all gone

[H222]

It seems to me that people are keen to ridicule Run8 and the people who are leaving Trainz to join it because they are afraid it will lead to the end of Trainz. I have played Run8 for 4-5 days now and I feel qualified enough to give you the facts, not a biased opinion. The makers of Run8 have tried to produce a realistic sim and the end result is a train sim that, to the player feels more realistic than Trainz. However, where Run8 excels is multiplayer. Run8 Multiplayer is so superior to TS12 Multiplayer there is no comparison. This goes a long way to explaining why people are turning to Run8. There is also more interaction between players in Run8 Multiplayer. Unique to Run8 is the Dispatcher's screen which is used to operate motor switches and signals on the mainline. You can do it from the comfort of the driving cab which is a plus. Now, before you all rush out and buy it here is the other side of the coin. The biggest drawback for me is nighttime. It is so dark you don,t know where a train is until you walk into it! There are way around it but in multiplayer only the host can change the time so you have to rely on a flashlight. Apart from the mainline, the switches are hand operated by standing next to them. There is no HUD so switching a yard solo is more difficult than Trainz. The final thing I want to mention is that there is no Surveyor therefore no freeware. There are routes and Locomotives in the pipeline but they will be payware. I could make further comments but they are the main points for me. My own feeling is that people who want to play multiplayer will and indeed, have moved to Run8 but very few solo players will.

Trainz has survived against Simulators with a route editor, and more than one loco... I doubt this junk will do much. Can you even make your own locos using Gmax or 3ds?

Jamie

 

[sniper297]

"While guilty of including lots of stuff off the DLS in my one route and session" Same here, reason I mentioned 500 megs is because that's what is needed for any of my Chicago Metro sessions, which includes the multiplayer sessions I uploaded simply because I was unaware of the "locally modified" check. Main trouble I see is there's no way to actually TEST a session against the multiplayer 'bot before uploading, since once you add the multiplayer rule to the session and save it you can no longer playtest without uploading, deleting, and downloading it. And of course once it's uploaded there it is, for better or worse, only thing you can do at that point is a KUID2 replacement and hope THAT one works better. If there was some way to test before uploading that everything in the route and session EXCEPT THE SESSION ITSELF met the requirements for multiplayer, and gave an idea of how much would need to be downloaded, there would be a lot less trial and error for some of the more experienced content creators.

At the moment there's no way to test it, and of course even if you go through the rigamarole of testing in a virgin copy of TS12 to see how much has to be downloaded and what if any faulty items there are, all it takes is one faulty update to any sub-sub-dependency to screw it up later on. Can't remember if it was IntenCity or KrashNburne, but one of those had a well designed session that was great for two or three players, I can no longer play that one at all because one of the industries in the route is now flagged as faulty due to a KUID2 replacement for some commodity that's broken now. It was good when Phil uploaded it, it's no longer good because of one little obscure thing that's not actually used in the session being faulty, and the bot insists the original KUID is no good so you must have the faulty update, once that's installed it won't let you play because you now have a faulty dependency instead of an obsolete dependency. Not much a creator can do about that one, even if you use nothing but built in assets you never know when one of those will be updated with a bad KUID2.

Model railroad sessions - yep, I'm one of seven kids, Dad was a train crazy foaming railfan and passionate model railroader when I was born, so even when we were all grown and married we'd all meet in Dad's basement once or twice a month to run trains together. It was a club sized layout with command control for running up to 16 trains at the same time in the 80s, so we had some great times. Multiplayer has the potential for really interesting interaction, just need to get some bugs out and put together a list of dos and don'ts for route and session creators. Not just talking about the downloads here, the route itself has to be small and have an interesting trackplan so the players will have frequent interaction but not get in each other's way too often, a 10 track mainline with 8 players would be dull, a 500 mile long route where the players never see or interact would be like single player without the AI traffic, a short single track switching route with 16 players would be boring as hell since it would primarily be a "waiting at the red signal simulator".

 

[JIb228]

Id say, just cause its what I would like, a good point to point 15 or 20 mile route. That way your not driving for 4 hours just to find some one, but at the same time you can go for a drive. Point to point with industries at each end and though out would make operations fun for every one. You could go out and haul a 110 car manifest from one end to the other, or go off on a small 15 car local. Bu no matter what still run into at least 2 or 3 other players, if there where at least 4 or 5 people in the session.

