Trainz November Newsletter

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Beta Testing Success

A huge thanks goes out to over 1,000 Beta Testers who participated in the Trainz W2009 World Builder Edition Beta. Your efforts have not only ensured that we've found and squashed dozens of new bugs but we've also got a great list of feature requests as well :-)

We have greatly improved the Vista installer, fixed all the known crashes and made some good improvements to AI and asset management. Over at www.TrainzDev.com there's a detailed list of the issues that have been fixed in the release build.

World Builder Edition Tutorials

World Builder Edition is both the newest and biggest release ever of Trainz. It contains over 12,500 items including 40 Routes with over 100 Sessions. There are also more than 400 locomotives and over 600 freight wagons and passenger cars.

Of course with thousands of items, finding what you are looking for requires powerful search tools. TS2009 includes an updated Content Search Filter both in game and in Content Manager V2.0. We've prepared a short Tutorial at www.ts2009.com/tutorial that will help you learn more about the search functions.

Release Candidate Testing

After years of evolution and many months of development focused on World Builder Edition we reached our Alpha milestone in June. With the help of hundreds of content creators at TrainzDev.com and with 12 weeks more coding and internal testing we then reached Beta. Now, after 3 weeks of external Beta, Trainz 2009 is finally ready for the last phase of testing prior to release.

We have reached our Beta 2 milestone which means we are one step closer to our Gold Master Candidate. As a sign of appreciation, we have notified over two hundred people who have been most actively involved in either TrainzDev.com or through Beta testing phase to participate in Beta 2.

For those of you who miss out on an invitation to this final testing please don't worry. You'll be able to download the full version as soon as November 26. We are already confident that this is the best ever version of Trainz but this final phase will ensure that we've squashed the last remaining serious bugs prior to release.

Service Pack 1

Whilst we have been putting the finishing touches to the Release Candidate, we have already been busy fixing dozens more bugs and adding more features in our "internal" branch. These additional fixes will be released in Service Pack 1 in the coming weeks. This process will ensure that the release build is as stable as it can possibly be and that we also have time to carry out sufficient testing prior to releasing the next set of updates.

We are committed to supporting Trainz as long as we are supported by you, our customers. We believe regular Service Packs are the best way of making sure that we continue to improve Trainz on an ongoing basis.

Less than one week remaining for Pre-orders

In preparation for release, pre-orders will finish on November 25 at 10am GMT.

To qualify for your 20% discount on Trainz Engineers Edition plus 60% off Railroad Lines, Bus Driver or Ship Simulator, you need to order before the cut-off date. We accept Mastercard, Visa, Amex and of course Paypal. Through Paypal you can even transfer money directly from your own bank. Visit www.paypal.com for more information.

You can choose to order either the Digital Download or the DVD version. Digital Downloads will be available from late November and the DVD version will begin shipping in December.

Fax Orders & Money Orders

If you don't have a credit card or prefer to use trusty old mail or fax, simply click on this link to the Trainz 2009 order form. Print out the form, and follow the instructions to either fax or mail the order form to us. You can only order the DVD version using this form.

Already Pre-ordered?

For those of you who have already pre-ordered, your will be notified by email when your digital download is ready or when your DVD has been shipped. Your beta edition will expire at the end of November and you will receive a new release version serial number plus instructions for the new download.

Download TS2009 in less than 10 minutes!

For this release of World Builder we will be utilizing a fantastic new download service which will provide downloads at speeds up to 7.5Mb/s. In testing we have downloaded the full build (2.5GB) in just over 6 minutes. The file is stored in decentralized locations so you will be downloading from a nearby location ensuring maximum speed and practically unlimited bandwidth. Of course your actual speed will depend on your Internet connection speed as well as the server availability.

"Local" Shipping for TS2009 DVD's

We have arranged to ship DVD's from the UK, USA, Canada or Australia depending on your location. This will ensure wait time to receive your Trainz 2009 World Builder Edition is minimized. Shipping is planned to commence in early-mid December.