What's Up with Auran? Answer is Here!

[meatloaf747]

Thanks, now we have a better understanding....

Here's a nice in depth news story of what's happening now at Auran.

Australian Gamer

Thanks Dru,
Now the community has a better idea of what's happening, what went wrong at Auran, and how they are going to try and fix things & survive........
I personally think that because they have put so much time, effort & money into developing "FURY" over the last 3 to 4 years, it's now clearly "all or nothing time/sink or swim" (learn to run a lean, mean fighting machine/ship & float on top of the water like the big boys, (w.o.w) or sink to the bottom of the seabed that's called "bankruptcy")..........
Hopefully "FURY LEAGUE" takes off and generates the cash flow that Auran needs to survive...... (fingers & toes crossed).
It's pretty simple really, if the patched/revived "Fury" takes off like we all hope it does, Auran survives, which means the Trainz franchise continues to grow & be developed...
Watch this space for the new Trainz 2009 full addition, (that will have a truck load of built-in content on 5 DVD's) !!!!!!!! hopefully........Cheers, Mac. :hehe:

 

[big_b]

I don't know if going Gold means anything anymore.There's been no info on TC3 for ages now & all previous releases have been offered to the forum members to pre order when going into production.

Tony may have said production was going good not gold & been misquoted

Dave

 

[paulzmay]

Plenty of updates here... http://www.trainzclassics.co.uk/

Paul

 

[axe1970]

I just hope Auran don't repeat the same mistakes they have made in the past.

I think we all agree there is nothing more we would like to see than a huge success to Auran, but continuing on the Fury Path sounds treacherous.

My fingers are crossed for the new Fury, and of Course Trainz Future

Regards

 

[spiderwheels65]

worried

It seems auran is falling apart and I can't help worring what is going to happpen with our beloved trainz, dsl, etc.
I would be very upset if we lost something that a lot of people love.:'(
spiderwheels65

 

[Scitimar]

Thanks Dru,
Now the community has a better idea of what's happening, what went wrong, and how they are going to try and fix things and survive........
(I personally think that because they have put some much time, effort & money into developing "FURY" over the last 3 to 4 years it's now clearly "all or nothing time") learn to swim with the big fish, or sink..........
Hopefully "FURY LEAGUE" takes off and generates the cash flow that Auran needs to survive......
It's simple, if "Fury" takes off, Auran survives, which means Trainz continues to be developed...
Cheers, Mac.

Even reading that spin I don't see that anyone has any idea at all .

Are you a player ? tried the latest patch ? ho hum , if this is a sample of what we'll be seeing in june I already pass and I'm far from alone , out of 16 people I have personal contact with only 3 will bother anything with Fury , so if the future depends on this , well , there is no future.

Sci

 

[amigacooke]

But you miss my point, which was that Mike seems to find it impossible to be objective because of his financial interest in TC3 and Trainz in general.

I don't miss the point, I think Mike's views on Trainz have been pretty consistant from way back when.

I'm not sure our views can be objective as they are coloured by being consumers without any of the responsibilities for the development, marketing, financial and business realities.

Sure, as a consumer, I would have liked to see Rail Simulator Pro, but looked at objectively it was never realistic.

 

[jdenm8]

All I can say is, good luck Auran with Fury. I am not really into those kinds of games. Something that Auran SHOULD do is to not get rid of CMP, but FIX IT! It could be a very powerful and easy to use program if they fix it and may lure existing users to the newer versions and (in turn) get more revenue from the Trainz franchise.

Auran seems to have (as said above) put all of their eggs in one basket. They did it before and it backfired. They only lost their developments department last time. What could they lose this time?

 

[MAGLEVSX]

Plenty of updates here... http://www.trainzclassics.co.uk/

Paul

Wow Did Not realize How good the rolling stock and loco's looked!
Can not wait!

Also I thought auran's company was in worse shape then that (ahh Breaths a sign of relief)

~Crash Bandicoot~

 

[crman123]

I'm hoping (I'm sure this as been asked and answered...) that the Trainz Classics series (1,2, and 3) will be bundled together into a super package, thats when I'll invest in it. Honestly from what I've seen, TC 1/2 look ....okay...TC3, however, I'm really excited about. Lots of good British content with that one...

 

[paulzmay]

I'm hoping (I'm sure this as been asked and answered...) that the Trainz Classics series (1,2, and 3) will be bundled together into a super package, thats when I'll invest in it. Honestly from what I've seen, TC 1/2 look ....okay...TC3, however, I'm really excited about. Lots of good British content with that one...

My understanding is that there would be another one or two TC instalments, followed by a TRS09 (ish) that included everything from 06 and the TC packs, including all the code improvements. I'll pick up TC3 when it comes out anyway...

Paul

 

[Euphod]

I don't think anyone can see clearly when their view is filtered through a "bob" or a "buck" a "pound" or a "euro", and therefore think that both Mike and Brian have valid points of view.
Everyone else though seems to know what the Trainz series needs, and that's the all encompassing end all to end all version that will unite the community and squash the competition. We all know where Trainz' strengths and weaknesses lie, but if they are going to insist on feeding it to us piecemeal then they can go spit as far as I'm concerned.

TC3 may indeed be the very Everest of train simulators, thanks to Mike and his team, but directing the focus to the UK market will not bring in sufficient revenue to save Auran. No offense to those across the pond, but you must admit the larger market is here in the USA, and they certainly "screwed the pooch" on the Harlem Line!

Good luck Auran, all bets on Fury I guess!

Ed

 

[bernhart_lossiemouth]

I think it is because britain was an australian colony right?

 

[Euphod]

I think it is because britain was an australian colony right?

I suppose that depends on what revisionist history account you are reading....

