Trainz Plus Annual Subscription Question

In lieu of the new tools available in just the Trainz Plus version, I decided this morning to subscribe on an annual basis to Trainz Plus, although I am not at all very happy about paying for additional basic functionality after having to originally buy TRS19 at full price, and then later having to again pay for TRS19 Platinum. I decided to pay the entire yearly subscription upfront, and with my Lifetime Annual Discount of $24.00, this brought my annual subscription cost to $45.49.

After I did that, I received an email from N3V titled Thanks for joining Trainz Plus Membership - Yearly with attached invoice. In that email it showed: Subscription summary Trainz Plus Membership - Yearly $69.49 and Next renewal on 18-Apr-2021 01:23.

I am confused here. I understood that my Life Annual Discount of would apply to all successive years that I am subscribed so why is the amount of $69.49 being shown instead of $45.49?

Bob

Bob,

You're confused?
Do you really think that N3V actually has any reason for it's pricing structure?, other than to get your $$??

Dave

I wonder if the price they showed in your email invoice is Australian dollars and not US dollars?

The Australian dollar is much higher than the US right now.

A current check on Xe.com shows your price in AUD as $71.60, although higher than you were quoted, it's way too close to think otherwise.

The discount for the FCT should be shown here https://www.auran.com/planetauran/discount_codes.php

Originally on mine it was valid for a year, now it's showing 1st January 2030. Be nice if N3V would clarify what we are supposed to do!
Not sure whether you have to manually redeem it every year or if it's automatically done. Also have the lifetime FCT, will probably find out shortly as I'm due for renewal in May. I'm on gold but will be dropping to plus which wasn't available originally, not much interest in the DLC.

Also bought the Original version at the start.

Hi Bob
I have checked your membership here and can confirm that our discount has been applied, and as such you will have only been charged $45.49US. Unfortunately it appears that the invoice system isn't showing the discount for the membership, only the full price.

I have entered a task into our bug tracking system so that our team can look into this, as it is definitely going to be confusing when the full price is shown instead!

Thanks for letting us know

Regards

ZecMurphy said:

Hi Bob
I have checked your membership here and can confirm that our discount has been applied, and as such you will have only been charged $45.49US. Unfortunately it appears that the invoice system isn't showing the discount for the membership, only the full price.

I have entered a task into our bug tracking system so that our team can look into this, as it is definitely going to be confusing when the full price is shown instead!

Thanks for letting us know

Regards

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply and information!

Bob

Actually MSGSapper, the discounted amount paid was in the email on the next line titled: "Invoiced amount $45.49"

Of course if you'd subscribed earlier you would have saved the full price purchase, plus the Platinum purchase, and for $45 you'd have had access to all the newest features sooner.

Dave, we have one very solid reason for our pricing: earn more revenues than expenses so that we can continue developing Trainz as quickly as possible.

If you know of another way to do things where we can add more features without charging customers then please let us know.

Malc, the FCT included in the membership plans is automatically activated and renewed, so you don't need to do anything (other than renew your membership).

Tony_Hilliam said:

Actually MSGSapper, the discounted amount paid was in the email on the next line titled: "Invoiced amount $45.49"

Of course if you'd subscribed earlier you would have saved the full price purchase, plus the Platinum purchase, and for $45 you'd have had access to all the newest features sooner.

Click to expand...

First of all as I said above: "I received an email from N3V titled Thanks for joining Trainz Plus Membership - Yearly with attached invoice. In that email it showed: Subscription summary Trainz Plus Membership - Yearly $69.49 and Next renewal on 18-Apr-2021 01:23".

I did receive the initial discount for the first year. My concern here was about the following years based on what your email said.

Second, with the confusing array of TRS19 options you offer, it is sometimes hard to understand the best way to go. When TRS19 came out, I did as I have always done since the very beginning of Trainz, I bought the game in good faith. I also did the same when the Platinum version came out. I did not realize as the time that I could have had all of this just with a Trainz Plus subscription, as this was a much different way of doing things then I was used to with your product.

