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| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 04:58 #48390 | |
hobbieelliott
10 posts |
Thanks to the Newsletter which appeared in my Inbox today, I have applied the latest System utilities, rebooted and then downloaded Fenchurch Street and Marylebone to see what they offer. I support the User Pays principle and the Licence Fees are set at a very low price. The idea of allowing a Demo facility assists a potential customer to decide whether to buy or not. However, I am surprised that when either the Fenchurch Street or Marylebone simulations are run in Demo Mode, the Demo expires in such a short time - almost too soon to be able to scroll across the network diagram - in less than 20 seconds. My environments are Win XP Pro and WIN 7 Pro. Surely it would not be unreasonable for the Demo to expire after, say, 5 minutes instead of what seems to be 15 or 20 seconds!  Any thoughts on that? Thanks for all these stimulating and engrossing SIMs. Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 06:25 #48391 | |
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mfloyd
189 posts |
Roadrunner - if it is all that bad, why are you bothering even visiting Simsig - let alone posting!
Ripley, Derbyshire Log in to reply The following users said thank you: DriverCurran, andyb0607, Noisynoel, Forest Pines, UKTrainMan |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 07:57 #48394 | |
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clive
2789 posts |
" said:So I clearly dreamed the newsletter that was in my mailbox this morning. Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 08:03 #48395 | |
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clive
2789 posts |
" said:I still have some of the mud from researching in the Cambridgeshire countryside. I'll just add to your list: sorting out the discrepencies between your various data sources. I'm pretty sure that Cambridge PSB panel has a non-existent level crossing shown on it (or did back when I visited oh so many years ago). And one official source that I was provided a copy of actually has two miles of non-existent track on it! (The author failed to notice a mileage change at a former junction.) Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 08:39 #48396 | |
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indian_railways_fan
72 posts |
" said:
My experience is that it happens the very first time you run the sim in demo mode.Just restart the sim again in demo mode and it should last for about two minutes. Khalid. Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 08:51 #48397 | |
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John
884 posts |
" said:Charging for sims will lead to a decline in SimSig's prospects in the long-term.Roadrunner. For exactly who's benefit are you posting this baseless garbage? I only ask because it seems that you're the only one who has a problem. Log in to reply The following users said thank you: DriverCurran, TimTamToe, UKTrainMan |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 09:08 #48399 | |
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Sparky
84 posts |
" said:Instead of SimSig being a thriving community of hobbyists, it is little more than a collection of developers and their friends with a few hardy outsiders living in the dark. That is why the whole active SimSig membership fits into a pub in Derby (even after 10 years of activity!)How the hell is meet attendance an accurate reflection on the number of active members. I am very active in using sims, to the point that there is a group of 10 people that have an online multiplayer every Tuesday night, as well as other impromptu sessions through the week. On occasion not everyone is available due to other commitments. I for 1 am on call for work every 3 week which has impacted on my availability. I am sure all 10 of us would love to attend the meets, however I can't justify shelling out £1200 in airfares 3 times a year, not to mention the £1200 in lost wages for the 4 days off work just to travel let alone the day off for the meet. On those figures £5 or £50 for a sim or 3 is very attractive. I think you need to snap out of the dream your in & have a look @ reality. Damien I intend to live forever. So far so good Log in to reply The following users said thank you: TimTamToe, John, BarryM, UKTrainMan |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 10:20 #48413 | |
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clive
2789 posts |
" said:Can someone clear up a small point. Which sims are compatible with the new launcher ? At the moment I have Marylebone and Fenchurch which can be launched from it but I seem to recall Brighton and Lancing were also possible.In general, all future sims will use the new loader. As older sims are refreshed, they will work with the loader as well. But the loader doesn't understand the old .exe sims. (For all I know, there may be one or two .exe sims still in the pipeline. I know I don't have any. But in the near future all development will be loader sims.) Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 10:38 #48415 | |
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nnr
170 posts |
It's well worth remembering that another well known simulator developer charges some £30+ a pop for a product which, IMHO, is not a patch on Simsig. I've just bought Fenchurch for the price of a pint and a half of beer - and it will last much longer!!! Neil Log in to reply The following user said thank you: UKTrainMan |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 11:08 #48419 | |
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Underwood
748 posts |
