Railworks or Trainz? Whats your opinion on both?? Since they have their disadvantages
- Thread starter 14yearoldtrainzkid
- Start date
I didn't take a poll either Dave, merely a sampling of all the usual "why are you talking about this / stop talking about this" posts - every time someone starts a thread like this one the first responses are the same screaming about the topic itself. Funny how they never complain about the plethora of requests, questions, and pleas for help in the Freeware Announcements forum, which happens a LOT more often than the Trainz VS Whateversim threads. Not unique to this forum, trainsim.com and UKtrainsim.com have their share of nutcases as well.
Chicken Little posts a "The sky is falling!" thread every couple of weeks. Jack and Jill are tired of the topic being repeated. Jill puts Chicken Little on her ignore list and has the self discipline to bypass any thread titled "The sky is falling!" and lives happily ever after (aside from embarrassment when someone reminds her of the water pail fiasco). Jack can't stand it, follows Chicken Little around and reads every post he makes, and posts furious responses to every single thread about falling skies. There are a lot of Jacks on the internet who just don't have the mother wit to use the ignore list feature the way it's intended to be used.
Chicken Little posts a "The sky is falling!" thread every couple of weeks. Jack and Jill are tired of the topic being repeated. Jill puts Chicken Little on her ignore list and has the self discipline to bypass any thread titled "The sky is falling!" and lives happily ever after (aside from embarrassment when someone reminds her of the water pail fiasco). Jack can't stand it, follows Chicken Little around and reads every post he makes, and posts furious responses to every single thread about falling skies. There are a lot of Jacks on the internet who just don't have the mother wit to use the ignore list feature the way it's intended to be used.
Threads like this are usually a pretty good judge of those of us who are mature and sensible enough to have a balanced discussion of the merits (or otherwise) of the various sims, as opposed to those who go in a blind panic thinking the slightest mention of Railworks in a Trainz forum, is going to result in the immediate fall of N3V's business empire and a mass exodus of users to other sims!
amigacooke
Well-known member
steamboateng
New member
Certainly!
lackoo11111
Active member
Thank you .
Hi Sparky,
Given: Trainz is a railroad simulator; Railworks is a railroad simulator; they are different. Hypothesis: They are to be enjoyed. Conclusion: Enjoy them!
Why is it necessary to manufacture controversies? What is the body count of the poor souls who chose Railworks or Trainz, or both? Shall we dedicate a Tomb for the Unknown Trainzer? This hobby is supposed to be about railroading and how to model it. That is about as unserious and purely pleasant as you can get. Let's not start a Hundred Years War over it.
Bernie
Given: Trainz is a railroad simulator; Railworks is a railroad simulator; they are different. Hypothesis: They are to be enjoyed. Conclusion: Enjoy them!
Why is it necessary to manufacture controversies? What is the body count of the poor souls who chose Railworks or Trainz, or both? Shall we dedicate a Tomb for the Unknown Trainzer? This hobby is supposed to be about railroading and how to model it. That is about as unserious and purely pleasant as you can get. Let's not start a Hundred Years War over it.
Bernie
Blast from the past - note that this is for those who are interested, if reading about Trainz VS Railworks causes you to have a conniption fit, don't click on the link.
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=314&t=116294&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=314&t=116294&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
cascaderailroad
New member
It is always a good idea to keep a broad mind, and keep well informed of the competitors advantages/disadvantages.
I am certain that N3V also examines their competitors achivements, so as to keep up to date with future improvements in the next version(s) of Trainz.
Does RW, and other simulators, have a forum where we Trainzers can view their routes and videos ?
I am certain that N3V also examines their competitors achivements, so as to keep up to date with future improvements in the next version(s) of Trainz.
Does RW, and other simulators, have a forum where we Trainzers can view their routes and videos ?
AlanBradbury
New member
Railworks has a youtube channel, it is here: http://www.youtube.com/user/RailSimulatorDotCom/videos
Slightly annoyingly, they have a penchant for putting boppy music on their vids when you'd really want to hear what the train audio is like considering they are supposedly promotional videos, and such info may aid a buying decision. Cynics might suggest that is deliberate because of the occasionally less than stellar sounds on some payware trains and the fact that some have had inappropriate engine sounds ported over from other models, nevertheless, at least one can compare the visuals, and some videos eschew the music for audio.
Al
Slightly annoyingly, they have a penchant for putting boppy music on their vids when you'd really want to hear what the train audio is like considering they are supposedly promotional videos, and such info may aid a buying decision. Cynics might suggest that is deliberate because of the occasionally less than stellar sounds on some payware trains and the fact that some have had inappropriate engine sounds ported over from other models, nevertheless, at least one can compare the visuals, and some videos eschew the music for audio.
Al
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cascaderailroad
New member
I have seen all the "Boopy" music videos put out by RW company ... Best would be to view videos of amateur RW users videos in RW Surveyor, and Driver.
I am under the impression that all the RW add-on packs are payware ? And there is little freeware ?
Also interesting would be to read a RW Forum with reviews by customers.
I am under the impression that all the RW add-on packs are payware ? And there is little freeware ?
