Lack of choices & overall community
Jan 31, 2020 19:33:19 GMT -6
Post by survivorsean on Jan 31, 2020 19:33:19 GMT -6
Mike is on vacation and if like me I look forward and love every minute I can when I'm with my son. My next short one is on March Break in about a month and a half where I plan on checking out Sandpatch for the first time. In the summer I have yet another trip on The Canadian and will join him and his mom to get them settled on their big trip before returning on a long weekend headed back home. The usual other vacation days for U.S. Thanksgiving will follow later in the year with all the other long weekends I hope to take advantage of.
Trains are a huge past time for me and vscale was the obvious extension of model railroading which came to be even more powerful than most clubs I have belonged to in the past. It was not as expensive, it was in real scale, and much more realistic.
As much as I've praised Run8 as the best I've also been as equally critical when I felt it deserved it. But the fact remains nothing has come onto the scene to replace it. As much as I would love to take the helm and come up with something I know it would take massive work, a good team, and dedication to achieve.
This past week I yet again came up with another brainstorm as I often do when I simply don't want to let go of Run8. Now I'm not going to blame Run8 for this one because despite their few communications, the end of the year they were quite clear that v3 is going to be at least another year away. This is something we've heard about for 2 years now and as much as it's disappointing a team can only do what it's capable of doing. They have lives and limitations as to what they can and can't do. They also have a business to run and as such it appears the thirst for such a new simulator may not be economically viable. In fact I'd say that a thirst for just a smaller region is probably not that desired either, despite my own personal thirsts for such a small region to sink my teeth into.
With MSTS we constantly had several choices to choose from and despite declines it still has development taking place in the community. Last Sunday made me realise that despite being in the middle of winter where you would think demand would be high we couldn't get a handful to show up here. I knew Mike's vacation was coming and with the football game the previous week I needed to find something I could count on Sunday nights for myself. So I looked back into my own ideas and thought I would try something.
But hosting a server even part time with just one computer is not an easy task. Especially when you want to do something that is solo. I pretty much ended it before it gained too much steam understanding the daunting and trapping task ahead. I just looked at the Run8servers page and was surprised to not see the SW or SE server listed. Now I'm not sure how many people use this to post their servers but Scott's is up there (and his is dead). Smiley's is up there but it's on life support. I see 2 big servers and 1 I'm not familiar with as I don't have Facebook to bother. But from what I hear even the big servers aren't doing so hot these days.
So I'm going to say this once. These regions are simply too big and hurt small groups like this server has become and anything smaller. Single player becomes very boring very quickly for me and others. Yes some are fine with it who don't operate prototypically and good for them. But perhaps those of us still passionate about this software need to really think of something we can all do together? I have plenty of ideas to offer still, but I can't do it alone. If I'm truly alone now, the only thing that might bring me back is a smaller route I can handle on my own. These huge class 1 regions and lack of community abroad (not here specifically) is really getting me away from Run8 possibly for good.
Anyways hope that wasn't too dramatic. Just had to get it off my mind.
Thanks
Sean
Trains are a huge past time for me and vscale was the obvious extension of model railroading which came to be even more powerful than most clubs I have belonged to in the past. It was not as expensive, it was in real scale, and much more realistic.
As much as I've praised Run8 as the best I've also been as equally critical when I felt it deserved it. But the fact remains nothing has come onto the scene to replace it. As much as I would love to take the helm and come up with something I know it would take massive work, a good team, and dedication to achieve.
This past week I yet again came up with another brainstorm as I often do when I simply don't want to let go of Run8. Now I'm not going to blame Run8 for this one because despite their few communications, the end of the year they were quite clear that v3 is going to be at least another year away. This is something we've heard about for 2 years now and as much as it's disappointing a team can only do what it's capable of doing. They have lives and limitations as to what they can and can't do. They also have a business to run and as such it appears the thirst for such a new simulator may not be economically viable. In fact I'd say that a thirst for just a smaller region is probably not that desired either, despite my own personal thirsts for such a small region to sink my teeth into.
With MSTS we constantly had several choices to choose from and despite declines it still has development taking place in the community. Last Sunday made me realise that despite being in the middle of winter where you would think demand would be high we couldn't get a handful to show up here. I knew Mike's vacation was coming and with the football game the previous week I needed to find something I could count on Sunday nights for myself. So I looked back into my own ideas and thought I would try something.
But hosting a server even part time with just one computer is not an easy task. Especially when you want to do something that is solo. I pretty much ended it before it gained too much steam understanding the daunting and trapping task ahead. I just looked at the Run8servers page and was surprised to not see the SW or SE server listed. Now I'm not sure how many people use this to post their servers but Scott's is up there (and his is dead). Smiley's is up there but it's on life support. I see 2 big servers and 1 I'm not familiar with as I don't have Facebook to bother. But from what I hear even the big servers aren't doing so hot these days.
So I'm going to say this once. These regions are simply too big and hurt small groups like this server has become and anything smaller. Single player becomes very boring very quickly for me and others. Yes some are fine with it who don't operate prototypically and good for them. But perhaps those of us still passionate about this software need to really think of something we can all do together? I have plenty of ideas to offer still, but I can't do it alone. If I'm truly alone now, the only thing that might bring me back is a smaller route I can handle on my own. These huge class 1 regions and lack of community abroad (not here specifically) is really getting me away from Run8 possibly for good.
Anyways hope that wasn't too dramatic. Just had to get it off my mind.
Thanks
Sean
