Lost Interest in Building Routes

[skittlekicks]

After taking a good bit of time off from building my latest route I decided to nuke it. In fact another route I had put in a few hundred hours I also nuked. I'm just not inspired to build, and honestly Trainz has become so boring. It could be that I put in so many hours in a short time that creativity is just lost. Oh well. Other train games exist that have piqued my interest.

 

[Forester1]

I understand that, I nuked a route I had spent a lot of hours on and now after more than a year I am regretting it and wishing I had just taken the time to back it up to a .cdp file. But there is no bringing it back now except to start all over and put those hundreds of hours in just to get it back where it was. and I did a little bit of reskinning on some buildings to get what I wanted and I don't even know if I have those assets anymore. Lesson learned for me is just throw a backup .cdp file out there somewhere, because down the road I may just want to revisit it without losing all that work I did.

 

[WestSideRailways]

I understand that, I nuked a route I had spent a lot of hours on and now after more than a year I am regretting it and wishing I had just taken the time to back it up to a .cdp file. But there is no bringing it back now except to start all over and put those hundreds of hours in just to get it back where it was. and I did a little bit of reskinning on some buildings to get what I wanted and I don't even know if I have those assets anymore. Lesson learned for me is just throw a backup .cdp file out there somewhere, because down the road I may just want to revisit it without losing all that work I did.

If I lose interest in what i am doing at the moment , I just do something else.... if not route building then I make a session for one of my routes. Or if not session building, then I will start Blender up and continue making new building. Or if I want to get away from Trainz completely, then I do something else. BUT I always SAVE what I am doing, so that i can go back to it when I feel the need for speed.

 

[WestSideRailways]

I understand that, I nuked a route I had spent a lot of hours on and now after more than a year I am regretting it and wishing I had just taken the time to back it up to a .cdp file. But there is no bringing it back now except to start all over and put those hundreds of hours in just to get it back where it was. and I did a little bit of reskinning on some buildings to get what I wanted and I don't even know if I have those assets anymore. Lesson learned for me is just throw a backup .cdp file out there somewhere, because down the road I may just want to revisit it without losing all that work I did.

If I lose interest in what i am doing at the moment , I just do something else.... if not route building then I make a session for one of my routes. Or if not session building, then I will start Blender up and continue making new building. Or if I want to get away from Trainz completely, then I do something else. BUT I always SAVE what I am doing, so that i can go back to it when I feel the need for speed.

 

[wilts747]

Sounds familiar. I think the problem with route building is that every turnout becomes a branch line and then every branch line becomes a mainline and so it snowballs. we don't know how to stop the expansion and complete what we already have. However a couple of words of wisdom has change my approach to route building. First a guy on YouTube who said he builds shelf railroads because its hard to loose interest in a couple of weekends. The second on here the Xmas before last when a member said he wanted to build a small layout for himself just to watch trains go bye, which is likely the way we all got interested many years ago. I now limit my builds to no more than 100 boards and the track must reach the edge of the board in at least two places. I terminate my routes in portals to turn back or generate traffic, which in the future could be removed to allow a number of such routes to be daisy-chained together. Peter

 

[JCitron]

After taking a good bit of time off from building my latest route I decided to nuke it. In fact another route I had put in a few hundred hours I also nuked. I'm just not inspired to build, and honestly Trainz has become so boring. It could be that I put in so many hours in a short time that creativity is just lost. Oh well. Other train games exist that have piqued my interest.

It happens. I refrain from using Trainz sometimes for weeks while I do other things. This is typical of creative things because you've drained your brain and it's time for a break. With Trainz, I'll do some cab riding on YouTube. These can be really inspiring as I see things from the window and I take note mentally of things I'd like to incorporate in my routes. Other times, I'll take a look at topographic maps and aerial photos and even spend time on Google Earth looking at the satellite views. Usually, after doing this for a bit, I'm back to building my routes again.

