I'm considering buying the game. However, I would like to know what it is and how it differs to Railworks/Train Simulator 2013. The main thing for me is this: I have been reading that there is a sort of pseudo "management" mode for the game, but I am confused as to its exact nature. Can you build a railroad a la Railroad Tycoon and manage trains like that?
What exactly IS Trainz Simulator?
- Thread starter HereticUK
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shaneturner12
Tutorial Creator
Welcome to the forums.
For a start, Trainz is a lot cheaper to run (if you buy TS2009 or later), as most of the content is freeware, compared to TS2013 where most of the content is payware.
Apart from that, the main focus of the game is to build railways/railroads, and develop towns/villages around it. There are industries as part of it, where you can pick up goods by train from one industry and drop it off at another.
Shane
For a start, Trainz is a lot cheaper to run (if you buy TS2009 or later), as most of the content is freeware, compared to TS2013 where most of the content is payware.
Apart from that, the main focus of the game is to build railways/railroads, and develop towns/villages around it. There are industries as part of it, where you can pick up goods by train from one industry and drop it off at another.
Shane
Thank you for the welcome!
Yeah that is one of the things that is steering me towards Trainz: the freeware stuff. What about managing the railroad as a whole? As in setting the trains to run on schedules via AI control and watching it all happen instead of having to control each train individually...
Yeah that is one of the things that is steering me towards Trainz: the freeware stuff. What about managing the railroad as a whole? As in setting the trains to run on schedules via AI control and watching it all happen instead of having to control each train individually...
steamboateng
New member
Trainz is a program, not quite a game, not quite a simulator, but very much an open ended fun place to be. It's an experience.
It can do that, and more. Heck, it could make you a sandwich, if you know how to program that in! J/K, but it really does a lot more than Railworks. 2013 thingy, which I do have, and don't spend as much time one. There is no freeware on that one, and is very pricey, and for the most part, not really better looking. But, as an owner of both, I can say that.
That's great! Are there any tutorials around for doing this sort of thing?
steamboateng
New member
Magic might!
Welcome to the forums!
The management aspects of running a railroad involve assigning routes to AI drivers using specific commands, and setting up interactive industries for them to service. This is totally different from the RW product. (I don't want to mention the other name too loudly otherwise there will be a war started...)
A bit about the program...Now Trainz is quite a different program than anything you've ever installed on a computer should you decide to purchase it. Think of it as a giant model railroad where you have the freedom of your imagination to do pretty much what you want within the limits of your computer. There are 3-main components of the program: Surveyor, Driver, and RailYard. There's a 4th module called Content Manager which is used to download freeware assets (railroad parts, trains, trees, and whatnot) from the Download Station, and to import, modify, and repair other assets.
Keeping the model railroad in mind...
Surveyor is where you build routes and setup the trains for operation. Here the landscape is easily sculpted and objects placed, tracks are laid, and bridges and crossings connected. Once your route is built, you can then place trains and assign the drivers in a session. This allows you, the player to drive the route you built. Using 3rd party tools, such as TransDEM, you can easily import DEM files and use that as a basis of a route. With over 270,000 assets available, not counting 3rd-party creators, not on the download station, there are plenty of objects to choose from.
Within Driver, as mentioned above, you drive your trains. With the AI assigned their commands in a session, they'll go about their business while you can either sit back and watch, or drive a train yourself. Unlike in Railworks, if you decide you'd rather be doing what an AI driver is doing, you can take over his train or even go for a ride with him. If you find you've made a mistake with the driver's commands, you can easily add or remove them within the driver module. Using the Quick Drive command within a driving session, you can easily add another AI driver or consist, and then assign commands to this driver. The interactive industries I keep mentioning are those that allow commodities to be moved and created. Suppose you have a coal mine and a power plant. You can have an AI driver assigned to bring coal from the mine to a power plant. The same with steel to a goods factory and then the goods to market. There is no monetary reward, but the movement of goods is there, and there are reward points for completing these moves within sessions. Sometimes users will create sessions where moving goods at only certain times, or types of goods will trigger another event. I'm sure if someone wanted, they could add a monetary-driven aspect to a route. This most likely be done using the scripting language.
RailYard is basically an engine shed where you can view the locomotives and rolling stock you've downloaded and installed. Personally I haven't used this in years as I find this module very lacking. I suppose this is like the box where you keep your trains.
Like a model railroad, most things can be easily modified, changed and rebuilt easily. Unlike a model railroad, there is no mess or lost money when rebuilding. Assets can also be easily modified or even created yourself using freeware or payware 3d modeling programs such as Blender and 3ds Max, and of course a photo-editing program for textures such as Gimp and Photoshop for example. I think of this as kitbashing a model. One time I didn't like a sign that someone had placed on otherwise awesome building. I opened the building in Content Manager and then edited the texture file to remove the sign. I then had my own version of the building that I placed on my route. You want your own reporting marks and logo on your trains? Edit an existing locomotive and wagons. This can get a bit tricky, but we're here to help.
Under the hood modifications are easily accessed as well in the game scripting language. I think of this as the wiring for the model railroad. This is where the assets, such as crossing gates, signals, interactive industries come to life. It is suggested that you have a programming background in one of the modern languages such as Java and C++, which it is very similar to.
As many have said, including myself, that this is a program that is unlike anything you'll install on your computer. It can be used easily at the lightest level, such as driving the built-in routes, or you can go as deep as you want with modifying and building your own world. The program is definitely addicting and if you should get it, you and your life will be fully consumed.
Good luck and I hope to see you here as a registered user soon.
John
amigacooke
Well-known member
You can say it, but that doesn't mean it is correct.
There is freeware available for Railworks, http://www.uktrainsim.com/ for example.
