WIP shots of the Fastline Simulation Sea Urchin

[loverswalk]

Why don't we get back on track? and be thankful someone has given up their time to produce these lovely models for pocket money prices.......
LW

[FoggyMorning]

Okay, so you would be willing to pay over double the price for the same product if it was released on Steam as well to make sure you get your convenient service and the developers get enough from it to buy a can of coke?

You could just buy it for the normal price, and if you have yet another HDD meltdown (use a better supplier of parts if this keeps happening to you repeatedly) AND your backup mysteriously doesn't have that item (use an automatic backup program) AND a friendly email to Fastline asking for a re-download didn't get a positive reply, only then would you need to purchase a second copy. If you did then purchase a second copy, only then have you spent the same amount as if they had released it on Steam, and if any one of those circumstances doesn't happen then you've effectively got a 50% discount.

Price is understandably a major priority for people these days, good evidence of that being the 12 page thread on payware prices we had over the weekend and the 10 page thread about the 50% discount vouchers. If given the option to purchase the same products through some channel other than Steam for half the price, many people would jump at it even if it had the most awkward installer.

Yes, and there could be a giant solar flare which destroys all computers on earth, or an infestation of HDD eating locusts. Lets look at the worst possible scenario shall we?

I repeat, its a way I like to buy addons for Railworks. I ACCEPT TOTALLY that they have their reasons for not doing it that way. Fair enough. No argument at all. I accept smaller suppliers CANNOT have that option to deliver via all forms of Media like Just trains but that doesnt mean its not a useful feature to give a product every way someone wants to acquire it.

Hey, its my opinion. Im not beating anyone over the head with it, and nobody has to agree. But I do find it curious that having a right to choice is somehow regarded as bad thing.

The great thing about forums is that we all become experts in micro- and macro- economics (amongst other subjects) without ever actually having to receive training or education in them!

[FastlineSimulation]

Glad to see folks are looking forward to the Sea Urchins.

The testers have done a great job finding some issues to iron out in what should have been the final versions! There's currently a little flurry going on to add an extra little something to the scenario that's included in the pack and I have time allocated to get the manual sorted in the next few days before installer building starts.

This has turned into an interesting thread about peoples preferences of when and where to purchase. Just to clear up any misunderstandings we use a retail application hosted on our own servers and link this to payment services provided by PayPal and NoChex as we understand some customers don't like PayPal, we'll even accept cheques and postal orders!

We did explore distribution by Steam and decided (had this been an available option for our product range) that for a number of reasons that this wouldn't fit our ethos or be a worthwhile avenue to explore in terms of value for the customer or our own returns.

Lost downloads don't really cause a problem (we've all accidentally lost something we thought we'd backed up) and as some have stated a quick post to the help desk usually sees you sorted in a couple of hours and we're always happy to chat.

Out of interest do we have an awkward installer as I've not dealt with any support requests?

[Kariban]

Other than it being an installer, I don't have any issues with it - I tell it to install somewhere random and copy everything by hand so I know what it's done.

Can we get bakes for the brakevan sometime please?

[Stone75]

Looking forward to it very much and will buy as soon as its ready. Loved the Bogie tanks and VDA's. Paypal is the way to go for me for hassle free payments as i dont have any credit/debit cards. I'm just waiting for Creative to get their paypal up and running so i can buy the china clay route. Nice stock with nice routes especially when ECML drops, good times

steve

[TransportSteve]

Out of interest do we have an awkward installer as I've not dealt with any support requests?

Having been on these forums for a couple of years, I think there are a few awkward installers about, oh sorry, I see what you mean....

Cheerz. Transport Steve.

[TractorBasher]

I'm looking forward to the release of the Sea Urchin, although I won't be buying it.

[malkymackay]

Ah, I thought I recognised the shot. You one of the lucky screenshot comp winners?

[TractorBasher]

[smug] Yup! [/smug]

[albert007]

Never had any problems installing Fastline products,
excellent value, and will be buying the sea urchins when released.
Thank you Fastline.
John

[transadelaide]

Out of interest do we have an awkward installer as I've not dealt with any support requests?

No, yours is one of the better ones I've come across.

My comment about that was dealing with the more general topic of whether it's better to pay extra for Steam distribution, or to pay a lower price and perhaps have to deal with things like awkward installers.

The closest I've come to an awkward installer in the RW/TS2012 scene would have to be the old-style JT install routine with the authentication keys. This was my reaction when they switched to the login/password routine in late 2009...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fu8YIG8uyQ

[FastlineSimulation]

If anybody fancies taking a look - the manual for the Sea Urchins has been uploaded here: http://www.fastline-simulation.co.uk/su ... in-Manual/

[RONVKING]

This may sound a little OTT but it has "saved" me in the past.

Anything I buy that has an installer gets the original program saved to a folder called updates. If the product is patched then that will get saved there as well. Each kind of product gets its own folder within "Updates" so for TS2012 I'll have one for the VDA vans, one for the TEA tanks etc.

I then install that to TS2012. I will then back up the steam folder to another drive in case I . up the original or have a disk failure etc. The "Updates" folder also has a copy here as well for the same reasons.

On top of all that I have a external 1 TB drive backup which has a folder for each drive on my main beast which is copied roughly every 6 months so in the event of a real major failure (never happened) I would not lose everything. On one occassion it saved my bacon when I found I had deleted a loco and its repaints that I didnt want to delete but I had also done the folder backups thereby deleting those as well by accident, that taught me to double check on each and every copy session not not rely on automatic file synchronizers.

Ok takes time and disk space but can be a real saver.

Cheers Ron

[FoggyMorning]

Some more WIP shots have been posted on Fastline's Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/FastlineSimulat ... all&ref=nf

Some very nice TSR equipment there as well as a glut of different variants of the Sea Urchin itself

[FastlineSimulation]

Thanks for mentioning them Steve. Folks may find this link a little more comfortable https://picasaweb.google.com/1175734739 ... directlink