Is T:ANE worth buying nowadays?

[ThePoliceman009]

So I saw this sale going on right now: https://store.trainzportal.com/products/trainz-a-new-era

I've been considering coming back to Trainz but due to the performance issues and frustration with TS12 I simply gave up. The fact that I lost everything on my external drive where all my assets were also disencouraged me from playing it again. Now, I'm looking to start fresh. I have a couple questions regarding TANE:

How beastly of a PC would you need to be able to run this game at a steady 30 FPS? I can't give specs of my PC right now since I'm typing this on my phone; I'll post them later. Is it considerably better than what it was at launch & compared to the latest version of TS12 SP1?

Also, how does DRM work on this, assuming this is for the DRM version? How would you get DRM off of the game if this was the case? What's the difference between the deluxe and normal editions?

Oh, and one last thing - Does the DLS still hang up when you download items over 2.5 MB without a FCT?

Yeah, I probably should have done research first but again I'm typing on a phone and this sale won't last forever.

 

[pkoester]

So I saw this sale going on right now: https://store.trainzportal.com/products/trainz-a-new-era

I've been considering coming back to Trainz but due to the performance issues and frustration with TS12 I simply gave up. The fact that I lost everything on my external drive where all my assets were also disencouraged me from playing it again. Now, I'm looking to start fresh. I have a couple questions regarding TANE:

How beastly of a PC would you need to be able to run this game at a steady 30 FPS? I can't give specs of my PC right now since I'm typing this on my phone; I'll post them later. Is it considerably better than what it was at launch & compared to the latest version of TS12 SP1?

Also, how does DRM work on this, assuming this is for the DRM version? How would you get DRM off of the game if this was the case? What's the difference between the deluxe and normal editions?

Oh, and one last thing - Does the DLS still hang up when you download items over 2.5 MB without a FCT?

Yeah, I probably should have done research first but again I'm typing on a phone and this sale won't last forever.

Maybe you will get lucky, and there will be a Black Friday sale! Otherwise, since you have held out this long, you might wait until February. That is when an all new simulator is coming out. See how the feedback is on it, then decide? Just my opinion.

 

[cascaderailroad]

February ... Buhb buhb buhb buhb ... But I haven't even installed TS10, TS12, and T:ANE yet ... I better get a crackin' lackin' !

 

[blueodessey]

Do you still have your old hard drive, from crashed cpu?

 

[railroader86001]

It's a step up from Trainz 12 , but not a huge improvement in my opinion. I'm looking forward to TSW!

 

[wilts747]

Other than digging and some fence maintenance the garden is about done for the year, the workshop is getting a little cold and there is seldom that much on TV even with in excess of 100 channels so I think any version of Trainz is great value and more so over the winter period. Peter

 

[PC_Ace]

To answer the first part of your question: Absolutely! T:ANE is the best ever iteration of the venerable Trainz railway simulator series.
You'll need a reasonably beefy rig to run at 30 FPS and above at high resolution levels, but a modest rig can run T:ANE well with reduced performance slider settings.
In either case, T:ANE routes, assets and sessions look better - and perform better - than any of the predecessors - and in particular, T:ANE does not exhibit the annoying occasional screen stutters shown by TS12 being run even on the highest spec machines.
A FCT guarantees the irksome timeouts on the DLS are a thing of the past, but it can get busy too. (I understand that the DLS servers have been massively upgraded recently, but we'll need to see how well that pans out over the next few weeks before we can confidently declare that upgrade a success.)
For me DRM is a non-issue. It is not in any way intrusive or irksome, in contrast (and in inverse proportion) to the amount of hoo-hah generated on these forums about it.
In the right hands, Trainz Surveyor and asset creation tools allow route creators to compose near-photorealistic railroad scenarios with authentic prototypical operation simulations. Such craftsmen are rare, but gifted individuals and they showcase the evolution of this amazingly affordable railway simulator in a way that even the N3V developers are hard-pushed to demonstrate in their marketing promotions.

 

[ThePoliceman009]

Do you still have your old hard drive, from crashed cpu?

Yeah. It still works fine. It's an external drive and I accidentally formatted it when replacing a bad hard drive. Last time I checked, I downloaded like 250gb worth of content for TS12, in which only like 1/4 of it I actually used, lol.

I'm aware that there's a new simulator coming out and I've seen it. It looks spectacular. Only problem would be the most-likely $60 price tag and the fact that it's from a company I've never heard of before. I think I'll go ahead and take advantage of this sale and buy TANE. When the new sim comes out I'll read the reviews and decide whether it is worth it or not.

 

[Vern]

It's certainly much improved over the half finished pretty much botched first release, but it has taken several patches and hotfixes to get where it is now. The program still does not (IMHO) come anywhere near the mock up target graphics that were touted during the Kickstarter campaign.

Good points:
Procedural track, at long last we can have decent looking junctions (but not diamond crossings) without having to wire up fixed track switches.
Terrain now tucks under the track or road spline when you smooth it unlike earlier versions which left a large gap.
The new CMP, while utilitarian in appearance, works quite reliably especially compared to the last version of TS12.
Better looking water and environmental effects.
Interlocking towers (though I haven't tried these yet).

Bad points:
Much content on the DLS or other pre TANE items remain broken - I recently downloaded some Swedish and Swiss motive power and rolling stock of which 50% was redded out. Will the original authors or N3V ever fix these? Probably not.
Although some optimisation has taken place TANE has a much bigger hardware requirement than earlier versions.
The Standard version comes with not much variety in respect of the included routes.

Other points to consider:
Although it turned into a bit of a grey area, TANE is pretty much the only version of the programme now supported by N3V.
TANE is currently available for £10.19 on Steam (reckon that's about US$12.50) in the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sale so quite the bargain. Also with Steam unlike N3V, you can try the software for two hours and, if no likee, apply for a refund and the software will be deleted.