Setting up Multiplayer

[kill723]

Hey all, I'm looking to start playing multiplayer, as I've played RT2 for over 15 years but never actually tried the multiplayer. Could someone please walk me through setting up multiplayer? I can play a game or two with you as a token of my gratitude!

[jeffryfisher]

We get this same request once every few years, but if you look back over the archives, I don't think you'll find any success stories.

I myself never saw RT2 as a multiplayer game. Better AI would be nice, but I play most of the game with time paused to analyze and plan. Only a bunch of AI players could put up with my delays. When it's time to replace 400+ aging engines, it can take me over an hour spread over separate days (that can be a week+ apart)!

However, if you search back through these forums, you can find the others who've asked about MP play. Maybe you can track them down, learn from them and possibly even draw one back into trying again.

Good luck!

[kill723]

5 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

We get this same request once every few years, but if you look back over the archives, I don't think you'll find any success stories.

I myself never saw RT2 as a multiplayer game. Better AI would be nice, but I play most of the game with time paused to analyze and plan. Only a bunch of AI players could put up with my delays. When it's time to replace 400+ aging engines, it can take me over an hour spread over separate days (that can be a week+ apart)!

However, if you search back through these forums, you can find the others who've asked about MP play. Maybe you can track them down, learn from them and possibly even draw one back into trying again.

Good luck!

I totally get pausing the game to analyze it, takes me ages to decide where to start and which route is the most efficient. 

[SD45]

A mini update from me:

After doing some reading, I did manage to get multiplayer working over a LAN with my laptop and desktop. I used IPXWrapper - http://www.solemnwarning.net/ipxwrapper/ to emulate an IPX connection. 

Once that was set up, I used the IPX option to connect my Laptop and Desktop together over LAN, set up the game, and I was playing on the Heartland map against myself on my desktop, a less than ideal setup. 

Still need to work out a few bugs though. (Stuttery, jumping trains for no clear reason. I think this might be some sort of memory issue resulting from a overflow.), but it's a start. 

The next step after this is to figure out a way to bridge the gap between networks.  

Honestly, playing Railroad Tycoon II with multiple real people is rather appealing, and I understand the circumstances. I'm rather used to thinking on my feet in RT2, and I know it's not common and possibly not kosher, but I usually don't pause to plan out routes, because I know what to look for. 

But based on what I've read, I think small to medium sized maps would be good for multiplayer. 

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by SD45

[jeffryfisher]

1 hour ago, SD45 said:

Stuttery, jumping trains for no clear reason. I think this might be some sort of memory issue

Sounds like comm lag -- the game probably estimates movement and then corrects positions after receiving a network packet.

It saddens me to think of how much work must have gone into this virtually unused feature when some bug fixes and interface improvements would have been so much more valuable 

[SD45]

No offense, but I think our opinions may have been skewed somewhat thanks to the passage of time.

Reading up on it, multiplayer was rather popular back in the day when it was released. There were a few well-know game services that allowed it, such as HEAT.net and GameSpy. Evolve was a more recent option.

But we're in a different situation these days. All those services have been closed, and we're also now pushing the game rather hard, peeling back the layers of the onion, trying to get the most out of RT2, and finding some rather interesting bugs in the process. 

So, yes, it can seem that multiplayer was a worthless addition, but it's just a victim of bit rot, like many things.

There's still a interest in multiplayer transportation simulation games. The OpenTTD mutiplayer servers are quite active last time I checked. 

Edited March 11, 2019 by SD45

[AyCe]

Just for future people:
I've played multiplayer several times already. On newer Windows Versions you need to install DirectPlay. You should be able to play via TCP/IP in a LAN without problems, and using a VPN like Hamachi or Tunngle (if such a thing still exists) you can also play over the internet.

Jumping trains seem to always happen in multiplayer. The game is a bit less smooth.