Where are you Auran Folks

[Razor01]

I am getting soooo frustrated with you people.

I think the most frustrating thing is the amount of problems you have and the lack of communication you have to go with all the issues.

Servers down - AGAIN - and yes, it's the weekend! No surprise there - you're program is down more weekends and holiday than any game I've ever played in my life, and I've been playing online games for 20 years. Some fun this is to relax at the end of a very intense week.

Get your act together, provide some REAL customer service and notifications, and FIX the multitude of problems you have with Trainz!

This has to be your absolute NUMBER ONE priority - you are losing so many users - you are tanking your own program. Many of the people I got to know when I started using Trainz2012 are long gone, and perhaps they are the wiser ones.

Please, figure something out or get the right people in place to help you do it. What you have now is simply not working, and as many former users can attest to, is not longer worth their time, energy, money or efforts.

Now is the time to act - not tomorrow, not after the weekend, NOW.

Frustrated beyond measure,
Razor01

 

[cascaderailroad]

I am sure they are hard at work, fixing things, I believe it is a small company, and not a mega huge corporation ... some things take time ... I appreciate all they have done for us.

 

[Razor01]

I've submitted many thoughts to them directly regarding service levels. The worst thing is lack of communication.

When things are down, it takes you 1/2 hour to an hour to figure out if it is an Auran thing or something you've done wrong.

Communication is very poor - it doesn't matter how small the company, you need to communicate to the people who make your company possible.

I've very disappointed. Again.

I think the time for excuses is long past. I also thing the people need to speak up as a group to get the attention we need.

Maybe we should be paying a monthly user fee to have a better setup. I don't know, but what we have here is not working - time & time again.

Like I said earlier,

Frustrated beyond measure.

Razor01

PS. I will not work on my route unless I feel that a better solution is in the works or in place - it's just not worth my hundreds of hours of time to try to make a good thing on a platform that is not predictable or reliable.

 

[cascaderailroad]

You have to see that they probably get many hundreds of Help Desk tickets per day ... from thousands of people each week, world wide.

Most of the Trainz assets are created by private individuals, on the outside world, of content creators, and N3V can not be held accountable for 3rd party creators assets not working, or having errors ... as they didn't make all the hundereds of thousands of assets.

I have found that in rare cases when the servers are down ... I go through withdrawl, and panic ... but during those times I build my route(s).

The DLS is an absolutely huge database, and maintaining it must be very complex for them.

When I was a kid, the most high tech item we had was a magnifying glass, that we occupied our time, by burning red ants, and by building 3 story tree forts ... We had no internet ... we had a B&W TV with rabbit ears, and a Party Line rotary tele-O-phone. It was sort of like Gilligans Island ... "not a single luxury" ... Years later we had Atari-Pong, Missle Command, and Pac Man video games ... But in today's world, we expect instant international communication service ... lol

Forum PM, Skype, and E-Mail are great ways to find out what is happening, and how to fix things.

 

[frogpipe]

I'd agree that there is a need to separate 3rd party from true N3V issues, but it is my observation that they are using an ISP that is questionable at best. I'd have to dig to find the info, but whoever it is (or was) was known for routing issues, utilizing used hard drives, and a long list of other issues that made them sound like some fly-by-night operation. The frequency with which the servers go down, are hard to reach, etc. would seem to reenforce that allegation.

At the same time, without having knowledge of internal structure and practices I can only use my own perspective to judge things like bugs that occur. And from that perspective, there are some truly shocking things that have "slipped past them".

For example, I'd love to know what they did that broke the draincocks... I know, it's simply aesthetic, but as a 3D graphical game one could argue that it ISN'T so trivial...

All THAT being said, this isn't ACEs Studio (Flight Simulator), so there are some things to be expected, like protracted development time - however, I think some sort of regular sitrep would go miles toward "buying" them a ton of goodwill from the community.

 

[Razor01]

I have to agree with frogpipe,

Some representation would go a long ways. This is a recurring issue - lack of communication - and it simply aggrevates people to no end when there are never any answers that are satisfactory.

