So what to do next...?

[Barry]

Vista made the Scenery Designer unusable and with no "fix", decided to put that in the bin together with the Sailing Simulator.
The Sailing Simulator locked up when changing settings.
I think when it was made c 2002 routes were limited to about 30 miles and as most my routes were about 60 miles or more each perhaps that was the cause.

Also decided to put the Motorboat Simulator in the bin as little more I can do with it.
It worked well enough but motoring a single boat on my own routes in the UK series does tend to get a bit boring after a few years!

So we have the sailing, motorboat and scenery designer forums but with next to no discussion for a few years bit pointless even looking at them anymore at present.

Finally the sailing simualator 5 which is under development, but with no new projected realease date at present and other priorities seem to take over at intervals, possibly causing more delays, etc. Maybe this year...maybe next...or....

So for now will go back and have a look at the Trainz simulator as development has resumed for another 2 versions, 2009, 2010. Classics 3 also has just been released.
Although a train simulator boats on invisible fixed track are possible and have made several narrow boats and barges and sailing ships plus canals.
Working ship locks and dry docks have been made for it by a Trainz forum member, and have made items for it, using the same blend files via dxf and gmax, for sceneries, as I used in the sail and motorboat simulator.
Also now looking at the trainz exporter for blend files to im files being worked on by a forum member.

Perhaps Stentec could produce an exporter for Blender so that animation would work via the obj file.
It probably would now but I don't know eough about it to set animation up correctly, as it has many different functions and equal to professional content creator programs

Sailsimulator 5, if it is finished, sounds as if it will have interesting possibilities, but the wait and see game is getting very tiresome as has stretched over several years, not just the last 18 months.

Barry

[Jan]

Hi Barry,

every 2 or 3 weeks i'm looking here and on the official stentec site and hoping for some news.
I think this will be one of my last visits, because i am too disappointed to wait much longer.
If stentec only would come with a ship designer or a scenery designer so that it is possible to make some ships or sceneries in advantage.
There were some good people like you, making very nice sceneries.
Something stentec wasn't able to.

Maybe we'll read in future or maybe not.
We will see

Bye

Jan

[Barry]

Hi Barry,

every 2 or 3 weeks i'm looking here and on the official stentec site and hoping for some news.
I think this will be one of my last visits, because i am too disappointed to wait much longer.
If stentec only would come with a ship designer or a scenery designer so that it is possible to make some ships or sceneries in advantage.
There were some good people like you, making very nice sceneries.
Something stentec wasn't able to.

Maybe we'll read in future or maybe not.
We will see

Bye

Jan

Hello Jan nice to read your post.
Just a pity that Stentec left things so long as been a few years now and most people have long since drifted away from the forum even though SS5 is under development.
Maybe Stentec have got their priorities quite a bit wrong.

Barry

[ajnasreddin]

I got a copy of Ship Simulator to tie me over. The missions give an interesting dimension to the game with the ability to build up rank.

Still, SS5 sounds like it'll be good when it does come out. I'll be looking for it in the shops.

[Barry]

Hello AJ I got the first version 2006 when it came out but with no scenery designer or ship designer forecast for the future lost interest.
I think they were originally going to work on a ship designer but possibly became too complex for a plug in.
But if I see it in shops will probably but a copy of 2008.
Less shops seem to stock games now.

Perhaps Stentec will start releasing more info re SS5 but not knowing if possibly next year or whenever makes you lose interest.

Barry

P.S Stentec what's happening.

[ajnasreddin]

Hey Barry -

Ship Simulator is less flexible about user addons than SS or MS, but it is a bit better in that there are other boats and ships moving about and fairly good detailed scenes. Although the scenes are limited to about a half a dozen, they are large with good detail. There are also missions which add up a players ranking. A water taxi mission in the San Francisco Bay took well over an hour to finish. The Rotterdam port is also quite nice. For the UK, there is the Solent and Padstow. I picked it up mostly because I wanted to try my hand at some of the really big ships - the container vessal and the oil tanker. The nice thing is the ability to move around the ship - to a limited extent.

Before you buy a copy though, check to make sure it's the lastest version. The first version I bought didn't allow you to save in the mission, among other things. The New Horizons add-on fixed all that for me (which I bought for the extra ships). Still, I personally don't like products that are "half" done. Check out the website - I think there are patches for most of the issues. Adding the extra ships will cost you, of course.

I'm looking forward to the ship design in SS5. Sailing about is fun, but I really like trying to design boats. I got into designing model boats as a kid - and I still like trying to do it without a computer when I have time. I still wish I could have built a full size version of what I considered my "perfect" design. Maybe now I could sail it on the computer - just have to remeber where I put those plans!

[Barry]

Hi AJ I called in PC World yesterday and I noticed they had just on copy of 2008 so got it.
I know about the add-on but just not much interest in it.
I worked through about half the missions in 2006 edition but found them boring after that and dumped the disc a year or so ago.
Tried 1 or 2 in this one. I did set up a few scenes for myself in the 2006 version as you could place moving and static boats, etc, but still not for me as no interest in this type of simulator .

Barry