Atomic Systems

I have offered to continue my Isle of Man network as DLC if they'd help me with 3' 6" track and a Loco and rolling stock. Maybe a few custom buildings and I'd do the rest.

I think my offer got lost in the glut of emails to RSC.

As you say Steve, it all depends on the appeal of the route

jimmyshand wrote:Martin makes a very good point above about marketability. The UK is steeped in railway history, railways cover almost every inch of our country and 95% of the population live less than a mile from a railway! I'd bet that the UK probably has the biggest number of railway enthusiasts in the world. Railways are massively popular here you only need to look at the array of different magazines on our newsagents shelves and the fact you can't travel barely 50 miles anywhere in England without passing a living museum preserved railway line! There are probably enough RW users right here in Blighty to keep RSC in business for decades to come! Compare that to somewhere like Australia for example where you could travel for thousands of miles and never see a single track. Australia probably has some unique and interesting lines but is there the same demand and enthusiasm for it there? Would there be enough paying customers for an Australian DLC route to warrant an ultra expensive RSC research program? I seriously doubt it.

Coming from Australia and being involved with another sim that does create some Australian content, I would say that the support is there, but given the population differences obviously not as much as from countries such as UK, US, Germany etc.

In terms of variety, I would have to say Australia definitely trumps UK. While we lack high speed rail, we have the benefit of US 'ish' services (long intermodal, coal etc) on British 'ish' loading gauges. And these services tackle 1:40 gradients with 200m radius curves on a regular basis. The main lines to the north, west and south of Sydney all have kilometers of 1:40 through spectacular sandstone country and these are tackled by inter-urban EMUs, DMUs and 1.6km long intermodals. Makes the Settle Carlisle a walk in the park.

I enjoy British routes (would love to see the Highlands line modeled), but I would love to see some Australian content.

The fascination with Australian routes is one reason why I did my ZigZag route last year and was amazed to see gradients on the double track main line coming out of Lithgow at steeper than 1 in 40! I've also been visiting the Victoria Railways website with all the gradient profiles etc. on it. NSW, Victoria and to an extent South Australia have many short routes/former branch lines which would be worth doing. However as I've said before, it is difficult at the moment to do these justice with the lack of suitable buildings and particularly trees.

However, in terms of "marketable" shorter routes from RSC we are probably still looking at the UK. I'm quite surprised they haven't tackled a transit style route yet, perhaps part of the London Underground to compete with WOS or Tyne & Wear Metro (almost up RSDerek's street) or maybe something like Bedford to Bletchley. There's also scores of other ex-GW branch lines which would sell like hot cakes at £15 along with an item or two of rolling stock.

pjt1974 wrote:I have offered to continue my Isle of Man network as DLC if they'd help me with 3' 6" track and a Loco and rolling stock. Maybe a few custom buildings and I'd do the rest.

I think my offer got lost in the glut of emails to RSC.

As you say Steve, it all depends on the appeal of the route

Probaly doesn't hurt to try again...

I would have thought the Isle of Man would be a very appealing route, surely it is one of those "iconic" lines as it is fairly unique!!

I would certainly pay for it!

Pete.

I agree somewhat with Martin's twopenneth after my other post, BUT, there are a couple of things to remember, RSC cater for the styles of route that are going to sell the most, I stated last year that there are some narrow guage routes available freely that may appeal to folks like myself, but, will they sell as well if made available as DLC on Steam, we have Gor from Spain who's already into his 3rd, or 4th, narrow guage layout, if I'm not mistaken, but, have folks seen his others routes, would the RSC fanboys be interested in this kind of layout, 'cos, if they aren't, then I doubt if RSC would entertain such a project themselves. G-Trax have just released the Silverton & Durango and it will be very interesting to see what kind of feedback they receive in the next 6/9 months, or, so, the Americans love it by all accounts, but, what about the rest of the world, it seems to me that the Facebook fraternity would turn their noses up at such a future proposal of a narrow guage, or, a tram route.
The other point is made against the debate would British folks be interested in a 'foreign' layout if RSC got involved, well, why not, some of us have been kicking and screaming for an Aussie layout, etc, for ages, I've bought all the American and Canadian routes, so, why should we stop there, many Europeans might possibly expand their interests if something from further afield was made available, so, let's get more layouts constructed, and more importantly, if they make a good job of it, then possibly we might attract route creators from other simulators to help create further content for us, especially, as some of the well known Aussies from Trainz, such as Nat, would be a whopping great huge asset to our game if they got involved, we just need them to join us, as we've always been short of quality developers for freeware/payware content from abroad, we're already aware of the top quality content the Russians and Chinese have offered us.

Cheerz. Transport Steve.

Re: Australian content,

I believe a nice short, but challenging, branch line would be perfect for RSC to release as their first foray into Australia.

A nice candidate would have to be the Tarana to Oberon branch line. http://othr.com.au

The line runs for a total distance of 24 Klms and contains some of the steepest grades in NSW (1 in 25 compensated) and the tightest curves (5 chain radius) all with minimal infrastructure being required to make for a prototypical look to the route.

