You'll have the same problem as TSW and all the others. No content... Couldn't see any UK content either, so that's me out straight away.
Didn't watch it... I'm going off previous versions that only had a handful of UK steam locos and I think I saw a class 14 in one promo video a while back... not much else. I'll take a look, but like all the others... content will be its weak point. Although I did see some screen shots of a nice 47 they were doing. TSW looks nice as well though... I've uninstalled that.
Prior to TS2012 I had Trainz 2006, 2008 and a few others but it is a simpler sim compared with TR2021 and you don't have a free update so if you want the latest stuff you have to pay for it - every year Then you find some of your older trains don't work on the newer versions
I had Tane and I put a few hours in but it didn't catch me the way TS20xx did and could never get the hang of the AI drivers, I always wondered whether Trainz2019 was that much better than Tane though, I just wondered whether this was worth a 50 dollar punt seeing as it's got so much DLC bundled with it, personally I won't be getting it as my wallets faithful to it's abusive relationship with TS20xx.
I only tried it for a very short period so far. On one hand, I was amazed by the quality and range of rolling stock compared to TS. Sounds felt a lot better, and cars had various liveries, wear, tags, graffiti, something that's fairly rare in TS. Signals can also be seen from a distance. It looks fairly nice, similar to better TS DLC, a bit less fidelity, but more effects. DLC generally doesn't overlap with TS, so you can enrich your collection across the two titles. On the other, controls are fairly different, after switching cameras everything was blurry for a short while, or entering tunnels kept throwing a message Compiling Shaders. Check out Youtube about specific routes if interested. I found ECML to be quite dated. I could browse well over a hundred locomotives, including very many British diesels and steamers - some of them really nice, the rest not so much, coming from earlier years I guess. You might consider getting it during a sale to avoid feeling bad if you don't like it. I had no issues with download speeds. There is also a fair amount of confusion whether you need an account / purchase on their side, or can use Steam. My take being, if you plan on reusing DLC in later editions, you need the account, otherwise can skip.
I had TANE but I just couldn't get into "session" making, the ECML route had about 3 sessions IIRC which for a huge route was miniscule. I made my own activities in MSTS and make scenarios in TS1 but it looks a lot more complicated in Trainz, there seems to be little in the way of tutorials for session creation, I found one video but it seemed quite complex.
Agreed, that was the biggest problem I had with TANE (& Trainz 2019) the dearth of scenarios. Really hard to find any activities for just about any route. And pretty much always having to pay extra for just a couple more scenarios for the very limited main payware routes. I also found the scenario creation tool impossible, which might help explain the general lacking of pre-made scenarios. Overall I got the strong feeling that most committed 'Trainz' fans mainly enjoy the game for creating routes (well chiefly model railway layouts, rather than real life routes), rather than driving activities. The two other main challenges I encountered were: - firstly the very real difficulties finding and downloading required assets (KUIDs), finding many missing. The whole download system seems to rely on the original websource of the model creators - and significant numbers no longer available through websites (no longer existing) and/or broken hosting links. Assets effectively forever lost to the community. I know it also happens with Railworks/TS20xx, but far less frequently - and even when it does with TS it's usually possible to find someone that can help rediscover essential key freeware building assets (this seemed far harder within the smaller Trainz community). - secondly, I just haven't been able to get decent performance for the game. Hitting upon major lag/stuttering which has proven to be a very big problem for me. And no amount of graphical adjustments seemed to signficantly help. All in, the above issues unfortunately made my experience of TANE1/2 very frustrating. Both versions have now been entirely removed from my PC, and I won't be trying again. I can honestly say I sincerely tried to make the Trainz/TANE series work for me, but just had to give up. The experience though, did make me even more grateful for what TS20xx offers. I guess each to their own, but personally I couldn't recommend TANE/TS2019 to others - unless perhaps they want to build the ultimate virtual model board railway (& a U.S. one at that - many of the best assets/models for the game seem to be American based).
The strong point of Trainz is route building, the power of Surveyor combined with Transdem to create accurate terrain from DEM and overlaid with mapping data of your choice. The Download Station has 10's of thousands of assets to choose from, some of course are very dated and don't really cut it but most are serviceable and far better than DTG TS where you are foraging through your payware routes trying to find the odd item that will fit your needs - not helped by the tendency for stations etc. to be made as complete units rather than component parts. Then you have the developers who choose not to have their assets selectable once placed in the editor. If model railways are your thing then there is indeed a whole range of assets to create an oversized room with the layout on baseboards around the walls or in the middle, or even a G scale outdoor pike in a scaled up garden. If all that sounds fine and dandy, the weak point of Trainz is operations. Still hasn't really come very far from the original model railway concept in 2001. Unless you can figure out some very obscure commands and instructions, you still have to set the route ahead of your train as you go and there is no easy way of creating a player timetable which you are then checked against. AI is patchy at best. Oh and much of the rolling stock and loco assets are aliased to ancient and often unsuitable cabs and sounds, despite having a generally good exterior model. So TS and TSW/2 win hands down on the actual train running side but still lacks in the route building department (IMHO).
Thanks for that. That might explain the difficulties I had then in finding session creation tutorials and actually managing to follow the one I did find find. I would have thought that session creation would have been a major part of the experience, especially as Trainz is so focussed on the ability to create routes? It is a shame they can't make it an easier experience. Despite the age of the stock and route I was looking forward to getting stuck into the ECML route on TANE as it appeared to have everything required included, or the minimum of everything required. I was under the impression that the Trainz despatcher was very powerful.
I believe that I was ripped off with Tane New Era, it is still on my computer and it never worked properly, and was just ditched and they had the cheek to expect me to pay full price for the new version. not bought anything since. Mike
It must be possible as the supplied routes have sessions including where the path is defined ahead of you and there is a timetable to follow. However, how these are arrived at is a dark art, at least for the player train. It is fairly easy to string together commands for AI or non player trains, though you have to watch as many of the scripts involved can become obsolete at the slightest change in the code and no longer work. The Trainz despatcher or signaller (for AI trains) will still only follow the instructions and pre-defined path set up, it can also get confused very easily, even to the extent of backing trains up or running red signals.
the trains dispatcher did not understand Diamond Crossings either Frequently signalling a conflicting move over a junction
I think going on the above posts I won't bother with Trainz again unless they overhaul their despatcher and scenario creation methods. I used to have Trainz Ultimate Collection years ago, and it was quite fun building small layouts but things have moved really since then.
Yeah I'll definitely be sticking with TS then, unless that new kid on the block (Simrail 2021) proves to be a lot better and releases a lot of UK content of course. Even then though I think I've invested far too much money in TS to just abandon ship.
You can use what they term an interlocking tower to protect the crossing but this is a convoluted way of solving the problem. Besides, the last time I used one on a route, despite being in the current build of the program when I had cause to download the route again the "IT" was shown as faulty, something in the scripting no longer worked. No such issues in DTG TS.
I have three sims on my system TS1, TSW and DRS and each have their own advantages and disadvantages, I think Trainz though doesn't sound like it offers anything new that I would make use of, it was okay in the early 2000's but MSTS suited me a lot better. Certainly Simrail looks possible for the future and the IHH trackside/signaller simulator when that surfaces. I suppose we are spoilt for choice really.
Oh I completely forgot about Diesel Rail Car Simulator, apple loggies. And please, play nice children.
