I want the community's opinion on this decision regarding my content

jordon412

33 Year Old Railfan
I'm trying to decide whether to create my own website to host my own content or just host it on the DLS. The reason why I'm considering this is that way, with my own website, I can use third-party dependencies, otherwise any piece of content on the DLS with third-party content will be put on the Content Repair Goup's list of content needed to be repaired. I am also considering making a few of my routes payware, but they will only be $5-$10USD, as they do not come with sessions, as I do not like to take the time to make sessions. I also want some suggestions on a good website provider to host my website on. The most important thing is that it must be cheap and be able to take PayPal as a form of payment, as that's what I use to buy my payware content on other websites. It would, of course, use the name I use when I announce a release, Freeman Locomotive Works, and I plan on releasing things other than routes, such as rolling stock and buildings, on the DLS along with my own website, to make it easier to find it, in case someone uses it as a dependency for a route of their own.
 
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Most route and session builders prefer to use assets on the DLS. Owned sites have a habit of falling by the wayside.

Having said that occasionally there are assets that don't fit on the DLS for one reason or another and they are best hosted elsewhere.

Cheerio John
 
Most route and session builders prefer to use assets on the DLS. Owned sites have a habit of falling by the wayside.

Having said that occasionally there are assets that don't fit on the DLS for one reason or another and they are best hosted elsewhere.

Cheerio John

Yeah, but the problem with the DLS comes when players without FCT's try to download your stuff. It takes forever (I spent an entire day downloading one route by Philskene), it usually doesn't grab all the dependencies and there are still unknowns. Not saying its a bad idea, it just is inconvenient.

jordon, an easy and free way to make a site is to use Google Sites, but from my experience I don't believe you can make content payware, have a cart or make separate product pages.

Something like Squarespace can work great for you, you'd be able to have payware content, product pages, site accounts and a cart for storing downloads or purchases. All you'd need to pay for is site upkeep costs and an inexpensive domain. GoDaddy (website domain purchasing service) shows that the domain "freemanlocomotiveworks.com" is for sale for 1 cent for the first year of registration, with a standard price of 20 dollars. Not bad! Besides, most educational YouTubers (think Primal Space, Wendover Productions, etc.) have regular sponsorships with Squarespace, and you may be able to get a discount on your site.

Good luck with your site!
 
From my view why not do both? Host your freeware content on your website and upload it to the DLS? That way both sides of the coin are happy per say. JR is a good example of this. The same can be done with payware content - sell through your website and N3V (unless your payware content uses 3rd party content from other sites which then N3V is out of the option).

For websites, Squarespace, Wix and Weebly are something to look at. I didn't look at the payment section since I only use the free plan as my website is more of an informational site than anything.

Cheers
 
Speaking purely from my own experiences, I do not trust 3rd party sites as a source of Trainz assets. In my earlier days of route development I got "burnt" several times by sites that had assets I wanted to use but they (the assets and/or the web sites) had vanished from the Internet. During the 20+ years I have been using Trainz the DLS has always been there, none of the 3rd party sites I used all those years ago are still there.

I also got fed up with playing the endless game of "hunt the missing kuids". By using 3rd party sourced assets in your own routes which you upload you are forcing others to play the same game. So my policy for many years now has been if a route or session I download has unknown assets then I delete it and move on. I only use assets in my uploaded routes and sessions that are built-in or on the DLS. I have been told by several posters that because of this I am missing out on some great assets, but at least my sanity is intact and conscience is clear.

I also have concerns over the "honesty" of some 3rd party sites - those that are distributing pirated assets - where it can be impossible to get those assets removed. N3V have a good record of dealing with this, certainly not as quickly as some would like because they do insist on confirmation from the original creator, not just the opinions of a few users.

But that is just my opinion.
 
do you want to lose all rights to your content and allow N3V to do whatever they want to it, including using it in DLC without your consent or compensation, by uploading it to the DLS, or are you normal
 
do you want to lose all rights to your content and allow N3V to do whatever they want to it, including using it in DLC without your consent or compensation, by uploading it to the DLS, or are you normal

*Me who has more rights and safety over my route than any 3rd party website could ever offer.*

Yeah I am sticking to the DLS. Free for anyone, anytime, anywhere. I am normal. Ciao
 
Oh wait, you need an FCT to download literally anything good in a small amount of time. Not free, more like 'free but you can't download anything.'

I am sorry, but if 25 buck FCT from a sale is too much for you, you literally should be saving money for better things.
 
I am sorry, but if 25 buck FCT from a sale is too much for you, you literally should be saving money for better things.

I think it's not very good to charge a ton of money to download something from the DLS quickly for a game you're spending $70 or more on. Besides, if you didn't have an FCT you'd be complaining about slow download speeds and having to wait a day to download 100 megabytes of route, that you can't pick up in the morning.

