I'm Done - My last say.

[robogo]

I have just completed my last downloads from the DLS, some of the Work Cars by bendorsey and the D&RG 2-6-0 and Rolling Stock by elvenor. I am really glad that I got on the wagon in time, over the past months I have managed to collect 20 Gb of the finest Content available.

This whole Trainz thing is a grand experience, my biggest THANK YOU to ALL who made this possible.

Now for the sad part (and my last say on this subject), I will not get a FCT, charging for bandwith should be a crime against humanity. While most regard the price of a FCT as a minimal fee, where I come from it is enough to feed a family for a month, send a child to school for a year and the price I pay for every 1 Gb that I have the privelage to download from the internet.

Besides, do you know of any other Gaming Co. that charges a premium for bandwith?

What will happen in about 24 hours of time is not Auran stopping to support a product, they have stopped support for TRS06 and later quite a while back. Nobody expects them to keep on supporting these products, to keep on fixing and improving them, they expected that from TRS09 and 10.

No, what Auran is doing is refusing a service which they promised in kind, refusing Content which was build for these very titles, unless of corse you pay for it. I hope that in the final moments they will come to their senses and make a plan to keep this Content available, for free, for future generations of Trainz People.

 

[cascaderailroad]

No matter how much you download ... it always seems that another set of railcars and locos shows up that you had somehow, overlooked.

I had previosly searched Majekear, downloaded each and every one of his railcars ... and today searching Hy_Cube, Hi_Cube, 86ft, 86 Foot ... etc... it turned up 36 overlooked railcars ... why is it impossible to achive 100% of all asset content ?

My $19.40 for a year will go far ... and is well worth it ... downloading speeds are amazing

 

[mcguirel]

This subject has been beaten to death.

You choose not to look at the big picture. AURAN feels that it is time to move forward with innovation concerning their product line.
AURAN has provided as promised years of free access to the DLS as promised to the legal purchasing people since Trainz came into existence. Some jumped on the bandwagon at different times, thus free access length varies from person to person.

AURAN can not continue as a business without new revenue. If you had a business, revenue generation would be very important to you. Some feel this is greed. Wrong, it is survival. Since Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006, there have been five variations of New releases. AURAN is now asking for financial support revenue to continue their product.

Personally, some may not be financially able to do so. This is understanding by members and AURAN. However, this decision was not without ample warning. The time is now upon us to move forward.

 

[bendorsey]

I just finished uploading my last TRS2004 item. I don't agree with Aurans decision but I've been told my items work in TS2010 without changes so I'm going to assume (gotta be carefull with that word) if I start making items for TS2010 they can be made to work in TRS2004 by changing the build number back to 2.4. I'll find out in a few days I suppose I (wish me luck, lol).

Ben

 

[pommie]

over the past months I have managed to collect 20 Gb of the finest Content available.

While most regard the price of a FCT as a minimal fee, where I come from it is enough to feed a family for a month, send a child to school for a year and the price I pay for every 1 Gb that I have the privelage to download from the internet.

So you have spent 20 times the cost of a FCT (using your figures) on bandwidth from your isp, you could of fed a family for 20 months with that.

I will not get a FCT, charging for bandwith should be a crime against humanity.

Refer to my above comment, you have just paid the equivalent of 20 FCT's to your isp for BANDWIDTH, yet you claim Auran (who had to pay for that 20gig bandwidth you got for free from them) have committed a crime against humanity when recouping that money.
And just one thing I would like to point out, it is the people who PAID for their FCT that paid for your FREE bandwidth, in this case FREE means someone else paid, so who is it that is ripping who off.

Cheers David

 

[paulzmay]

I just finished uploading my last TRS2004 item. I don't agree with Aurans decision but I've been told my items work in TS2010 without changes so I'm going to assume (gotta be carefull with that word) if I start making items for TS2010 they can be made to work in TRS2004 by changing the build number back to 2.4. I'll find out in a few days I suppose I (wish me luck, lol).

Ben

Everything uploaded for about the last year or more has been checked for compatibility with TS2009/10 - I've only had one faulty piece of new content from the DLS in that time (one of yours actually ). The biggest change to TS09/10 build content seems to be splines, and the insistence on using the correct GMax / Max material naming conventions (from my limited experience so far). Of course you could always upload as Trainz Classics for another year or two if you don't want the stress...

Paul

 

[robogo]

cascaerailroad - This is why it is so important that this Content remains in the Public Domain.

mcguirel - If AURAN want to do business they should stop complaining how bad it is and follow the basic principles of all successfull business.
1. Look at what other business in the same field are doing and copy them.
2. Listen to the people who support you.

pommie - this is why I say that I am priveliged (and fortunate and perhaps even blessed) but there is something fundamentally wrong with paying a Gaming Co. for BANDWIDTH. I would rather say this is Auran's way of charging for content. Referring to the basic principles of successfull business, how many Gaming Companies do you know that charges for bandwidth?

Look, I do agree that Trainz must move forward, I am ready for it and willing to pay the price for my copy of TRS?. They must innovate and improve and if they want to make lots of money they need to, like all the other Gaming Companies, spend a lot of money on development and advertising. This money must come from investers, the problem is nobody will invest if they do not innovate and bring something new and fresh to the table (having bug-free code will also help alot).

Who ever thought that The Simms would be such a huge success ?

 

[pommie]

The FCT is not paying Auran for the bandwidth, it is paying for the bandwidth that Auran uses with the DLS, which by the way is not even in Australia, because the bandwidth is cheaper in the US guess where Aurans servers are, even this forum.
Can you imagine the charges for the DLS, after all you just downloaded 20gig for free, and you are only one person, there are thousands that have done that and more, plenty of members out there have downloaded the whole download station, and that bandwidth has to be paid for, Auran have stated that if they spent the profits from the DLS on beer, they could not even get drunk once a month :hehe:

This has been done to death over the years so this is pommie signing out to enjoy some popcorn

Cheers David

 

[mcguirel]

Robogo, you views are subjective. Buy Auran and run it how you deem it suits you.