I realize you trying to force everyone to a subscription model in order to have a guaranteed yearly revenue stream as other software companies have done, such as Microsoft with their Office product. I certainly understand that, as that is the dream of every ISV these days to migrate to a subscription model, as it is much more profitable, and provides a more predictable revenue stream.

A game subscription model however is a very radical departure for your company compared to how things were before TRS19, and many gamers are very resistant to a subscription model. It also doesn't help that you have so many different versions of the same TRS19 product, all of which must be supported, and you are still supporting older products as well. While I am not happy with being forced to a subscription model for a game in order to get the latest functionality, much of which should have been in the main product to begin with IMHO, I can live with it, if I know that your main focus of effort will be the support of TRS19.

A small ISV can ill afford to spend precious software engineering time on multiple versions of the same product as well as continuing software upgrades on older products. Having to spread yourselves thin to support all this means that my TRS19 version of Trainz doesn't get 100% of your full attention. I understand these things, as I owned my own small ISV company specializing in logistic software products from 1993-2005, and was the primary Windows software engineer for my company.

BTW I don't buy Trainz to "play" it. My enjoyment comes from creating freeware content and routes for others to enjoy. With all that I have spent on TRS19 so far, I am beginning to wonder if it's worth continuing with your product anymore, as I am paying more and more for the privilege of creating freeware 3rd party content for your game and that is beginning to make less and less sense. I can certainly understand why some of the other old timers are opting to leave.....

Bob

Like MSGSapper I am becoming more confused and less happy with the way TRS19 has developed.

I have several issues, the first being that every update makes my route development stop while I fix content issues like obsolete content, missing/unknown assets and errors.
Secondly,, I decided that Gold sub was not for me (Like MSGSapper I don't have much interest in DLC routes) but realised once I chose to move back to a lesser sub, because I had paid a years sub in advance I now have to wait until September when the existing sub finishes . . . . .. . What Tha!

The third issue is that my route development has stalled while I try and navigate all the other problems. I have two other train simulator programs, and both have no issues where previous investments become obsolete or straight out disappear, and need to database repair all the time.

Even though I have a near top of the range PC, I am unable to get decent performance from the graphics engine and have to run TRS2019 at medium settings

I am fast running out of patience with the confusion, errors and straight out sabotage of my route development which has not progressed in months.

I also have interest in Flight Simulators as well as some other simulator types and even though I invest little time with them have yet to endure the issues mentioned above, with any updates inevitably resulting in free and almost instant updates from the providers, but these are few as the stability is much better managed than N3V seem to have. It seems to me the stability of TRS2019 is non existent.

I won't be surprised if in September I just cut my losses altogether and go back to my other train simulator, which while not as advanced as TRS19 claims to be but at least does not wreck my work on a regular basis.

MSGSapper I wish you well if you persevere, but I am not sure I will. Even my YouTube channel has become inactive while I try and sort out this mess !

One frustrated Aussie.

For those questioning my claim to a substantial system
I have:
i7-9700K @3.60GHz
48Gb DDR4 RAM
Multiple Samsung M.2 SSD Systems on all critical files
ASUS ROG GTX 1080 Ti with 11gb
ASUS Maximus xi Hero Motherboard



render2017

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback. (We do read and process as much feedback as we can.)

With software updates, there are two courses of action - update or don't. If you don't, there are no problems with the upgrade (and no new features to learn about either). There are people who haven't updated since 2004.

If you do update, then there MAY be some issues, but the vast majority of content works fine. If you participate in the beta testing, then there is a very good chance we can resolve any incompatibility problems prior to the official release.

Obviously the more 3rd party content you have installed, the more likely you will run into issues. I have updated many hundreds of times and seldom have an issue. If there are issues, please raise them using this report form: Trainz Bug Report

In terms of business models, I know we're "out there" when it comes to trying out new things. The membership options are doing well, and we're tweaking and improving things as we go along (like introducing the Trainz Plus option for those not interested in DLC).

As long as we're generating sufficient revenues to keep updating Trainz we will do so. Hopefully you'll stick around and continue on the journey with us for a while longer.