MP Capabilities/requirements?

[kingconrail76]

I'm on the fence, so to speak, about purchasing TS12, and I think the MultiPlayer aspect might be the deciding factor. I've searched the Auran Forums and here, to no avail, to answer some of my questions regarding the capabilities and requirements of MultiPlayer, so here goes with the noob questions;

1. Can Multiplayer function over a LAN? Say, for example, my wife and I want to work a switching job together, do we need to sign on to the Auran Servers to play with each other, across the room, or is our Home Network enough?

2. Do we need two complete software packages (two serial numbers?) to play each other, or can TS12 be installed on two computers I own and used simultaniously with independant Auran accounts? (Are Auran Accounts based on software Serial number?)

3. My computers exceed the minimum (and recommended) system requirements for TS12, as advertised, but does MultiPlayer require "more" ??

4. I understand that whom ever is in a MP session must have the same "stuff" (assets/Route/Session), but MUST it be uploaded and downloaded thru the DLS, or can I use a USB stick to transfer between my two systems to make them "identical" in the eys of the Auran Server (if we need to use the Server vs. LAN)??

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

[kingconrail76]

Nevermind....help was found elsewhere.

[philskene]

But others might be interested. So:

1. No LAN. Connection must be through the Auran servers.

2. One copy of Trainz can be installed on several computers for individual play. However, for multiplayer each PC must have its own registered copy.

3. Multiplayer does not need more grunt.

4. All assets used in the multiplayer session must be either built-in or downloaded from the Download Station.

[sniper297]

I would disagree with #3, doesn't require more hardware grunt, but if (for example) the guy hosting the session has a 56k dialup there's gonna be some serious lag. Four friends want to play together and three have DSL, one has cable broadband, the guy with the cable connection should host the game and the 3 DSL users should join. Like any other multiplayer game connection problems will cause visual weirdness, for example one guy telling me I had an AI traffic train coming head on at me, then saying the AI just passed through my train, then I saw the AI train about a mile further away than he saw it. I got a real slow DSL connection prone to hiccups.

[sniper297]

Capabilities - I should add here the way they designed it seems rather silly to me, all required assets must be built in or on the DLS and unmodified to work. That means that before you can test a multiplayer session to see if it's worth uploading, you have to upload it, wait about 48 hours for the databases to synch, then download it in order to test - once you add the multiplayer rule the session is no longer playable because the session itself doesn't meet the requirement until it's uploaded. The one thing I really want to do with multiplayer is Thomas the Tank Engine with my grandkids, unfortunately all of the Thomas models are on 3rd party websites and not available on the DLS, which makes them unusable in multiplayer.

How many players you can have I don't know, the largest I've played yet had five players, supposedly 16 or more is possible. Helpers, I spent a couple hours with one guy testing interaction, and we found that you can get behind another player's train and push, but the couplers on one player's train will not engage with the couplers on another player's train, so you can't double head together. You can drop off a car and the other player can couple onto it once you uncouple but you can't both couple onto the same car or train at the same time. Despite the limitations we had a lot of fun switching the same yard from both ends.

[kingconrail76]

Capabilities - I should add here the way they designed it seems rather silly to me, all required assets must be built in or on the DLS and unmodified to work. That means that before you can test a multiplayer session to see if it's worth uploading, you have to upload it, wait about 48 hours for the databases to synch, then download it in order to test - once you add the multiplayer rule the session is no longer playable because the session itself doesn't meet the requirement until it's uploaded. The one thing I really want to do with multiplayer is Thomas the Tank Engine with my grandkids, unfortunately all of the Thomas models are on 3rd party websites and not available on the DLS, which makes them unusable in multiplayer.

..snip...

Instead of (2) 2012's (since it won't work over LAN), I got 2010 (for the PO&N mostly) and 2012 and have not tried the Multiplayer of TS12 myself yet (havn't even installed TS12 yet, still figuring out TRS-10), but what you're saying about "must be on DLS" is contradictory to what I was told on Auran's Forums. Over there, one guy said I would be able to "sync" systems via USB...not really an issue at this point, but I'd still be curious to hear from someone who has two TS12's and MP's with a family member in the same location.

[sniper297]

Well, the Auran forums are down for maintenance until Friday, but be advised a lot of the Trainz community is made up of adolescents who talk thru their hats or repeat old wives tales they heard from other adolescents. For multiplayer to work over a LAN you have to have two copies of TS12 registered under two different names - I tried this, I have TRS2009 registered in my son's name, so I copied TS12 over to his computer and used his login name and password to start TS12. It will accept that, when he creates a new route or session it assigns his user KUID number instead of mine, but won't allow him to launch or join a multiplayer game with that username since that username does not have a registered copy of TS12.

The other item is the error checking itself - I haven't tried this, but my guess is trying to start a multiplayer game with two different registered copies over a LAN with the internet cable disconnected would not work either. The multiplayer launcher, whether you're hosting or joining, compares what you have installed to the built in database and the current DLS database and has a hissy fit if anything doesn't match. So if it can't find the download station database to compare files it probably wouldn't launch a multiplayer session at all.