Open Letter to the Trainz Community

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In the same boat, wondering if the lifetime 1st class ticket is worthless now for trainz 19 and beyond.

I've brought this up too for the same reason.

Do we get a refund on the FCT portion, or what we've spent money on before is no longer valid, which isn't good. I just want to know where we stand before going for the subscription because nowhere does it say anywhere, including in the My Trainz account that the original lifetime ticket will expire.
 
About the lifetime First Class Ticket: if you buy TRS2019 you still have the lifetime FCT, don't know where is the problem. In case you want the subscription, you will get 2 dollars discount on each month lifetime too. it's on the FAQ.
 
Because at the moment if I buy the subscription I am essentially paying for an FCT twice, but can only ever use one.

peter
 
About the lifetime First Class Ticket: if you buy TRS2019 you still have the lifetime FCT, don't know where is the problem. In case you want the subscription, you will get 2 dollars discount on each month lifetime too. it's on the FAQ.

That I understand, Charlie and have no problem with it, but there's a bunch of us here that already purchased a lifetime FCT subscription about 8 or 10 years ago for quite a sum and don't want to do that again.
 
Do we get a refund on the FCT portion, or what we've spent money on before is no longer valid, which isn't good. I just want to know where we stand before going for the subscription because nowhere does it say anywhere, including in the My Trainz account that the original lifetime ticket will expire.

Don't worry. Tony said:

Your FCT operates normally and is not affected in any way by your subscription status.
e.g. If you have 7 months left on your current FCT, use your discount for one month, then cancel. You still have 6 months left on your existing FCT.

#10 here...
https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?147852-TRS19-FAQ-Thread
 
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I thank if you got a train set for around 30 or 50 dollars all you would get would be a loop or oval of track. Gets pretty boring just watching a train go around in a circle, so you can do so much more with TRS2019. TRS2019 would get pretty boring to if all you could do is go in a circle.
 
The debate about V-scale vs model railways is a bit of re-direction.

For starters, you need to buy the hardware to run a train sim and to do so adequately it needs to be more than a £300 budget laptop from PC World. With a model railway you have a solid 3D object which you can pick up and handle and has real weight and inertia. V-scale will only ever be a set of 2D pixels on a screen, even for those who use a VR headset. We can have long prototype routes vs. a 16' x 10' layout but again you have the ambience of a world you have created, the smell of the flock and enamel paint and ozone from the locos as they go by.

The comparison is a bit specious in other respects. As FS19 has come up a few times, a real farm would cost far more than a model railway to buy and equip but FS17 was recently on sale for £7.99 and FS19 is launching at £29.99. Buying a real rally car and using it to compete in real events would cost a small fortune, but I would only ever expect to pay £30 for a rally game on the PC.

The real factor here should be what other computer games or simulations are selling for. Each has their own business model, DTG has been mentioned a few times - their annual core update is free but the money comes from selling DLC that people actually want to buy. Run 8 uses a similar model and their routes are very expensive but unlike Trainz they are catering to the high end of the simulation market, with high fidelity physics and other operational features signed off by real railroad engineers. And while there may be unexpected surprise at N3V Towers (sorry, PO Box these days) at the number of people who have just gone "sod it" and paid the $70, that price tag is unlikely to draw in much new blood either.

I should add that model railways generally are an investment, the value of your collection more likely to go up rather than down. Wish I'd hung on to my old stuff from the 80's could have made a killing selling on Ebay, hey enough to fund buying TRS2019. But software is worthless - you don't even really own it, can't resell - certainly on PC with DRM - and you generally can't even get a refund or take it back to the point of purchase if it's rubbish.
 
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What's happening with N3V is not unusual, and I have a feeling other game companies will follow this model as well if they haven't already.

Many game companies have subscription models. But in every case that I am aware of, the subscriptions are only for additional content (DLC) beyond purchasing the original game itself. And, in every single case I know of, if you cancel the subscription, you get to keep what you've accumulated up to that point. If that was the model that N3V followed, I would have no problem with it whatsoever and I would gladly pony up $100, maybe even $150 a year with the other benefits they include. But to follow the SAAS model that business software follows where you are cut off if you stop paying is absolutely absurd.
 
Every other game with a subscription service like this lets you keep the content you've accumulated under the Membership if you decide to cancel. Taking away content that people use for not wanting to pay a fee is ridiculous no matter what way you slice it.

What that says to me is that you paid for access to the content, not for the ownership of the content. Something something an MMORPG killed off the previous company...
 
From the Xbox Game Pass FAQ:

How long do I have access to games within the Xbox Game Pass catalog?

Xbox Game Pass members enjoy unlimited access to over 100 great games within Xbox Game Pass catalog, until either the subscription is canceled/expires, or a game leaves the Game Pass catalog.


From Playstation-Plus website:

Monthly Games - Get two hand-picked PS4 games each month to download and play as long as you are a member
 
Think the point is no one is making us sign up for a subscription, those of us that don't can just carry on as normal.
 
Thanks for that Malc. It is puzzling why a new optional service has stirred up so much anger. Nothing has changed at all for people who visit store.trainzportal.com and not MyTrainz > My Memberships.

Chris - Xbox and PS4 are "platforms". iTunes is a "platform". In a similar way, Trainz is also a platform.

With all the DLC items available, it costs thousands to buy it all. The new membership options allow people to access all that content much cheaper than outright purchase.

Based upon the first 24 hours of sales, more people prefer the membership option than the traditional option, and I think as people understand the concept more, more people will see the extra value provided.

That said, we are happy with whichever option people choose. It's just a shame that people aren't happy even though they have a choice.
 
Hence why i said games with subscription services, not consoles. PlayStation Plus and XBox Game Pass are their own beasts entirely. We're talking about DLC here, not full games.

I wasn't talking about Plus/Game Pass at all. Those aren't comparable to this situation and it makes total sense that when those end, you lose access to the games from it. In fact, if we were to compare TRS19 Gold to either of those, then TRS19 Gold looks even worse since you get far more content for a lower price than what TRS19 Gold is offering.

If I buy Forza (or Call of Duty or any number of games that offer subscription DLC on top of the game), then pay for the subscription, that subscription gives me all the DLC that comes out during that subscription term. When that term is up and I don't buy a new pass, I still own all the DLC I received during that subscription. It doesn't go away. I can still play Forza. I can still play all the car packs I got during that year. I can still play the expansion packs indefinitely. I never lose access to them. That's the difference and that's my point.
 
Point taken. Thanks for clarifying Barret.

Our model is obviously more like Xbox than Forza. Our goal here is to provide choice and value for customers.

We have some customers who have spent hundreds of dollars a year on DLC. Now for $15 a month you can get the same value those people got for a much lower price.

If you don't see the value in the offerring, then that's not a problem either. Buy the game, job done.
 
Trainz is not a platform. PC is a platform, XBox is a platform, PlayStation 4 is a platform. Trainz is a program.

You are correct. Windows is a set of software programs (+drivers, utilities - more terminology) that provides a platform for other software/apps. Likewise for XBox and Playstation although those platforms also come with hardware. Without those software and apps of what use are those platforms?

MS Word is a program that provides a platform for users to create, edit and view documents. Without those documents, of what use is Word?

Trainz is a program that provides a platform (not a pun) for users to create, edit and view simulated railroad "environments" (for want of a better term). Without those "environments" of what use is Trainz?

Its all terminology and usage.
 
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