by CaseyJones » Fri May 04, 2012 1:17 pm
Hi everyone!
I've just joined this forum and I thought it'd be polite to introduce myself, and I figure this particular thread would be the best place to do it.
My actual name is Breno and I was born, raised and always lived in Brazil. Perhaps that's the main reason why I'm so fascinated about railroad transportation - because there's virtually none around here. I've picked this moniker because the song "Casey Jones" by The Grateful Dead combine two of things I like most: trains and... classic rock. I'll be 30 by the end of this year, and I work from home as a consultant on international trade, as well as several different jobs. I participated on the past as a member and, at times, as administrator, on two online communities dedicated to games. One was dedicated to GTA-SAMP:RP, or Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Multiplayer Roleplay. The other was Trackmania Nations. Both gaming communities relied heavily on modding and "unofficial" community engagement to keep an interesting product for everyone to enjoy. I believe that's the case with Railroad Tycoon 3 and Trainmaster.
I've just spent the last 2 weeks playing RT3 and acquainting myself again with the whole railroad gaming scenario, and as I understand, RT3 and Microsoft Train Simulator are pretty much everything we've got. Trainmaster is an amazing effort and I thank you all for it, I'm dying to try it more and install all new maps and stuff.
For now I'd just like to gauge the Hawk & Badger's community level of engagement, availability and commitment. I reckon I'm not the only one in this big world of ours willing to spend some free time coding, modding, mapping, or what's more important - documenting, making clear tutorials, organising, discussing and bringing together ideas and motivation to test, play and develop RT3. In these past 2 weeks, I've spent about 60% of the time dealing with installation issues and the rest playing. All the great railroad systems I've put up along the way and that I planned to improve, are lost. Now I realise it was all much simpler than I was making it.
I plan to post here soon (with your kind permission) a quick step-by-step on how to install RT3, Trainmaster, NO-CD patches, 1.05 and 1.06. That shall also contain links for all up-to-date available links around for necessary files, so one can play with the best available set from the start. I'm not sure if RT3's developer still holds a license and plans to develop new editions, but we're not hacking a game for profit, we're modding it to improve it.
In all communities, we need people willing to keep things organised and in place so the best information is easily visible for potential new members, and that important discussions are held in different parts of the community. We also need to have topics explaining on clear language every possible doubt any RT3 player can possibly have, or lead them to a place where they can promptly engage on a discussion on how to solve his or her problem. If we have some people willing to do just that, we can have people that enjoy coding and modding focusing on just that, too. That way, we can bring more and better updates to the TM set and in turn engage scenario and campaign makers. As often happens with all communities, our biggest limitation will always be how many people there are out there willing to help just a bit.
So, what do you tell me? How many people out there can code, mod, make maps, scenarios, tutorials, moderate, or just heavy-test new stuff for bugs? If a lot of people do just a little, I'm sure we can get something going on the long run.
Off to play TM!