So What's next for Non-Subscription TRS19 Users?

euromodeller

Imagineer
I've had TRS19 since Dec 2018 and I paid up-front for it.
There are now more and more subscription offers and benefits/updates for those that wish to buy them.

So, what's in store for us poor-relations that dished out a lot of money for the non-subscription version?
Are we going to get any improvements to the 'game' that we don't have to pay for ?

I don't want or need 99% of the payware stuff, so that leaves me with whatever comes free in CM.
Most of my Trainz time is spent in Surveyor making routes or doing reskins.
New suitable free content is scarce enough but now you are encouraging content creators to submit their work for reward.
I might be lucky and find 1 or 2 new items a day in CM that I can use, will this now deplete due to the lure of reward?
This game and forum was built around creating and sharing, I am not a gimme pig and I do add free items to the DLS, but I can foresee problems where subscription members will create a route that might be free, but I might find assets in it that are not available to us poor people.
However, I do buy a FCT every 90 days to support the upkeep of CM.
 
I find myself in a similar position to euromodeller, and am equally confused with where this is all going. I, too have bough trs19 up front, and keep my FCT current all the time. I have bought nothing from the store since S&C some years ago, and for UK users, there is virtually nothing of interest in DLC that would induce me to change my current position.
I really enjoy working with surveyor, which I think is peerless, the forum is great, and the creators are great, but if I had to spend money to drive trains,then the offer for the UK is in my opinion better from the competition.
Best wishes
Ian
 
You can get a Plus subscription which is roughly half the cost of Gold now that does not include all the free DLC, just the Plus features, Plus without Gold just gets to look at possible new features first and it's not as I understand guaranteed they will be permanent. I will be dropping my Gold to plus when it comes up for renewal as I don't need or want all the on loan stuff which seems to be nearly all non UK anyway.

I'm guessing the Subscription for Gold partly goes towards paying the DLC creators?

I subscribed initially to support N3V's ongoing development of Trainz and play with the new features (as I can afford it) not to get freebies.

The Plus features are nice to have but not IMO essential and require a bit of a learning curve to get used to them, presumably or hopefully those that work OK will filter down to the non sub versions at some point.

I've actually got the non Plus version as well mainly, so I can ensure what I'm doing content wise is compatible with it as well as plus.

From the Newsletter, I'm reading it that the forth comming Service pack will be for all versions and not just for subscribers, clarification needed though.
 
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I was wondering when someone was going to ask, as it's been almost a year, and no real solid update to the game has come for non-Plus members. I think N3V, wait, I know n3v really wants the sub model to work. They really do. But this is not WoW or an MMO. The content is not there for a sub. The DLC selection is not there. Sadly, if you wish to have an up-to-date game, then Plus is the only option. Which n3v knows this. Their service packs that have been talked for months now, still is not out. n3v and valve work on the same time schedule, whenever they please. I wouldn't be surprised if delays happened and was no biggy, as again it forces another member to cave into Plus to get upgraded game.

EX: the dude who played without a HUD for months, and still cant play with it. He is a non-Sub and since the game has yet to get its SP after almost a year... He is forced to play on a broken game he paid full price til they release the SP. OR he can cave and sign up for Plus... Which sadly, Plus version is the superior version and has fixed and new features that non-plus does not, which some make it night n day better.

Just let that last line sink in a bit...

Basically, you sit and wait til n3v decides to finally, whenever that is, SP1.
 
Been with Trainz for over 10 years and I just don't understand what they are doing. Maybe I'm just too dumb to understand what they are trying to say so maybe they need to dumb it down. Are they saying if you get plus you can download payware and keep it until you stop paying for plus or you keep it forever; and is everything they offer or what?
 
Been with Trainz for over 10 years and I just don't understand what they are doing. Maybe I'm just too dumb to understand what they are trying to say so maybe they need to dumb it down. Are they saying if you get plus you can download payware and keep it until you stop paying for plus or you keep it forever; and is everything they offer or what?
Plus is just updated, most up to date build with new features that may or may not come to the plebs of non-sub.

Gold, is all DLC, you keep on 'loan' until you cancel your sub. Gold also comes with Plus. See the image from newsletter.

Welcome to 2019 and the world of game passes, sub models, and season passes.
 
As we have now TRS19 Gold Plus and TRS19 Plus subscriptions, perhaps they should rename the none sub version TRS19 Less........ I'll get my coat.
 
Don't worry, the official response that TRS19 (non subscription version) is now the province of "former" customers will probably follow shortly...

I still find it hard to believe so many (or maybe not so many given this latest push) prefer the subscription where you are effectively borrowing TRS19!

Suspect TRS21 if such a beast ever arrives will be entirely subscription based.
 
Non subscription user here - paid $100 Canadian for full version, was on Beta all summer prior to release. Even tried to purchase Gold but no credit card no luck.

No longer interested in subscription. Very upset to read comments like this from developer -




When will non-members get access to these features?

