Have things changed with the 3rd party content?

[horsebrackets]

I bought this game wayy back in like 2004 or something & had a terrible experience. There was little to no first-party content, the bulk of the game was in the third-party content... which all costed money. So, you'd buy someones 3rd party content, a track or something, but it would have some dependency with some other 3rd party content, so you'd buy that, a building or something, & then there'd be some other dependency you have to buy. Round and round in circles.

It was ridiculous. I think i ended up paying over $50 for 3rd party crap that I never was able to get working.

If you'll pardon the pun, the game was a train wreck, it had this large & very active community of modders with what looked like good quality mods, but a lot of them seemed like they decided to make a career out of it & were going to get rich quick selling endless repaints of the same assets.

I frequently use Trainz as an example of how paid mods can just flat ruin a game. Which is a shame.. it looks like it could be a decent game otherwise.

Does it still work like that? Is the game still empty until you shell out hundreds of dollars to 3rd party modders who game the system in an attempt to squeeze out all your money?

[dbwhip42]

In fairness it is not as bad as that ...but yes the business model is exploitive. There are some sessions that come "stock" but most of it is third party and quality control of that third party product is hit and miss. That's the issue for me...software does not deliver for the price point. I am on a Mac and that may contribute to some of my issues (in which case the company should not offer it for Mac if it is not fully functional on Mac) I played 5 sessions on TRANE and two of them could not be completed due to missing elements....third party routes. I wont buy another route for 2019 because the same 3rd party provider concept is used. Bottom Line: Fifteen years later and your assesment is about spot on. At least they are consistent. ...OK, it is as bad as that.