i,m a big fan of trainsim and know this game since years. its an amazing story. the original package was not really pretty good and also bugged. but microsoft allowed for trainsim that 3rd party companies can develop addons for it. simulatany the programm code was designed that also the community can develop. this was a big benefit for all sides. other companies earned money with the addons, microsoft by itelf earned money becuase they sold the basic package. for any addon you of course need the basic game, and so trainsim still is sold in the game stores- and we talk about a game release of 2001!!!! microsoft got big improvements and so the interest of the people for this game absolutely for free without any development costs!
its fantastic what especially freeware has done. today the best routes and the best locomotives are offered freeware. we have with msts bin features in the game microsoft in 2001 not even thought about. we have tons of editors improving the realizm and ONLY because of this we have a product up to date what has been released on 2001 und otherwise nobody would even think about.
unfortunetly vstep does not allow such a story. the game is blocked for freeware developers and also independent 3rd party companies. and since vstep by itself never will be able to improve the basic package this way (and the thruth is even microsoft did not this) this package now start to loose its fans and will dramatically in future.
we are stucked here to the original basic package and thats it. it will be soon the same fun gaming shipsim like it would be gaming trainsim with ONLY the original basic trains and the basic routes.
best regards
Virtual Sailor got the same concept somehow. But I have not seen any great "revolution" in development of freeware or pay ware for this game. Maybe it had something to do with the community they have where some members have VERY strong opinions when it comes to pay ware. I did make one pay ware for the game and that's all. I,m really sick and tired of trying to make add-ons up to some kind of "pay ware level" where the graphics at least look good. Most of the add-ons made for VS today is still cheap poor graphics and it's a quantity over quality culture that have been there for a long time. Also to made very special great graphical add-ons is very challenging and time-consuming which someone probably find very boring at the end when they have spent 5 months or so completely on making one add-on. Boats and ships are actually a lot more complicated to design because they can have several decks and several tiny details. It may take working days to make such stuff.
Anyway I was probably one of the first on this forum that was fighting to get the same stuff for Ship Simulator like VS, but the answer was NO (and it still will be). Actually VSTEP is opening for add-ons but they prefer to review them first and cooperate with the developer to get it into the game. It's some kind of "quality control" or a gate you have to pass to get your add-ons into this game. I actually like that or we would maybe end up with 100s of creepy add-ons that none would hardly download at all. Besides of that VS add-on developers don't care 1% about copyrights. They just add a ship owners logo to the funnel without asking or get some kind of permission. That cud cause trouble for VSTEP.
The other thing is add-on piracy and infringement/violation of authors original work. I bet that you find a lot of pay ware add-ons for FS on torrent sites and stuff like that. Google is their best friend (when you take a search).
I don't really think that we would see many new add-ons for Ship Simulator if they did open the game a lot more. How many add-on developers is actually providing VSTEP with new ship/boats today? Probably not more than 5...Besides of that there is also limited on who can make such 3D models depending on the software. I prefer professional add-on developers rather than cheap wannabes. Besides I know what kind of work that is involved. Those who don't understand that will never understand it.
Besides (3rd time I use that word) some have very ambitious projects when they are beginners. Someone even want or is actually stating straight that they will make "Freedom of the Seas". Yes they will probably make it...but will it look like it? I'm afraid not... Leave it to the professionals. At least they know what work is involved and have several completed projects that they can show-off. We have seen GOAX and what he can do. That's the kind of add-on developer I will pay money for, not some cheap crappy stuff released with enormous big words.
