When it comes down to it, I really am only interested in making , not operating .....

[EverTrainz]

Knowing when to stop is just as important a skill as any other. "I could fit in another industry there, another siding could go here, that bend needs tidying up, more trees and bushes there would make all the difference ..."

A perfectionist is never finished.

When it comes down to it, I really am only interested in making , not releasing .....

I jest, but there is a small bit of truth to that statement not because I’m selfish, but rather for reasons that you mentioned. Knowing when to stop might be important but I don’t like to stop! Already I’m not happy with the fish vans I’ve released and have found 50000 things wrong with them, “to be fixed in a later release” .

 

[FootplatePhil]

I am mostly a route-builder. I have been editing the one route since 2002. I have enjoyed gradually expanding that route, and tweaking its appearance. However I do also enjoy setting up 'hands off' sessions. Purists would no doubt cringe at my operational detail, but ignorance is bliss, and I enjoy sitting back for some relaxing trainspotting (and even occasionally nodding off). I also snap the odd screenie - the arm chair equivalent of railway photography.

I like to upload my latest work as a contribution the our local Australian Trainzing community, and I also like downloading and exploring other Australian routes. I tend not to run complicated sessions on the routes I download, but rather, I am interested in checking out other route-builder's techniques.

 

[JCitron]

I enjoy sitting back for some relaxing trainspotting (and even occasionally nodding off).

I do the same! Relaxed, sitting back along the embankment under a tree and enjoying the view along with the cool breeze from my open window, and then the eyes close slowly. When I do drive, which is rare, I find myself nodding off then as well. I guess I'm not cut out as a train driver!

 

[jordon412]

I prefer route building myself, specifically Model Railroadz, which take a lot less time to build than a prototype railroad.

 

[crazytrain]

Making stuff and then operating it.

Operation is the phase I'm in now. When operation turns into going all 'Gomez Addams' with things, then it's time to start making stuff again. Getting close to that now, after getting the (not so) bright idea to make my locomotives and rolling stock similar in weight to their H.O. counterparts.

Talk about some *cough* interesting results. Especially in cab mode!

 

[ARhian7]

I especially like to build the "world" and do my best to make it look lived in along with giving it feeling and atmosphere. I like to experiment with colours and content where sometimes it is changed many times until I am okay with it. Even then sometimes, will end up going back to an area after a time and give it a facelift. Does this "tweaking" ever stop?

Definitely not specialised with tracks and signals but the AI drivers navigate well most of the time. Also I like to cab and passenger view with the AI at the helm so I can observe the surrounding scenery for flaws. I have got the sleepies a number of times while doing this. Once in a blue moon will I drive.

 

[DWBennett55]

I find I go in cycles. It seems when I get a new route I really like (mainly JR routes), I start driving some of the sessions but quickly tire of those and decide to make my own sessions. After some preliminary planning of what to include in the sessions and how many sessions there will be, I get down to the actually work of setting everything up in the sessions and, the tough part, testing the sessions. I've gotten reasonable good at putting all the pieces of the session together correctly (identifying the correct trackmark to go to, putting in the correct name of the car to couple to, etc.) but little errors always creep in. It is in the testing that I get the "driving experience" and after numerous attempts to get things exactly right it is very satisfying to finally drive the session with no errors. However, I'm usually so sick of driving the sessions I rarely, if ever, drive the sessions again! I let the community find any errors I miss which usually are ones I didn't find because I unknowingly included "payware" assets.

After burning out on building sessions I eventually go on a asset creation binge. Back in 2018, I worked for around 4-6 hours a day on modifying assets with LOD for about three months as well as making some new ones to fill in the some obvious spots of need. Again, I was so sick of looking at the same or similar assets (and moving specific parts of the models as little as a millimeter so as to have several assets line up properly when placed) that it was hard to even look at the models in the route let alone work on any route. Uploading the assets was, more or less, a chance to finally get away from the whole process. Again, I was burned out.

