Train Simulator vs. Trainz

[CPSK]

Hi;
I have been a loyal Trainz gamer, starting with the original, upgrading to TS2004, 2006, and finally 2009 WBE.
I have enjoyed Trainz immensely, but starting to get a little frustrated by Auran's "outages", where you cannot download (or upload) anything, and sometimes TS itself freezed on startup during these times.
I am also a bit disappointed by the fact that a lot of the content for Trainz is foreign (to the U.S.), and a lot is also named in German, so I don't really know what I am looking for.

Today, I decided to order Train Simulator from Amazon.com. The cost (incl shipping) is only about $14, so I figured what the hell.
Can anyone tell me what I should expect from Train Simulator vs Trainz?
It looks like there isn't all that much activity in the Train Simulator forums, where the Trainz forums are quite busy.

Maybe someone can tell me where to find more U.S. content for Trainz.

Thanks

FW

[CNJGeep]

www.train-sim.com should be able to help you out.

[Montrealrail]

If you want to compare TraniZ and MSTS,there's a big diffrerence betwen thems..

For TrainZ 2004 to 2009..High graphics quality,easy to drive and building a route,but,almost no free ad-ons and the route is very limited,If you want to built one,you don't have the choice of the aspect of the route,cause the Quad-Tree is too small to start builtding a route,That's why I trow it back when I made a try with this games..also use more memory each time..

With MSTS,it's the old graphic plat-form to run the game,but,you have a very big choice of the free routes add-ons and free trains add-on,also a big bunch of activity are avaiable on almost every kind of MSTS site.dot not consume a lot of memory and it's very easy to modelise a new route object or a new train,easy to do for a reskin etc..for route building,you have to be pateint and the skill level to builtduing a route is higher than Auran TrainZ..

if you using MSTS with all the utilitarys and tool available almost everywhere(Xtrack 3,19 NewRoad 4,2 are the most important,to get a Tsection on date..and also,Microsoft released an official upgrade for MSTS and you can use with it the MSTSBinpatch,that let you the way to canhge of driving cabin,or to run a route with more routes objects,and a sound improvement too,with much more avantages..

so,if you want to get a big list of free routes for MSTS,je look on my blog,where I ressembling all the free stuff for MSTS with the links to download them..
http://mstsauquebec.oldiblog.com/

scroll the page down and you will see few hundreds of free routes for MSTS,iyt's the most complete list of free MSTS route on the net...just have a look and you will see more than 500 free routes for MSTS and also,many tousnand of free rolling stock for it..including millions of routes object to add on a new route..

[RedLantern]

Does the new MSTS have an AI function like Trainz? I used the original MSTS before I got into Trainz, and I was blown away by the way that the AI system in trainz allows you to let trains run by themselves and they will follow all signals and speed limits, where in MSTS they only ran short distances so you could have other trains pass you while operating one.

I like the ease of use as far as route creation in Trainz. While I know that the route creation tools in MSTS require more skill and practice, is the end result much different? I'm completely satisfied with the realism in my TS2009 routes, but I'm wondering if MSTS has anything (aside from free content) that would make me want to switch over?

[taoyue]

RedLantern, you are apparently unaware that there is no new Train Simulator. The entire development team for Train Simulator 2 (the second attempt) was axed in the Microsoft layoffs five months ago. Not only that, but the parent organization (Aces Studio, which does) was also completely eliminated. It was sudden and devastating; there was no warning until the news reports broke it.

What you're buying is the original Train Simulator, that came out in 2001 and that you've already used in the past. Although its title is still "Microsoft Train Simulator," there is now nobody related to the game at Microsoft. Microsoft didn't write it, and Microsoft doesn't even publish it anymore -- it's been sold off to Atari for the bargain bin.

That having been said, there are still lots of people using it. The routes and addons that have been built up over the last eight years are a tremendous resource. But since you preferred Trainz the first time around, I doubt you'll find it to your liking this time around.

Tough luck, but that's life.

[RedLantern]

RedLantern, you are apparently unaware that there is no new Train Simulator. The entire development team for Train Simulator 2 (the second attempt) was axed in the Microsoft layoffs five months ago. Not only that, but the parent organization (Aces Studio, which does) was also completely eliminated. It was sudden and devastating; there was no warning until the news reports broke it.

What you're buying is the original Train Simulator, that came out in 2001 and that you've already used in the past. Although its title is still "Microsoft Train Simulator," there is now nobody related to the game at Microsoft. Microsoft didn't write it, and Microsoft doesn't even publish it anymore -- it's been sold off to Atari for the bargain bin.

That having been said, there are still lots of people using it. The routes and addons that have been built up over the last eight years are a tremendous resource. But since you preferred Trainz the first time around, I doubt you'll find it to your liking this time around.

Tough luck, but that's life.

Actually I found that out not long after making that post but forgot to edit/delete the post. So I guess there's one more positive to Trainz, the fact that it's still being updated.

[CPSK]

I was impressed by the graphic quality, frame rate, and sound effects in RailSim, but never got around to trying to build my own route. It seemed a bit awkward compared to TS2006 and 2009.
I have not run MSTS for a long time; don't even have it installed on my system anymore.

As for free content; TS2004 and up has more free content than any other sim, but routes are a different story. There are not many fully functional / textured routes in TS2004 DLS.
That said, I have always been a surveyor/route builder so I have the most fun building my own.

CPSK

[kalvingp30fan]

I just reinstalled MSTS on my comptuer and I was looking at some of the sites and compared to TS2004 there is alot more variety with locomotives and cars.

[JackRussell]

I was impressed by the graphic quality, frame rate, and sound effects in RailSim, but never got around to trying to build my own route. It seemed a bit awkward compared to TS2006 and 2009.

For what it is worth, I have been playing with RailWorks (the follow-on product to "Rail Simulator"). The graphics are pretty good, and while it is sort of UK-centric, it did come with a BNSF pack that includes the Cajon pass route. But I have been playing with my own route. Which reminds me - I need to fire it up as I found a reskinned Great Northern F7 that I was able to download, and I need to check it out and take it for a spin . Someone out there has an Amtrak F40PH - I got it installed, but the controls don't operate for me so I can't drive it anywhere.

I need to be careful when playing with it though - if my wife sees me at it she teases me mercilessly. And it isn't like I can play when I am at the office either.

The disadvantage of this one is that there is a whole lot less content out there that you can download. There is a definite learning curve to laying out track and all that, but there are videos you can watch that explain a lot of the basics..