Updates?????

hey, if you want to bring yourself up to date, have a look here: [LINK] (English & German) & [LINK] (only German).

LOTUS is currently being ported to a new engine in order to get the previous performance problems, the error with AMD graphics cards, etc. under control. LOTUS is currently being completely rewritten, which of course takes time.

Quote from JoeTrain

Of course its nice to see that at least something is happening. But if the development continuies like that, who knows if or when Lotus will be ready? Why cant the developers just make a roadmap or something like that and publish more informations/news? Ive never seen that with any other game.

The roadmap thing has been suggested so many times, it's not gonna happen. No idea why, I honestly don't think there's much reputation to be ruined by missed time goals anymore but we can't force them. We'll just have to wait for the next little tidbit of information that makes everyone hopeful before disappearing again. At this point it's just a complete joke, but since this is the only viable option for a realistic tram simulator people will have to stay here. The information/news thing worked well for like 3 months and then they made that 1. April post (of which people still aren't sure if it's a joke or not) and disappeared with the short resurfacing for the map loader with the new engine. They just don't want to give us information, apparently.

Quote from tramkatze

The roadmap thing has been suggested so many times, it's not gonna happen. No idea why, I honestly don't think there's much reputation to be ruined by missed time goals anymore but we can't force them. We'll just have to wait for the next little tidbit of information that makes everyone hopeful before disappearing again. At this point it's just a complete joke, but since this is the only viable option for a realistic tram simulator people will have to stay here. The information/news thing worked well for like 3 months and then they made that 1. April post (of which people still aren't sure if it's a joke or not) and disappeared with the short resurfacing for the map loader with the new engine. They just don't want to give us information, apparently.

The April 1^st post wasn't a joke, unfortunately. This can be verified by looking at the log files from LOTUS-NG.

It was the second time (!) the devs decided to change the game engine in mid-development.

The first was of their own creation and was a complete fail. Only good thing: It did run on Linux using Proton/Wine. That's all.

Then they went for engine number two: Unity. However, Unity recently (^tm) announced changes in their pricing structure, so the devs would have to pay a few cents per install to the Unity makers.

This, by report of the devs themselves, caused the changeover to the third engine, which is Bevyengine/Rust. This is a very young, yet modern engine. It's main strenght is multi-platform support (although Unity also provides that). And we were promised a true Linux version in addition to the WIndows .exe binary. But that has yet to arrive.

Meanwhile, the .exe binary from Bevyengine is completely incompatible with Proton/Wine, so all Linux gamers are currently locked out. That's a real shame, because Linux is in a way Bevyengine's natural environment, so is the use of Vulkan and OpenGL, DirectX existing only as an additional option (for Windows only). Not that anyone would need it, since OpenGL and Vulkan also work on Windows.

So I wonder why they didn't build the Linux binary right from the beginning when launching the Bevyengine playtest. It would be very useful for detecting cross-platform issues right from the start, before developing goes the wrong way, looking at Windows only.

Clearly, changing the game engine means re-development of many already existing game elements and causes more, huge delays, even if development with the new engine from that point on will speed up and result in a better simulator. (I usually refuse the term "game" for simulators with high levels of realism and true learning potential.)

Regular updates from the dev team, either by providing new releases (with release notes included) and news posts on this forum would of course be welcomed by many people following the LOTUS development, especially after buying the Early Access product for the full retail price. But sadly, the communications culture of the LOTUS team lacks any understanding of this desire.

Quote

(...) But sadly, the communications culture of the LOTUS team lacks any understanding of this desire.

Well, that's the only thing for sure.

I was the first person to make publish a mod tram for the whole god damn game (Ezres/BKV V) - in the year of the release of LOTUS, I published the first suburban train (in old Óbuda, which is not really finished, but the train for it is), I published the first underground (MFAV), I published the first "heavy metro/U-bahn". I don't want any fame or different handling, all I want is an answer on my freaking bug reports (tile border terrain errors, flickering lights, not working mirrors from one day to another without changing the vehicles, changing light set of objects from one day to another yet again without changing anything). You know what I got? You are damn right, not a single f.cking answer.

That's all I can comment on the communication of the devs...

They should be always thankful for you. You take this project very seriously. Your contributions helped to give life to the simulator.

Yeah you were the first to publish a METRO map, take that!

Quote from mas1701

...especially after buying the Early Access product for the full retail price...

Well, that's kinda on you. I was also interested in LOTUS but after I saw what they charged for EA (and the state it was in) and then again for the second module, my interest went to 0. Never bought and most likely never will. It's a shame really, it had potential.

The Lotus.NG branch is internal at the moment sadly, you can't download it yet.