And like you cascaderailroad, I had a small black & white tv with rabbit ears, treeforts, magnifying glasses, bikes with banana seats, roller skates (not blades) etc. I get that, but that was then, and better communication is now. The capability is there, the will is not, it seems.

Like I said earlier, perhaps a small monthly user fee would help - but I'd only pay it if it made a difference, just like I pay for a first class ticket.

I'm also not so sure that there are thousands of people worldwide any longer. It's been hard to even find one or two mp games with more than 1 player on them, and the forums seldom have more than 30 people on them at any given time. This is likely the result of what I'm trying to say in the first place - lack of communication.

So there we are, for what it's worth.

Regards,
Razor01

 

[danny5]

I agree razor, There nothing worse then having a session going from wed to Friday and having it go down because the server go down and all
the work you and your clients done in your MP session is lost and the others don't want to join no more just to start all over again.
There no explanation as to why.It not our fault, so we don't have to explane.
For me Content Manger is worst then i have ever seen it after the so called patches/hotfixes.
Content Manger dont have location anymore (what was wrong with that) now install/true. Now i have to use two to three filters to fine something.
Where location i could switch from local to DLS.

 

[metrocentral]

I don't as a rule join in posts that are negative about Auran or individuals, but with the fiasco that the SP1 patch has provided and being a fan of this game I feel compelled to say something.

I held back from installing the new patch previous experience has taught me not to rush to add any thing to this game or any other game I own without reading forums first or waiting for the fallout with patches.

Since TS2009 Auran has released patches that are getting bigger, require 2+ patches for each version of Trainz released, and require a very long time to install.

When it gets to the stage that the only time to install a patch is just before you go to bed, and you wake up next morning praying that it was a faultless install the all I can say is that things are not well.

I've been a victim of this process since buying TS2010, install-patch-delete-reinstall-patch, several times finally getting it right.

As fans we become obsessed with a the game and we start making excuses like there a small company, the problems I have in this version will be fixed in the next version, I,ll Pay to download freeware at good speeds to

support them etc. ( Now you guys are talking about a small monthly fee for better support, this is getting sad ).

You are right Razor01 with this patch Auran has tanked TS2012 and the hot fix has not done much to improve things, which I feel goes to prove that this patch has had very poor in house testing.

Auran are probably wishing they had not released this patch now and should have left it, incorporating it into TS2013 would have been a better idea giving them time to sought out the issue's

and hopefully giving 3rd party Payware developers some advance notice of the changes ( Reminds me of Microsoft and windows vista, telling no one to who it mattered most about the changes).

At this stage I'm reluctant to buy any payware addons such as jointedrail or RRmods locomotives.

I know they will probably work in TS2010 but buying them for Ts2012 is not going to happen for me now.

I hope Auran get on top of there problems before the next release because if they don't I will start looking else where, which means Railworks and there new version of Train Simulator 2013 which at this point

has probably got less bugs than TS2012.

Cheers

Jimbo

 

[shaneturner12]

I can see where people are coming from, but it's a known fact that N3V do not work weekends, so do not expect much to be done before Monday.

Shane

 

[uracco]

I have to agree with this,
I don't have TS12 myself, but a friend bought a second hand copy and was very pleased with it. That was until he patched to SP1. A lot of his downloaded content was broken as were lots of his rOutes he had spent hours building. He decided to see if help desk could help, which they did but took along to. We can't keep going back to nostalgic times to cover N3V's behind. We live in 2013 now, not 1953. We live in age,where we can send things around the world in seconds. N3V should at least be able to reply fairly quickly to help sort out their own mess.

 

[pware]

I can see where people are coming from, but it's a known fact that N3V do not work weekends, so do not expect much to be done before Monday.

... and don't forget the time/dateline difference. A weekend here in Oz is from Friday to Sunday (approx) US time.

 

[shaneturner12]

That is true as well.

Shane

EDIT: It seems that some people in this thread expect N3V to be working 24/7, which in my opinion is unreasonable.