 

[danny5]

Then Check out GN1996 Route & Session V2.1 it has everything that everyone can find they want to do.It 100 miles long,Three yards,with INDs all around them,All types of rolling stock,Lots of Loco's & steem,
and yes Passenger trains. 1 main line, 3 branches. I host this as much as i can,and we have as many as 7 players but need at least 12-15 to run better. Check it out, join us. you can run passerger train,run long hauls,local deliveris,yard switching or collecting rolling stock at towns for deliveirs to the yards for classafacation.

 

[Robert2d6]

I guess they've gone to that Run8 sim that has only one route. Good for them. Shows how many people really care.

Not only one route, but a couple of trains, no scenery, no weather, no AI, and many players looking for someone to play MP with, since there are so few that have been sold. Boring......

 

[Mouse84]

I've always support Trainz, I have 5 copies of 2006, and 2 each of 2009, 2010 and TS12. I love 2010 for single player but I hate TS12's MP. I tried Run8's MP and it's GREAT. NO lag, NO ghost trains, NO locked switches. I've been running with a group of guys and it's a BLAST.

I was with a group that beta tested 2010's MP and gave input to Auran, but they ignored most of what we had to say and rushed out TS12 with MP way before it was ready.

 

[doitall]

It seems like if you want to run a multiplayer session in trs12, you need to announce it 3 days to a week in advance to get people to join.

 

[colourlight]

I hate to say this but I have to agree with Northwestern Pacific 100%. The fact is, I love TS12 multiplayer and have gone so far as to create and host a couple of multiplayer sessions. So that leaves you wondering why I agree with Nothwestern. The truth is it is appallingly difficult to join or host a session or even to stay in a session without it crashing. There are any number of reasons for this. I have posted numerous times in an attempt to help people to try and join a session but it,s like banging your head against a brick wall. The last time I hosted Montana Rail Link very few people were able to join the session even though it was up for 3 days!. And after a day or so even people that had joined it previously were unable to do so and I could not determine the cause. So I don,t want to hear people saying "In order to play a multiplayer session all you have to do is download it" If it was that simple I,d still be hosting on a regular basis. And as for the multiplayer server it is about as reliable as the Titanic!.
I suspect the other Sim Northwestern was refering to is Run8. I have played it and overall TS12 is better except for one crucial thing. Multiplayer is far,far superior to TS12. The server never went down once, the time it took to join a session was measured in seconds, lag and MP issues were non-existent and it was generally more realistic. Which led me to thinking in despair "if someone else can do it why can,t N3V Games?"

 

[jjanmarine3]

I think trainz succeeds in giving the majority what they want, which is entertainment on many levels, and freedom to do what one likes .
I certainly don't or won't miss mp.

 

[Mouse84]

Now, before you all rush out and buy it here is the other side of the coin. The biggest drawback for me is nighttime. It is so dark you don,t know where a train is until you walk into it! There are way around it but in multiplayer only the host can change the time so you have to rely on a flashlight.

The night time problem is easy to fix, go to the SHIFT-F1 screen and turn the Night Ambient up to 0.90.

Colourlight is right, as far as single player, Trainz 2010 has them all beat, hands down, but for multiplayer, Run 8 has it. There is no server needed, just connect thru the host's IP.

 

[JIb228]

The biggest drawback for me is nighttime. It is so dark you don,t know where a train is until you walk into it! There are way around it but in multiplayer only the host can change the time so you have to rely on a flashlight. Apart from the mainline, the switches are hand operated by standing next to them. There is no HUD so switching a yard solo is more difficult than Trainz.

I like Run8 for its realism, and I love Run8's night time. If you have ever worked a train at night, it is hard to see what your doing. Some times all you have is a little flash light to light what you need to see. The lack of a HUD and out side camera angles I think really helps enforce and encourage "crews" to work a train. And when I say crews, I mean you might need some one else at the back of your train to help you into a siding.

Yes Run8 has things that make its MP good. But I still think TRS12's MP is better. Why? TRS12 is just more FUN.