"Trainz On Line"

ish6 said:

I've been calling for an online version for nearly 5 years now ... and at one time, I thought it all out on how Auran can precede with it ...I can't recall what I wrote so long ago, but I remembering saying that:

Auran would need to be running a special map of their servers ... 1 gigantic map to accommodate every possible tasks ... it would be MMOG or Massive Multi player Online Game .... Players would join be signing up to a account in their profile or in the in-game itself ... Task should be assigned on what type of stock they decied to select:

freight
Passenger
Special interests: like tankers, and TTX, etc ...

SO, for example, let's say I join ... I am given a loco and rolling stock and an assignment ... I leave the yard to enter the main line .... from this point forward the servers would monitor your behavior ... so if you pass a red light, a junction, etc ... anything that violate the rules the player gets kick and suspended, etc

A charge can cover the cost, because Auran would need to hire someone to monitor and update the system ...a monthly or yearly fee charge can be set... something reasonable so not to scare the masses!!

It has potential .... The map needs to be huge enough to accommodate hundreds that might join ... I know that frame rate and too much loco's and rolling stocks might have some PC's choking to death, however, have the system give red signs so no one player see more than a dozens Trainz at a time ...

Anyhow, just preliminary stuff ... but that's the direction I would go if I worked for Auran, and asked for my opinion how to make it precede with online trainz ...

Ish

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comtrain said:

Another thread called multi player Trainz has caused me to post here


I wonder how many people out there would want something like this?

And as an avid fan of Battlefield 2, I would think smallish maps with routes possibly 300 miles long could be developed and hosted allowing many on line games to be hosted with 16,32 or 60 people joining in, depending on the size of the map.
But everything else would be much the same. However, just like in BF42, members could build routes, submit them for approval, and if they were liked well enough, they could be hosted on the dedicated server.
That way everybody would get to play trainz the way they liked, I guess. Anyway, lets see if we can find many hundreds of people interested in playing Trainz on line to register their interest here, and convince Auran that this is the way we want it to go. Thanks for listening, now tell us how you would do it.
Cheers
Rod
ps if you have never posted before, this is a great place to start

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let's go...

Euphod said:

it's not like you can get out of the engine, walk around, get a cup of coffee in the depot or anything.

Ed

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WileeCoyote said:

.....snipped... thing we wouldn't be able to do is stop at a station for a driver change, step into a depot and suck down a few cups of coffee.

WileeCoyote

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ish6 said:

It could be done both ways ... Let's say Trainz Online can be purchase now, right .... well, it would have the program able to have online gaming with whom whoever ... My proposal is more of a dedicated online simulation, having Auran running the whole show ... You will not know what to expect ... I guess that's the idea here ... Of course, I would like to play online with friends only, one-on-one ...

so, we got here 2 different perspectives, which is a good thing, and hopefully people post their opinions, ideas, and comments. ...

To finish off, having Auran run it will give people the opportunity to just get on a loco and drive it, instead of working on a route, and trying to figure out what tasks to do, etc etc ... I guess my idea is really for the "I don't want to deal with stuff" guy ... just get me behind the cab and let's go...

Ish

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goodell911 said:

I think it would be great to be able to sign-on to a route, observe, get some train orders and take part in a virtual world railroad that operates all the time just like the real ones.

How nice would it be to be a regular Amtrak or BNSF engineer, familiar with Marias Pass for example... Or maybe part of a branch line crew working a local train... Or releive a mainline crew and take a train down the line to another waiting crew?

I think it would be fun to log-in and see what waybills or schedules are open, get assigned a train and 'work' the railroad. If the world is industry dependent, how well can we make it thrive?

Even if we didn't have a 'big brother' type of server, it would still be cool to invite a few friends over to a local server for some coordinated action... like we used to do at the Model Railroad clubs (when I still lived near enough to attend) Back then, "session" meant something that involved the efforts of several individuals working to accomplish seperate but common goals.

Of course, this would involve the creation of a whole new aspect nobody talks about... Trainz Dispatcher. The ability to oversee and direct, by voice or text communication, the movement of trains and junctions. But, that's a whole other thread waiting for it's time.

Trainz AI is nice, but they don't really make decisions for themselves, you can't communicate messages to them enroute when changes are necessary and they aren't very good communicating back. Human contact and unpredictability is a big part of what makes other online multiplayer games so attractive.

...Besides, my wife would probably be happier about my Trainz time if she knew it involved friends other than 'Andrew' and 'Adair'.

If Trainz ever moves the multi-player direction, I'm onboard all the way!

~Rick

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