For the last several months I've not been doing anything with Trainz except reading the forums and posting a reply or two. But, of course, I've been tossing around in my mind an idea or two on asset creation and even updating some of my assets. Plus the urge to work up a session or two has been rattling around in the "BB in a boxcar" brain of mine.

You all have been dully warned.

 

[JCitron]

I find I go in cycles. It seems when I get a new route I really like (mainly JR routes), I start driving some of the sessions but quickly tire of those and decide to make my own sessions. After some preliminary planning of what to include in the sessions and how many sessions there will be, I get down to the actually work of setting everything up in the sessions and, the tough part, testing the sessions. I've gotten reasonable good at putting all the pieces of the session together correctly (identifying the correct trackmark to go to, putting in the correct name of the car to couple to, etc.) but little errors always creep in. It is in the testing that I get the "driving experience" and after numerous attempts to get things exactly right it is very satisfying to finally drive the session with no errors. However, I'm usually so sick of driving the sessions I rarely, if ever, drive the sessions again! I let the community find any errors I miss which usually are ones I didn't find because I unknowingly included "payware" assets.

After burning out on building sessions I eventually go on a asset creation binge. Back in 2018, I worked for around 4-6 hours a day on modifying assets with LOD for about three months as well as making some new ones to fill in the some obvious spots of need. Again, I was so sick of looking at the same or similar assets (and moving specific parts of the models as little as a millimeter so as to have several assets line up properly when placed) that it was hard to even look at the models in the route let alone work on any route. Uploading the assets was, more or less, a chance to finally get away from the whole process. Again, I was burned out.

For the last several months I've not been doing anything with Trainz except reading the forums and posting a reply or two. But, of course, I've been tossing around in my mind and idea or two on asset creation and even updatings some of my assets. Plus the urge to work up a session or two has been rattling around in the "BB in a boxcar" brain of mine.

You all have been dully warned.

That's the great part of this hobby. We can more or less switch between the various aspects as we get tired of one or the other all without wasting a lot of money. If we don't like a section of a fictional route we're building, we can rip out the baseboards and put new ones in again all without tracking plaster all over the house. You wouldn't believe how many times I got spoken to about that. If we tire of building, we can drive, or fiddle with content creating. This is an area I've only dabbled in 14 years ago. My shopping mall is now a built-in item. I'm okay at reskinning track and some buildings, and did a couple of locomotives. These were all older models so I'm not sure how the latest stuff will fair.

Like you I do go through phases as well. It's a healthy thing to do as it allows projects to fester, as I call it, in the brain as I work out the problems in the background. I've actually done this for years with music as well. Get a piece to a point where I have to put it aside and let it work out the problems inside rather than me digging at it and making a mess of things.

With Trainz, I will drive. I'll setup a quick session, or use my testing session on a route and get some operations in. This opportunity give me a chance to step into the route and look for flaws as I ride along with an AI driver. I have dozed doing this too and missed that important thing I was looking for. My small Gloucester Terminal route, however, is fully developed with an operating session that can keep me busy for hours. There are the trolleys buzzing all over on their repeated schedules while I go about switching industries and scooting across the mainline as needed. This is where the ITs are coming into play and represent my first foray into this aspect of the hobby. Once I get the first one working as I like, I can repeat the process in the three other locations since the track configuration is the same.

And finally like you, I'll take a break from it all and only visit the forums for a bit. It's as if I've stepped out of the pool for a bit to warm up only to dive back in for a swim another day.

 

[Sek_Hakuna]

I enjoy route creation the most. Lately I've been getting into creating sessions ala "Philskene" method and finding that to be enjoyable and frustrating at the same time. I cannot imagine making a session for the "Murchison 2" route. Just the time waiting for the switch from surveyor to driver would make a man old and grey.

I took a vacation from trainz during the T:ane development era and again during the TRS19 development. About 3 years total I think. Purchased TRS19 a while ago and was blown away by the advancements in graphics. I've been developing one route since Trainz 2010 and that is the "Durango To Silverton" route. Talk about tweaking!! I currently have 3 versions going at the same time for TRS19.....1895 era....1910 era and 1935 era.

