Quiet Forums!

[johndibben]

Been off Trainz lately and certainly spending far more time actually driving in MSTS than a year ago. The West Somerset and then Swanage got me going again after wiping all but default MSTS off my PC. That in turn led me to realise how little I knew beyond making and texturing models. Spent many hours driving, building, fiddling and having fun. After all, it is a game.

Nothing has happened which means MSTS cannot be enjoyed as much now as in 2001, quite the reverse. It's simply the old 'united we stand ....' stuff but getting that accross has proved impossible.

[joea1]

For your info, Carl-Heinz has sent me a new version of TsUtils which will merge two routes (assuming they are at the same altitude, their tiles do not overlap, and that they both pass the 'Check Route Integrity' option), then a single button press in Route-Riter should do the job for you. I should have this uploaded soon.

Does this mean that I'll be able to extend LSE to Victoria and Brighton (LBE)?

[collins27]

I think you should look at the number of posts on the "Help for Beginners" section. It is always a healthy sign when you get plenty of people asking for help in a particular hobby, it shows that there interest out there. The gaps will be filled, people move on, but as long as there are others to take their place the future of the forums looks ok.
Respectfully a "Beginner"

[JonathonAG]

Well actually, looking at the amount of uploads actually coming into ukts the past few days ( hardly any ), it may be the death of the the whole of ukts

[allypally]

Well actually, looking at the amount of uploads actually coming into ukts the past few days ( hardly any ), it may be the death of the the whole of ukts

Dont be stupid. Matt's just busy.

[jbilton]

................but entirely down to the fact the boards are sterile and frankly boring compared to how they were. On the odd occasions something comes up I frankly can't be bothered because you end up not daring to say anything controversial because some over sensitive soul will complain, so what's the point - disagreement is banned nowadays.

I'm not surprised many of the older hands don't come round here any more.

Hi
I think I can empathise with MarkWs post.....bit of a shame though.
Has been very nice to see all the replies from the "Old Skool"
Cheers
Jon

[ej3ae]

The quiteness is a trend mirrored on other MSTS fora - still it doesnt mean UKTS is deserted - quite the opposite - I just think we are all being a bit quiter these days - I must admit I always used to look on here for the MT news but now that forum has gone elsewhere I find that I am spreading my forum reading time ever thinner

[mikesimpson]

For your info, Carl-Heinz has sent me a new version of TsUtils which will merge two routes (assuming they are at the same altitude, their tiles do not overlap, and that they both pass the 'Check Route Integrity' option), then a single button press in Route-Riter should do the job for you. I should have this uploaded soon.

Does this mean that I'll be able to extend LSE to Victoria and Brighton (LBE)?

No, I already tried to merge LBE and the EB_Coastway route, the LBE did not pass the above Route Integrity check, and on top of that there is a 30m difference in the altitude of Brighton station between the two routes which makes it a bit difficult, I managed to change the route altitude to match, but trying to fix the TDB proved impossible (To me at least).

[collins27]

Um ! Well Forums, broadly speaking are places for debate, and if you look at figures for the various forums on UKTS there is certainly some debating going on. Now whether or not it is the kind that you would like is another matter, but never the less it is happening.

[MichaelGreenhill]

Call me harsh, but I've found that the UKTS forums have lost a lot of their old charisma that drew me to it in the first place. A lot of the old regulars have either quit train simulators alltogether, or have moved onto commercial (like myself). As a result, there seems to be a huge influx of new users who (no doubt like I used to, when I was 14...) post question after question without using the search function, clogging up the forums, making it unnatractive to use.

Not only that, but as others have said, there isn't much to discuss anymore. A new route coming out, a reskin of this...nothing overly interesting. Trainz, for me, offers much more scope for discussion, as there are so many facets to it that I've not yet fully explored, nor do I know all the limitations of it. Not only that, but there is a severe lack of (quality) custom content, both Australian and UK for TRS2004, which provides me with an inlet to use. Some users here are now starting their 5th year on the board (as Steve said), and after 5 years the majority of locomotives and rollingstock have been built and are available in one form or another, wether that be freeware or payware, which leaves little scope for 3d modellers such as myself to work with.

