I don't need a multiplayer mode. Simply for the reason that I can't imagine how a multiplayer mode should work in a game like TSW. For the people who want multiplayer, what do you imagine by that.
Personally I can't see why people would want multiplayer either If people stick to the timetables then I guess it could work, but you'll get people that ruin it for everyone else and hold people up. Why bother? It'll practically be the same as the AI trains.
My first thought was actually, me in Cologne and my buddy in Aachen and we meet in the middle and that sounds really boring.
I've seen others suggest the idea is you would have someone as dispatcher and others as drivers and there would be a sort of joint effort in a small group to deal with whatever is thrown up by all involved. So for example the players who were drivers might encounter a faulty train, or diversions, or have to drive slower because of bad weather and the dispatcher would have to change the signals and decide who has priority etc etc. Sort of like a classic role playing board game. The idea could work, but in my opinion it is a niche within a niche. It would require groups of people with such a similar level of understanding of trains/signals so as to be moreorless pointless beyond people who drive trains for a living anyway. Certainly there would be next to no point in having random matchmaking for players in such a mode. Also, on a practical level, the certification tests console manufacturers do for games are more stringent if multi-player functionality is included, especially if allowing people from different platforms to play with each other. I really don't forsee it ever being worth DTGs time or money to do it unless it is super basic like allowing people to be passengers in other people's scenarios or something.
I don’t want to see multiplayer purely because it would take up dev time. Lots and lots of dev time. That time could be put to better use. I can’t see multiplayer working with the game set up as it is now with just driving and first person view walking. If you were to have two players, one being the driver and the other being a conductor, there would need to be third person view and character animation. That’s a lot of new systems to be put into the game. Everybody just driving different trains on a route would just be pointless. A dispatcher mode with some drivers might work okay on some routes but again that’s a serious amount of dev time, for what might only get used by a handful of players. A lot of people might be asking for it but how many will like exactly what gets developed and actually use it? A serious amount of dev time might go into something that ends up being not the kind of multiplayer people want. Dev time would be better suited to getting the single user game improved, solid, polished and free of bugs, and get steam trains introduced and mastered. More customisable content and user friendly creation tools, expanding the scenario planner and adding a consist creator, a way of editing existing timetables maybe. I reckon more people would want those things worked on than a multiplayer mode in what is essentially a solitary hobby. I really don’t get why people want it so much. That’s not the only issue. I’d be interested in seeing what people want and if any of it would actually even be possible in TSW. It’s already maxed out on resources and still struggles a bit when the player’s train encounters a single AI train, and that’s without communicating with a single other computer or console. I actually don’t think any multiplayer mode would currently be possible, or at any time in the near future. Cue next gen console comments...
Watch some in yard videos from Run8 to see what multiplayer is for in train sim. Not to mention human dispatcher in real-time However, from my own experience - you can do without it. Trains are such a personal experience. But why not? The stujoy arguments are quite accurate.
I think multiplayer in terms of multiple people driving their own train on the same route is pointless as well. The only thing that I would surely enjoy would be to be in the same train with a friend. You could coordinate coupling, divide safety systems, operate the engine together or possibly enter the passenger trains and check tickets or something. A mode like that would be fun for me to play with a friend. but as Stujoy said, simply the needed animations will be a time consuming challenge in itself
I think it would be cool if you could be able to have a Guard/OBS mode, Driver mode and then a shunter. It would mean that it is easier for you to navigate around yards etc. It’s not 100% required, but would be a nice addition.
I agree, a guard mode would be nice to have as a single player mode, guarding AI trains. This would add a different player experience, but, in my opinion, this is nothing more than a nice thing to have as I think there may be much more important things for devs to be doing, such as making the driving experience the best it possibly can be.
Tbh I'd probably enjoy multiplayer, having a few friends together driving trains on the same route could be quite fun. I mean the mmo mod for truck sim seems pretty popular and that's basically pointless in the grand scheme of things. I think having people in the same world map would be great, maybe with a drop-in and out feature so you can open your game to other players (maybe to friends only) and they can drive other services in your world. Also having a guard mode or and things like that don't have to be multiplayer specific and would add more depth into the game. I can see it working as a nice way to make the world a bit more immersive and means you get a little less lonely I suppose
I see a lot of suggestions for a guard mode, but in my opinion it's going to be useless unless we get realistic passenger behaviour, for example one the jobs of the guard is to give the go ahead to the driver to depart and making sure there is no passenger near the doors.. but in TSW there is no such "risk" . In fact being a guard in TSW would just mean go from one end to the train to another with nothing to do... maybe on some US trains where the doors are guard-operated it makes sense but almost all modern european EMUs and trains are designed for one-man operations anyway.
In most areas of Britain the doors are still operated by guards. The Isle of Wight line that's coming up is definitely operated using guards so it'd be useful for this route.
Of course... yeah, so IoW, TVL, LIRR, ECW and maybe WSR are the routes were a conductor mode could be useful
ECW doesn’t use guards anymore. The role is classed as On Board Supervisor which means that they don’t operate doors. But I guess that they could use it considering that it is based back in 2015 when guards were still used I hope that they allow the panels by the doors to be used through out the trains to be used as that’s where most the guards stood. Would be an amazing addition. Especially to WSR as they still use guards whistles and Flags.
I feel the same way. There‘s this strange obsession that everything released today must have multiplayer for some reason. A symmetric multiplayer (everyone drives a train like in timetable mode) seems pointless. If everyone follows the rules it‘s the same as with a.i. and if they don‘t they‘ll just ruin everyones‘ day. A guard mode seems rather uninteresting to me. If we had fully functional passengers then maybe. But right now we can use the needed dev time elsewhere. I could see a dispatcher mode work, but as said before in this thread: You‘d have few enough people interested in multiplayer at all if this thread is anything to go by and I wager only a small number would actually be interested in being the dispatcher. Overall, I completely agree with this: Using all the time and resources needed to implement a multiplayer would be detriemental to the game overall, at least right now. Edit: forgot a bracket