3rd party sites are good because you can download something as fast as your internet can go. You're also able to upload files with non-DLS-supported trainz builds. If I had a piece of content made in TRS09, and wanted to let people download it, I can't put it on the DLS, because I'd need an entirely new game, which means spending money. You also can have a way to make some money off the sales of assets you sell on your site.

Just my two cents.
 
I you are buying DLC, you should not need an FCT to download it, my DLC downloads are always very fast, even without an FCT. As for the rest of the DLS, a $6 US FCT will last 30 days, and I think in that time you could download a substantial part of the DLS, if you have enough space. Of course, that won't stop someone from uploading multi-megabyte assets the day after it expires, particularly in the new versions. Having said that, the normal download speed has not increased to reflect the larger file sizes, so yes, we get farther behind with normal downloads versus years ago. And there seem to be more and more "New Version Available", which can consume all of my downloads for days, so it would be nice if we could at least get updated stuff faster, without having to crawl through days of updates.
 
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do you want to lose all rights to your content and allow N3V to do whatever they want to it, including using it in DLC without your consent or compensation, by uploading it to the DLS, or are you normal

A very strange definition of "normal" and a quote that could be made about any 3rd party web site.

It is in the agreement that you make with N3V when you upload an asset to the DLS that they have the right to include your work in any DLC content. Several of my DLS assets have used in DLC content but every single time I have been contacted to ask for my permission first, which I happily gave. I was also offered a % of the revenue but declined.

As for lack of "compensation" for DLS assets included in DLC I should point out that:-

  • anything on the DLS can be already downloaded for free (even by those who do not have an FCT)
  • all DLS assets that are part of a DLC package are now included in the DLC download at the maximum possible speed with no N3V imposed download limits (with or without an FCT).

Previously any DLS content that was referenced by a DLC install had to be downloaded separately from the DLS (and at a slower speed with download limits by those who do not have an FCT).

Of course, you could insist that no DLS assets be used in DLC so all the content in a DLC route becomes payware and only available to those who have purchased the payware. I can only imagine what this would do to the availability and cost of DLC routes and sessions if everything they contain had to be specifically created for them.

I do not know how many copies of the DLC items that contain my assets have been sold, but I suspect that I would have to wait a long time before I could use any of the royalties to purchase a cup of coffee.

For example, the Potteries Loop Line retails for $US39.99. It contains 1575 assets that are not built-in or base. That works out at (rounding up to be generous) $US0.03 per asset per sale. 684 of those assets are unique to the Potteries Loop Line and they were created specifically by a team of 22 creators - several contributed only a single asset each and one contributed 218. Using only their contributions they would each get $US0.05 (again rounding up) per asset per sale.

EDIT: The figures calculated above are actually twice what they should be. N3V takes 50% of the sale price and the remainder goes to the DLC contributors - so that cup of coffee is even further away. But before anyone complains about N3V taking half the proceeds, in my long previous career as an educator I wrote 10 textbooks for a well known international publisher. The most the authors ever received was 15% of the sales price (10% if you were a new author) which was divided up between the authors according to their contribution.

My thoughts.
 
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I think part of the issue is that many creators allow reuse of their creations as long as it is not used in payware or for profit. But that stipulation is not allowed by N3V, hence some authors prefer not to have their content on N3V.
 
I also want some suggestions on a good website provider to host my website on. The most important thing is that it must be cheap and be able to take PayPal as a form of payment...

I use this hosting providor SmarterASP.net

Very resonable and very powerful host. It's Windows based and works with Visual Studio nicely. PayPal plugins come from PayPal and works here as well. Host also has a selection of free plugins, even WordPress (but I don't recommend it)

Make sure you add the SSL and Static IP or you not get much traffic
 
I want to come on here and make some more comments regarding this thread:
1. I will be following trainboi1's way of releasing his content, uploading content to both the DLS and to my own website.
2. I will include all dependencies in the downloads on my website so that you won't have to search third-party websites for the content, or I will provide a link to the section to the third-party websites to download the missing dependencies.
 
1. I will be following trainboi1's way of releasing his content, uploading content to both the DLS and to my own website.
2. I will include all dependencies in the downloads on my website so that you won't have to search third-party websites for the content, or I will provide a link to the section to the third-party websites to download the missing dependencies.

:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:Well done Jordon. I would include in the description tag of all your routes which contain 3rd party assets the link to your list of where to find those assets.
 
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I want to come on here and make some more comments regarding this thread:
1. I will be following trainboi1's way of releasing his content, uploading content to both the DLS and to my own website.
2. I will include all dependencies in the downloads on my website so that you won't have to search third-party websites for the content, or I will provide a link to the section to the third-party websites to download the missing dependencies.

Take a look at whc.ca/en look for cPanel and SSL.

http://www.jatws.org/ing4trainz/index.htm


http://www.jatws.org/PWeiser/index.htm


Cheerio John


 
do you want to lose all rights to your content and allow N3V to do whatever they want to it, including using it in DLC without your consent or compensation, by uploading it to the DLS, or are you normal

Not another inflammatory comment from Crayola I see?
 
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