 

[razor]

Well i think i am the opposite i like building a route then i find myself not operating the route just testing it to make sure it all works thats why i only build small routes 1 or 2 baseboards not 50 or a hundred as some one has said it just gets abit repetitive i have the greatest recard for people who build these very big routes but i like to think small thank you

 

[skittlekicks]

The .cdps for both routes had been saved, the newest route was saved two days ago so work I had done before the nuke was gone. Burnout is different than no longer having inspiration or real motivation. As John pointed out, he's gone a few weeks without getting back into the game. That's more burnout or in that realm that he experienced, but notice he comes back to the build.

I've not used Blender in many many years (2014 based on the files I have), and I just did it back then since it was a new thing. Like Trainz, Blender lost it's novelty on mw too. It was fun for a time, but model making is just not my creative outlet.

When I've mentioned my hours in Trainz, the amount I accumulated was in 9 months of near nonstop playing (sometimes going a day and a half of not sleeping on a few occasions, and sometimes getting maybe 2 hours of any sleep. All to go back and do it again) it became a sick obsession of mine. I've been in poor health for several years (suffered a heart attack and congestive heart failure that nearly killed me). So when I played nonstop, I'm not joking how brutal that can be to battle gaming addictions (and I already have an addictive personality). When your body swells up from sitting for multiple hours, dude that's really bad.

So when I said I am not inspired there are more factors for me at play. It's funny when games warn people of flashing lights may trigger epileptic seizures, not once do they mention how addictive their product can be for others.

Burnout isn't what I am dealing with it is severe, and unhealthy addiction. For others it's just a benign game.

Guess I'm just a new kind of special stupid.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

What I do is if I feel that I'm losing interest in a project that I'm working on, I'll take a break from it and play other games. That Trainz interest usually comes back. I found this out the hard way by deleting my progress, only to end up feeling stupid for deleting everything... which forces me to start from scratch. I must of done that like 25 times over the years!

Now I've set project phases with individual tasks for the route. It seems to be working well so far. I'm currently in phase 4 of 12. Building a route in Trainz is definitely time consuming and some folks are not designed with that kind of long term patients. If your doing an historical route like me, It's even more time consuming. It took me a long time to learn that type of patients.

 

[skittlekicks]

In my early experiences, I did the whole Google Earth/Basemapz/import the image into the game, but layers is so broken in 22 and I doubt it'll ever be fixed based on N3V historical evidence with priorities. I build my route using my imagination. Loving trains as I have since I was a kid, and passing many rail yards, single and mainlines in my life I took notes.

I mean Trainz scratched the model railroader I always wanted to be (keep in mind DCC tech was not yet invented in my youth) I always wanted to build that three tier layout, but space was limited and my allowance was little plus I was bad at saving.

Every route I build is in real scale which I love. I find that Trainz is diminishing returns for me, and my computer can't handle mega routes (plus Trainz is in desperate need of optimization).

Taking a month off helped for about 2 seconds and then I was back to just boredom, topped with no inspiration.

 

[cabnz1]

I don't know what others think about this, but before nuking any routes, you might find that others would like to have that route and perhaps work on it themselves. Some people either don't have the skills or time to work on a full route but happy to tinker with it.

But the best option is to definitely back it up so you can go back to it if you want to later. I find it really sad when I hear someone has actually deleted a route, which they have put hours into when somebody else could enjoy it.

I know this can be a touchy subject when it comes to private routes etc. It's just a thought.

 

[JCitron]

Well i think i am the opposite i like building a route then i find myself not operating the route just testing it to make sure it all works thats why i only build small routes 1 or 2 baseboards not 50 or a hundred as some one has said it just gets abit repetitive i have the greatest recard for people who build these very big routes but i like to think small thank you

This is the advantage of working on a very large route. I've gotten the route now to a point where I can drive for hours and perform switching duties while the nearly 2 dozen AI drivers are off doing their thing. Usually, during the driving sessions I see things that need tweaking and end up back in Surveyor again adding in a passing siding or ripping up a branch line. Ripping up a branch line for me means leaving dark ballast behind where the rails were once located, bridges are left intact, and trees are planted over the line. Sometimes, I'll put in one of those dreaded rail trails too. They do have the advantage of keeping the ROW clear in case I decide to reactivate the line again.