The line could be modelled in either steam (NSWGR 19 Class) or diesel (NSWGR 48 or 49 Class) eras and rollingstock such as S trucks in various states of load, GLX (bogie louvre van), MHG (guard’s van) or a HS composite Brake Branch-line Sitting Car that could be used for passenger services.

The website above contains a heap of info about the line including photos taken in its heyday.

Although such a route would be perfect for freeware I believe that it has RSC 'written all over it' considering the uncertainty of releasing a large route outside of the USA/UK.

Steve.

Once again though, should it not be down to third parties in Australia, Europe or wherever to be picking up the baton if there is demand? RSC are not a big company and clearly and obviously they specialise in UK routes for which there is an enormous market. Perhaps kick starting third parties in other countries might be part of UKTS Matts remit as the new third party liaison officer or whatever it is??

A nice candidate would have to be the Tarana to Oberon branch line. http://othr.com.au

Don't put temptation in my way! Do we know if there's a full gradient profile?

bigvern wrote:

A nice candidate would have to be the Tarana to Oberon branch line. http://othr.com.au

Don't put temptation in my way! Do we know if there's a full gradient profile?

I have the curve and gradient diagram, as well as track and signal diagrams.

"should it not be down to third parties in Australia, Europe or wherever to be picking up the baton if there is demand? "
How can there be demand if nothing is available ? You have to start somewhere .
Is there demand here in Belgium ? no idea , nothing is available ; but BVE, MSTS, Trainz routes , no problem.

re that Australian route :
1 in 25
If the steam era is chosen , they will have to beef up their midclass steamengines a bit ( Consolidation and that size ) .
On my route with large stretches in 1 in 18, they cant get up with 3 passenger cars ( no problem with that in RL ) .
I use the more than enough powered diesels to go up , and steam to go down .

What a good little thread. Everybody quite happy writing what they think without any need for moderators stepping in.

I think people should be careful what they wish for. Looking back since Rail Simulator was born we initially had a glut of fictional routes provided for largely by the community plus the payware IOW route (itself was initially met with sceptiscm with some of the community because of its short distance) - so we asked RSC for real life routes with some half decent mileage in them.

After the Glasgow airport route we have had WCMLn, Glasgow - Edinburgh and JT finally gave us Bristol - Exeter - all good real life routes with a good amount of mileage, and I don't really recall any negativity with any of them other than computers not being powerful enough to handle WCMLn - things were finally starting to look good in the route department.

Portsmouth direct, Settle to Carlisle and Woodhead have all generated much more interest than the very small Doncaster works add-on. Another small route that took a bit of a hammering (over pricing) was the Darlington - Bishops Auckland route but since that route was released JT have released Secml and again another great route. How often do we hear the small route that RSC did for charity being mentioned - we don't.

Do we really want to go back to the early days - I will reiterate (hopefully politely) that it is not necessary to buy an item of DLC at the full price on the day it is released - if you have a cash flow crisis - wait for a sale to turn up. How many people took advantage of getting Woodhead at 50% on the recent sale - less than 2 months after it was released. We know sales will happen - be patient.

If it 'aint broke - don't fix it & finally, bring on London to Brighton. Now back to Woodhead.

Steve

USRailFan wrote:

pjt1974 wrote:I have offered to continue my Isle of Man network as DLC if they'd help me with 3' 6" track and a Loco and rolling stock. Maybe a few custom buildings and I'd do the rest.

I think my offer got lost in the glut of emails to RSC.

As you say Steve, it all depends on the appeal of the route

Probaly doesn't hurt to try again...

That's true
I'll drag it out of backup later to give it a RW3 compatability check.

TransportSteve wrote: The other point is made against the debate would British folks be interested in a 'foreign' layout if RSC got involved, well, why not, some of us have been kicking and screaming for an Aussie layout, etc, for ages, I've bought all the American and Canadian routes, so, why should we stop there, many Europeans might possibly expand their interests if something from further afield was made available, so, let's get more layouts constructed, and more importantly, if they make a good job of it, then possibly we might attract route creators from other simulators to help create further content for us, especially, as some of the well known Aussies from Trainz, such as Nat, would be a whopping great huge asset to our game if they got involved, we just need them to join us, as we've always been short of quality developers for freeware/payware content from abroad, we're already aware of the top quality content the Russians and Chinese have offered us.

Cheerz. Transport Steve.

Thanks for the comment Steve. I'm more than happy to do route creation and have a wealth of information I'm happy to scan and email but I don't know if I can get back into modeling. The thought of getting back into 3ds sends shivers down my spine. If there's an alternative program that isn't so much of a chore I may be tempted, but certainly not at the same level as I did with Trainz - my wife is understanding but I'm sure her tolerance has a limit!

There's only Blender really, and that's arguably much worse

I'd love a US/Canadian shortline route - "shortline" does not mean it's actually short, some of them are a couple of hundred miles long! - they generally have lots of things to stop and do on the way up and down. I've got Rich Garber's works already, always room for more though.

And why should it be up to 3rd parties? I'm quite aware of how xenophobic you are Jimmy, but UK matter is not going to last and nor is the UK market endless.