February 2023 Newsletter and Monthly Goals
January ended up being a much busier month than I was expecting, but I'm happy to report it was still productive none-the-less on the AM Homefront. Somehow between craziness at work, and a whole lot of personal travel I still managed to get a lot done on the P&B as well as squeezing in an operating session livestream. I was also lucky enough to make it out to Springfield for their annual train show where I got to meet a good handful of you! That was a ton of fun!
Let's recap!
✅ = Complete ☑ = In-Progress ❌ - Didn't begin
Website
✅Upload all of last years Patreon assets
❌Upload P&B RS11
✅Upload remaining TBS assets
✅Upload CPS assets
In case you missed it, I managed to upload several dozen new assets to my website. Most were my own but I've begun hosting others' legacy content including TBS and CPS assets. My assets were all previously available to Patron's throughout the year but many of the TBS and CPS assets haven't been available for some time. Make sure to check em out!
As for the P&B RS11, I simply entirely forgot to get it up there. Some things just slip my out-of-sight-out-of-mind mind and this was one of them. I plan to make it available to non-patrons some time this month. Someone Remind Me! 😂
https://www.approachmedium.com/scenery-objects
P&B
❌Begin episode 51
✅Add passenger station in Grafton
My goals for the P&B were rather lite for the month of January and that was by design so I'd have time to work on the website. That said, I was unable to find the time to get started on episode 51 but I did get a lot of work done around Grafton during our first Patreon Only livestream of 2023. I was able to add the passenger station as well as a lot of surrounding infrastructure to Grafton and I'd call that a win in it's own right.
An additional project I've recently taken on while bored at work is mapping out a commodity chain for the route. This should act as a better visualization for where commodities go to and from.
Other Trainz Projects
❌Begin work on the NYCH route
☑Trainz 2029 update for the DB&EV
As excited as I am to get crankin on the NYCH module, I've decide to shelve the idea for a few months until I'm further along with the P&B. Ultimately another project is only going to take me away from completing the route and that's supposed to be my number 1 goal for this year. So until I'm close to being done with principal builds on the P&B, this one will have to wait.
I did have a very small window of time to look at the DB&EV in Trainz 2019 and dabble with some updates. I think it's looking really good and I'm hoping to do a livestream some time this month to make sure all of the sessions still work. Hopefully I'll have a fresh beta available for Executive's by next month.
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Patreon Benefits
Speaking of completing the P&B, at the beginning of the year I was happy to announce that the Phase 1 update had been completed by 44Willy's albeit with some unexpected lag issues. We're still working through those issues so this month's P&B release for Executive's will include two versions. One will be the full route with everything I worked on for the month and the other will be another version by 44Willy's with some potential lag fixes. The routes will not be re-merged until we have a stable version of Phase 1 complete. We're certainly looking for any feedback from those of you in the Executive tier. The P&B will be available by the weekend.
Since I started with the top tier I might as well work my way backwards from there. The monthly Patreon Only live stream for Dispatchers and up will be held Wednesday February 8th starting at 7pm. I'll probably continue working around Grafton unless there's a special request to do something else.
I'm considering trying something different this month and opening the last 45 minutes or so of the live stream to the public as a way to promote the Patreon benefit. I'm not entirely sure how that might work out so let me know your thoughts below!
Project Manager tier and up will be graced with more garbage! That's right, more debris assets to pollute your route with. I've really been liking these assets and I'll probably continue porting more into the game until there's some newer building assets added to Squid and CGTrader. These will definitely be fun though! What's cool about these is that they have both clean and weathered versions. Assets will be available by the weekend.
Model Railroader tier patrons (I know you're out there!) will be graced with a track plan I've been working on during my lunch breaks at work. I've recently begun dabbling around with Railmodeller Pro for the Mac OS and I've been having a ton of fun with it. So I figured a benefit I could offer for you guys could be exclusive trackplans of my design each month(ish). I can't really promise one each month but what I can do is promise they're exclusive to this tier and will only be available on Patreon. Hopefully you guys will enjoy!
I do have several shorts videos and associated blog posts on the docket but I can't promise any will be ready this month. However, I do plan to begin replacing all of the turnouts on my layout with handmade ones before winter is over so that should make for an interesting video/blog series.
And of course we still do the Weekly Wednesday Discord Hangouts from 7-9 available to anyone in the Station Agent tier and higher.
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February is a notoriously short month so I'm going to keep my goals loose and realistic. Mostly I'd like to continue filling in Grafton and get closer to being able to walk away from it for a while. I'm also going to make a point to get started on episode 51 and finish off the Pleasantville branch and coal power plant. There's been too much time between episodes and I'm feeling the burn from Youtube so I need to get better about uploading again.
As mentioned above, I have a never ending list of shorts videos I plan to make for my N scale layout along with a zillion other projects, so I'll likely be chomping at the bit there as time allows. Same goes for updates to the DB&EV. I'd like to get the project out but it tends to fall on the list of lower priorities.
Track plans and other railroad related goodies will make appearances on the ol' Instagram and Twitter so make sure to keep an eye out there as well as here as I continue to ramp things up at the AM HQ.
Thanks again for the support this month! Let's have an awesome February!