RS.com's Response for Email Support!

[Hawk]

hi,
The initial email back is automated, 70 - 80% of questions asked are answered in the wiki (even if it is unfinished, which is annoying I know) or in the manuals/documents.

Users who email support with suggestions all get read and filed, however we do not reply to most as they do not need support.
Those that email support wanting support do get Mat emailing them back and hopefully find a solution. (He only works 5 days a week and last week been on holiday)

As you can imagine with a sim/game like this, the support questions are wide and varied, not only in driving but in creation.
Our Dev team is relitivly small and multitasking and we do the best we can with what we have. So if that is not good enough then sorry but thats the way it is for now.

With regards to the new hud, well we are doing what we think needs doing, when it is released I'm sure we will get many more emails and suggestions, and we will look to evolve it more into the future.

best regards

Derek

[BNSF650]

That sounds about right,

[qrfan3]

Thank you Derek for enlightening us all on the how / why & what of the support system.

[scl]

Just got to say that I emailed Support last night about the Horseshoe Curve (it was just a small bug I'd noticed), but I got a nice and courteous personal email this morning in acklowledgement. This was the first time I'd ever contacted Support for anything, and it felt really reassuring to get a nice human response.

Thanks to everyone in the Team for doing such a great job!

By the way, the small bug I'd noticed was that there were two GP7s with the same number in a Freeroam scenario, so I don't think it's a computer buster

Ken

[Toripony]

I used to support 400 medical center users. Over 300 computers, laptops, and other devices plus 150 printers, stacks of hubs, a couple of routers and 14 servers worth of financial, communication and clinical systems. You've NEVER heard complaints like a doctor who can't get his patient records right NOW can make! With only 2 techs to help me keep all that equipment working, we also tried to give top-notch customer service by answering every phone call and responding to every email. I have to admit, when major things were going on, like system upgrades or new systems, that got really hard (sometimes impossible) to do. My data entry clerks were drafted into service on the phones, my nursing systems coordinator would try to keep up with the emails, while the rest of us ran around like chickens with no heads trying to put out all the fires and calm/pacify the users until we could get everything back to normal. It always made for an EXHAUSTING week of 12-14 hour days (and some drinking every night to quiet OUR nerves, lol). When it was over we all felt good and held some pride, but during the raucus, tempers got warm and hair was pulled out; only a couple of times did I totally lose it on somebody, usually because they were being a spoiler to many other users and insisted on repeating their same flawed actions over and over. Sometimes I threatened to disconnect them from the network; that threat usually got them to behave, lol.

With a few thousand users spread around the world, I have a lot of empathy for the RSC guys right now. While they really do want our feedback to confirm their fixes/problems, they don't need their customer's gruff. I'm POSITIVE they are doing everything they can with the resources they have but they have a lot of priorities to juggle and judge right now. It might surprise you that the reason I'm posting this is not too complain, it's because I've been really proud of the group at RWA (where I call my railsimming "Home") for the tolerance, patience, and quality feedback I've seen these past few days. You guys have put your heads together to test and retest and share results and even found a few solutions on your own (I've even fed a couple of those solutions back to the RSC team for them to test). This happened among certain pools of users at the hospital, too, and I was never more grateful to those folks for rolling up their sleeves and getting down and dirty with us techies. Users generate all kinds of situations that cannot all be tested in the "lab", so user feedback is vital to the success of a launch. I've spent a lot of time on this forum board the last few days trying to help with problems and I have to say I am proud to be a part of this community!

Sincerely,
Tori

[Hawk]

...and equally proud to have you, and others, as part of this community.

[harryadkins]

While I agree with Tori's response, I also recognize that her copy of TS2012 is working. I have defended RSC in the past, but there are just too many bugs with TS2012. It should have gone through much more testing on a larger variety of machines before being released. While I can do nothing to undo the damage, I fear that this products has seriously weakened their support base. Any future releases must have more thorough testing before I purchase. Just scan through this forum and count the number of major issues. A few bugs are to be expected, but this is utterly ridiculous.