Roadrunner - seriously? Are you an admin secretly on here or something as you seem to know a few stats about downloads than I do! How do you know not many people buy a product, have you done market research? There was a few that bought it when it came out, and a few more no doubt bought it after the London meet, and I say that because I was there, and some were saying they would buy it now as they had a chance to see it properly. I am also not an active member anymore I suppose, as I cannot afford to attend the Derby meet..just like Sparky, does that count? Air your views if you so wish, but remember if no-ones donating then a charge will have to do, someones got to pay for the costs. Same goes for other hobby based products like payware addons for other simulations (FSX, Railworks, OMSI etc) Log in to reply The following user said thank you: UKTrainMan |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 14:32 #48428 | |
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TimTamToe
664 posts |
" said:It's well worth remembering that another well known simulator developer charges some £30+ a pop for a product which, IMHO, is not a patch on Simsig.obviously you're not in London if you get a pint AND a half for a fiver 
Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 15:43 #48441 | |
GeoffM
6377 posts |
" said:However, I am surprised that when either the Fenchurch Street or Marylebone simulations are run in Demo Mode, the Demo expires in such a short time - almost too soon to be able to scroll across the network diagram - in less than 20 seconds. My environments are Win XP Pro and WIN 7 Pro.It's something a few others have reported too but I've yet to look into why this is happening (yes you are supposed to get several minutes, not seconds!). It's listed on our internal issue tracking software. SimSig Boss Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 21:21 #48468 | |
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Forest Pines
525 posts |
*mutters "do not feed the troll" under breath before posting* " said: And? I've been an active SimSig user since, ooh, more or less when the original Liverpool St was released - I remember finding out about it from Geoff's posts on uk.railway. I remember sending him a cheque in the post for Didcot on CD. I documented how to run SimSig on Linux. I've been playing SimSig pretty much continuously for, I guess, at least the whole of the current century. I have never, ever played a multiplayer game. I probably never, ever will. I don't see the point of it, because I only ever have time to play for maybe an hour or two in a session, so an individual game is always going to take a few months to play through the whole timetable. So why should the number of other people who buy any given sim affect whether I should buy it or not? As someone else said, I do feel it's only worth paying for something if I'm going to have time to get my money's worth, but popularity and multiplay opportunities are not something that will ever concern me. Quote: Anecdote fight! The other month, my team at work took on a new contractor. He's your typical randomly-chosen middle-aged database expert with a slightly scruffy demeanour and razor-sharp mind. We were sitting in the break room one lunchtime just after he'd started, and I pulled out a copy of Continental Modeller to read. "I haven't bought any train magazines for a while," he said. And so we got talking about trains, and then about signalling. "I play a signalling simulator on my PC as it happens," he said. SimSig, of course. His favourite's Westbury, because it's one of our local ones. Incidentally, he's also never, ever played a multiplayer game. He also doesn't see any point to it, because he also can only play for an hour or two at a time so takes months to get through a whole game. Go figure! He also says he doesn't read the forums on here, but hi Doug if you *are* reading! My point is: Doug's a completely random chap who one day appeared at the desk next to mine, completely by chance (well, because we work in the same industry but that's by the by). He turned out to be a SimSig fan. If that can happen, out of all of the database contractors in all of the open-plan offices of the country, you can hardly say that SimSig isn't thriving. Moreover, he's part of the silent iceberg of users who don't post here and aren't interested in multiplayer games. I suspect most SimSig users are. Incidentally, I've never been to a meet either. There was a meet actually in my neighbourhood a few months back - and it was on the one day that I was busy doing signalling-related things elsewhere. Bah! Log in to reply The following users said thank you: UKTrainMan, TomOF |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 15/08/2013 at 23:05 #48474 | |
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TomOF
452 posts |
First of all, my apologies to forum users at large for dragging this up. I am reticent to get involved in this kind of thing but I felt moved to say a few things. " said: You have said in the past that you felt you could not express yourself freely on this forum. You have done so in the above quoted post but what did you hope to achieve there? You've hijacked two threads recently with an overwhelmingly negative message (and I think the OP had a valid point which was worthy of further discussion). The messages you have been posting give off mixed messages in so much as:-
I hope this does not come across as putting words in your mouth so I'm going to quote you below:- " said:
" said:
