Pretty DISGUSTING iTrainz Server Maintentance - Aug 28 2012 - STILL OUT MULTIPLAYER

Well Here we go and Still.... after 5 and 1/2 days ....of the

Webservice Maintenance - 19th September 2012

This maintenance was completed on schedule, on the 19th. Multiplayer, chat, etc. was functioning by 6PM AEST on that day.

Nothing has worked for Days in Multiplayer ... As I have talked to at least 20-40 people on TeamSpeak

with same issue ....of MP Not ....Not ... Not Working

I have seen no reports of multiplayer not working (aside from this one). There has been no downtime since the maintenance on the 19th. We have just performed a quick test here and confirmed that multiplayer is currently working. As of this time there are 3 multiplayer games active.

Terry Palmer
Programmer
N3V Games
 
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What your problem the server has been down for two weeks or more there is a lot of tickets sent in and no one has done anything. At least they haven't said anything other then that they don't know of a problem.
From what i can see there been nothing on the DLS since the repair.
 
Terry Palmer,

The problem is that content manger is updating correctly because we play USA PROTOTYPE MULTIPLAYER ROUTE if you look on the DLS (black pages) the last version is 5.3 route and 5.3 session. However if you look at content manger the last route is 5.2. Now if you download the the route and session version 5.3 from the DLS (black pages) and try to start a multiplayer session you get a error. (route,session or dependency are locally modified or not on the DLS).

I did a full database repair and I have no locally modified Items.
 
Multiplay ...May be working in Europe ....but Since 9-19-12

The Content Manager has NOT ....Updated any Submitted Route or Session

They show up in DL Station ....

BUT Content Mgr .... Not Up-Dated with any Rts or Sessions ....here in USA

*****

Also NO Green Chat Icon Today .... Here on West Coast 9:eek:o am 9-26-12

so with Server Down .. Can't even start to see if MP is FUNCTIONING
 
I hadn't done multiplayer for several months, but with the recent sale I bought a second copy of TS12 to install on my son's computer. That was when I discovered that NONE of the multiplayer sessions I had working last time I tried it would launch at all. Main problem is updates, if (for example) Chicago Metro V2 MULTIPLAYER TEST 1,<kuid:522774:100174> was working perfectly and is not now, gotta check all the dependencies and sub dependencies to fix it. In this case mea culpa - I made that new "brakeman view" and uploaded KUID2 replacements for a bunch of cars, ChiMet FREIGHT LD 40 ft Boxcar A,<kuid2:522774:100126:1> is now ChiMet FREIGHT LD 40 ft Boxcar A,<kuid2:522774:100126:2> and requires freightview XP 5,<kuid:522774:100089> which the previous one didn't. I HAVE all that stuff since I made it myself, problem is the pedantic rules which require everything on the DLS and nothing locally modified, so I got a lot of deleting and redownloading to do. I managed after a full day and 90 megs of downloading to get Chicago Metro V2 CTA multiplayer 16 30,<kuid:522774:100225> working on both machines so we did get a chance to chase each other around the elevated and subway system, so I can confirm that the server is working fine.

The problem is the basic design of multiplayer needs to be reprogrammed to remove many of the restrictions that cause more problems than they prevent. Joe starts a session using a heavily modified steamer with lots of smoke, people joining the session have the original unmodified steamer so they don't see the same smoke Joe sees, so what? Bob joins the session with a GP38 that has sliding disk wheels when everyone else has the KUID2 replacement updated for rolling wheels, so what? Redesign the blasted thing so that if all the basic KUID numbers match it will launch, if a joiner is missing dependencies smack him with an error message. If a bunch of guys try to play Thomas the Tank Engine on the Island of Sodor and nothing used is on the DLS, it should be THEIR responsibility to make sure everyone has all the parts needed and do their own debugging if someone doesn't.

The THEORY behind the restrictions was very noble, make it easy for n00bs so a lot of people would be using multiplayer, but in actual practice it ain't working - people are staying away from multiplayer simply because the automatic restrictions take too much time and effort to get a multiplayer session started.
 
I have played a lot of different multiplayer games over the years, but this one is starting to really frustrate me. The servers are down so often, or things don't work as expected, or there is excessive latency. No one wants to play multiplayer any longer because of things like this.
I think it's really time for Auran to revamp their mp system. I for one am thinking of moving to something else because between the outdated d/l station and this, I spend more time debugging and reinstalling this game then I've ever had to do for anything on a computer in 25 years!
I would hope that Auran would get the message at some point. I don't think it's sinking in but less and less players are staying interested, at least in TS12.
There's my thoughts for you, not that it will make any difference whatsoever.
Ray.
 
Thanks for the info everybody.

The report by ARR said nothing about the Download Station asset listings, so we did not specifically test that. As part of the maintenance on the 19th an old server was decommissioned. This server held an archive of older Download Station asset listings, and some clients are still trying to access it in order to download those listings.

A fix is being implemented as we speak, and the Download Station asset listings will be completely rebuilt, just to be on the safe side. Please bear with us while this process is performed, but expect it to be completed within the next few hours.

I will post again once the update is complete.

