About LOTUS and It being the Sequel of OMSI 2

[lacivert]

Before i downloaded LOTUS I was pretty neutral about it, i just didn't understood why people gave such negative reviews for it (about %50 is positive, which is pretty bad as y'all know). Then i bought it, downloaded it, and launched it; a rectangular boot screen with LOTUS Simulator logo saying "Loading GUI..." etc. appeared for few seconds, then my screen went black for few seconds and game shut itself with AMD saying it's a driver timeout!

I then wrote this to the LOTUS official site forum to make them realise that it's a bug (they say developers don't check steam forum, so i went to the site forum) and a guy looks entitled wrote that i should downgrade my driver. So it hit me that even OMSI 2 that is 9 years old works with no problems at all (most of the time :D) and it's sequel that is released four years later can't even boot up. So i refunded it thinking i won't be back to it for a while that it will take them to fix this problem without me downgrading my drivers (which is not good for any other application on my PC).

So what do y'all think about LOTUS? Any good or bad experiences? And Do y'all think there will be a better sequel for OMSI 2 something like OMSI 3?

[Biffer]

Sadly, I doubt if there will ever be an OMSI 3. The developer of LOTUS still holds the rights to OMSI and, AFAIK, will not give permission for anyone else to upgrade/develop the software. Folks on here have been asking much the same question as yourself for years (and getting much the same answer ) So, it would be a miracle to ever see a 64-bit version, let alone a complete upgrade to v.3.

I realise this is not the reply you were hoping for ... but at least, it's a reply .

[lacivert]

Well i am aware that it is mostly not possible. Same goes for Spintires 2 or Mudrunner 2 i am dreaming off. But the thing is there is nothing better than an OMSI 2 gameplay when it comes to realism because almost every bus simulator is just bright polished simplistic nonsense. Same goes for Offroad games, nothing beats a Spintires gameplay thanks to it's highly detailed mud physics.

Train communities are lucky with games like Derail Valley developed by small teams, providing VERY detailed gameplay and it is still on development. Meanwhile, OMSI 2 is just a lost cause and Mudrunner is left out because of Snowrunner's cash making abillities.

I believe OMSI 2 and Spintires/Mudrunner can have literally hit sequels, the thing they need is legal rights and some developer motivation.

[iomex]

Unfortunately, people keep giving Astragon money to churn out their endless supply of bloom simulators. They've got the market cornered right now.

[Bobby]

Same goes for TML: The Bus,Fernbus,Tourist Bus. Horrendous support. Nothing on forums here, closed their own help forums and moved is to Disgust..sorry, Discord.

Just abysmal. Email them they'l just palm you off to that channel and read all the bloat under the sun -like the leaked security files were Discord, says enough.

There's a few heads needing knocked together with the OMSI2 brothers,TML just plain lazy and the same for LOTUS. None of them quite frankly give a damn! updates are like 6months, a year or more and very little enthusiasm.
They are such a niche market and it clearly shows with the lack of development.
Though the forum 'guard dogs' will bark otherwise and anything that's typed on Discord,blogs etc is an 'advancement' in their eyes, so expect vitriol back in your face.

Me? I'm never going to LOTUS or The Bus while OMSI2 gives me absolute tons of pleasure in my 191 buses and probably hundreds of routes i can drive inc free maps/buses.

I'm and old skool PC gamer that played through the VGA days. Quality means more to me than what an RTX 4090 can produce.

[lacivert]

Update about the LOTUS Forum thread:
They actually managed to allow the posting of my semi-negative comment and reply to it (It's not like Steam, they choose to post my comment). I talked about this bug that literally doesn't allow me to play the game getting fixed at any update and they reply LOTUS having a DirectX update soon, looks like the last update was at 12st July 2022, so i am planning to not re-buy it until the DirectX update comes out, i am still not certain about buying it since probably some other bug will show itself after i start to play it. It seems not very stable.

[lacivert]

Also they didn't choose to post my a bit more negative comment (without insults though) including "i'd rather play OMSI 2" lol

[milosh-96]

It's an EA game, means it's not completed and it's too early to judge. I bought the Streets specifically because I wanted to (and currently) develop a few maps. In other words, I bought it to have access to the editor and other tools. Now, I played a little actual bus simulation and I can tell you Lotus will be huge once polished and finished and once more content is released (buses, maps...).

The driving is much better and you can actually "feel the road". Simply, roads aren't flat so the bus behaves more like in real life. And, the whole map making process is designed so terrain is in charge of everything, and everything adjusts to it. But, the game isn't finished thus the EA state.

[lacivert]

I like the concept of LOTUS, i really do.

