General News
Content releases, etc. |
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15th February 2011
Well, it seems that free access to the DLS is a thing of the past, at least for now. The lack of free connections has been almost continuous for the past few months. This has led me, like many others, to purchase a First Class Ticket from Auran. You can't really grumble at the price of £16 for a year (less than 5p a day!), especially as it gives you any-time access and with much faster download speeds. So long as you activate your ticket and reset your password in your Planet Auran profile, the ticket should be available for use straight away.
Staying with the DLS, a major clean-up exercise is underway, although as is often the way with Auran, the actual work is being done by the user community. Items that throw up errors in the newest versions of Trainz are being identified and the creators contacted to ask them to upload updated versions. Interestingly, if the original creator does not do so within 8 weeks, the item is then made available for anyone to update. Updated items then appear on the DLS under their original creator's name, making it look like some of the long-lost names of the community have resurfaced! I got an automatic e-mail about some of my earliest content. However, as the items in question are actually now built-in to TRS2009 and 2010, I'm not sure how I can test or update them! I guess I'll leave it to someone else.
As well as an FCT, I finally purchased TS2010EE. It installed fine but runs very slow on my PC (which is admittedly 5 years old). My first reaction to the SpeedTrees feature was very negative, so I will probably stick with 2009 until I can get a new PC.
Of the items listed as new additions last time, the quality varies quite a bit. I had provided some help to Class1987 on his IEA and IOA open wagons. They do have a few problems but they are pretty good for a beginner and he has lots of other wagons in development. One to watch. Greeni and tmz06003 are the current masters of UK wagon building, Greeni's OBA in particular being an amazing model with a great selection of loads. TRAMP is coming on well too, his FCAs being on a par with Eldavo's original models. |
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25th January 2011
Given that my last update was about 5 months ago, it is not surprising that quite a lot has happened since. First and foremost, Auran is now following a 4-year product cycle with Trainz. In line with this, versions older than 2006 are no longer supported. What this means in reality is that all uploads to the DLS have to be compatible with at least TC1/2/3 (although this appears to have had fewer implications for content creators than I thought - I will be looking more into this shortly). Perhaps more significantly, free access to the DLS is now only available to people who have registered a version of Trainz newer than 2006.
Having said that, the DLS has been suffering almost constantly recently with a shortage of available connections, thus preventing people from downloading content. This is apparently due to the increasing popularity of the game, but it can be frustrating, as seen in many posts on the Auran forum. Downloading at certains times of the day has been mentioned as one solution, but is obviously of little use to most people. The purchase of a First Class Ticket will supposedly guarantee connections (and faster downloads), and will also help Auran to fund future developments. Whether the pricing for these is reasonable (currently equating to £77 for 'life', £16 for a year or fractions of this for shorter periods) will depend on individual's resources and attitudes.
An unconnected event was the closure of the UKTrainz forum, following a major database failure. This forum was always very informative and entertaining, and it's members helped me (and many others) with numerous questions about content creation. Many of the members will continue to post on the main Auran forum, but the UK posts do tend to get lost amongst all the international content there. Reviewing the links section on this site is yet another task to add to my to-do list!
Recent additions to the DLS in terms of wagons include IEA and IOA bogie ballast wagons by newcomer class1987 (author ID 366023), air-braked opens of types OAA, OBA, OCA and SPA by Greeni (along with a range of Conflats and derived match wagons) (174088), a PAB lime hopper and Shark ballast brake van by tmz06003/Greeni (283805) and an FCA container wagon and YDA skip carrier by TRAMP (75810). There are also numerous updated versions, particularly from JohnWhelan (86627). Unfortunately the DLS server connection limitations (mentioned above) have so far prevented me from downloaded any of these! |
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Site News
Latest additions and changes to LTSV Trainz |
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9th February 2013
Owing to some recent spam problems, I have temporarily removed the feedback function from these pages. You can still e-mail me at tom (at) ltsv.com
Work on the new version of this site is proceeding slowly and I hope to be able to make an announcement soon. |
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4th October 2012
Announcement regarding this website
As will be apparent, I have not made any updates to this website in almost 2 years. The issue is a lack of free-time; work, child care, plus the need to keep my primary website (London Transport Service Vehicles) updated with a lot of new and historical information means I have no time left over for anything else. I don't think I have even "played" Trainz in the past year.
I do hope to come back to this at some point in the future, and I have some big plans for improvements to the site. However, for the time being, this pages will be left as they are. Visitors using the catalogue to find wagon models should be aware that there will therefore be lots of new and updated models that are not shown. |
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15th February 2011
Once I got my FCT I was able to download (very rapidly!) all the new content I mentioned last time. These have been added to the catalogue pages. Given the number of items being updated, I may drop the DLS links in future. It is easy enough to look up an item if you have the name and KUID. I will however retain a flag to say whether the item is on the DLS or not. |
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25th January 2011
Apologies for the lack of updates over the past few months. I have finally got around to adding the items downloaded last July, but there has been no progress on my own projects. I haven't lost interest in Trainz, I just don't have any free time at present. The items added to the catalogue include just three wholly new models (the Grampus ballast wagon, OTA-A timber carrier and the Lowmac EP), the remainder being reskins and reliveries. There have also been lots of updated versions of existing items, usually with no visible differences. I haven't bothered adding the new dates and links to the catalogue just yet as a DLS link to an outdated item will usually tell you that a newer version is available. The new catalogue markers (for animation, Trainz version and my star rating) have been added to all the new items but there are still a large number of existing items waiting for these enhancements. |
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