Atomic Systems

Hi.
Another great route is about to be released, maybe the last one for this section of route London (Victoria) to Brighton.
Been looking through the routes to download, it seems to me that there was only a few main lines running, where modelers are going over the same piece of route all the time.
Then when you do see a route you like you have to start messing around with it, or you have to buy all these add on's, to get it up and running.
Take the one today, thats on the UKTS downloads - The North Down Lines, it looks a excellent route and well made...BUT you need add on's to make it work.
I ask myself why do you need these add ons. If these add ons are needed why dont they get put in when the routes are made.
As a pensioner I cant keep buying all these add ons, so I cant get any of these routes to work, and the most important is that I know nothing of the workings of a Trainsimulator once you start getting into the file system.
Peter.

KK50028 wrote:Hi.
Another great route is about to be released, maybe the last one for this section of route London (Victoria) to Brighton.
Been looking through the routes to download, it seems to me that there was only a few main lines running, where modelers are going over the same piece of route all the time.
Then when you do see a route you like you have to start messing around with it, or you have to buy all these add on's, to get it up and running.
Take the one today, thats on the UKTS downloads - The North Down Lines, it looks a excellent route and well made...BUT you need add on's to make it work.
I ask myself why do you need these add ons. If these add ons are needed why dont they get put in when the routes are made.
As a pensioner I cant keep buying all these add ons, so I cant get any of these routes to work, and the most important is that I know nothing of the workings of a Trainsimulator once you start getting into the file system.
Peter.

There are some routes in the file library that are completely free but I do admit finding them can be difficult. I would suggest route building challenge routes they may not be very long in terms of lengh but they are high-quality and entertaining.
For the reason why the addons do not get put in that would be piracy as they can only be referanced by a route builder. So no there is no way that addon assets will be included in a route package.

In a recent comment Paul Jackson said it costs £1m to produce a route for railworks, which, given the nature of the product must be nearly all labour costs. This gives you an idea of how many man hours go into producing a quality route, therefore, no individual can reasonably be expected to produce work of that calibre without some help.

In a lot of cases that help comes in the form of assets borrowed from an existing route, which means you have to buy that existing route in order to fully enjoy the new route. As pacerfan says, it is illegal to package payware assets with your route, they cannot be provided free of charge as part of the download.

As a fellow pensioner I appreciate your financial concerns, and I believe that RSC are missing an opportunity by not providing cheap scenery packs (LED signals etc) to ease our situation. However, as things stand developers will continue to try and provide the best experience by using the best assets, which may or may not involve payware.

Perhaps we need a new UKTS freeware pack where developers identify assets they usually clone from payware and other forum users with suitable skills can provide them, thus reducing the reliance on payware?

Hi Peter,
It is a bit difficult to explain what train sumulating is all about to the complete beginner. Imagine you want to start a Hornby model railway. You walk into a model or toy shop and buy a train set. That train set's potential is limited, and you have to be prepared to buy extra track, locos, coaches and wagons, and also scenic items like stations, loco sheds, houses and factories, to make your set up better and more interesting.
When you buy RailWorks you have bought the basic set. It has a number of routes and a number of locos, coaches and wagons to run on those routes to get you started. But like a model railway you soon want to expand. Fortunately in train simming there are people who like to create new routes, locos etc and many hobbiests like to make those creations available for other people to use free of charge, but you also have to prepared to buy a certain amount of extras as payware. That is just how it is in trainsimming.
regards Ted (another oldie on a restricted income).

Hi all.
Very interesting to read your views on this subject.
I have in my small cabnet beside me a few railsims, Mircrosoft V1.2-2disc set/Trainz starting from UTC to 2010EE/RS (expansion pack)Voyager - XP only never used.
So I'm not completely in the dark with the Railsimulator. Just a bit baffled with the file swopping once a Steam/Electric train goes into your computer. I get this sorted then I'll be more than happy as I like all the BB/WC locos and the Brighton Belle/SR sets that are on the download pages at present. But it's getting past that transfering of files.
Thanks once again for your replys.
Will be buying the London to Brighton route when it comes out.
Peter.

New add-ons may not seem much, but after time the costs do accumulate - I think I have spent in excess of £500 since Rail Simulator started, on DLC and addons alone! You could be the type that thinks carefully about buying something, or the type that thinks their wallet is invincible (ie, me ).

pacerfan wrote:

KK50028 wrote:Hi.
Another great route is about to be released, maybe the last one for this section of route London (Victoria) to Brighton.
Been looking through the routes to download, it seems to me that there was only a few main lines running, where modelers are going over the same piece of route all the time.
Then when you do see a route you like you have to start messing around with it, or you have to buy all these add on's, to get it up and running.
Take the one today, thats on the UKTS downloads - The North Down Lines, it looks a excellent route and well made...BUT you need add on's to make it work.
I ask myself why do you need these add ons. If these add ons are needed why dont they get put in when the routes are made.
As a pensioner I cant keep buying all these add ons, so I cant get any of these routes to work, and the most important is that I know nothing of the workings of a Trainsimulator once you start getting into the file system.
Peter.

There are some routes in the file library that are completely free but I do admit finding them can be difficult. I would suggest route building challenge routes they may not be very long in terms of length but they are high-quality and entertaining....

The only payware route I've gotten so far is Ohio Steel 2--the real thing's about 50 miles from my home, and I once got to ride it as a guest of a freight train conductor I used to know.

For all-freeware, I'd recommend the following:
-- If you want long stretches of high speed mainline running, there's Cresston v.3 (v.4 will use some payware assets), Rusford, and Oakbury. Oakbury has a nice little seaside branchline that could keep you occupied for days all by itself. All three are available here at UKTS.
-- If you'd rather bat cars around yards and industrial sidings, there's the Blyth & Tyne, which has more coal mines than you can shake a 16-ton mineral wagon at, and The Dark Railway 1960s. If you'd rather do your shunting on my side of the pond, I suggest the Industrial Interactive Route, which you can get at trainsim.com or Railworks America.
-- Country branchlines? There's plenty to choose from on UKTS: Aln Valley, Churchwood & Midland Junction, Southern Metals, Radcliffe to Harvey & Stathern. I'm particularly fond of the two Irish branchlines that were done for the Challenge, Edenderry and Kanturk-Newmarket.
-- If you prefer giant Yankee freight trains clawing their way up steep mountain grades, there are two Challenge routes, Soldier Summit and Feather River Canyon, both of which are pretty good representations of the prototype.