 

[Pendolino]

TC3 may indeed be the very Everest of train simulators, thanks to Mike and his team, but directing the focus to the UK market will not bring in sufficient revenue to save Auran. No offense to those across the pond, but you must admit the larger market is here in the USA, and they certainly "screwed the pooch" on the Harlem Line!

I fully agree with Euphod. Undoubtedly the US market is the largest, but UK railways are so different in many respects from the rest of Europe, and have such a little interchange with them, that focusing on them will mean that TC3 will have a very scarce appeal for Continental Europe customers.

I am very interested to the new steam system and this may be the only reason to buy TC3, but I don't think there are so many die-hard steam fans around to make TC3 a high-selling game.

I would like to see a TRS2009 including the features of the various TC releases: that could be a success from Anchorage to Hokkaido , but I doubt we will ever see it.

 

[LieLestoSbrat]

I think one of the ideas behind the TC theme is to look at the main markets for Trainz and produce rolling stock, scenery objects and code base improvements related to the route in question, and the country of origin for that route. Obviously US and the UK are 2 big markets for Trainz, but Europe as is another big market and of course Australia. One problem I can for see with continental Europe is each country of course has its own individual locos, rolling stock, building styles and of course operating practices. Judging on posts in the multilingual forums, out of Europe I would rate France and Germany as the to main markets. Of course that does exclude many other potentially big Trainz markets in Europe. I do also think it would be in Aurans best interest to look into revisiting North America. My own opinions of TC1&2 wasn't great. The rolling stock themselves looked good and the scenery items where pretty good as well. But the lack of detail on the route, and the fact it looked to me like a barren waste land let the package down. I do think that once they have produced enough TC products they will package this altogether to form a new TRS200x release. I don't think that this new 200x release though will contain any 2006 and earlier legacy stock. You have to remember folks that one of the reasons for dropping the legacy stock was in some instances the now poor quality of items, when compared to newer assets. Also a fair few of the old legacy stock has built in errors which would need a fair amount of time to fix. The last problem is if Auran do want to fix the errors in the legacy content then I think they will need the permission of each person who contributed to the old 200x and earlier products.

Rob

 

[amigacooke]

We all know where Trainz' strengths and weaknesses lie, but if they are going to insist on feeding it to us piecemeal then they can go spit as far as I'm concerned.

TC was the way necessary to convince our investors that we can fund things like better steam representation. I have mentioned the situation we were faced with many times here. Unfortunately, it couldn't have gone on like it did in the past; and to continue we had to get used to the idea of more profitable methods.

If I attempted to answer the mass of futile correspondence which surrounds me, I should be debarred from the serious business

I wonder which quote is from Uncle Rob ..... answers on a postcard please.

 

[AHSAN]

Hello

At least Auran are hiring a few more staff now, what for fury or Trainz yeah it's probably fury.

Bring back the old employee's Alan and Lance and lets expand the Trainz Team in Brisbane and get Daily DLS updates plus the Trainz Newsletter.

Regards

Ahsan
ATW Team

 

[Rob]

Thanks, amigacooke,

yes, I don't know how many times I have explained words to that effect. It's great that we have all this free advice, but unfortunately most of the forum's advisors are not especially familiar with the reality end of Trainz as a business.

Perhaps Mike10's attitude is a little different toward Auran than that of some others as he has been very close to it's production heart for almost a year now?

The impression that Greg Lane liked to give you was that Auran had a lot more resources at it's disposal than it really had. Now don't go taking this as sacrelige, but it was very difficult for the small teams to ever live up to such high public expectations.

I always thought that was a mistake. I had seen during the pre-Auran years, how positively the train simming fraternity will pull together if they know the chips are down. If they feel they can offer some kind of assistance, then they offer it and their help is extremely valuable to small operations.

Giving the impression we've got everything we need to make the game you always wanted doesn't attract the same, sympathetic attitude. Now I am not saying you should support Trainz because "oh poor Auran"; but I have observed that less time is wasted on managing differences of opinion that really don't change the big picture.

Not only was it difficult for the teams that worked hard to make Greg's ideas a reality; it was especially difficult for the people who had to find the investment capital to keep paying for the ideas.

Again, I am fond of Greg personally, he is a great guy, I loved some of his ideas, I hate his plane but those are other stories. We have a lot to thank Greg for, he certainly is the father of Trainz. Big ideas however cost big bickies; and Auran hasn't got those at the moment.

If anyone would like to invest the tidy sum required to hire John Banks and Greg Lane, I am sure Auran will be all ears. In the meantime we all have to make do with James, the fabulous partner crew and myself; and the more humble of our ideas - the ones that we can afford to implement.

I am not sure what anyone hopes to achieve by badmouthing Auran and it's dedicated staff, and those partners who have worked hard alongside Auran to keep Trainz alive and kicking.

I am not sure what I hope to achieve by being truthful when those people have obviously made up their minds already. Perhaps I should just get back to work and ignore these distractions?

Perhaps we should just chuck in the towel altogether since we will never please everyone? :wave::hehe:

Anyway. I didn't respond to this thread to argue, but whilst I am doing so, Auran's biggest markets are in Germany and France, Western Europe by a long shot.

I was really just dropping by to confirm the rumour that we expect TC3 to go gold over the weekend of 17-18 of may at the latest.

Whilst I have taken the TC website home in order to give it a long overdue update, I keep getting distracted by other Trainz work such as this and so haven't yet had time to complete the update.

Maybe there'll even be time for a newsletter?

The announcement is coming - directly.

~R~

 

[amigacooke]

I was really just dropping by to confirm the rumour that we expect TC3 to go gold over the weekend of 17-18 of may at the latest.

may? More capital problems at Auran?

Good news, looking forward to being able to use the new features and having decent steam sounds (I hope that promised feature works or the forums will definitely not be boring).