(I am assuming you including yourself in the number of people here who will not pay for sims from your response there but please forgive me if I misread the situation). I'm afraid what you're asking for doesn't add up. You can't produce a quality piece of software under the conditions you are asking for. When work on a sim is started, occasionally, and regrettably it cannot be continued, or might have to be postponed for a while because perhaps the developers personal cirmunstances have changed or there is a technical problem to be overcome. This could be for any one of many reasons. If this sim is announced then that's going to leave a lot of disappointed forum members. This is a contrast to the world of commercial software where there are the end users expectations to be managed but these tend to be backed up with hefty budgets and a reasonably sized development team. If something starts to slip behind then extra resources can be called in. Simsig doesn't lend itself well to this concept because it's not commercial software in the traditional sense of the word. The coding and testing are done by people who do it in their spare time. This brings me onto the issue of payment. The work that gets done to produce a sim would be very expensive if done at trade rates. A typical Google search for agency jobs will give you an idea what a software engineer is paid but they seem to average around £50K p/a for the quick search I did. An employer should not bat an eyelid at £200/day for an experienced software engineer. I think if everything that happens to get a sim into production and out into the wider world where taken into account and charged for then I think that a Simsig would cost considerably more than it currently does. The sim developers reserve the right to charge as they see fit. Could I ask you to consider for once the feelings of those in the production of Simsig? Imagine that you take up a programming language such as C# ,delphi or any of the other fine languages out there. Now spend hundreds of hours developing a software base for your sim, which can do things like signal interlocking. realistic train physics and timetabling. Now create the data for your first sim. Gather together a band of testers you trust and give it to them to play with, break and give constructive criticism. Constantly, fix and re-issue new beta versions until you feel the time is right to release it. Get your website and hosting sorted. Take the time to deal with user's questions and problems they might be having. Now either issue an update or maybe start a new sim off or start teaching other users on how to make a sim ( a long and slow process). Can you honestly say that you could hold down a job and family commitments and do this at the same time? Would you be happy if someone attempted to undermine you in a bid to get what they wanted because their views didn't fit with yours? I don't feel that I'm exaggerating here when I say this is what you tried to do back in 2011 and have now come back to do the same. If signalling simulations are such an emotive subject to you and you can't get what you want here then why don't you start you own? (that's a serious suggestion). Could I please ask that you stop with all this negativity because it isn't doing anyone any good. Log in to reply The following users said thank you: AndyG, BarryM, DriverCurran, JamesN, guyh, andyb0607, Hooverman, derbybest, John, JDC, sandy221, UKTrainMan, meeko, crompton, Steamer, officer dibble, flabberdacks, Sam Tugwell |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 16/08/2013 at 12:09 #48482 | |
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maxand
1637 posts |
Roadrunner, I too used to be pretty vocal about what I perceived as the shortcomings of SimSig. And it's still not easy to iron out a few bugs in each sim that get in the way of making it enjoyable, particularly for new players. But value for money, SimSig still beats the rest. And there's no obligation to play in loader mode. I'm still waiting a bit longer for the loader to complete its shakedown cruise. Thank your lucky stars that the devs are still willing to talk to you and remain helpful. Is that being secretive? The bigger the sim, the longer the gestation time. Seems we're all aiming for bigger sims these days, yet the basic price remains invitingly low and I can't see it cranked up any time soon. So please put a sock in it and stay civil unless you wish to raise a specific point. I think 10-20 minutes is about right for a trial cutoff. Where do I get the latest newsletter? 
Last edited: 16/08/2013 at 12:09 by maxand Log in to reply The following users said thank you: meeko, andyb0607 |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 16/08/2013 at 15:46 #48494 | |
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Sam Tugwell
494 posts |
To put a little spin on a well known song by Whitesnake. "Here he goes again on his own!" "Signalman Exeter" Log in to reply The following user said thank you: UKTrainMan |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 16/08/2013 at 18:55 #48512 | |
Steamer
3986 posts 
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" said:" said:Just to add it will also have been e-mailed to you, using the address in your forum profile.Where do I get the latest newsletter? :)Here :) "Don't stress/ relax/ let life roll off your backs./ Except for death and paying taxes/ everything in life.../ is only for now." (Avenue Q) Log in to reply |
| Good Quality Sims But..... 16/08/2013 at 20:23 #48517 | |
northroad
872 posts |
I honestly cannot see what Roadrunner has all the problems with. Anyone can see that he frequently posts in the shout box and is always advocating that people should join his multi play sessions. He obviously enjoys Sim sig........or am I missing something........he obviously has no problems with it but finds it difficult to express himself in the correct way. Geoff Log in to reply |