 

[NSWGR_46Class]

People may be shocked to known that in many places in Australia we do not even have a 24/7 Police service - our local police close at 11 pm most nights and re open 7 am next morning 3am (Friday - Saturday nights)

Unless its an emergency it can take 3 weeks to get an Doctor appointment's, 3 months to see a Dentist

That is true as well.
Shane

EDIT: It seems that some people in this thread expect N3V to be working 24/7, which in my opinion is unreasonable.

 

[colourlight]

I don't know why you are so bothered about the multiplayer server being down. I can,t even play one of my preferred sessions when it is up!

 

[hminky]

EDIT: It seems that some people in this thread expect N3V to be working 24/7, which in my opinion is unreasonable.

I have worked for companies if something was as screwed up as this patch 24/7 would be appropriate.

Your company's livelihood is on the line.

Harold

 

[BLACKWATCH]

To be fair, since the release of SP1, there have been quite a few posts on these forums by Zec, Windwalker & Pw3r, even Tony Hilliam has posted, so
I can't see where anyone can say there hasn't been enough contact by the staff, at least in the last week or so.

Zec spends his own time on these forums trying to help, but even he can only do so much, especially at weekends.

 

[shaneturner12]

I've got to agree there Kev. Even WindWalkr has been known over the last week or two to be posting here from home.

I must disagree with those who feel that N3V should be operating 24/7 or close to that, as everyone needs a break sometimes, and anyway some of the issues being reported with SP1 are actually content related, or a misunderstanding on how things work in SP1. N3V have said that they are releasing hotfixes for the bugs that are being reported, but it will take time.

In the meantime, if someone has found a bug, report it as clearly as possible (including screenshots/video as appropriate) and N3V then have more chance of fixing the issue if they can see what is happening. N3V are not psychic, and those who think they are need to calm down and rethink their strategy.

Shane

P.S. If N3V did work 24/7, how much of an increase in price do you think there would be to buyers of Trainz software to cover the increased running costs?

 

[CRO]

I have been Trainzing for longer than I can remember. I have never had a problem with "communications" when problems have arisen.
Auran/N3V have been prompt, courteous and efficient, even when my problems have turned out to be self inflicted.
I have patched up to the SP1 + Hotfix without a problem.
It would be logical to assume that the more third party content you have, the more the chance of having problems occur when applying patches. Auran/N3V can't replicate every possible combination of system and content when testing out the patches. I have read many posts where people have had little to no trouble with SP1, so in general the patch works. No amount of testing will find all the problems, so delaying the release would have been pointless.
Where there are problems, the crew are working as fast as they can to solve them. Patience please!

Bob (CRO)

 

[clam1952]

I have worked for companies if something was as screwed up as this patch 24/7 would be appropriate.

Your company's livelihood is on the line.

Harold

I wouldn't have though it was anywhere near that bad.
Give N3V a break. You are assuming that N3V are not working, maybe they are, the more time they spend on line, the less they can spend on sorting out the bugs, some of these guys have been posting in the forums for well over normal working hours as it is which would indicate to me that they may well be putting a lot of extra hours in.
Most of the bugs have been acknowledged by an N3V representative, may not be obvious to some though due to the excessive numbers of threads popping up all over the place. We have had one pretty quick hotfix, So it hasn't fixed everything, we knew that it wouldn't in advance, it wasn't supposed to. I've no doubt another fix will soon be on the way fairly soon, better to take a bit of time and get it right.

 

[Robert2d6]

I have worked for companies if something was as screwed up as this patch 24/7 would be appropriate.

Your company's livelihood is on the line.

Harold

Every time I say something negative about the patch that I read on two different forums by people that installed it, I am lectured by some of the pro-patch folks, telling me that because I didn't personally install it on my PC after reading all the negative comments, I have no right to express an opinion on the advisability of installing it. How is that for some convoluted logic. I guess when I read Consumer Reports, and they say a new car is full of problems and bugs reported by new owners, I should go right out and buy one to see for myself.