Surely this is what all these arguments are about.
Why can,t posters understand that 'Auran' as it was no longer exists and what we have is N3V a software publishing company who is prepared to see Trainz keep on developing (using 'Auran' as a trademark only), but are only prepared to continue using their money as long as they are receiving a reasonable return on their investments.
Members sticking to 2004 and 2006 and also expecting completely free downloads are not making any contribution to the finances. Even more worse in my opinion are those members who insist on recommending to new customers only to buy this older software.
At the end of the day N3V is a company and the decision on the future of Trainz will be a financial decision only.
If we wish to see our beloved Trainz continue then it is up to us to support N3V's actions.
Cheers, John
Hello John,
Having started this thread I'd just like to gently refer back to my post #1.
The proposal was never asking for it to be completely free. I fully understand the business, if not the technical, reasons behind this.
My proposal was intended as a simple change to allow full DLS access to those of us who choose to stay with earlier versions, for whatever reason - and pay. Win-win.
I even did some simple costings in a later post.
Financial decisions are, in part, usually based on customer demand. Out of interest, I wonder if N3V measured the demand for continued full DLS access for 04/06/09 and its income potential - or is this thread the first bit of market research?
There is still time for a shift in policy. To me it doesn't seem to be a big change.
TRS2004/06 support can be dropped - as planned. Mine has all come from the community, a great deal of it from contributors to this thread from different sides of the argument. I still greatly value that support from my early day here, and look forward to more in the future.
N3V can still have my money for FCT and TS2010, until I want to use it. In return I'd like full access - including new items, for the reasons already stated.
I fully agree that recommending older Trainz versions is not productive, and in no-ones interest. I guess that supporters of any version will always come to the defence of their own, when a single version is stated to be the best. However, this thread, I believe, is not the place to advertise any of them. It's all subjective. I'm sure they are
all good to those who like them. Although I'm very interested in the comparitive merits of the different versions, I suggest we beat each other up (nicely!) in the private threads.
In closing (for now), the proposals for an alternative third party DLS has to be realistic. The current DLS platform when running well, provides a perfect service, at least for me. It's there day and night. When it goes down, it gets fixed - even if we do have to wait a while sometimes.
I'll look forward with interest to what may be available elsewhere that can equally satisfy the needs of uploaders and downloaders. But it will be a tough call. It's an easy promise, but hard to deliver 24/7 without the financial and technical backing.
Meanwhile, I still hope N3V can be persuaded.
Cheers
Casper
(PS: I've put on my helmet from page 1 of the GMax tutorial. I hope I won't need it!)
.