[Toripony]

Harry, don't let your sight be limited by the scope of just a forum or two. There are thousands of Railworks users and only a handful (2-3 dozen??) post on these forums. And you can bet that 90% of the posts in forums are going to be about problems. I've reviewed nearly every problem posted here and elsewhere and 90% of them are minor. 10% are major, like yours, and I would guess that a very small percentage of the entire RSC customer base is dead-in-the-water like you are. While I sympathize with your situation (as you know; I did everything I could think of to help), your generalizations are not accurate. Many people beta tested TS2012; for the most part it runs, with glitches. It has a lot of glitches. It has only a few major faults/failures. And unfortunately, I've searched the U.S. forums and I can't find other people with the same problem you have. You have a very unique problem there, Harry, and since there are not dozens of people with exactly the same problem, it is most likely that the problem is with your pc, not Railworks. That's a generalization of course, but honestly, when the problem is unique to one or two pc's it usually turns out to be something odd about those pc's. That's based on my experience of servicing thousands of desktops over 19 years. Hundreds and thousands of people are running Railworks tonight, experiencing broken couplers and invisible locomotives, yea, but they are running it.
The good part about having a specific problem like yours (usually) is that it's easier to diagnose. Your best shot is getting a solution from RSC. They are very aware of the issues with .NET reinstalling over and over and other issues with those backend supporting apps and have been VERY focused on fixing that asap. Your problem is the installation of those backend components so I'm sure they would want to help. Write to them with the following info:

Brief problem description
your hardware specs and option settings, O/S and browser type/version
how often the problem is occuring
A step by step of how to recreate the problem (Click Steam Icon, Steam window opens, click..... etc)

If I see a solution for your PhyX problem mentioned anywhere, I'll send you a link. Good luck.

[harryadkins]

I want to apologize to Tori and to all for the harshness of my previous post. I certainly did not mean any disrespect toward Tori or anyone else on this forum. In the future, I will do a better job of thinking before I post.

Harry R. Adkins

[tracksahead]

I'm using an average priced laptop with Windows 7. RW 2012 is definitely the best train sim I've ever used. I know it isn't perfect as every once in a while a track will go off a clif in the middle of a free roam or sceneario and sometimes uncouple a car or two, but I just go to another scenario or route and enjoy something else. I'm just thankful for what RSC has done with 2012, especially enjoying my lifetime real favorites, NEC and HSC. I do have empathy for those with problems as I too have delt with many in my past, but I also know time has a way of correcting these little things so I don't allow it to ruin my day.

John

[render2017]

Like may others I was looking forward to RW3 with great anticipation.
Downloaded, utter disaster, could not even get it to run, wanted to load NET. each start, crashes, corruption and re download . . . a real nightmare despite the biggest processor available (I7) 12GB Memory, two ATI 6800 graphics with 1Gb memory each graphics card.
Disappointed, but as I had experience from previous releases, decided to sit quiet for a little while and see what happened, reading all the posts glumly as people rant and rave in extreme and unhelpful ways (and some very intelligent attitude from a few of the regulars).
First update . . . Aha! now its running but sad performance, lots of little glitches, one major error . . . wait quietly
Second Update . . . things improving but had to do lots of fine tuning of the graphics and only reasonable performance
Next Update . . . suddenly all seems well with the Train Simulator world, get about 40-50FPS mostly, down to maybe 20fps in the yard of the PRR route, but running smoothly, and generally the immersion factor is at least 90% great, apart from a moire problem in the PRR yard and the ribs of some of the coal hoppers on approaching trains. A few little glitches but nothing to tear hair out about.
Now I can test other routes, have found some that just don't work, my own development route being very fragile for some reason and being one of many that it seems are in the same boat. I will wait for the next update.
But am I going to complain bitterly and vainly threaten to go play with some other inferior train simulator . . . not on your life !
I see the fantastic potential of this simulation, and acknowledge its shortcomings in certain areas. But unlike any other simulations I have played the future is ALWAYS going to get better, short term whining and extreme reactions do not help the RSC staff motivations one bit.

