No Union Pacific Routes Are Candidates For MSTS 2

[eaglefan9727]

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?t=73136

The more I hear about this new sim. The less I am interested in getting my hands on this sim.

First, It was the vista only topic and now you can pretty much take all the UP routes off the candidate list for this version.

That means the following routes arent candidates:

Cajon Pass
Tehahcapi
Donner Pass
Beaumont Pass
Soldier Summit
Sherman Hill

That is 6 of the biggest western pass routes there are and that is what you call railroading at its best. Dont get me wrong, I am not trying to put down any eastern routes at all, But when I think of railroading. The first routes that come to my mind are pretty much those 6 routes and other western routes that I cant think of right now.

They should have atleast one of those routes in the original package of the sim, But with the info that I read about the UP routes not being on the candidate list for this version. Not one of those 6 will be candidates.

[cbq311]

Let's see:

Stevens Pass
Mullans Pass
Stampede
Bozeman (MRL)
Marias

Plus all the other high density BNSF lines, I say a lot go go by.

[bessemer]

I hear ya, it would be nice to make everyone happy with routes from East and West, but I think the way they are looking at it is, MSTS had a western route as default (for freight at least). KRS is apparently going to have UP. I think they are realizing that there is an east coast market as well that they have never tried to sell to. I mean I spent a weekend around Altoona Pa to see some NS action. And lemme tell ya, its mountain railroading at its best. 2% grades, Helper service, Coal, Intermodal, and Mixed freight trains, plus beautiful scenery and a tripple track mainline. As far as I'm concerned its just as exciting as any of the western routes.

[CajunRon]

>there is an east coast market as
>well that they have never tried to sell to.

I agree, the west coast routes are good but it's time for a different focus. No doubt these classic routes will become available as payware and/or freeware. Original content isn't going to be one of my buy or don't buy criteria. My biggest concern is that one of these (Kuju's or MSTS2) will far out sell the other and so all of the third party interest and developement will be with only one...and I have to choose the right one. Like I said...the general interest content will come.

[Claude350]

So why does everything have to be based on the UP or BNSF? They aren't the only class one lines and there are plenty of eastern routes that offer routes as good as anything out west. It'll be nice to see some eastern routes for a change. It's about time to include the NS and CSX. The UP and BNSF need to take a back seat for a change.

[Turbo Bill]

According to what they say about being able to run any line anywhere with the world files, you can run on anyline you want. You just may not have the correct locomotives for it out of the box. This is my appeal to the MS version. I can load up the lines I used to run on for real and run them again. The thing is MS contracted with BNSF like the first time around. That didn't prevent UP stuff from showing up real soon after. The fact that we will be able to run anywhere in the world with this sim is it's big selling factor to me.

[eaglefan9727]

Bill,

From what I am understanding is this that the rails of each route will be there in the original package, But only a handful of them are going to be done with scenery.

[ns4eva]

This will save months of work on route building seeing all the rail data will be included (for me anyways lol). I'm just curious as to how accurate the tracks will be, such as grades and how it will turn out with mountain valley tracks sticking with the terrain and so forth...

[font color="red"]My Railfan Photos
[font color="red"]http://ns4eva.rrpicturearchives.net

[font color="black"]--Drifton

<<There's a bit of Norfolk Southern in all of us>>

[plainsman]

Will this only be current rail lines? What about all the old abandoned lines? I would love to run some of those!!
Bob

[Richard]

If they truly have a World of Rails database, then all Union Pacific routes would be in MSTS2. They might not be complete with signals, buildings etc, but they would be there? Just Read the last post by I think it was Rick who said, he choose a location and started running a train. Being someone who enjoys building routes, I hope I can change track layouts if the current WoR does not reflect the track layout for the era and locations I'm interested in.

Take care,
Rich S.

[EBT_Mikes]

It depends on the rail data MS gets ahold of (when it was updated, how long ago the track was abandoned, etc.). If it's anything like what is printed on current topomaps, a lot of abandoned track is still shown. For example, a local branch that was abandoned in the early 1980s and since turned into a rails-to-trails path is still printed. I don't know how many different sources of data there are, though.

Here it is straight from the horse's mouth (3rd post):

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?t=72929

And I am looking forward to how this WoR turns out. As the original poster hinted at, what each of us thinks of as great railroading or the meaning of railroading is different. I think it's a good idea to give us these basic pieces of information in right-of-ways and elevation data so hopefully all that remains is for us to "detail" our favorite route to our satisfaction.

Ray

[oakpalms]

It sounds like the big feature for MSTS-X will be to run "a train" anywhere there are tracks. I guess they would have to have a feature to select the route ahead--more like the explorer mode in MSTS. This sounds like some specialized coding with each train which begs the question will there be the possibillity of adding additional "trains"?
Another question becomes will they have AI traffic if you can just start a train anywhere? Another thing is what about signals? Some of the features appear to be very high tech and mind boggling, but disconnected from prototype train operation.

Bob Edwards

[bob hahn]

It looks to me like the Microsofties have gone to school on us, visiting the various "community hangouts" and learning what things people actually -do- with MSTS (as opposed to what people say they would want, if you asked them).

What they've learned is that this is Model Railroading, with the emphasis on "model." That is good, because Model Railroading has proven to be a very durable hobby, with lots of people involved in it, all around the world. That means there's money in it, and there will probably be money in it for a long time to come, i.e. it's not a fad that looks promising but could disappear next year. If there's one thing that Microsoft likes, it's money.

To accommodate the group here, they need a good solid platform that does the physics and the graphics as well as it can, plus a bunch of tools for modelers.

That said, there's another market for a train sim, and even though we here don't care about it, it's money, and Microsoft doesn't want to leave it on the table. That's the people who will buy the product, drive the train around and toot the horn for a week or two, and never play it again. Such people may even outnumber us modelers, but they won't be as easy to come back to for easy add-on sales and updated versions later.

To appeal to both, Microsoft has to walk a fine line between providing just enough "turnkey excitement" to relieve the horn-tooters of their money, but without alienating the people whose real joy isn't driving the trains so much as modeling stuff: rolling stock, scenery, physics, ad infinitum. "Model railroading," in other words.

I think they 'get' this. Everything I've seen them say about the product suggests that they know what the 'durable hobby' people want to do with the product. I suspect they are astounded at what was done with the original MSTS. That speaks volumes about what people would do if the tools were better. So I bet next time we get better tools. I bet we get an honest-to-goodness platform for Model Railroading.