Oh. Man. A new sim from VSTEP. I remember playing both SS2008 and SSE, but was never truly satisfied. Don't get me wrong, these are some great products, but there was just something missing, something I can't put my finger on...
Oh, wait, that's right: add-ons.
And by add-ons, I don't mean paid DLC or user-made missions. I mean things like new ships, new environments, new ways to play.
For example: who here has heard of the show TUGS? It was made by the same crew of Thomas & Friends in 1988, and involved two rival tugboat fleets competing for contracts in a pastiche of 1920s New York known as Bigg City Port. The show mainly focused on the tugboat characters, but also had a wide variety of other vessels, such as ocean liners, trampers, schooners, a submarine, a lightship, barges, cranes both floating and landlocked, a ferry, shrimpers, buoys, a seaplane, among many others. It only lasted for thirteen episodes thanks to TVS going bankrupt (before Sodor Island Fansite started doing intense research and interviewing those involved with the show, it was commonly believed Britt Allcroft, who was showrunner for Thomas' first five seasons, had demanded its cancellation for being too similar to Thomas, when in truth, she actually rescued quite a few of the models used in TUGS, one of whom, Big Mickey the hammerhead crane, began speaking in Thomas' 21st season). With user-made content, we can have ALL of this, and not rely on what few TUGS models have been made for N3Vs Trainz Simulator (of which I'm an avid user).
Other user-made content could be simpler things, like other vessels such as additional cruise ships, container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, tugboats, ocean liners, ferries, racing boats, warships, and others, environments like Los Angeles, San Diego, Monterey Bay (possibly as an addition to San Francisco since they're so close together), Hawaii, Tokyo Bay, the Rhine River, Shanghai (the busiest container port in the world), Halifax (setting of TUGS' spiritual successor, Theodore Tugboat), Southampton etc., and things that modify the game, such as changes to physics, graphical enhancements or changes, and a weapon system that allows warships to shoot and sink each other and other ships (I see many multiplayer servers dedicated specifically to warship combat, as well as trolls using said warships to sink players using unarmed vessels, which would require said players to convoy up).
I see alot of potential with NAUTIS Home. If VSTEP plays their cards right, they can blow SSE out of the water (pun entirely intended) and create the ultimate ship simulator.