While discussion on many aspects of MSTS are no longer useful, there will allways be the new users who need something explained to them. As long as there are new users to UKTS, then the forums will still stay - otherwise, I can see new additions to the download library dropping quite a lot, which I'm sure Matt would hate to see, after all the hard work he's put into this site to make it what it is.

Ontop of all this, I just can't be arsed posting much anymore. I'm allmost through my fourth year as a member on this forum, and I think I've exhausted all avenues for MSTS related discussion. Apart from that, you poms aren't all that interested in my Aussie stuff

[sp762]

Not true... as a POM who lives in Aussie I'm interested in both...

Also, as a mod - I'm really happy that everything is nice and quiet. No flame wars to hose down, no yellow or red cards to hand out - life is good.

I even have time to work on train sim stuff

Cheers

[bigvern]

Interesting that Trainz finally popped into this topic!

I haven't been on the Auran boards recently, but last time I was over there (about September last year) I did notice a similar trend. Lots of newbie posting but less input from the old hands who watched Trainz develop in its earlier years.

For me to actively switch to Trainz from MSTS would require several features that the former simply does not offer. To name but a few:

A proper means of importing DEM or scanned contours for terrain (TS tools or equivalent). Greyscale via HOG or similar just doesn't cut it, plus you can only map to rectangular arrangement of "baseboards", not much use for a long linear route.
Ditto for markers.
A 3D modelling package equivalent to TSM which does not require one to learn Gmax.
The mess that surrounds "asset" creation and 3D modelling with custom objects for routes having to all be uploaded and downloaded separately (I may be wrong on this).
A proper timetable/activity editor or at least a GUI on the scripting.
Far better AI for the despatcher and non-player driven trains.

Now I have no intention of turning this into another MSTS vs Trainz debate but certainly for myself it would not be a question of jumping from one to the other. And I know it's partly because Auran have been so parochial about their product but when comparing the relative merits, just compare how many commercial add ons (and I mean full expansion packs inc. routes) have been made for MSTS compared to Trainz.

[johndibben]

I hop to and from MSTS and Trainz depending on what's available and for variety. The Auran forums see far more activity and the number of members on-line is always well into the hundreds. However, they're so spread around the World that it would never feel like 'home'

On here most are probably 'just up the road' and we get a chance to see one another at UKTS Roadshows. 'Homesick' ex-pats appear to like it as well

As I said the other day, I've found if anyone continually gets wound up reading the forums, it's more than likely to be something within them as I can browse and keep calm without too much medication We all have our 'moments' and the site is large enough to 'get serious' in one part and potter off for a laugh in another.

I see it as a sort of club. You won't get on with everyone. 'He who never has a disagreement, has never expressed an opinion'. That's boring.

MSTS is better than when it came out, these forums are the best place in the UK to chat and have a laugh. Commercial forums are not the same.

It's good enough for me anyway. If it's not good enough for others, there's not much that can be done as moderation is criticised for being both too lax and too tight. You have to learn to get along and involve yourself up to a point you can cope with and not beyond.

*sits back, puts feet up and drinks a cup of tea*

[MichaelGreenhill]

Not true... as a POM who lives in Aussie I'm interested in both...

Humbug, I was generalising

In regards to John's comments about moderation, I can sympathise with him - moderating Railpage is a complete . at times, as no matter how you go about following moderator guidelines, somebody allways has to have a cry about it...in that respect, the UKTS moderators have done a fantastic job. I barely ever see any flamewars erupting here, and if they do, they're locked soon afterwards...

...maybe I just don't browse often enough

[dikkidee]

I'm still here just been a bit busy since Christmas - New year, New Grandchild etc.....