What's a good sim to start with?

joe41 · Post by **joe41** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:09 pm

Hi, I've just joined up as I am thinking of buying a train simulator for my birthday. I have zero experience so what would be a good, user friendly, and not too expensive one to start with please? One with UK railways please.

Many thanks

ajax103 · Post by **ajax103** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:45 pm

In my personal opinion, MSTS is the best out there BUT...
why not try Trainz, BVE and see which one you feel more comfortable playing with,

RobertM · Post by **RobertM** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:37 pm

BVE is free to download, and theres plenty of stuff out there if you know where too look.

Its more of a 'realistic' sim, with no external views, but this is made up by the pitching & rolling plus all the small extra features such as starting & stopping your engine, TPWS plus much more.

Did I also mention its a FREE download

ianmacmillan · Post by **ianmacmillan** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:38 pm

MSTS is £4 in Woolies so it won't hurt to try it.

thegoonden · Post by **thegoonden** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:16 am

And Play.com have (or had) TRS06 for not a lot more.

Get BVE on the go first, it is without doubt the best cabview you're going to get from any of them.

Trainz has a nice feel in-cab, and MSTS doesn't, it's a bit like a maglev

However, MSTS makes up for it with it's lovely cab interiors.

Aside from that, the considerations are, that Trainz is more appropriate if you want a huge virtual trainset as well as a driver sim. But getting content into it is just torture, it drove me back to MSTS after updating to the latest version of 06, and having it tell me there was not a single download available, then running it to find that a 700MB download had neither added anything or fixed any bugs.

MSTS is infinitely easier to expand, and the modern addons are much prettier than anything in TRS. The CD's from this hallowed site will knock you out for a mere 4 and a half quid.

Lad491 · Post by **Lad491** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:37 am

My totally biased view is that MSTS is better than all the others. Yes BVE has some nice cabs and effects, but is rubbish otherwise with no AI trains, except stationary ones. Trainz - well it just didnt do it for me.

With MSTS being so cheap, and with so much add on material available, and so much scope for creating your own stuff it has to be the first starting point.

ARG706 · Post by **ARG706** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:43 pm

Looking at it neutrally, MSTS is very user friendly until you get to the editors. My nephew learnt how to propel and stop a diesel loco in virtually no time under my observation. Trainz is a program that is picky about the hardware it wants to run properly, and slightly awkward. It is harder to create consists and activities than in MSTS and MSTS is far more streamlined in some aspects.

If you can find MSTS for a very good price, and can afford to lose the money should you hate it, you've got very little to lose

desiro5 · Post by **desiro5** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:55 pm

I agree totally with Laurie (Lad491) here.

BVE is nice cab and effects but not much else and i got bored quick.

Trainz, well i brought it one day and it was on Ebay the next.

Buy MSTS now, and maybe an addon or two, and enjoy it until KRS comes out.

Hope this is of help.

Cheers

Ali

gswindale · Post by **gswindale** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:01 pm

Does BVE run on Vista yet? If not, then it's definitely MSTS all the way for me

dkightley · Post by **dkightley** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:27 pm

Here's your answer:
http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk/help.htm

Which I think is saying that BVE2 will....and BVE4 will not.

joe41 · Post by **joe41** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:34 pm

Thank you everyone, very helpful advice.

I assume by MSTS you mean Microsoft Train Simulator? Excuse the ignorance of jargon. I am sure I'll be up with the best of them soon. Another reason for MSTS would be that as a working member of the Severn Valley Railway I know you can buy a SVR add on, smashing! It'll also help make up for the withdrawal symptoms I have from not being able to travel the whole of its beautiful length due the rather too real effects of the recent storm damage which you may have heard about.

Its really not the same just going to Bewdley and back to Kidderminster.

If interested please have a look on http://www.svr.co.uk and if you feel inclined donate to our repair fund.

Thanks again everyone. I'll go looking for MSTS.

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:39 am

Yes MSTS = MicroSoft Train Simulator.

The SVR is a cracking add on and a perfect first addition too. A stunning route and a whole load of excellently built locos and stock.

Only trouble with SVR route is that it can be a bit processor intensive, not quite so bad nowadays as when it was first released as computer power has come on leaps and bounds and got a lot cheaper as well. Another minor quibble is thats it's SO good that other excellent route add ons can look a bit sparse afterwards.