Okay. To you guys it may not be much. But try to keep in mind adults aren't the only ones playing this game.
Take for example the price of TS2009 now. It's £24.99. In current exchange rates that would be over $56 Singapore dollars and I will have you know it is over half my monthly allowance. As comparism Grand Theft Auto 4 was $70 at release and can now be gotten brand new at $60.
To you adults a new version of Trainz may be nothing but peanuts or cost about as much as a "dinner". I'm sorry, but my parents do not purchase my games for me. As such if I knew how the then-TS2009EE would turn out I would have patiently waited for it. By the way Mick Berg, I've been running TS2009 for less than a year.
Yes, Auran needs financial support and seeing all the patriots who have defended its name I am sure there are many others who have the financial capability to do so.
Just compare GTA4 and Trainz. I have GTA4, Lost & Damned and in a short while the Ballad of Gay Tony. A tad expensive but it is well worth it. While Trainz is also loads of fun, a $56 price tag is, in my books, still unjustifiable. And why do I still buy it knowing it'll come with the same crappy routes that I bought in TRS2006, cost me even more if I want to download some reasonable content off the DLS before the end of time and has no bounding boxes to speak of? Frankly, I don't know.
But if I did and I wasn't born into a silver spoon, then I don't see why I should be referred to as being unreasonable over TS2010.
Nicholas.
Nick,
I fully understand exactly what you're talking about. I too don't come from lots of money. Right now I am on unemployment, and nearly 50% of my paycheck covers my Parkinson's Disease medication. The cost of Trainz is the same as it costs me to put gasoline in my car. With Trainz though I get better mileage out of the purchase though.
The thing is though I've spent a lot more on a lot less and felt more guilty about it. There are a ton of programs, and gadgets that I have purchased in the past that have ended up in the rubbish bin, or given away to someone just to get rid of them. I've been to some pretty fancy restaurants only to find the meal totally disgusting, and costing more than I used to take home in a week. I chocked those up as a loss, and remembered not to make that mistake again!
Trainz, even though it comes with the same routes before doesn't matter to me. I ran the built-in routes once when I first got TRS2004. After that I became a route builder. I couldn't give a fiddle about the built-in ones. I look at these as a base to build on. They prove that the program has a lot of potential to do a lot more than what is given to us initially. They also give a lot of people enjoyment as well. I know of many people who only play the built-in scenarios and sessions rather than create anything in Surveyor.
The same built-in content is very similar to many programs you purchase. Windows comes with Notepad, Wordpad, Paint, etc., which are the same programs as before. The only differences are in the interface to work with the new operating system. These versions of Trainz come with the same built-in foundation routes, but think of them as starters.
The good thing about TRS2009 and whatever version going forward is there is now more stuff integrated into the program so less needed to be searched for on the DLS. I found this out when I was installng TRS2009 and reimporting my downloaded content.
The physics and bounding boxes is something that may appear down the track at some point. As I've said before, I don't work for Auran so I don't know what their plans are. To implement this now would mean that all of the current rolling stock content would need to be recreated. Auran has had a tough enough time trying to convince content creators to fix stuff for TRS2009. Imagine all of the items on the DLS now needing bounding boxes. This doesn't include the extra scripting that maybe needed for the crumple zones, or physics when an object is knocked off the tracks or road. Don't get me wrong here. I too would love to see this stuff implemented at some point, but I'm pretty sure it won't happen soon.
You may do, or think what you wan't. No one here is stopping you from complaining or forcing you to upgrade.
John
(me being serious again)