Imagine TSW4 with a multiplayer mode, with the ability to create and join servers, set passwords players have to type on to join for security purposes etc. What would you do if this was a thing? Personally I would set up a new discord operations server for the West Somerset Railway v2 with special events, trainings, running days and more.
Tsw has to be built with multiplayer in mind for it to work. There could also be other issues if players do not own certain dlc which means you can't join at all or can't play with your friends and uninstalling/reinstalling is a hassle. There are also mods that could interfere if someone has an outdated mod or if everyone does not have the same mods. It would also require a mod manager that allows you to quickly deactivate and activate mods so you don't have to exit the entire game, remove mods and restart. It's how ats or ets2 does it. They have a built in mod manager to quickly remove and add mods. Mp also requires new team just focused on multiplayer, setting up servers, maintaining servers and much more. I wouldn't want singleplayer to receive less attention which is shown with simrail. They focus heavily on multiplayer so singleplayer has not gotten much since launch. It's a large project with lots of moving parts and uses lots of resources
I'd need more than that to entice me but I'll say no anyway. Too many opportunities for people to mess things up.
I’d like if it was just free roam but with multiple players. That would be cool. I’d like to do switching or something.
I feel like there isn't really a reason for multi-player in TSW when other games like SimRail and Railroader already cover it well.
sure, I agree BUT first DTG as to solve freeroam issues like the inability to operate certain locomotives, this would cause disorder
Not quite multiplayer, but an online-hosted mega route? What are the limitations of route length and scale, when downloaded and hosted locally, compared to hosted online, on a server that we join, and extended and updated periodically. For those of us who want that London to Scotland, 4-hour, mega sim experience?
I had a thread a few years ago that discussed what multiplayer could actually look like. While there were obviously going to be people ignoring the point of the thread and just saying 'it's pointless' or 'it's a stupid idea', it was overall a constructive thread. However, with DTG confirming multiplayer is off the table there isn't much of a point discussing it anymore. While it was prototyped and I am certain it could have worked if they put their mind to it, I think that the overall market for it is small. It would bring me back to the game instantly, but there are plenty of people who have never tried multiplayer and don't want to. Make of that what you will.
The single player experience needs to be fleshed out 100% before a multiplayer is considered. That’s a whole other set of features, issues etc that would need to be worked on.
Yep sorry I’m not at all a multiplayer fan, and diverting a massive amount of DTG resources to it, I wouldn’t see any benefit from that and less benefit from the usual. multiplayer games often just turn into micro transactions land anyhows, multiplayer i see as what ads are to YouTube.
It would not divert massive amounts of resources. The most difficult bit is the prototyping phase, which DTG had already done. I'd rather them have a team working on something new and interesting than a bunch of nothing-tier routes that innovate on nothing and will be forgotten about in a few months. Not really. Most of the 'microtransaction land' games are free and use it as their primary method of making money. However, there is absolutely no way it could be introduced into TSW. It already has around £1000 worth of DLC. Anything that could feasibly be in some form of microtransaction has already been done as proper DLC. Simrail, the better received alternative to TSW4, has significant multiplayer implementation but has no paid DLC of any kind, and recently had a massive free update. There's no way of putting it other than 'you're wrong'.
from more bugs to development to separate content, to maintenance and upgrading it, it would divert resources, I’d rather for me forget that and work on where I actually interact with the game. Micro transaction online games are free ‘cough’ GTA V, Fallout 76 probably many more, they can have several ideas for extra paid content (everywhere from profile pics to exclusive online liveries etc) if online isn’t paid for or made separate from TSW then theirs no extra income and thus not only do they need to fund it, they wouldn’t be working with a whole load of extra resources and staff, meaning they need to use what they have. only one way at putting it “you’re wrong”
GTA 6 would have been in development hell regardless of the success of GTA Online. During GTA Online's peak in both player counts and development they still managed to develop Red Read Redemption 2, one of the best games ever made. Like GTA 5, all Rockstar studios contributed to it. If DTG could have a team going over past routes and updating them, during a time when new content and the game overall was superior in quality, value and stability, there is no reason why they couldn't have a team developing multiplayer. Multiplayer is even a built-in feature in Unreal.
This could work with the appropriate development. Simutrans does support such a feature although this is more of a strategy game. Clearly DLC availability could be controlled by the central hosting instance and the local copy used for performance reasons. Only players with appropriately licenced and installed DLCs would be able to join the session. It is going to be a huge development effort although many games have successfully pulled this off. Games were doing this 15 plus years past at least.
GTA VI has nothing to do with this discussion or RDR2, we are only talking how DTG develop multiplayer. comparing Rockstar resources to DTG is very impractical regardless. You know the company that can easily make multi million if not approaching a billion per release they do. I’ve said above about how it takes resources of which I wouldn’t personally be interested at all in.
If Multiplayer Existed In The Game- it would rapidly become populated with a toxic mixture of jerks and fools, just like every other multiplayer game.
Split screen I would have been a fan of a few years ago, not sure if I would get a chance to use it nowadays though. I did always prefer split screen to online tbh.
Scale. Let's say that Rockstar on the whole is ten times the size of DTG. Let's assume 75% of them are working on GTA6, and 15% are working on updates for GTA Online (although I'm being generous since GTA Online is seeminglyon a skeleton crew for the forseeable future). 15% of DTG's development workforce is much smaller than whatever Rockstar has to offer, but fundamentally it's still a fraction of the workforce. That said, most of the development of multiplayer has already been completed. We already have confirmation that multiplayer was worked on and, like the multiplayer prototyping for Train Simulator, works at least at a basic level. While footage of the TS multiplayer exists, we have no idea what exactly was done. For all I know, they could have just got two players in the same session, although my prediction is that they got multiple players driving trains in the same session with or without AI trains running. Probably, depending on how good the report/kick system would be. Stepford County Railway automatically kicks players if they skip three stations and presumably if they SPAD. However, in the thread that I spoke about earlier I said that the most workable (and my overall favourite) suggestion was for private, peer-to-peer lobbies. Not only would it reduce server costs, it would also mean players could run private sessions for just their friends. It would effectively be a timetable session, with players able to join. If you've played Gran Turismo online in lobbies, you'll know what I mean.
But then that limits multiplayer. Not everyone has the time to play with their friends every time. Then there's those that don't have friends to play with.
With SimRail we have already a pretty flashed out Multiplayer Rail Simulator that is constantly developed on. TSW Multiplayer capabilities seems to be very limited, aside from playing a guard maybe. For players to be able to takeover the dispatcher role in TSW, it would need a complete overhaul i think. Not even considering the " chaos " factor that comes with player interactions.
would just be guessing, they’re really isn’t any reliable scale for comparing games companies, all it takes is one to get bogged down with a single issue (not just a reference to bugs here, could be a management issue or an essential employee not being able to work on something) for one example. and still disproportionate as DTG could do more or less in the same time depending on how they base out they’re resources in comparison to another developer. That’s before taking into account external factors. honesly at some point I think DTG will probably bring multiplayer (I still don't agree with the decision) but for many companies they’ve seen it like a casino when it works. Many think it’s going to have a focus on team-spirit and more engagement but it just becomes bogged down in issues, profitability and ultimately shutting down of its servers when out of date.
Nice simple co-op where you can invite people on your friends list to drop in and one of you drives, the other handles the doors and tickets on passenger services, or the switching and coupling on shunting duties, etc. That's my dream.
