Trainz multiplayer?

Hi all.
I'm new to this virtual trains stuff, never played any of the train sims. Being a huge fan of a railway itself, decided to try a PC simulator. Browsed through dozens of youtube videos, reviews etc.
Usually ppl say Railworks 3 is better in all aspects. No idea if it is, frankly, both games look great to me. Trainz though, has a very important advantage. Multiplayer.
All games I play in multiplayer mode with my wife. Simply not buying SP only games. The problem is, you have to buy two games, so costs go up. 70£ on steam for Trainz 12 at this moment would be my expense, so I'd like ask old wolves first about few things.
1) Is there option for LAN multiplayer, so we could play locally?
2) What are "multiplayer" modes there? Are there tasks to be done, any team work, anything that gives you feeling of cooperative/competitive multiplayer experience?
3) Do you build new routes in-game during gameplay, or simply creating maps in editor? Oh, can you implement tasks in user created maps for multiplayer, so both players have certain objectives?
4) There is a lot of jabber about how Trainz 12 chews system resources. I got i7 with GF555 plenty 8G ram, and some people say it's far to little to run the game? Can't believe this somehow.
5) Is there option for user created free add-ons (locomotives etc), aside from DLC payware?

Sorry for the newbie questions, but just wanted to know if this game is worth buying it ...twice...
Regards

Hi and welcome to Trainz,

tarsus said:

70£ on steam for Trainz 12

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If you intent to play multiplayer (MP) do NOT buy from Steam as they dont patch their version to the latest build, which is required to play MP.
So whatever you do, if your aim is to play MP, [put random strong emotional expression here] do not go Steam.

If the price is to high and you aint in a rush: There are frequent 25% off actions on the website. Subscribe to the newsletter might be handy here.

tarsus said:

1) Is there option for LAN multiplayer, so we could play locally?

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No.
You can put a password on your MP session so only people with the password can join you, to keep it private.

tarsus said:

2) What are "multiplayer" modes there? Are there tasks to be done, any team work, anything that gives you feeling of cooperative/competitive multiplayer experience?

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In theory a session / scenario could be made, but so far none have. What does happen is that people organize MP sessions with a dispatcher, etc, so then there will be tasks and orders, but so far no build-in of these kind of actions.

tarsus said:

3) Do you build new routes in-game during gameplay, or simply creating maps in editor? Oh, can you implement tasks in user created maps for multiplayer, so both players have certain objectives?

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You can build routes yourself in Surveyor. The strong point of Trainz is the (especially compared to other similar products) good route building option. Loads of people hardly drive a train and are just building.
A part of that is the ability to build your own sessions in which you should be able to create MP objectives.

tarsus said:

4) There is a lot of jabber about how Trainz 12 chews system resources. I got i7 with GF555 plenty 8G ram, and some people say it's far to little to run the game? Can't believe this somehow.

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Based on the huge amount of posts about this topic, I can only say: Try and fiddle a bit with the settings.
I have seen people with sick highly specced machines moan like hell about performance and on the low side of the spectrum is silly me with a 6 year old PC having hardly any problems at all.

tarsus said:

5) Is there option for user created free add-ons (locomotives etc), aside from DLC payware?

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Forget payware for a minute. You get free access to a Content Management tool with over 209.000 objects and growing. I think that is another strong point: Loads of content you do not have to pay for.
Yes, there is payware. Sure on average it might be beter then the free stuff. I myself dont have anything from outside the free content and havent missed anything yet.

oknotsen said:

Hi and welcome to Trainz,

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Thanks for the quick reply. Much appreciated.