What is the verdict for 2009?

[Paulsw2]

If I may offer a very small critique of the Auran business model....

So, I'm a UK trainzer and I've got TRS06 (not 04), so what is it that I'd like? Let's see....

1. Lots of new UK content - locos, coaches, wagons, fabulous new route etc.
2. A much improved game engine, 5m grid, lots of improvement to Surveyor and ability to build/model routes with new realistic signalling system.
3. An improved Driver module and, oh yes, lots of lovely new routes to try out with lots of new content to use on them and much improved sound system for locos.

Now, if you told me that Auran were going to issue a new version of Trainz, let's call it 'Trainz Simulator 2009', that embodied these three sets of developments, I'd say, 'hooray' as it would give us the version of Trainz we've all been wanting since 2004. And very nice to buy it as one complete game (a bit like UTC and TRS04 before it in fact).

Unfortunately, this is not the case - if you want these advancements you have to buy three different discs - TC3, TS09WBE and TS09EE. Then you have to install the third over the second and then transfer the content from the first to the combined version of the second and third.

Now, as a committed Trainz person, and one who has a lot of money, I have no problem acquiring three discs. I don't even mind swapping content about and moving my (massive) 'local' folder around my hard drive like it's a 'pass the parcel' game at a children's party. God knows, having been invited to clean my registry out in order to make TC3 work, I'm a veteran of advanced IT solutions to getting the best out of Trainz.

I merely wonder if your average consumer of Train Sims is going to want to sign up for this convoluted and confusing assemblage of bits and pieces - one disc for content, one disc for layout building, one disc for operations. Perhaps some will (like me!) perhaps most won't.

Expect to hear a lot of screaming about this issue on this forum in the coming months.....

Paul

 

[magicentro]

Unfortunately, this is not the case - if you want these advancements you have to buy three different discs - TC3, TS09WBE and TS09EE.....Paul

or you could've just waited for TSX in Q4 2009.

Now, as a committed Trainz person....

it's assumed that you are aware of the purpose of releasing an early version of TS09 thus known as World Builder Edition. Note that this version is only available from Auran direct.

I merely wonder if your average consumer of Train Sims is going to want to sign up for this convoluted and confusing assemblage of bits and pieces....

These users will more than likely go for the in store available TS09 Engineers Edition.

It's really important that a consumer of goods knows what they're buying. Tony and the team and a host of community members such as Ashan have gone way out of their way to ensure that all potential buyers of the WBE know just what it is that they're buying.

No offence intended but it sounds as if you didn't do your homework before making a purchase.

Steve.

 

[johnwhelan]

If I may offer a very small critique of the Auran business model....

So, I'm a UK trainzer and I've got TRS06 (not 04), so what is it that I'd like? Let's see....

1. Lots of new UK content - locos, coaches, wagons, fabulous new route etc.
2. A much improved game engine, 5m grid, lots of improvement to Surveyor and ability to build/model routes with new realistic signalling system.
3. An improved Driver module and, oh yes, lots of lovely new routes to try out with lots of new content to use on them and much improved sound system for locos.

Now, if you told me that Auran were going to issue a new version of Trainz, let's call it 'Trainz Simulator 2009', that embodied these three sets of developments, I'd say, 'hooray' as it would give us the version of Trainz we've all been wanting since 2004. And very nice to buy it as one complete game (a bit like UTC and TRS04 before it in fact).

Unfortunately, this is not the case - if you want these advancements you have to buy three different discs - TC3, TS09WBE and TS09EE. Then you have to install the third over the second and then transfer the content from the first to the combined version of the second and third.

Now, as a committed Trainz person, and one who has a lot of money, I have no problem acquiring three discs. I don't even mind swapping content about and moving my (massive) 'local' folder around my hard drive like it's a 'pass the parcel' game at a children's party. God knows, having been invited to clean my registry out in order to make TC3 work, I'm a veteran of advanced IT solutions to getting the best out of Trainz.

I merely wonder if your average consumer of Train Sims is going to want to sign up for this convoluted and confusing assemblage of bits and pieces - one disc for content, one disc for layout building, one disc for operations. Perhaps some will (like me!) perhaps most won't.

Expect to hear a lot of screaming about this issue on this forum in the coming months.....