There is quite a lot of freeware for Rail Simulator and Rail Works at the site in the previous post and this one http://www.train-sim.com/
There are a few other sites with freeware Spain for example. Stating that there's no freeware is the sort of biased opinion that you might expect here. Both Trainz and Rail Works have their good points. Rail Works runs a lot smoother and with better frame rates than Trainz with far better graphics. Not that hard to make your own routes either.
There are a few other sites with freeware Spain for example. Stating that there's no freeware is the sort of biased opinion that you might expect here. Both Trainz and Rail Works have their good points. Rail Works runs a lot smoother and with better frame rates than Trainz with far better graphics. Not that hard to make your own routes either.
Complex production chains and railways empires with macro and micro management are not the goals of either of them. Their focus is more on the railway physical plant and the trains themselves, around but not exclusively the cab view perspective.
But that's as a far as the similarity goes. Trainz and Rail Simulator/Railworks (the latter now having adopted the former MSTS naming) have a different target audience. Trainz has always been a product for the DIY folks, while RS/RW is more attractive for the mere consumers.
cascaderailroad
New member
Railroad Tycoon is sort of childlike, like the "Sims" video game, much like "Farmville" on Facebook, low quality graphics, and toylike trains.
From what I have seen of Railworks, a "Heads Up Display" is allways present taking up much area on your monitor (possibly the HUD can be toggled off).
Railworks is largely payware, and is run on a "Steam" account, that oftentimes may cause problems with patchs, updates, and DRM ... etc ...
Buying Trainz from "Steam" (to save a few bucks) may also cause problems ... problems that are never encountered when buying an official new Trainz disc, or an official Digital Download directly from the N3V Store (Simulator Central), or from a reputable, authorized, N3V retailer, like Jointed Rail or USLW ... etc ...
Trainz is by far the most user friendly, and seems to be the easiest to lay track with, over that of other rail simulators.
TS10 is really inexpensive now, but TS12 has better advantages (and it is on sale right now at the N3V store for $ 19.95).
Be forwarned about buying "Second Hand Goods" Trainz discs, from online "Second Hand Goods" retailers, like: EBay, Amazon ... etc ... as these open box discs may have been allready pre-registered by another user (making your disc unregisterable, and virtually unusable).
From what I have seen of Railworks, a "Heads Up Display" is allways present taking up much area on your monitor (possibly the HUD can be toggled off).
Railworks is largely payware, and is run on a "Steam" account, that oftentimes may cause problems with patchs, updates, and DRM ... etc ...
Buying Trainz from "Steam" (to save a few bucks) may also cause problems ... problems that are never encountered when buying an official new Trainz disc, or an official Digital Download directly from the N3V Store (Simulator Central), or from a reputable, authorized, N3V retailer, like Jointed Rail or USLW ... etc ...
Trainz is by far the most user friendly, and seems to be the easiest to lay track with, over that of other rail simulators.
TS10 is really inexpensive now, but TS12 has better advantages (and it is on sale right now at the N3V store for $ 19.95).
Be forwarned about buying "Second Hand Goods" Trainz discs, from online "Second Hand Goods" retailers, like: EBay, Amazon ... etc ... as these open box discs may have been allready pre-registered by another user (making your disc unregisterable, and virtually unusable).
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Stagefright
Joined Feb 21, 2001
Trainz is what you want it to be. I know, that sounds pretty all-encompassing, but it's true IMHO. I use it mostly as a virtual model railroad, shuffling freight and passengers off to where I want them to go. I'm not limited to one 4x8' oval in the basement though. Thanks to the many content creators and route designers, I can have as many layouts/routes as I please, limited only by computing power and storage capacity. I can also design my own virtual world, creating and destroying on a whim. On the other hand, some shun the model aspect and demand the utmost in prototypical realism so they crave routes that mimic real life railroading. Still others (more creative than I) artistically create worlds of their imagination; some with no trains or vehicles at all. Yet others build realistic models using 3rd party 3d drawing software which is then exported for use in Trainz.
I've been quite pleased with Trainz through the years. I've enjoyed many, many hours with it. Again IMHO, it is well worth the money invested. Welcome aboard!!!
Darrel
I've been quite pleased with Trainz through the years. I've enjoyed many, many hours with it. Again IMHO, it is well worth the money invested. Welcome aboard!!!
Darrel
CaptEngland
Trainz Engineer
Trainz series works like a virtual model railway, just like what Stagefright says. Railworks/Trainsimulator 2013 is more of a drive the train from a to b kind of thing. If you want to make you own virtual model railway, Trainz is the one for you.
I suppose your assessment "virtual model railway" includes modelling of prototypical routes.
CaptEngland
Trainz Engineer
Of course! I forgot to mention that! (esp. when using your tools (which I still need to update)).
Regards.
CaptEngland
Railworks is good if you want to follow a timetable with a set path and the graphics engine certainly has the edge (compare the latest DLC releases such as Woodhead and Western Lines of Scotland visual impression with similar routes in Trainz). Trainz still largely revolves around its original model railway paradigm of free play running a train and setting the route as you go, not exactly prototypical. Where Trainz has the edge is with Surveyor for creating routes, compared to Railworks where you have to get quite techie, setting up blueprints etc. before you can start editing. Neither sim provides an "economic" environment such as Transport or Railroad Tycoon though Trainz does allow you to set up an industry supply chain (if you can get the splines to stay attached). Most people use both sims as the fancy takes them.
BLACKWATCH
Mechanical Engineer
It's a complete and utter mess, they keep 'fixing' stuff that ain't broken & then telling you to buy the latest version of Trainz, that has more problems than the one they can't be bothered to fix.
To be quite honest, you'd be better off playing Monopoly.
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