Well Boweavel, you can always put your hand up and volunteer.
I did for almost 5 years 'Help' as a Beta Tester, Ive seen what goes on in the back waters of Auran and I had enough, Was no longer a fun thing to play, Was just a chore to spend so much time getting things to work, dodging bugs, seeing CCG re-changed again and again, Promises made for the next great version only to see some pathetic excuse as to why it didnt make it in the next version.. (still using publishing deadlines as an excuse?)
Over the decade ive seen some excellent top notch folks like yourself, Offer idea's, have fixes for problems, come up with apps that make the whole thing easier... Many a dream has been created and barely ever has it been finished, Alot of Auran help has been offered to them and failed to show.. And then to add salt, Auran keep them out of the loop for the next version and change everything again! Now I havent been around for some years so maybe the Developers web site has changed those problems.
Ive been out of this 'game' for some years, delibratly! to get my love back for it and the community, I stayed away from the forums.. there was no need to be here for me. Ive given my finacial support to Auran over the decade for each and every version except classics 3, which i will get and now after my recent purchase of TRS2010 failing to even install, All my hopes that maybe.. Just maybe! Auran had got it right after 10 years.. Went spiraling down the drain.
So I popped back in the forum for a little advice, to see if there were any threads on the topic to fix my pain, I Noticed this thread, Caught Dinasaurs post and thought to myself "nothing changes around here"
Now.. to have you roast me as an armchair gunna.. 'Get' is one word i'd use and the 2nd word starts with an F, And I cant use it in this forum. I WORK for a living, 10 hours a day..6 days a week.. I PAY AURAN for a product THAT should be FINISHED.. so YES... I am an arm chair gunna because im paying these people who are 'Gunna' do it for me! To me the DLS IS part of that purchase price, It being a mess is just a black eye against Auran from any new user who has come into the DLS and found it a mess unlike so many other download sites for other games... that they may of come from.
I havent downloaded a single item in over 2 years and when i did it was allways a route or a loco and the rest of the items would be added as dependancies. I dont browse the DLS for a new seat, a great new track.. some pretty new car.. The way ive allways seen it, the DLS is for those people who have creations and want to share and need a single place to put them on to share, It might not be easy, it may have issues, but the item is their to find if you can. KUID search usually allways worked for me! And then if they want people to know of it they should create a post for it, With descriptions, Photo's etc... otherwise they may just want to put it there 'just so its there' and for no other reason.
That is how my stuff got on their, I created for myself first, then I'd place them on the DLS for others to share, Id create a forum post with photo's and links to the downloads and it was easy.. But Auran kept changing the configs and CCG, I had to keep re-uploading them version after version, pretty soon you get tired of it and just leave them at what ever the last update you made to them. I only have maybe 200 items so for those out there with alot more, I can imagine what a pain it must be.
Auran could of managed it from the start, kept it clean.. kept it right.. but somewhere along the way it got forgotten, and here we all are... Again.... Bickering
Years may of gone past since then, many people and idea's at Auran have changed So I bought TRS2010 with the hope of a new era for Trainz, But to have a roasting from someone trying to 'help the game' .. mate all you've done is made me NOT want to use your site simply on the principle of your attitude and shown me that nothing has changed in this forum.. Still alot of bitching and moaning and that all to familiar deafining silence from Auran. I'll stick with other games that work without error untill Auran send me a new TRS2010 disk and then I'll install it and see whats new, I havent used it regularly since 2004 edition so... Hopefully its alot!
But thanks to the info in this thread, I see nothing has changed and finding any new items is still going to be a problem. Downlaoding a new route is going to be a problem.. Finding dependancies is going to be a problem, finding erors and fixing them is going to be a rpoblem.. All i wanted to do is open a default map on a default install and play! but now seems 'Treez' is going to be a problem... Sigh
An old Trainz user and friend, someone else bitten by the hate that can go on around here, said to me last night... "My Condolances"... after id told him that id bought the new Trs2010... I laughed then, But now see what he means..
Goodluck in your quest!
You should also know the fun and games that have gone on over the years. 