Please set the mode for real-time multiplayer

[suhwan8217]

All good. However, it seems unreasonable to transport cargo in all areas and perform shunting alone. Also, since doing it alone can make it less fun, please implement it so that you can play real-time multiplayer. If we all transport and shunt together, I think we can give the feeling of being a real railroad engineer.

[Talkingpeanut]

Unfortunately multiplayer is not planned, please see Simulator Status Update 3
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/588030/view/3633872920419157040?l=english

[Dewgle]

Someone by the name of Patrick van Halm created a multiplayer mod for Derail Valley and surprisingly it worked quite well! Minus a few hiccups here and there and it required players have a relatively low latency to each other.
Multiplayer continued[www.nexusmods.com]
https://youtu.be/5PRgZDrXRSk

But sadly it broke with one of the recent game updates and no longer seems to function. I do hope the mod-maker comes back and updates it again or even better if the devs change their mind and invest some effort into implementing online coop.

However I did find an interesting alternative. A mod called Remote Dispacth[www.nexusmods.com]. It's not quite the same as multiplayer/coop but it still allows you to play with your friends. The one playing the game loads the mod up and then a friend can 'connect' to that player's game session through an internet browser. It's really intuitive. You can:

• Switch junctions anywhere on the map
  
• Click on any car to inspect it, see what job it belongs to and even see it's destination including the yard & track it's going to
  
• You can even control DE2 shunters through the browser and couple/uncouple cars

I use it even when playing by myself, it makes shuffling cars around the yard a lot easier when I can have the map on a separate monitor. When playing with my friend I'll stream the game to him over Discord so he can watch me play. And while I'm busy operating the trains, he's working the switches and inspecting the yard to see which car goes where. Makes the game much more fun and makes shunting jobs so much faster.

[lnomsim]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Talkingpeanut:

Unfortunately multiplayer is not planned, please see Simulator Status Update 3
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/588030/view/3633872920419157040?l=english

Yeah, that post was pretty big letdown.
Epsecially considering this:

"Is the map getting expanded in Simulator?

No. Apart from minor prop additions and bug fixes, there are no changes to the map, tracks or industries coming in Simulator. We plan on working on track and industry improvements immediately after launch, depending on its success, however the map size won’t change. We do, however, intend to have one or more new maps as DLC in the future."

Yet, if you go there:
http://www.derailvalley.com/unlocks/

You'll notice they were planned and are still in the planner.

Same with AI traffic.

And I'm pretty sure MP was there at some point. Especially considering how hard I tried to convince my brother to take the game once it would be out.

Yet, the official statement is this:

"No. Multiplayer was never a planned feature. We wanted to test the possibility of adding it at some point, but there are way too many things on our plate for us to get to it. If we ever do multiplayer, it will be in a separate product."

[Knsgf]

Oprindeligt skrevet af lnomsim:

And I'm pretty sure MP was there at some point.

There used to be a tethered 2 player co-op at the very end of the roadmap - with a big disclaimer that it might never come. Full-blown MP was never planned.

[Dewgle]

Oprindeligt skrevet af lnomsim:

Yet, if you go there:
http://www.derailvalley.com/unlocks/

You'll notice they were planned and are still in the planner. Same with AI traffic.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936307804

Oprindeligt skrevet af lnomsim:

And I'm pretty sure MP was there at some point. Especially considering how hard I tried to convince my brother to take the game once it would be out.

Well you inspired me to spin up the WayBackMachine and take a look at the unlocks page from different time periods and you are in fact correct. Multiplayer co-op was on the roadmap as a planned feature. Have a look:
Derail Valley roadmap circa May 1st 2020[web.archive.org]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Knsgf:

Oprindeligt skrevet af lnomsim:

And I'm pretty sure MP was there at some point.

There used to be a tethered 2 player co-op at the very end of the roadmap - with a big disclaimer that it might never come. Full-blown MP was never planned.

That disclaimer wasn't added until later, here's the original
https://i.imgur.com/jDCQyFS.png

[Talkingpeanut]

No one is denying the word 'multiplayer' was at one point on that list. But the intention behind it was always a very restricted 2p coop attempted right at the end of development.
Seems likely to me that the increasing fervour over the prospect combined with the increasing clarity on what needed to be done to implement it pushed the devs to temper expectations by adding the disclaimer and then removing it entirely.

