Atomic Systems

Hi
There is a standard reply so that you know we have got your email.
There is a support email address, and answers go into the faq/wiki.
support@railsimulator.com
We also have plans for further support but it may take a few weeks to be up and running.
The website was changed to prevent new users being confused with Rail Simulator and how that worked.

Best regards

Derek

But surely, these forums are about Railworks - not MSTS!

I have read all the negative comments here before, and rapidly getting sick of hearing about them.

It is so simple - you either agree to the terms the company set out, or you don't, which you are quite entitled to do. Send your "dislikes" to support@railsimulator.com. They are the only people that can assist you, not here!

We all realise that RW has it's limitations at the moment, but I would have thought that the "sheer panic" that has been created here is not helping the product at all, and was surprised by moderators joining in as well, and all this will gradually sink it if it is allowed to carry on.

I am not running MSTS or Trainz - I came to RS and RW out of choice in the hope that it isn't run by graphics artists alone, but someone, just someone, that has an idea how to fix the immediate problems, and I will stay here until I find I want to leave.

With respect Chris - leave the moderators to run the forums please.

I don't see "sheer panic" here. What I see is a number of people who are unhappy about a couple of things :

1. Steam being the delivery mechanism.
2, Steam being required for DVD verification.
3. The lack of presence here of the existing RS.COM staff who have UKTS forum accounts and were posting regularly.
4. The removal of the RS.COM forums
5. Various "problems" with the RW program itself.

Now I am not going to post a lengthy essay about each point. I think Steam has been done to death but providing people remain polite and reasonable then I'd rather they rambled here than kicked the cat etc.

RS.COM are still apparently (from Derek's post) trying to figure out exactly how the support model is going to work. It is clear that they will probably not be dropping by here so often to answer support questions. There is a support email address (that I understand you have used Chris) and the Wiki which now has an RSS feed so you can find the updates.

As for the problems - well Matt has been chiselling away at scenario creation (see the other section of the forum) and that is key. Scenarios (activities - call them what you like) will make or break RW. Same with any other simulator - sure it is nice to whiz along in free roam but actually interacting with the traffic etc. is what makes it enjoyable. James Petts wrote eloquent and detailed notes on this when RS first came out - if anything they were too long since by the time I got to the bottom I forgot his first points - he was right though (as were many others) the AI scheduling is arcane to be polite. Matt's recent experiences show that altough improvements appear to have been made there are still issues.

And yes - moderators are allowed to have personal opinions - I wasn't going to bother with RW but when Pete announced the Basildon show would have 2 screens running it I thought I had better get with the program so I don't look like an idiot trying to drive the trains.

OK - now I exhausted my lunch break so best get back to doing something resembling work.

Basherz wrote: It is so simple - you either agree to the terms the company set out, or you don't, which you are quite entitled to do. Send your "dislikes" to support@railsimulator.com. They are the only people that can assist you, not here!
.

I sent in 2 emails to support and never got a reply, 'nuff said.

I do belive, that RS.com survive, just because 1 or 2 don't buy their product. For every unsatisfied customer, there are 100's satisfied. But they dont have to start a new thread, every time they happily starts their train-simulator and have fun.

3. I didn't know, that Uktrainsim's forum was the official forum for RS.com, and they HAVE to answer all threads about RS/RW. Then i'll never see another patch, because there are 1000's of forums, that demand exactly the same service.

Bab

bab7000 wrote:I didn't know, that Uktrainsim's forum was the official forum for RS.com, and they HAVE to answer all threads about RS/RW. Then i'll never see another patch, because there are 1000's of forums, that demand exactly the same service.

Bab

Bab,

RS.com don't have to do anything to support their product, least of all post in any given forum, but they will inevitably be judged just as much, probably more so, on what they don't do as on what they do. However I get the impression that some users are not satisifed with the level of support being given via any channel. I was a bit surprised to see RSderek saying "We also have plans for further support but it may take a few weeks to be up and running.". Having taken flak for initial lack of support of RailSim I'd have thought that the best thing to have done would to have had the support fully in place before release as that's when the biggest requirement is likely to be.

At the end of the day it's up to them but I don't blame people having problems being critical of the product and RS.com's apparent lack of support for it.

Andy L

All I can say is "why the panic?". Why buy now? RSC are going to reorganise their support, it will take a few weeks.

The promotional offer is valid through July 17, which is a few weeks from now.

Amazon sells the game to new customers at £30 including P&P. The promotional offer is £20 plus P&P. I have no idea how long it will take for Amazon to lower the price to £20. Why not wait for that date and re-evaluate the promotional offer RSC are making in terms of patch fixes by then?

I am not trying to beat up a boycott movement here, I just say that there are reasons not to buy now, so just don't do it. There is no tragedy involved other than that you need to do something else till then, like continuing enjoying KRS.

