Hi All
In regards to helpdesk support, this has not been provided for TRS2004 since early 2008 (
see the announcement here ).
Having to provide support for TRS2006 and older is a huge task. That's 10 'base' editions of Trainz/paintshed (not including international), of which some are extremely old, and are not supported under current operating systems. Although this doesn't sound like much, having to remember all of the little 'tricks' for issues with each one is not easy. It's hard enough to remember TRS2006+, which is 5 'base' versions. Still a lot to try and remember. However, that is manageable.
In regards to the DLS. Please see my previous posts regarding this. One of the main issues is that, with the requirement to still support older editions, we cannot make any real changes to the DLS functions. As was seen after the server upgrades. At the time we upgraded the servers, we made some security upgrades. These upgrades, which were intended to make the servers more secure, blocked access to the DLS for older editions of Trainz. To fix it, we had to remove the security upgrade.
Would you feel safe if a server had to be held at a 7 year old security 'state' so as to allow older editions of Trainz to function?
As such, from the 1st of September, any changes to the DLS will not be tested with TRS2006 and older. You will need a FCT to continue accessing the server (or have a supported edition of Trainz registered). In the case of some users, they have had free DLS access since TRS2004 came out, and may not have purchased any further copies of Trainz. That's near to 7 years of free access. However, the actual access is not free for us to provide. It does cost money to run a server, and provide access to the server. This is offset by First Class Ticket sales, however the more users who use the free service, the more FCT sales we will need to make to cover them, so as to off-set the cost of operating the DLS. Otherwise we would either have to close the DLS down (not preferred), or block free access for users who only have TRS2006 and older (remember, having a supported serial number means that you will still have access to the DLS).
As such, we will ask that users with unsupported editions either have a FCT, or register a serial number for a 'supported' edition.
To re-cap. After September 1st, you will need to either have a registered serial number for TC1/2 or newer, or you will need an FCT, to access the DLS. We will also not be supporting the use of the internal download tools in unsupported editions from September 1st onwards. However, this does not mean we will block these editions immediately. It may be some time before they actually stop working (apart from the requirement for a newer serial number in your account, or a FCT).
You will still be able to use your edition of Trainz, for as long as you have a computer that can run it (you may find that older editions do not run under newer operating systems). You will just not be able to use the online functions in Trainz, or may need to use alternate methods to access these (such as the DLS).