Bug fixes (and some polish items) made for Trainz Plus will be released as part of a future Service Pack for TRS19.
Most of the Trainz Plus features will then find their way into future versions of Trainz. (Others may be replaced/removed/updated).
Historically there has been a gap of two to three years between major Trainz releases.




Why do I have to wait for bug fixes? I paid full price for the game.

Don't care for polish items myself, but bug fixes should not be withheld for later release just because you don't have a subscription.





 
BTW, how many trainzers have Plus version, 50, 100, 150 or maybe 200. Hard to believe that more of this numbers was sold.
 
Running mainly legacy routes, TANE SP4 looks really good.

tane4_0005.jpg


Seems there is no future for Trainz.

Harold
 
I bought a new, zooper-dooper computer to run what I considered (due mostly to N3V hype) would be a really great new version of the game I've become fond of since 2005. However, after reading all the gripes and confusion here in this particular panel, I'll stay with TANE, probably until I tire of the game. TANE really rocks on my new computer. Like others, I don't buy DLC. Never have, never will.

Bill
 
My opinion... the developers don't think things through before doing things. Everything seems to be impulse. I purchase TRS19 Early Edition outright last Oct for a whopping $70. Why? I was brand new to Trainz and I thought that was the "normal" cost. Then the game was released and the cost came down. Then there were the regional releases and the cost came down even more. Since I have little interest in anything other than North American the Regional would have been perfect for me but I already had the Early Edition.

Then I joined Silver, mainly just because it was there and I'm the adventurous type. Since I owned the game outright I more or less did Silver for store discount and 5 items per month. Then I learned that I quickly ran out of items that I was interested in from my Silver membership. Then Plus came out and I thought I just had to try the new camera's and integrated Drive/Surveyor. So I upgraded to Gold.

As soon as I upgrade to Gold (literally 3 days later) the memberships change and I have access to ALL the pay-ware. My in game Download Window is choked with content and my Content Vault button is gone.. Within about 24hrs N3V announces that they are re-instating Content Vault (until a better Downloader comes out "soon"). So now I have a content Vault selection button and it's contents, and, all content still shows in my in game download window.

And now.. Plus membership arrives. Do I cancel Gold and go with Plus? (rhetorical) Makes my head spin!

You just never know what is going to happen next... no warning... no documentation... change is just there.... There is some good in that in that N3V can react to things quickly. But if you are too impulsive... too spontaneous... confusion can take over.

I love Trainz'ing so I'm hoping things settle down and flow smoother in the future.
 
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As someone who mostly uses the game creatively, the idea of "Netflix for trains" is tempting, but probably not worth it. If I want to sit back and drive I usually grab another train sim anyways, simply because of how much time I already spend in Trainz anyways. Besides that, this is 90% US content, some good russian content and a few random things from elsewhere. Not really my taste, I find US trains boring most of the time, and if I do want them, there are enough freeware things for it.

Personally, I don't think that the change of memberships will cause a large change to content production. N3V has encouraged users to make DLCs for years now with what we see currently on the store being the result. I do not know how many people actually have memberships, but if I did my math right then for every user having an active subscription with the DLCs, a bit more than $3 go into the pool from which money is split up between the DLCs that have been released in the last 2 years. Although I can only make assumptions about how many active memberships there are, this doesn't sound all that more attractive for DLC creators compared to the previous situation.

I do not think there will be much influence on DLS releases either, good quality DLS releases just naturally decreased as the work time for making good assets by todays standards increased a lot.

I've bought outright and I'm happy with that. Using the game for a year now I've paid about $5.50/mo (FCTs excluded). I suggested buying outright to everyone who asked my opinion and will continue to do so. I discouraged from buying Trainz PLUS for everyone who asked me, and will continue to do so. I dislike the concept of paid beta testing, because let's be honest, thats what it is. As a content creator I will simply not offer any technical support for my stuff under Trainz PLUS, using it there is at your own risk. As a player I also do all Multiplayer Sessions on stable, and most of the DLC content you can get won't be of any use there either.

Me and my content developement group have moved to TRS19 stable entirely now. I can assure you there will be content coming for it as freeware still, just not as fast as some years ago due to aforementioned reason. :) I'm not experiencing many bugs (the only thing that annoys me is the fact that the camera during superelevation is broken...), the game runs better than T:ANE and looks a lot better as well. So for me, upgrading from T:ANE it has been a true improvement and I do not want to go back.

That said, one thing I've been negatively noticing is the fact that past newsletters have been a lot of marketing speak but no tangible facts so far. Since I'm on TRS19 I'm not really intersting in T:ANE SP4, and seeing how I'm rather happy with my current TRS19 installation neither am I that much in need of SP1 there. But if something is not almost ready for delivery it shouldn't be mentioned in the newsletter just to cause false hype.

Looking into the future I sadly also expect Trainz to eventually become sub-only at a future version. However, until that version comes out I'll be somewhere at University, will probably have a lot less time anyways and if I will get aboard that train then, who knows. In that regard I would suggest to "wait and drink tea" as we say in german, voice your opinion but do not worry too much about it as theres still some time to go. :D



Greets, Mika
 
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