Until then, I am sharing my popcorn.

 

[clam1952]

Referring to the basic principles of successfull business, how many Gaming Companies do you know that charges for bandwidth?

Not a fair comparison............
Firstly this is a not a FPS game with a few user created levels and addons, secondly most other companies probably don't need to as user created stuff is usually hosted on independent sites, thirdly they do not have the vast library of assets that is on the DLS or probably the number of people downloading. Servers cost money to run.

 

[pommie]

Until then, I am sharing my popcorn

I've run out, care to share with me

Cheers David

 

[johnwhelan]

cascaerailroad - This is why it is so important that this Content remains in the Public Domain.

mcguirel - If AURAN want to do business they should stop complaining how bad it is and follow the basic principles of all successfull business.
1. Look at what other business in the same field are doing and copy them.
2. Listen to the people who support you.

pommie - this is why I say that I am priveliged (and fortunate and perhaps even blessed) but there is something fundamentally wrong with paying a Gaming Co. for BANDWIDTH. I would rather say this is Auran's way of charging for content. Referring to the basic principles of successfull business, how many Gaming Companies do you know that charges for bandwidth?

Look, I do agree that Trainz must move forward, I am ready for it and willing to pay the price for my copy of TRS?. They must innovate and improve and if they want to make lots of money they need to, like all the other Gaming Companies, spend a lot of money on development and advertising. This money must come from investers, the problem is nobody will invest if they do not innovate and bring something new and fresh to the table (having bug-free code will also help alot).

Who ever thought that The Simms would be such a huge success ?

My content is not in the public domain. It is available on the DLS and several other sites but public domain it is most definitely not.

The DLS costs money to organise and host, bandwidth costs money as well. Not all copies of Trainz sold are TS2010 sold direct from a download some get sold through distributors so Auran might get $5 from a $20 sale, not a lot to support the company and free DLS downloads for ever.

I am not aware of any other company in the railway/railroad sim business that has such a wide variety of content, so which company would you have the emulate?

Cheerio John

 

[evan123]

Besides, do you know of any other Gaming Co. that charges a premium for bandwith?

Yes... many companies charge for bandwith.

 

[mcguirel]

I've run out, care to share with me

Cheers David

Hmm, my offer to share my popcorn might just break the bank. Better buy some Orrville Redenbacher stock.

Extra Butter Please.......

 

[robogo]

Thank goodness I do not have to pay Activision for all my CoD bandwidth, id for ETQW, UBISOFT for WiC, Capcom for DR and Blizzard for SCII, not a single Dollar for Homeworld or Celestia, OpenOffice or GIMP, Blender, 7ZIP or Winamp.

 

[Barry]

Thank goodness I do not have to pay Activision for all my CoD bandwidth, id for ETQW, UBISOFT for WiC, Capcom for DR and Blizzard for SCII, not a single Dollar for Homeworld or Celestia, OpenOffice or GIMP, Blender, 7ZIP or Winamp.

FlightGear, Blender Game Engine, and keep an eye on ORTS. Former Trainz Mariner. B

 

[evan123]

Thank goodness I do not have to pay Activision for all my CoD bandwidth, id for ETQW, UBISOFT for WiC, Capcom for DR and Blizzard for SCII, not a single Dollar for Homeworld or Celestia, OpenOffice or GIMP, Blender, 7ZIP or Winamp.

You'll have to pay for new map packs with SC2. Blizzard makes a killing off of their WoW subscriptions as well. Having customers pay for services outside of the actual game is very common these days, in fact Auran is kind of behind on this concept.

 

[Buffalo_trains93]

The FCT is not paying Auran for the bandwidth, it is paying for the bandwidth that Auran uses with the DLS, which by the way is not even in Australia, because the bandwidth is cheaper in the US guess where Aurans servers are, even this forum.
Can you imagine the charges for the DLS, after all you just downloaded 20gig for free, and you are only one person, there are thousands that have done that and more, plenty of members out there have downloaded the whole download station, and that bandwidth has to be paid for, Auran have stated that if they spent the profits from the DLS on beer, they could not even get drunk once a month :hehe:

This has been done to death over the years so this is pommie signing out to enjoy some popcorn

Cheers David

David,

I agree with you, but I would like to play devil's advocate for a moment. Thousands of people would not be downloading so much, setting Auran back, so much, if this call wasn't made, to stop 04 and 06 content distribution or whatever they're stopping, because at this point, the topic has been beaten to death so many times, I've forgotten what it was even initally about. Ethier way, Auran had a lose lose situation at there hands, but more money would come in from continueing supporting 04 and 06 (Not support) if they had just left it alone. A famous saying "If it ain't broken, don't fix it"

My .02

Take care,

Ryan

 

[andy03]

i am very lucky because i had an fct from when i bought my trainz it was a free fct i still have it not activateded its for 31 days

 

[NikkiA]

Thank goodness I do not have to pay Activision for all my CoD bandwidth, id for ETQW, UBISOFT for WiC, Capcom for DR and Blizzard for SCII, not a single Dollar for Homeworld or Celestia, OpenOffice or GIMP, Blender, 7ZIP or Winamp.

Be prepared to be disappointed - Bobby Kotick has dropped hints that charging a monthly fee for CoD is a very real possibility in the near future, same goes for Ubisoft.

Also, Kotick has mentioned the 'monetisation of bnet 2.0' in the past, most assume that this is 'just' advertisements on the launcher, but there are rumours that it may end up being a monthly fee for bnet games (ie, SC2)