I've mainly done Mods and the repair of members maps for Sid Meier's Railroads, but while doing a search for something else I came across Tiny Trainz and ended up reading this thread.
A couple of things here. A lot of people mention that Auran should quit wasting their time on new and useless things like this and work on repairing existing Trainz. Something all of you may have forgotten is that they have to pay those people. To do this they need to sell stuff. Now, if you want to PAY for the patches and repairs, I'm sure they would put more time into it. Of course you should not have to pay for them, and they do not expect you to. So, they have to sell something else if it is only to keep the lights on so they can see what they are doing.
As I said, I do repairs on forum members maps for SMR, and have been doing so for 3 years now. Even these can be a pain. Read thru lines of XML script, examine NIF files for errors, figure I may have the answer, try to run the map, CTD before it even starts, and go back and do it again. I cannot imagine what this must be like running thru the code for any of the Trainz versions. And a repair to one thing could cause an error in another. And you still have another seven hours to go today.
I own Trainz and Trainz 2006. Do I like them? Yes, they are OK. Do I play them? No. I've downloaded layouts for them only to find that I have to pay out money to buy certain things to play the layouts. Yes, there are probably some out there that do not require me to pay for stuff, but most of the time you do not find this out until you open it.
As to SMR, no, I don't play the maps for that either. I prefer to repair maps and to create new stuff for the game, stuff for others to put into their maps.
Getting back to Tiny Trainz, yes I think they should produce it. Would I buy it? No, it's not for me. But then I think the Halo series is a waste of time also. Why? Cause it's to fast for me and I'm not into that. But that does not mean they should stop making it. Should they spend time trying to repair the bugs in the Trainz series? No, it's not for me. I'd rather they but the rights to SMR and repair the bugs in that, but that's only my opinion.
Looking at the screen shots of Tiny Trainz, I really don't think they spent much time on it. Heck, I've seen teen aged beginners in Unreal Tournament 2004 do rooms that look like those. I've done maps for UT2K4 that were more detailed. It could not have taken the whole staff years to do. One or two employees could have done it in their spare time.
Let the young children have a game and you get back to your game.
I'll probably get slapped down for this,:'( but hey, it's nothing new to me.
P.S., In one of the first few post someone noted a spelling mistake, coach instead on couch. I'm from the good ol' USA but I still know that in the land down under, a car is called a coach.
