A Line in the Sand

[Kariban]

the train.de has yielded some freeware German UIC corridor stock, which I have been after for ages and there's some other goodies lurking on there to check out. If I can round up all the dependencies, I know CKP is another superb route waiting to be discovered.

Is that thetrain.de, or something else? can't find any RW UIC stock there, just reskins.

[jimmyshand]

One thing that irked me a bit recently was a post made by RSPaul concerning the large number of recent sales of TS2012. He said something along the lines of "I read some of the stuff said by the naysayers and chortle to myself and move on".

I took minor offence at that because it roughly translates to me as complacency and "we're creaming in the money just fine and don't need to improve, who are these pesky customers trying to tell me how to run my show, now here's my next half finished product".

Naysayers are not always the spawn of the devil trying to wreak havoc, they are often the most passionate and committed users of the game who are craving continuous improvement and pushing of the limits. It's the people who demand better and better that drive the wheels of change and advancement. If we all just clapped happily and accepted mediocrity like grateful servants then companies would quite happily kick back and churn out mediocre products for top dollar until the cows come home. The so called naysayers are actually the underground force that drives improvement.

[Kiwisteam]

Well, I suppose it's all a matter of what you want. For example, The 56xx Tank is one of the best purchases I've made along with IOW and PP. And some add-ons look alright even though they're not optimised such as DT's 4MT, the Light Pacific and the Mk1's. But some might say they'll purchase the King or NEC as these are optimised and not bother about these. Personally, I'm glad there's people who review DLC so that purchases can be made wisely, in fact I'll search for reviews when considering purchases.

[bigvern]

the train.de has yielded some freeware German UIC corridor stock, which I have been after for ages and there's some other goodies lurking on there to check out. If I can round up all the dependencies, I know CKP is another superb route waiting to be discovered.

Is that thetrain.de, or something else? can't find any RW UIC stock there, just reskins.

My mistake, Railsim.de... The UIC's are on this page: http://rail-sim.de/railsimnew/index.php ... nenwaggons

[Kariban]

Calling yourself a naysayer Jimmy? that's a bit paranoid; perhaps he was referring to people saying RW would never be a success?

There's two main areas for a company to drive improvement in product; the desire for excellence, to borrow management-speak, and the need to be better than your competitors to avoid losing market share. You can guess which is usually the primary drive...

In this case there are no competitors at the moment, so we're left with excellence; this doesn't mean "do the best you can ever do", this means "do the best value for money you can". Given available resources, this could very well be the best value for money RSC can give?

Thanks Vern.

[jimmyshand]

In my work we have a large high profile customer who is very picky, very fussy, very demanding, spots all our mistakes and gives us hell if we send them something wrong. We hate them and wish they were like our other 90% of customers who are happy to accept a mediocre service and give us an easy ride!! However, what the difficult customer has actually forced us to do is improve our quality, our care, our attention to detail, our service, they've forced us to become more innovative, more forward thinking and to become better at problem solving. In essence the demanding pesky customer has made us better at what we do! The exact same principle is at work here in TS2012! RSC are not a charity, they are not building trains out of the goodness of their hearts for the greater good of the community, they are a commercial company out to make money and we pay them! If we want the best possible trains and the best possile simulator then we've got to demand it!

[jimmyshand]

Calling yourself a naysayer Jimmy? that's a bit paranoid; perhaps he was referring to people saying RW would never be a success?

There's two main areas for a company to drive improvement in product; the desire for excellence, to borrow management-speak, and the need to be better than your competitors to avoid losing market share. You can guess which is usually the primary drive...

In this case there are no competitors at the moment, so we're left with excellence; this doesn't mean "do the best you can ever do", this means "do the best value for money you can". Given available resources, this could very well be the best value for money RSC can give?

Thanks Vern.

Lol! I'm not a naysayer but I would bet that's how I'm perceived! I love this game, it's the only thing installed on my PC, it's the only game I play and it's the only game I spend money and time on. However, I have been less than impressed with many of the recent releases and I know that certain payware firms (and not just RSC) can and should be doing better. There is a definite fire and forget and get it to Market strategy going on and it needs to stop. The humongous backlog of unactioned bug fixes is testimony to the fire and forget mindset that prevails. The bar has been risen by the likes of Oovee, Thomson etc and it's not acceptable for others to churn out products for the same price but with a fraction of the quality.

