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Chris,It was nice to see that you posted a few Yard Duty trains yesterday. I took care of them for ya, buddy. It's been I while since I've heard from. How do you like the progress I've made with the game? It's come a long way from that first Beta version I sent you a couple months ago! Very soon I will release a version with mainline trains (i.e. AI trains) that pass through a map using the mainline exits. It's a really cool feature. Basically you have to route the train through the map without coupling to any other train, hitting a misaligned switch, or hitting a stub end track. If you do any of these, 'crash' sound occurs and you lose all your money. Well, I guess you've been busy at Train-Artisan and working with a 'real' train simulator. haha lol. Anyway Thanks for poking your head in every onece in a while. Take it easyJim
Hi Jim,YD certainly has come a long way since we first spoke. Somethings really add to the feel of running a yard and somethings I don't like, just a little to far.I'll send you an email. Chris Lee Train Artisan
Chris,Thanks for the email. Here is my response, for everone's benefit:"...I really don't like the new money section." I had a feeling this is what you didn't like. You know, this really was sort of an afterthought, but it does serve two valable purposes. And it is definetly something that you can ignore.(unless you want to download trains.)a) Most importantly, the financial system encourages/requires people to UPLOAD trains to the server. Even more discouraging than not to be able to download a train due to lack of funds, would be to install the game and not see any trains on the server! This would be the result without the financial system, because people would download at a ratio of 10 to 1 (even me!) Uploading is a bit tedious and, to a certain degree, requires a selfless character, so I thought it would be wise to somehow encourage uploading.b) It actually teaches/informs the new user about what functionality is available in the game. That's why I make the window come up a start up. The new user says, "Oh, I'm supposed to deliver freight, repair cars, and Post trains (income) and I should (typically) avoid doing the things that have a cost." "...however I had to figure out a way to get money." New users start with an account balance of $5000 to avoid this. Maybe this isn't enough. Maybe $10,000, $20,000. I don't care. I definetly want new players to be able to download a trains, but not an unlimited amount. Anyway, you can always create your own trains if you are just interested in the challange of sorting, etc... Downloading is not the only way to get trains into a yard. "...Another suggestion would be to have a built in list of reporting marks" Actually this is already a part of the upcoming release. There is an option to assign a random reporting mark."...Here is my major question, I guess I'm missing something: (Paraphrased: How do I get more locomotives into a yard to power loose cuts of cars?)" You can create one or more 'trains' with no freight cars or caboose and 'ride' them into the yard. Once an engine is created, it remains 'in the game' forever (unless someone deletes the train file which contains it). Thanks, JimPS: Nice touch refering to Yard Duty as 'YD'.
>Chris, > >It was nice to see that you posted a few Yard Duty trains >yesterday. I took care of them for ya, buddy. It's been >I while since I've heard from. How do you like the progress >I've made with the game? It's come a long way from that >first Beta version I sent you a couple months ago! Very soon >I will release a version with mainline trains (i.e. AI >trains) that pass through a map using the mainline exits. >It's a really cool feature. ">Basically you have to route the >train through the map without coupling to any other train, >hitting a misaligned switch, or hitting a stub end track. If >you do any of these, 'crash' sound occurs and you lose all >your money. "
I think this would not be very good.. Does a real railway lose all it's money for a crash, "NO" I think you should loss a % of your money say like 10%. I think that would be fair. >Well, I guess you've been busy at Train-Artisan and working >with a 'real' train simulator. haha lol. Anyway Thanks for >poking your head in every onece in a while. Take it easy > >Jim