 

[JCitron]

The .cdps for both routes had been saved, the newest route was saved two days ago so work I had done before the nuke was gone. Burnout is different than no longer having inspiration or real motivation. As John pointed out, he's gone a few weeks without getting back into the game. That's more burnout or in that realm that he experienced, but notice he comes back to the build.

I've not used Blender in many many years (2014 based on the files I have), and I just did it back then since it was a new thing. Like Trainz, Blender lost it's novelty on mw too. It was fun for a time, but model making is just not my creative outlet.

When I've mentioned my hours in Trainz, the amount I accumulated was in 9 months of near nonstop playing (sometimes going a day and a half of not sleeping on a few occasions, and sometimes getting maybe 2 hours of any sleep. All to go back and do it again) it became a sick obsession of mine. I've been in poor health for several years (suffered a heart attack and congestive heart failure that nearly killed me). So when I played nonstop, I'm not joking how brutal that can be to battle gaming addictions (and I already have an addictive personality). When your body swells up from sitting for multiple hours, dude that's really bad.

So when I said I am not inspired there are more factors for me at play. It's funny when games warn people of flashing lights may trigger epileptic seizures, not once do they mention how addictive their product can be for others.

Burnout isn't what I am dealing with it is severe, and unhealthy addiction. For others it's just a benign game.

Guess I'm just a new kind of special stupid.

In addition to the mental burnout, which does happen not only with Trainz but also as I said with other creative things, being physically burned out is something you can't get away from. I know that from experiencing that myself. I go to a doctor's appointment and I spend the next 4 days either resting in bed, or vegging doing nothing because I'm physically drained to do anything.

I agree, there should be a warning on the box about the addictive nature of Trainz. I'm not obsessed but I do find myself thinking about the program when not using it and I have spent many hours using the program especially when there's been a lot of grief and stress in my life.

Take your needed break. I know the current patch is crap and hopefully this will be rectified soon(tm).

 

[Thomas_4014]

At first, Trainz was really hard and boring for me, since I was only 5. Eventually, though, it started to get better once I got TANE and TRS2019 and it's awesome with Trainz Plus Gold (while not using the complex S20), especially with all this PBR.

 

[martinvk]

I do find myself thinking about the program when not using it

You know you're addicted when you're on some cultural tour and while visiting a famous cathedral, you're looking at the stone walls and thinking that that would be a great texture for some building you're working on.

 

[JCitron]

You know you're addicted when you're on some cultural tour and while visiting a famous cathedral, you're looking at the stone walls and thinking that that would be a great texture for some building you're working on.

Yes! I've done that myself. I was storm chasing in the Midwest and spent my time taking pictures of rocky outcroppings instead of watching the sky.

 

[Paulsw2]

At first, Trainz was really hard and boring for me, since I was only 5...

This may be the single greatest line I've ever read on this forum. Bravo for keeping going and still being with the game!

 

[Thomas_4014]

This may be the single greatest line I've ever read on this forum. Bravo for keeping going and still being with the game!

Thx.

 

[Vern]

Part of the problem is that while Trainz has one of the easiest and user friendly route builders in Surveyor, the age old problem that has been with us since the first version in 2002 remains - what can you do with the end result? We still have no decent tools to create a decent player driven scenario or timetable with the AI doing all the necessary routing and signalling etc. Not expecting the all day timetable of TSW which in any event can only be compiled if you understand how the UE based editor works. But both TSC and MSTS before it allow fairly easy compilation of a player train timetable or scenario. Not sure if this will change with "Living Railway" and I'm not signing up to a subscription service to find out. Maybe if N3V eventually put out a standalone TRS2026 or 2027 they will finally address the need to address this missing part of the simulation.

 

[JCitron]

But both TSC and MSTS before it allow fairly easy compilation of a player train timetable or scenario.

Yes indeed! Good old MSTS made setting up timetables so easy. Clicking the destinations on a route automatically calculated the arrival times at each station. I was greatly disappointed when I switched to Trainz. I never understood why N3V couldn't incorporate something similar into their session creation.

The problem is, this worked well before it crashed and the Activity Builder would crash often on my system usually with disastrous results including a blue screen.