Dev Tools due on 12 Nov

[CaptScarlet]

FYI a note on the Railsim forums says the dev tool will be available on 12 November 07.
Why its another month away I've no idea

John

[danny3]

The link - http://www.railsimulator.com/node/288

[Daz85UK]

A month!?, surely these tools should of been ready at the same time as the game, so why not release them now?

Personally I think this game will die a slow death unless they are released quickly.

[mearle73]

I would think if there going to do a patch they have got to be sure the tools will work with it

[Neptune50006]

Why its another month away I've no idea

John

Perhaps they're actually testing them this time But agreed, a month is a frustratingly long time.

[stuartrayner]

Myself, I would rather wait the extra month or so and get tools that work first time every time (okay, most times), as I can busy myself with research and planning for the time being.

Mind you, if the pro tools are really not finished yet, one has to wonder what they used to build the default routes!

[seagulls2000]

I cannot understand the delay except, if has already been said, they need to patch the tools to go with the patch to the game.

The default routes wont have been made with the in game tools, RSD must have used a full version to create them. The question is though is there 3 levels of tools, the basic we have now, the ones released on the 12th Nov and RSD secret set that nobody will ever see? Im hoping the tools on the 12th are the ones RSD used to create the default routes as this will give everyone the best chance of creating better content

Gary

[arabiandisco]

So there's complaints that the game has been rushed out, and now there's complaints that the tools are not being rushed out...

[mickoo737]

Careful, you might just be getting too close to the truth !....except the bit about the set no one will ever see, some will and may already have.....but at a price. but y'all have to wait another month to see whats really what, I've long suspected there will be different levels of tools depending on whether your pay or free, as someone else noted, you really dont want better freeware usurping your payware do you ?.

Best

Michael

I cannot understand the delay except, if has already been said, they need to patch the tools to go with the patch to the game.

The default routes wont have been made with the in game tools, RSD must have used a full version to create them. The question is though is there 3 levels of tools, the basic we have now, the ones released on the 12th Nov and RSD secret set that nobody will ever see? Im hoping the tools on the 12th are the ones RSD used to create the default routes as this will give everyone the best chance of creating better content

Gary

[seagulls2000]

Dont think its so much complaints just more a case of they must have worked for RSD to create the routes and they have probably already been tested more than the sim its self

Gary

[AndiS]

I call the announcement another bad slap in the face of the community.

Rail Simulator, the new game now available from Electronic Arts, provides the most immersive train experience possible on the PC.

Now that brings me in line with Jon Bilton. However, no one should give too much about marketing fuss. But it is simply not true. Both MSTS and Trainz perform more immersive than KRS as of this writing.

In addition it allows users to create their own landscapes, trains and missions.

If creating your own landscape, I's say some succeeded, some did not.

If you define "create your own trains" as assembling one train which you will drive afterwards from the included rolling stock, this claim is ok. However, you cannot assemble more than that and you cannot "create" anything, more precisely, you cannot import anything.

Anyone created a mission yet? I thought the FAQ (and various people in the know) said you cannot create scenarios. Also, further below it says that with the additional tools you will be able to create scenarios. So what is a mission then? For fact, timetables are disabled and AI does not work outside scenarios.

For those wishing to take content creation to the next level, the developers of Rail Simulator are offering an additional suite of tools that enable professionals and experts to really get their hands dirty.

Most of us are neither professionals nor experts, but dirty as hell. All we want is run a scenario without setting the switches ourselves, and a way to fix a few things ourselves (signalling, wagons jumping on coupling). Other than moving the trees off the track little can be done currently by any non-expert enthusiast sticking in the dirt.

These tools allow the creation and editing of the more complex elements of Rail Simulator, adding new content to the game and authoring scenarios, as well as providing more in-depth documentation about features, functions and facilities.

I hoped for the complete documentation to be available on release. Then we would have spend the weekend fixing your product for you instead of moaning about it (well, some of us, at least). If someone at RSD is indeed reading the posts here and giving just a little hoot on "the community" (which is oh so important to Kuju/RSD), then please, may I beg for the documentation of the data format now? Keep the user manual of the tools which are not ready, no one could make use of those, but you must have the API for signalling, passenger programming/configuration, "mission"/scenario/timetable etc. data somewhere.

However, you will need a high degree of specialist knowledge of railway systems, computer simulation and programming to use these tools effectively.

No problem. Most of us will outperform any Kuju developer regarding that. I am not talking about 3D modelling. But regarding "specialist knowledge of railway systems, computer simulation and programming", Kuju did not engage the biggest geniuses on the planet. And for most aspects, it is not true that you need programming skills. If you stay clear from Lua stuff, all you need it railway knowledge and persistence to face the abstraction challenge which any simulation poses.

Btw., the conversion tool to turn the binary data into more or less comprehensible XML and back is already available, it is called serz.exe and sits in Rail Simulator\Packager after you installed one of the additional liveries. This means that it is perfectly legal for any naughty payware creator who wants evade the license agreement, to figure out how to convert his creation into KRS format - without signing any agreement. The amount of work involved in figuring that out will hurt him much less than it hurts the enthusiast who wants to help salvage this project. And "salvage" is no exaggeration, because if you go on selling KRS without fixes, PR will be catastrophic.

[mickoo737]

Its taken them 28 months to get the game right, anyone seriously excpect the tools to be got right in a month ?. They will work l'm sure...in there own right, having seen the mess the actual platform is l dont think the tools will edit it as best they can, you can have the best tools in the world but if you choose to build on sand.....

Best

Michael

So there's complaints that the game has been rushed out, and now there's complaints that the tools are not being rushed out...

[RSderek]

Hi all,

The tools that will be available for download are the same for everyone and the same as what we at RSDL are using.

regards

Derek

[stuartrayner]

Hi all,

The tools that will be available for download are the same for everyone and the same as what we at RSDL are using.

regards

Derek

Thanks Derek, thats good to hear as one might assume that any problems with the tools were identified internally during the development of RS.

I admin that assumption is a dangerous thing though

[stewart]

Some people are never satisfied. Its pretty simple really. There's no big conspiracy theory, no secret tools. It is simply (as has been stated by RSD in the past,) a case of making the tools more accesible to the untrained user rather than the raw state as used by the developers in RSD. By that I mean they will be making them more user friendly so we dont run into the same pitfalls as MSTS where only a few could get the best out of the editing tools. Its not rocket science. As for another month to wait Rather that than the plethora of complaints that would have rained down on their heads if they had been "rushed out unfinished". Rather than sit and moan, make use of the month's wait to learn as much as you can about the sim and its workings.