Also interesting would be to read a RW Forum with reviews by customers.
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I make music videos too, mostly when I can't find the splitter gadget I use to record audio from Fraps (I got a Dell that don't have streaming audio built in). RW has dynamic brake sounds that are actually correct, altho the physics are all wrong. Trainz has sounds for the coupler slack, but the physics are wrong, RW has visual coupler slack with no sound effects but good physics for the slack action (including stringline and bunching derailment physics).
As for honest reviews, outta luck there - the three main forums discussing railworks;
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewforum.php?f=300&sid=c105dddeb42285e1ca8efca7a28c3618
http://www.trainsim.com/vbts/forumdisplay.php?97-Railworks
http://railworksamerica.com/forum/
Are heavily censored to keep the peace, since the hysterical screaming of the fanboys every time someone made a less than fawning comment about the game made the site admins weary of the flamewars.
As for honest reviews, outta luck there - the three main forums discussing railworks;
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewforum.php?f=300&sid=c105dddeb42285e1ca8efca7a28c3618
http://www.trainsim.com/vbts/forumdisplay.php?97-Railworks
http://railworksamerica.com/forum/
Are heavily censored to keep the peace, since the hysterical screaming of the fanboys every time someone made a less than fawning comment about the game made the site admins weary of the flamewars.
AlanBradbury
New member
Nope, to be fair it is only the case that almost all of the Steam-enabled RW add-on packs are payware, so not quite all of them. Specifically, the free stuff listed on Steam is: Port Road (a route between Dumfries and Stranraer and Port Patrick) and there is also three scenario sets which are free too (scenarios being Railworks' equivalent of session in Trainz). These are: Off the Cotswold Line, Billionaire Benefactor, Keeping up with the Diesels, however, one of the these - Billionaire Benefactor - requires a payware add-on, Union Pacific 'Big Boy', which is 14 quid (UK Sterling that is, so add about 30 percent or so to those figures for the rough equivalent of a US Dollar price). There is also a free UK building scenery pack for route builders, not that there are anywhere near the numbers of route makers for Railworks that there appears to be for Trainz. Everything other than that on Steam for Railworks is payware, with prices ranging from about 2.50 to 25 quid.
It is true that there are freebie Railworks add-ons out there, mostly to be found on one or two websites in either the UK or the US, these being both rolling stock and routes, but there are many more payware sites than there are freebie ones, and so there is very much more payware content than free stuff, typically at websites such as like and Just Trains etc, and of that stuff, very little is US content, it being mostly either German or British routes and rolling stock, plus quite a few scenario packs at places such as Simmarket.com, but unfortunately much of the non-Steam content gets arsed up when there is a Steam update to the base Railworks program, requiring it to be fixed or reinstalled because it is outside of the regular Steam system.
Al
Interesting "little" thread.
It looks like people there crossed the "dark side" to Trainz on a few occasions. The concensus appears that each sim has its advantages and disadvantages depending upon what the user wants.
It's quite interesting to read about the still unfixed coupling and AI signal issues. These are blatant unforgiveable errors on the developer's part! Come on guys, who drives complete trains all the time.
John
cascaderailroad
New member
WHOA ...
25 Squid costs = 48.9774 USD ! ! ! How much are Cwabbies Crawdaddies, and Schqwimps ?TorenHynes
The Maple Leaf Forever
Trying to stay neutral here...I know this is a very controversial issue, but I would say Trainz is the best railroad sim I've found so far in terms of availability of freeware, but MSTS is more realistic in terms of railroad physics.
And what do users want? Certainly, there is not THE one user. There is a wide range of user wishes. Some have their own understanding of what a railway simulation should be like. Many others are quite receptive to marketing campaigns. I think it's part of the game industry to be suggestive or even manipulative to attract potential customers.
When Trainz started more than a decade ago, initial marketing promoted it as a model railway simulator. Was it because MSTS claimed to be the prototype simulator and was published half a year earlier? Anyway, I didn't want a model railway simulator and abstained from Trainz. I did not purchase any copy of Trainz until TRS2004 when marketing had changed. No more "layouts" but "routes" now. It's often the details that make the difference.
Over there at RS/RW, Kuju tried to sell RS as the most "realistic" simulator ever. I think in those early days, despite the project being in deep trouble, they were quite ambitious, even advertised in Railnews, a railway industry newspaper in the UK. You probably remember signalling with "all the bells and whistles". As it turned out, it didn't quite work that way. Nowadays they still talk of realism, but realism today is raindrops or light and shadow. And some users do follow.
I agree with you on this, Roland. The marketing campaigns by the game industry do work well in selling the product to the market. As we've found out, there are really two kinds of railsim users. There are those that want the all the bells and whistles, and there are those that go for the eye candy and fluff so they can ride a long and look at the special effects. For those people that like to ride along and look out the window at the pretty scenery, Railworks seems to be the answer with the raindrops, fake signalling, and path-controlled AI. Trainz offers a bit of both worlds with decent scenery and the ability to get under the hood and build things easily from scratch.
John