Randall

 

[KotangaGirl]

I do the same! Relaxed, sitting back along the embankment under a tree and enjoying the view along with the cool breeze from my open window, and then the eyes close slowly. When I do drive, which is rare, I find myself nodding off then as well. I guess I'm not cut out as a train driver!

My standard session testing method seems to be suddenly falling asleep for 6 hours then waking up and seeing what got into a tangle. It's always very satisfying to discover that everything ran just fine without me. I've been building my GER Norfolk route for just over two years now and I certainly haven't got tired of it yet. The main lines and branchlines are all in place now and the method I used was to build up a section into an almost complete state with sections yet to be built represented by portals and once I'm happy enough with what I've built I add on the next section boards and work on those with portals representing what will come after that. I find that I avoid the horror of miles of empty baseboards by doing that and my layout by and large looks like a proper little world instead of a construction site.

 

[valbridge]

This is known as MRBS - aka Model Railroader Building Syndrome.

We are all guilty of that as we open up a purportedly finished route, a route we deemed finished and boxed up, only to discover that nice industrial building recently found in our downloads would look neat next to the river we put in ages ago.

How true, if there is one weakness to identify with my own route creation; it is stopping, convincing myself of being satisfied, then clicking on 'upload'.

 

[dangavel]

Well ,now i got my mac back, I'm doing a bit of making and a lot of checking out hundreds of modded assets, adding screenshots ( ychhh ) and then backing them up as cdps on multiple hard drives, not my favorite pastime. Then I've got to look forward to uploading the whole lot to the DLS , probably my LEAST enjoyable task, as it takes so long. Does anyone actually enjoy it ?

Actually come to think of it , tho, my LEAST fave pastime is deciphering the assets on the DLC that have no screenshot and/or have indecipherable titles like "?????????-????" ....now , why would anyone use that system to identify anything ?

 

[pware]

You can add totally meaningless asset descriptions to that list. "My latest route, try it you will love it" is one that comes to mind - it looked like something that was created on Android late one night in the back seat of the family car while traveling home from Grandma's birthday party or somewhere else the creator did not want to go to!

 

[Forester1]

Yeah, it seems if there are requirements to be met for all other assets, there should be some basic requirements for routes as well...

 

[dangavel]

You can add totally meaningless asset descriptions to that list. "My latest route, try it you will love it" is one that comes to mind - it looked like something that was created on Android late one night in the back seat of the family car while traveling home from Grandma's birthday party or somewhere else the creator did not want to go to!

yep, their name is legion .....for they are many you can usually tell their worth by checking to see their size, if the whole route is only about 220k forget it !

 

[blueodessey]

Evening all,

Sir Dan Gavel, really good to hear you got the MAC CPU back, I can relate in a sense on New Computer, when my HP was almost Broken Video wise, etc, I got this one, ASUS ROG STRIX from our local Costco, and it took a good month, to get everything lined up, backed up, and try to learn WIN10, plus buying new Software, mine was like 6 yrs old, and wouldn't work with this Computers new Software.......So even though you have yours back, I get it, about what lays ahead for now......Just happy you didn't lose your Routes etc.......Others here surely have.......

As for what I like to do, I am not Creator of Assets, my joy if you will, is downloading other peoples Routes and learning from them, it gives me lots of ideas, and better ways to do things......That has helped my learning so much.....

And my most fun thing, merging Routes, taking small ones, and putting a jigsaw puzzle together, too see if it will work out, it does not always....And I have had some really bad match-ups, but the experience is priceless........

There is one item that really gets under my skin, and that is Signals that do not work correctly, I will move, delete, rebuild track work, whatever it takes to get Signals to work within reason. Or at least the Aspect and Control, I feel they are capable of.......


i enjoy Trainz and make it my mission, to try and learn as much as I can. Finally this Forum is tremendous as a Resource when something goes south in Trainz, or you just need some good advice on how to deal with a particular issue...