But whatever the circumstances, mp isn't coming. In the absence of time machines, making that fact clear now is the best way to proceed

[Dewgle]

Perhaps AltFuture will invite Patrick van Halm onto the team as they did with the very talented Zeibach. Patrick proved it was absolutely possible to implement multiplayer into Derail Valley and he didn't even have access to the game's source code.

This is something I really hope will happen because as much as I love Derail Valley-

(and I enjoy it a lot)

-I greatly dislike playing single player games that take me away from friends and family. They miss me and I miss them but I am loathe to tear myself away from this fun game.

I don't need a hyper-realistic character model, I'd settle for a sloppy cartoon character with a painted on face to be completely honest. It's just the small things I look forward to the most such as working the switches while my partner operates the engine, hooking up the chains & hoses and flashing a hand-held lantern to indicate he's ready to depart. Jumping onto the last car in the consist as he starts to pull away and running to the front of the train to join him in the cabin as we begin the long journey to the next station. Studying the station maps and planning our arrival while he monitors the track signs.

The very nature of this game's core loop is begging for 2 player coop. Having a friend to split tasks with would greatly increase workflow in addition to letting me see my friends again. They miss me, lol..

[TheOofertaffy]

Oprindeligt skrevet af EASY McDewgle:

Perhaps AltFuture will invite Patrick van Halm onto the team as they did with the very talented Zeibach. Patrick proved it was absolutely possible to implement multiplayer into Derail Valley and he didn't even have access to the game's source code.

This is something I really hope will happen because as much as I love Derail Valley-

(and I enjoy it a lot)

-I greatly dislike playing single player games that take me away from friends and family. They miss me and I miss them but I am loathe to tear myself away from this fun game.

I don't need a hyper-realistic character model, I'd settle for a sloppy cartoon character with a painted on face to be completely honest. It's just the small things I look forward to the most such as working the switches while my partner operates the engine, hooking up the chains & hoses and flashing a hand-held lantern to indicate he's ready to depart. Jumping onto the last car in the consist as he starts to pull away and running to the front of the train to join him in the cabin as we begin the long journey to the next station. Studying the station maps and planning our arrival while he monitors the track signs.

The very nature of this game's core loop is begging for 2 player coop. Having a friend to split tasks with would greatly increase workflow in addition to letting me see my friends again. They miss me, lol..

The more I read about everyone discussing mutliplayer, I have to wonder, why doesnt Altfuture at least try? I mean if they try and fail, at least you know you couldn't do it. If you don't attempt it in the first place, then the idea of a multiplayer is just going to be sitting on the table, with people wondering, would it have worked? and to add to all this, doing it after simulator out of all times probably would be the right time to attempt it, because the more developed you make a game, the harder it is going to be to implement. I would greatly suggest Altfuture, though myself not knowing much about game development, at least attempt it. give it a good shot, and if it doesn't work, then thats that. at least you tried. I know Altfuture has already said that its likely not in the tables, but i really hope they give it a go, because it would make the game 2x better with other people to play with, and there is more proof as MrDewgie said, that Patrick had made a multiplayer mod, further proving that it may be worth a try at least from Altfuture. Thanks for reading.

[lnomsim]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mr. Black Beaver:

The more I read about everyone discussing mutliplayer, I have to wonder, why doesnt Altfuture at least try?

Probably because it cost time, resources and money they don't have.

It's an early access and niche game, that doesn't have that many players to begin with. They haven't released anything in over a year and last update was to bring a useless boombox...

Maybe if they had marketed the game as such and included some basic elements of MP early on it might have attracted the right crowd.

But nowadays, finding this game by accident is almost impossible, and with the emergence of cheaper train sims that don't cost the same as a real car, the market is getting bigger and only big studios are getting some spotlight.

I can perfectly understand they decided they couldn't do it.

What I would have preferred though is that they wouldn't have put it as a milestone in the project and then declare it was never planned to begin with.