As for the automatic answers, maybe Matt can show them how to get a URL to the specific modification into the automatic mail. Not the one that you get immediately, the second one when they actually did something with your request. A generic RTFM certainly is not polite. At the same time, it is a good idea to publish all answers in well organised form for all to read, instead of mailing the same thing many times. And they do work on their Wiki pages.

g0fthick wrote:As the name suggests, the FAQ covers a wide selection of common issues experienced by users. There is also a Wiki that is constantly being updated with more information, all free of charge to the consumer.

Seeing as you haven't purchased the product, I'm unsure how you can have come to a conclusion on the quality of support, which I personally feel is miles better than that of Rail Simulator.

Yes this is true that i havnt purchased the product, however im unsure of your uncertainty to ascertain my conclusion on the quality of support (Took me 10 minutes to say that )

what I mean by this is, from reading these forums, and seeing how many problems have arisen, compared to the information given on the railsim website (NONE) this is how I have come to the conclusion on the quality of support. (And i dont understand how you can say is miles better than railsimulator, when railsimulator had many offical forums etc)

and as for the people who are going on at others for being critical about this, we have every right to be. Like has been mentioned before this product still seems very underground, the type of thing of (buy it and dont ask questions)

Railworks was promised to be the bees knees, and im sure one day it will be, but i feel that releasing a product with no support offered (YES EVEN THOUGH IT IS APPARANTLY TEMPORY) is not a very good way. you would be pretty peed off if you bought a car with a 3 year guarentee, only when something goes wrong, the company totally ignore you and pretend they dont even exist.

if RSDEREK reads this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Restore my confidence in this product.

Hi

if RSDEREK reads this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Restore my confidence in this product.

I personally think that Derek is someone who naturally goes out of his way to help if he can, but under the present circumstances perhaps he cannot do this as he would like to.

Acorncomputer wrote:Hi

if RSDEREK reads this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Restore my confidence in this product.

I personally think that Derek is someone who naturally goes out of his way to help if he can, but under the present circumstances perhaps he cannot do this as he would like to.

I agree entirely, you only have to look back over the last 18 months or so to see that he does help when he can but of course he is part of a team and is answerable to others therefore he cannot be expected to restore confidence on his own.

Derek is the artist (lead artist or something like that). There are not complaints about the artwork as far as I can see. He is not a programmer, and he is not deciding how much money is spent on which fix, for all I know.

It is the communication with those people who make decisions, or those who prepare the information for the decision makers, which is missing. True, you don't get that in other companies either. But other companies also loose credibility. As a customer, you see what you get, and then decide.

I definitely would wish for some official statement on the future course of development, in detail, but Derek and Adam are not the people to decide or publish this (as far as I know, and that is not much).

SuperTux wrote:But, how many silent people are reading these forums and seeing so many posts about canceling/not buying RW due to Steam because its evil end up canceling themselves because of what basically amounted to a FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) campaign by "hypocrites" who themselves have agreed to previous EULA's without caring and will do so in the future, but this time decided to take a different course of action. If you happen to not be in that group, then respect to you.

The difference here is, with other titles, as long as the disc is in the drive, the game works be it brand new or a decade old. With Rail Works, you don't have that control. Your future enjoyment of the sim is based on, NOT RSDL saying so, but on Valvue saying so via their Steam platform. You can weld the disc into the drive to try and make Rail Works work in the future but it won't do any good once Valve pull it, say no, or go under. After buying the game, I say, as long as I have the disc, why should I have this threat over my head!?!

I sent in 2 emails to support and never got a reply, 'nuff said.

Having been involved in a software support environment for several years, this sort of comment, to me, rings alarm bells.

Firstly, RS have not made a very good job of advertising their support policy....."Ask for support by email, and you will get an answer by an entry on the Wiki".

And secondly, there is the universal support error.....not keeping the customer informed!

If RS are to maintain this type of support, I would strongly suggest that they:

1) Set up an auto-reply on their email server that acknowledges receipt of the message, provides a support ticket ID, and advises of the approxiamate turnaround time there will be before a response is made.
2) Rather that only providing the answer on the Wiki, provide the customer with the answer in an email AS WELL as putting the answer on thw Wiki.
3) Provide "progress reports" where answers are not provided within the timescale advised on the acknowledgement email.

Three simple steps that are simple to implement....and go a very long way to build bridges.

Doug,
You have hit the nail on the head, you are 100% correct.

Proper support, and running the DVD without Valve /Steam is what is wanted, after all, we are paying out our
hard earned cash for it, and I'd like RW.com to keep in mind a lot of buyers dont have much cash to spend
due to the prevailing circumstances we all know about.

If I can get RW DVD that includes the above I'll buy RW.

Paul_Boland wrote:After buying the game, I say, as long as I have the disc, why should I have this threat over my head!?!

One thing needs to be said though: We had this "I hate to have the DVD in the drive all the time" debate just as well. Just for a balance. The arguments were the same -- buying KRS does not make me a potential pirate -- and the number of pages on it was the same.

This is not a plug for Steam. Just a sober note that the alternative will not be the paradise state that we had after the second patch.