Paul

Well yes except when you install TC3 content into TRS2009 TRS2009 starts flagging errors in the TC3 built in content.

I like your idea of just expecting it all to work together straight out of the box.

Cheerio John

 

[john259]

I like your idea of just expecting it all to work together straight out of the box.

That's certainly how it should be. Installing service packs and performing asset management tasks should be simple and reliable too but sadly with Trainz they're not (IMHO, of course).

John

 

[imshandon]

I think the first to say is thank you for not over pricing it for the holidays...Yes it has a few small issues and the most noticeable to
me would be the long distant textures get a "snow" look to them but bear
in mind that my P.C in still an old P-4 with AGP graphics and even with this old rig the FPS are way more the acceptable and the sound is fine.it is a nice thing that there are still "New" games being made for us that still have old rigs

 

[chris_3413]

An overall positive verdict at this stage, sure there are a few bugs and theres not much new content, but unlike some, I read the product description and knew I wasnt buying content before I made the purchase.

My main gripes are the unrealistic sound transition with steam loco's that seems to happen at 10mph and the less intuitive filtering for the huge list of assets but i'm confident of these things being sorted out in time.

 

[maxwerks]

How does it perform on Vista?

I've looked all over the forums and on Auran's site, but haven't found anything about how TRS2009 performs on Windows Vista.

I've got TRS2006 mostly functional on my new Vista machine, except for the Paint Shed. Thanks, by the way, to everyone who's posted tips on this forum about running Trainz on Vista. I'd never have gotten even this far if it weren't for your help.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I should go ahead and purchase 2009, or "make do" with 2006 for a while longer.

Thanks,

Max
Trainz Newbie
Austin, Texas, USA

 

[Bluerall]

Will hold off on a verdict until the new content comes out.

Oh if the UP SD40 is the new engine you might wanna give the engineer a seat, sitting on the floor makes it a bit ruff to see out the window.Im sure he'd appreciate it.

 

[goochy]

Update:
Main gripe points 2 and 3 have been fixed with video card driver update.

I'm not overly satisfied that this should be declared a new release and charged for it.
There are a lot of issues in that old 2006 routes don't import over correctly.
There is only navigation colour changes and menus replaced with boxes.

The main gripes are;
1) It is now more difficult to filter cetain elements.
2) Paint objects turn from the texture pattern to a solid colour and never come back.
3) Other textures appear fine in the thumbnail view but when applying to the landscape, the colours are still solid OR the textures appear as 2d blocks.

4) The bookmarks buttons were fine where they were.
5) The filter panel is all the way over the other side of the screen, very annoying, and now it takes 6 clicks and so much longer to find something and 3 clicks to remove your filter, instead of just selecting ALL in the 2006 version.


Likes:
1) Animated firemen.
2) Faster graphics redraw.
3) Faster load times.

Dislikes:
1) Textures disappear, or jitter. Hard to explain what is meant there, there are large pixel blocks appearing momentarily.
2) Large memory usage for such a simple content manager.


Wish list:
1) Ability to turn off spline animations like you can with cars.
2) Remember the fact that I wanted the car and spline animations off.
3) Save a driver session launched from within Surveyor so a modification can be made and then driver session continued on.

 

[Paulsw2]

or you could've just waited for TSX in Q4 2009 ... No offence intended but it sounds as if you didn't do your homework before making a purchase.

Steve.

Well, as it happens I haven't made a purchase of TS2009 and, following your logic, perhaps I should skip it altogether and wait for TSX when, perhaps, we'll have a single game that works out of the box with all the content and components we want and need all presented in one package rather than three separate ones. And I'll avoid spending hours of my life trying to transfer the built-in content from TC3 into TS09 as well.

Of course, if everyone were to follow this logic, there'd be no sales of TS09 would there?

 

[oldhip]

Not for the english

Looks good, runs good, heaps of errors on items from DLS, and havent got a clue what most of them are as not in english, cant sort into categories like we did before, have to scroll through the whole list.

Sorry but cant help but feel i been ripped off.

 

[magicentro]

Now, as a committed Trainz person, and one who has a lot of money, I have no problem acquiring three discs.....

Well, as it happens I haven't made a purchase of TS2009.....

not too committed it would appear:hehe: