Be it steamer, diesel, electric, narrow guage or anything inbetween, in one form or another it has been tried and some cases quite well represented, to a wider audience if one were to look back what is available now for the user is vastly more than it was back in 2009 and for all intents and purposes one can download or purchase a suitable rolling stock or route for them to enjoy for however long they wish to devout to the simulator. One could make the point that indeed British themed railways has taken centre stage for quite some time but with the developers homebase and also the general popularity its not to surprising to see such things. Granted since the interception of the steady flow of DLC more than just UK based content has become available and now you can get a decent representation for german and US based areas, era and rolling stock and as interest builds and the market holes are seen this will be expanded.
Be it shunting, passenger workings, freight operation or just a leisurable ride along the tracks its now quite easy for anyone to get into Railworks and just have a session to themselves and enjoy the simulator for what it is. Naturally Railworks as a product isn't perfect, nore is any kind of PC software and hitches and glitches aswell as problems in regards to performance have been a focus point over the past couple of months. This to a certain extent is acknowledged by the developers and promises have been made, remains to be seen on how much can be done in the current code but optimism is a good stand point when considering computer software regardless of what its trying to do or what you want it to do.
As Railworks progressed, so did the community, abeit sometimes negative and mostly positive and now there is a whole slew of 3rd party developers aswell as well informed individuals who now participate in discusssions aswell as add pointers to the many different parts of Railworks. But I will step on the icy path of the negativity and bring to light what I see developing once again. While the community is developing and is relatively positively as of late there is a sigificant rise in sniping and negativity which arises from addons or discussions, we unfortunately had this situation develop last year and heavy moderation had to be taken.
I would like to appeal to the community that we move for a air of change, one which airs more on the side of positive and furthers Railworks and the community as a whole, moderation can only be taken so far and the moderators of UKtrainsim do have a large task to keep everything civil and for the most part do a good job, but there is many occasions when moderation cannot simply solve the underlining niggles and griping and that is where it comes down to community members to conduct themselves in a manner which would be the same as you do in real life.
It is unfortunate in a internet generation that the idea that the internet gives you anoymous status, thus it further gives you right to say what you like or how you like, but truth be told at the end of the day, the person you are responding to in a post is a human being, someone just like yourself with the same passion and hobby for everything to do with the railways. It would seem sometimes people can forget this, be it young or old, we are civilised people and thus, while this is the internet, we should treat each other just like we would people we meet in our day to day encounters.
So with that aside were now in 2011, there has been a fair few new releases for this year and a few big routes to come aswell as locomotive stock, there is even core changes on the horizon (as much as people would like to deny that
), aswell as 3rd party developers pushing the boundries of what can and cannot be done in Railworks.Opinions are valid for anyone who wishes to express themselves to the community and this should not change, but keep in mind when we go to type our opinions we still need to keep it civil, we all have a great deal of passion but we must also keep that passion at a standard which is deemed acceptable also.
With this all being said, I like to thank UKtrainsim for allowing us to have a place to come together and discuss the many different topics, addons, routes and new innovations and changes which have come out and are due to come out, I also wish to thank the community, 3rd party developers, RS.com and all there staff aswell as the the masses of passionate people we have for the railways, if it wasn't for everyone, we wouldn't have what we have here today.
Note: The intention of this post is to keep a civil tone, a topic of discussion for what has been done, to offer thanks and express your own opinions. I do not mind negative comments being posted to my comments above, but please assure to keep to the forum guidelines aswell as a civil tone, if the thread proves to foster sniping and the bad side of what has been seen on the forums I respectfully ask the moderators to close the topic and that be the end of it. The aim is to foster abit of community spirit, so lets keep it in that area, thanks.
I have now released something in the order of 30 scenarios and intend to keep doing so as freeware. Whether these can be up to payware standard, thats entirely up to the end user on how much enjoyment they receive. It's funny though, as I have had comments/PM's/feedback forms/emails from users telling me "That was good, I would have happily paid for it" or "Will you do xxx scenarios, I would pay for a pack" etc etc, it's easy to think hold on, there is money to be made here. However, I get enough grief as it is and can do without more. 