But first of all, many people don't like it; about %50 positivity is less than NFS Unbound (which has %63) and those are not "i hate it, that's all" kinda reviews, people really state the problems with the game. And as i said it on this thread, i liked the game. Since i like OMSI 2 and LOTUS being advertised on OMSI's bus stops, i knew i'd like it.

But they just didn't updated the game to add DirectX, so i can't access it at all! Game just refuses to get me to the main menu! That's a very big mistake for a large enough game like LOTUS, and a big popularity block for them too (LOTUS while being a 4 year old game, still not popular than most of the 4 year old games). So any AMD GPU user over version 22.5.1 isn't able to play the game. So you are killing almost half of your playerbase with that and the ones who play it complain bugs and problems on YouTube.

Content like buses and maps might be an EA excuse but in my opinion not making a DirectX update (thus kicking most of your players out of the game for a while) is not a big excuse for the game being in EA. Their last update was in July 2022, hope their next update contains half a year worth content (which i am not very hopeful for).

[Stringbean]

Originally posted by lazersynth:

Also they didn't choose to post my a bit more negative comment (without insults though) including "i'd rather play OMSI 2" lol

I was actually banned on the LOTUS Steam forum pages about two years ago because of my negative comments about the way things were progressing. I purchased it from release day and it was the biggest mistake I did with them.

LOTUS is just a pet project that I personally believe will never come to it's full realisation. It was just too ambitious from the outset. It got so bad that a couple of Devs left to form their own company that gave us TramSim.

[lacivert]

It's sad how OMSI 2 turned out to be an outdated (but still more playable than LOTUS lol) 3rd party DLC (which are only not-tested-enough mods) game without any more content or bug fixes.

It might've turned out to be a better game with more content and bug fixes, maybe OMSI 3 might've came out by now if the team wasn't separated (?).

I'm a big simulation game fan but i don't have interest towards railway simulations (which gets most of the credits) and seeing the pioneers of road vehicle simulations like OMSI 2 getting slowly obsolete because of no updates or worthy sequels is just sad.

[Stringbean]

Originally posted by lazersynth:

I'm a big simulation game fan but i don't have interest towards railway simulations (which gets most of the credits) and seeing the pioneers of road vehicle simulations like OMSI 2 getting slowly obsolete because of no updates or worthy sequels is just sad.

I recently purchased SimRail. It has multiplayer, you can be either a driver or despatcher. It has 1.1 scale map of a real line in Poland with more added routes for the UK, Germany and the USA coming soon. The physics are excellent. SimRail is still in Early Access.

The reason I mention SimRail is because the same developers are producing another simulator called, Simbus, but no sign of a release date yet. Now if SimBus gets the same treatment as SimRail does, then just maybe that could be our next OMSI but we'll just have to wait and see.

[Bobby]

Originally posted by Stringbean:

Originally posted by lazersynth:

I'm a big simulation game fan but i don't have interest towards railway simulations (which gets most of the credits) and seeing the pioneers of road vehicle simulations like OMSI 2 getting slowly obsolete because of no updates or worthy sequels is just sad.

I recently purchased SimRail. It has multiplayer, you can be either a driver or despatcher. It has 1.1 scale map of a real line in Poland with more added routes for the UK, Germany and the USA coming soon. The physics are excellent. SimRail is still in Early Access.

The reason I mention SimRail is because the same developers are producing another simulator called, Simbus, but no sign of a release date yet. Now if SimBus gets the same treatment as SimRail does, then just maybe that could be our next OMSI but we'll just have to wait and see.

And in the meantime, Stringbean, you will continue your delve into an OMSI2 map -tutorial- and keep us young!

[Stringbean]

Originally posted by Bobby:

And in the meantime, Stringbean, you will continue your delve into an OMSI2 map -tutorial- and keep us young!

haha,..yes, absolutely.

[Bobby]

In the meantime, here’s some of our fav bus pinups! https://youtu.be/RXjwnwU8Wxs

[lacivert]

Originally posted by Stringbean:

The reason I mention SimRail is because the same developers are producing another simulator called, Simbus, but no sign of a release date yet. Now if SimBus gets the same treatment as SimRail does, then just maybe that could be our next OMSI but we'll just have to wait and see.

Oh yes, i've discovered that game while searching other road simulators. But i am not looking forward to it that much since it's trailer shows it like it's another competitor for OMSI that is a simplistic game with uselessly polished graphics, All of the OMSI's competitors are like that. (I like the scene concept they go with though, like you can select between Soviet, US and Europe timelines it looks like)

SimRail team might be skilled enough to make a good railway game but i am not very sure about how they go with SimBus (OMSI's team nearly managed to make a tram game for example). If it will be good enough i might check it though :D