[ashgray]

OK Jimmy, that'll do - I think you've got your point across...

Ash

[SquidvT]

Actually, I think jimmys point is is worth supporting.

RSpauls comment annoyed me too, ok he then went on to quote a cringe worth business quote about demanding customers, but it did smack of we are doing great, so who cares? Merry Christmas

We aren't talking about a new product here with teething problems, but rather what is looking more and more like a cash cow for RSC, That they intend to milk as full as possible with scant regard for their customers.

Well, if demanding customers are what they want then here are afew demands.

1) I want to see the ton of dlc that is currently broken Fixed.
2) until such a time that it is fixed, the sale of it should be suspended. Just trains did, why not RSC?
3) change the required Specs to something approaching reality
4) fix the many core issues
5) actually provide useful and meaningful support
6) once the above is done then produce dlc that is as good as 3rd parties supply

Perhaps if the above was done or at least attempted, I might think that RSC does actually care about its customers.

[exshunter]

Agreed, i think the only way is to boycott DLC until this 'game' is fixed! Thats it for me, my wallet is closed

[FoggyMorning]

Actually, I think jimmys point is is worth supporting.

RSpauls comment annoyed me too, ok he then went on to quote a cringe worth business quote about demanding customers, but it did smack of we are doing great, so who cares? Merry Christmas

We aren't talking about a new product here with teething problems, but rather what is looking more and more like a cash cow for RSC, That they intend to milk as full as possible with scant regard for their customers.

Well, if demanding customers are what they want then here are afew demands.

1) I want to see the ton of dlc that is currently broken Fixed.
2) until such a time that it is fixed, the sale of it should be suspended. Just trains did, why not RSC?
3) change the required Specs to something approaching reality
4) fix the many core issues
5) actually provide useful and meaningful support
6) once the above is done then produce dlc that is as good as 3rd parties supply

Perhaps if the above was done or at least attempted, I might think that RSC does actually care about its customers.

You don't think providing a series of upgrades (including new content), free of charge, to the core program demonstrates that they care for their customers?

Talk of "boycotting" DLC is a bit nonsensical; you either buy the stuff or you don't

[SquidvT]

I know a update is forthcomming, but what I am on about is the focus on churning out sub par addons. If the same zeal could be put into bug fixes for exsisting content and the core program then I am sure we would see results quicker.

Much of the stuff wrong with DLC, such as broken cab views, stuttering sounds, is an easy fix, but has been ignored. I appreciate that a RSC team member who produces an addon, might not nessasarily work on bug fixes, but all the same, the balance needs addressing.

Actually, boycotting is the only course of action left to those that feel hard done by.

[Kariban]

Can we stop comparing everything to Oovee btw? Oovee don't have to charge you for time, nor do they have to fund platform upgrades.

[bigvern]

Boycotting is perhaps a little severe, but intense scrutiny of what is on offer - whether from RSC or a third party - is most definitely the order of the day going into 2012. You want my money, I need to be convinced that what I'm buying is going to live up to expectations. If we buy a Blu-ray movie on spec and don't like it, we can always trade it in or sell it on Ebay. With DLC there's no such get out, nor is there usually any means of "try before you buy" - for example you can always rent a movie from Blockbuster to see what it's like. Train simming and the people behind payware need to realise they are not exempt from normal consumer expectations especially when most of us have been burnt by this stage.

And RSC most certainly don't have a monopoly on the train sim scene. There's still a huge following for Trainz and the last couple of route projects I started have even been in TS12. OpenBVE continues to impress - have you checked out the latest Irish offerings - and I live in hope that 2012 will be the year we see a release candidate of Zusi 3. The guy doing that has already put a demo out and my wallet is poised ready to peel some notes off the wad and buy! So RSC most definitely have some competition, they are *not* the only game in town.

[Kariban]

Are they all really aimed at the same market, rather than "Train simulations"? I mean, I like WW2-era combat sims, I won't ever be interested in flying airliners...

Competition in this case is something that'll take market share. Much as I'd like a strong competitor, it's really Trainz or nothing in this case, is it not? and they don't really fully overlap.