I kind of bought it because MP was planned. And I wasn't really expecting updates to take so long either, especially when most of what they will bring to the game are things free mods already do...

But at least the game is enjoyable, and I don't any other that scratches my itch as that one does.

[Rick]

I am hoping for some new maps, or bigger maps. I've pretty much seen it all after 10-20 hours...

[Altfuture]

Since discussions of this type have been going in circles before, I'm going to lock this thread, with the following clarifications (which have been posted elsewhere many times so far):

- 2-player Co-op was listed in the unlocks page (years ago) with a disclaimer "we'll attempt this but may not succeed". It was intended to be a very simple version, with the second player being a set of helping hands to the main player, but people read into it as a full-blown multiplayer. That is never going to happen (nor has ever been planned), so the goal was removed to not confuse people. I personally didn't even want to have that listed there, and I regret approving that decision and ever having it listed. Lesson learned.

- No list of unlocks was ever said to be definitive and it's been clearly stated that it was (and still is) a subject to change. This is because a lot of unexpected complexities could come up - and they did (and they will). The development of Simulator, for example, took a lot more workforce and time than originally expected. This was something that we couldn't anticipate previously, but were dedicated to fight through. Challenges like these are normal when producing an innovative product, no matter the industry or the scale of a business. All we can do is put the best possible effort and responsibly inform everyone of the latest ongoings, which is what we've been doing.

- There being a multiplayer mod doesn't mean that it's a simple thing to do properly. We know very well how to do it ourselves, it's not a skill issue but a resource issue. It would take a lot of time to adapt the game to such a capability, which we cannot afford right now (both time and money -wise), nor we could in the past if we were to respect any of the other plans for the game. Simply, as I've stated before - if we ever do multiplayer it will be in a separate product.

- The team is outputting the absolute maximum of work we can, which is miles ahead of the industry average. It's physically (and mentally) not possible to add more things to our plate than there is already. Simulator is intended and designed to help us further increase the output. Whether it will succeed in doing that is not guaranteed by anyone. As a business the future of Derail Valley entirely depends on the commercial success of this update, as has been the case with all previous releases too. We, just like everyone here, wish to add as much as possible to the game, and have actually invested significant portions of our lives to make it happen.

Oprindeligt skrevet af lnomsim:

Yeah, that post was pretty big letdown.
Epsecially considering this:

"Is the map getting expanded in Simulator?

No. Apart from minor prop additions and bug fixes, there are no changes to the map, tracks or industries coming in Simulator. We plan on working on track and industry improvements immediately after launch, depending on its success, however the map size won’t change. We do, however, intend to have one or more new maps as DLC in the future."

Yet, if you go there:
http://www.derailvalley.com/unlocks/

You'll notice they were planned and are still in the planner.

Same with AI traffic.

I don't understand how is this a letdown. The unlocks page is up to date, and yes, those features are still planned. That doesn't make them coming in Simulator (we announced exactly what's coming to it almost two years ago).

I literally wrote there that work on the map will be started immediately after Simulator. The reason it wasn't earlier is because that would result in the delay of Simulator - can't please everyone.

Making this game is a continuous battle, and the process it's going through is not something set in stone. While we strive for the same goals we had in the beginning, the planning needs to adapt to countless factors.

I don't think many people are aware that this started as a 2-people project with literally zero budget, and that we aren't a AAA studio backed by a cash cow. Yet, we've set ourselves extremely ambitious goals. In the gaming industry, it's actually very, very, very rare and unlikely for a company to get as far as we have.

Oprindeligt skrevet af lnomsim:

They haven't released anything in over a year and last update was to bring a useless boombox...

The boombox was worked on by one of our devs, while the rest of the team was working on Simulator. It wasn't in the way of more important features, and that particular developer was most useful doing that at the moment. The fact that happened to be our last update is coincidental. You can read the linked news post above for more information on why we've stopped with smaller updates.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Rick:

I am hoping for some new maps, or bigger maps. I've pretty much seen it all after 10-20 hours...

Again, depending on the Simulator success, we plan to start work on features needed for further map development immediately after its release. With that done we'd be able to update the existing map with more locations and routes, and eventually create future DLC maps. More on that in the future.