscc65]

2006 was good. That is when I got into trainz. Then came 2009 which was to be a lot better and more features. What I got was a lot of things that did not work or needed fixing to work. The built in assets had the same problems but some how Aruan has the program ignore them. Instead of fixing the problems in 2009 they came out with 2010 and wanted you to buy it. What stops them from ignoring 2010 and coming out with 2011 to fix 2010 problems?

 

[WindWalkr]

2006 was good. That is when I got into trainz. Then came 2009 which was to be a lot better and more features. What I got was a lot of things that did not work or needed fixing to work. The built in assets had the same problems but some how Aruan has the program ignore them. Instead of fixing the problems in 2009 they came out with 2010 and wanted you to buy it. What stops them from ignoring 2010 and coming out with 2011 to fix 2010 problems?

Actually we've been pretty active about fixing any problems in TS2009 and have stated plans to continue with this even after the release of TS2010. (Specifically, we have two addition service packs planned for TS2009 - SP3 and SP4.)

In my opinion TS2009 was by far the most feature-packed and robust version of Trainz, and was let down only by the lack of significant new routes. TS2010 carries on from this great groundwork by adding some great new routes and additional technologies such as the Surveyor Layer support and SpeedTree.

kind regards,

chris

 

[Lewiscc65]

I am in agreement that 2009 has a lot to offer but one had to do a lot of work on their own to fix assets and make it work.
New routes where made but not in the Native Mode. I understand now that trees and power lines have been created for 2009 this might happen. That is if they all do not move to 2010.
I have heard of an SP3 for some time now but no one has any idea when to look for it. Time line anyone? Carl

 

[sparky15]

Despite all my complaints I will agree TS09 was a huge improvement. But, I feel the jump to new content may have been premature. Including native and compatibility mode made a mess of things.

In my case the new signaling and 5m grid alone where worth the price of admission. Sadly the new content doesn't thrill me at all and the lack of new content to replace the old just isn't there. So I'm forced into a choice. Give up content such as trees to gain performance in native mode or keep on in compatibility mode whose performance is worse than what I had, negating most of the new improvements. I can handle giving up the odd piece of rolling stock or equipment but scenery is what makes the sim come alive. 09 is back in it's box and I'm back to using an older version.

I own five versions of Trainz, six if you count Driver, and I'm afraid I won't be buying another. Every new version adds new features but with a give and take approach. If the new patches for 09 include the ability to use most older trees in native mode I would consider 09 the perfect sim and consider continuing on with Trainz. Having to purchase 10 with all the unwanted content just to use what I have doesn't sit well after buying 09, it shakes the confidence a bit and causes ill feelings from some customers.

I'll probably get hammered for bashing Trainz and Auran. I really don't care. I hope Chris takes this as an honest assessment of the product from a consumer's stand point, which it is meant to be.

FWIW, 09 runs like a dream in native mode for me.

Dave....

 

[WindWalkr]

Sadly the new content doesn't thrill me at all and the lack of new content to replace the old just isn't there. So I'm forced into a choice. Give up content such as trees to gain performance in native mode or keep on in compatibility mode whose performance is worse than what I had, negating most of the new improvements. I can handle giving up the odd piece of rolling stock or equipment but scenery is what makes the sim come alive.

While I completely agree that there wasn't a lot of native-mode scenery available at the launch of TS2009, it's probably worth pointing out that there's a lot of new scenery being made over time- it's probably worth you keeping your eye on the content forums and the DLS if that's all you're looking for.

kind regards,

chris