I know they will get all major errors fixed (And as Toripony rightly pointed out if you are having a relatively unique issue its probably your PC causing the problem), and like all software some minor glitches may sit around for a while, and inevitably some minor issues which may seem to be ignored by RSC will drive you crazy. But . . . Do as I do, sit quietly, be confident that they will get it right (mostly) and gratefully receive the inevitable positive efforts of the RSC staff and enjoy life . . . RW3 is supposed to be for enjoyment, don't let impatience destroy your fun times.
Colin R

[kevhead]

They sent me a reply and then later sent me another e- mail confirming me that they actually read my e-mail. I think they are doing all they can to make even the rivet counters happy. I know that they probably don't read these forums, but When I was running the NEC the other day I found out what it is like to drive a train on it. I was trembling and my adrenaline was rushing. Thanks to all the guys at train simulator for making a boys dream come true.

[Guardious]

I am new here, but not new to computers or coding, (developer in rl) , but in the case of physx issues etc, usually I notice two things.

1. followup installtion gets corrupted. Unless your very very savey with regedit and know how to disable, re-enable values and what to look for, the only solution is a full re-install of the OS and everything else.

2. Physx along with other third party development software is usually out of the hands of the actual development team using it. In many cases, I have found my team reverting back to previous builds prior to release or re-inventing the wheel so to speak. When and if when, a small amount of our user base experiance issues, we attempt to fix those issues. In some cases, when those issues are beyond our control (old hardware, out of date drives on the users computer) we weigh the pro's and con's of what to do. Some development houses decide to bring up the issue and wait for the third party developer to find a fix, release an older compatible version of the application or finally offer an appology and offer refunds, stating that as technology moves ahead so does the software. We can offer you an older version or a refund.

Now I am not with this company, but that's my experiance. While I know it's not the best news to hear, #1 is usually a solution to most of I would say 96% of the issues and only a few very few can't fix it for hardware or software out of production products that reside on their systems. Again in those cases we refer to rule 2 and give that advice and when that fails we offer the final alternative to a refund. It's rare , but it does happen.

I have read a few threads about those that have been having issues, thou I have yet to see anyone state that they did a full-system format and re-install. While this option is a horrible option, fact remains that systems after a point need such a flush to fix many issues. I can not even count how many times back in the day when I started as tech support and told clients that they had to reformat and that was the only option. One client had so much email storage that it would boggle the mind. But along with that he had 57 constantly running applications and more. Then wondered why his system was slow. Others haven't redone their system sense they bought them. The general rule of thumb out there is , every 2 - 4 years your looking a whipe and re-install, depending on usage on a particluar system. That is why people as myself, always recommend a second drive to install games, applications and the like on. While in the end you would need to reinstall those applications, you would have the core of the original handy to get save files and updates taken care of.

Finally to make sure you save all your bookmarks in a bookmark file, and dump your full documents folder into that drive. Then you basicly have everything you ever did in one location with all your stuff right there ready to be put back in place after a clean install.

Anyways, sorry for the rant there :) Just trying to help, those are my suggestions and you can take them or leave them, but alas I am just trying to help.


A Fellow Train enthusist,

-Guardious

ps. btw, phyx drivers can have issue with overclocking cores and video cards. If you are overclocking , try it without doing so, this means disable in bios, turn off all active overclocking software using mscofig etc. Depending on you system bios core etc, all can be looked up on the web for compatiblity issues. And no, sadly you shouldn't have to go threw this trouble to get a game to work, but trust me, your not the only one and this is definitly not the only game where things like this happen. GL!

[Chacal]

Note to mods: this thread is based on information about RSC support that is more than 2 years old. It is most likely to be deprecated now. Thread should be unpinned.