Terry Palmer
Programmer
N3V Games
 
Having a reliable DLS connection will probably help, but again it seriously needs to be less fussy. Got a KUID 12345:6789 as a dependency, if the user has KUID 12345:6789 installed then it should accept that without worrying about if it's locally modified or not. It should also accept KUID2 12345:6789:2 or KUID 12345:6789:8 or KUID 12345:6789:5 or whatever it finds on the user's system without being so pedantic about whether it exactly matches the version on the DLS, since that subroutine fails so often even outside of multiplayer. Example tonight, got an hour or two free, haven't played IntenCity multiplayer for a while, let's fire it up! Check in content mangler first, route still there, session still there, no missing dependency icons. Check dependencies anyway, none are flagged for faulty, missing subdependencies, or locally modified, let's rock!

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Uh, guess not, sub dependencies have had updates - altho the last time I played this it worked fine with the existing dependencies, due to the petulant 'bot insisting on always having the latest and greatest it won't let me play. Okay, so let it download. The hour or two time slot for playing has come and gone, here I am three and a half hours after the time intended to start a multiplayer session;

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And it's still downloading.

That is why so many people don't do multiplayer, the very rules designed to make it easier for the user have turned it into a high maintenance chore instead of a fun pastime.
 
Now THAT'S entertainment!

Over five hours now, never had this much fun watching paint dry. Cab shell is almost done, two libraries to go. I fervently hope this thing is set to keep the updates instead of just saving them to some kind of cache, cuz I'd hate to do this again when I try to run it tomorrow. Ain't multiplayer a blast? :sleep:
 
Aside from the DLS Issues the relialability of the














Aside from the DLS issue my area of concern is the unreliability of the MP Server. I can accept that it needs to be taken down for Maintainence every so often and it will break down now and then but the number of times the server has been down recently is beyond a joke and N3V Games really need to get their act together, worry less about promoting their payware all the time (which is no good for Multiplayer in any case) and give us a Multiplayer Server that we can rely on.
 
I think he said that's what they were working on, apparently not finished yet. After 5 hours 40 minutes downloading it finally started;

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Been like that for 10 minutes now, I'm afraid to shut it off in case all that downloaded stuff hasn't been actually saved yet. Assuming it does in fact save downloads in that process.
 
Hi everyone,

The fixes took a while longer to implement than expected but are now complete.

It may take up to a day for your local download station listings to automatically refresh. If you wish to force a refresh you can run an extended database repair.

Terry Palmer
Programmer
N3V Games
 
Thank you for the updates.

As we speak I have completed an extended database repair and it appears all functioning ;). Happy days.

Will first get A and SLT 2.7 to test. This is fully working for TS12. Once sorted ill have another go trying to get your session Colourlight.

Fingers crossed.

Edit: However downloading is extremely extremely slow...but at least it's working!
 
I have managed to download all missing assets for A and SLT 2.7 - A and SLT 2.8 (latest update) and the Montana Rail Link 2.9b and all appear to be working until I get to the point of starting a multiplayer session where it states:

You do not have a multiplayer subscription, please check user name and pass. (or words to this effect. I see elsewhere this problem has occurred before)

I have removed the pass and started the game. Where it shows everything offline. Which is correct.

Upon putting the correct details in Ichat logs in and shows green whereas the content updates appear offline. I guess from this that multiplayer is also offline.

Please clarify. Everything else appears back to normal.

Regards.

Edit: Upon restarting and doing the same again, the error no longer appears. However content updates are still offline, but I dont care bout that haha.
 
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Well, I haven't tried it yet because now I'M getting disgusted. The good news is the multiplayer bot nazi did save all the stuff it downloaded over 5 hours, the bad news is getting it to work on the other computer. Saved all the downloads to a CDP and sent them over to my son's computer, he tried to start content manager and got one of them D3D dll errors. I have a copy of his TS12 on my machine, so I imported the CDP into that and tried to run it - and got the exact same locally modified / missing / not up to date nonsense.

Troubleshooting all that now, not counting six hours of sleep I'm 8 hours into this and no sign of a multiplayer session in the near future. Again, PLEASE do SOMETHING with the program to make it less fussy, right now it's more difficult to work with than a Washington bureaucrat.
 
Thanks, I'll check that out. Meanwhile back on my machine on the alternate copy, I still get "locally modified" followed by the exact same screen;

21590337.jpg


Cancel that, go back to content manager, now the route and session are showing the faulty dependency icon, so take a squint - red ! for Justin's safetran signals, right click, view errors and warnings, (validating) 0 errors 0 warnings and the flag is removed. Same thing for the other one, so check all dependencies present and up to date, restart, try session again, same sequence.

I can't understand why more people aren't playing multiplayer, this is EVER so much fun! :sleep:
 
Well, thanks Shane, downloading the MS DX update did the trick, I can now open my son's content manager. Unfortunately it still won't run, same error messages - it turns out the act of saving something to CDP and importing it into the other copy of the game makes it "locally modified" according to the multiplayer bot, which then proceeds to delete all the assets I just imported and wants to download them again. I suspect I can work around this by copying the entire userdata folder from my machine to his, but if the developers are not gonna reprogram this abomination they should at least rename it from "multiplayer" to "multiworker" to give fair warning, since it's all work and no play.
 
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