Multiplayer is in development!

You probably never thought this day would come, but Rolling Line is officially going to be getting multiplayer! I've been working on developing multiplayer in the background and I'm finally at the stage of being able to show it off.

A full release of multiplayer is still a long time away though, so don't get too excited just yet, but so far progress is going great and I'm really happy with how it's currently looking!

Everything in this news post is VERY work-in-progress and will likely look very different before it's released. Especially the character models and interactions.

Here are the main key points about what I'm planning for Rolling Line's multiplayer:

Servers will be peer-to-peer

This means one person will "host" a map on their computer, and they can send a code to other people to let them join. I can't confirm yet whether there will be a public lobby system, I need to do more research and test things out before confirming this.

You can host any save file you like, and if it requires mods then all joining players will need to also have those mods downloaded to be able to see them.

Map editing will NOT be included in the release of multiplayer

I will be working on adding map editing in a future update, but for now it will just be train operations (everything except placing props & track). The reason I'm doing it this way is because map editing is going to be a massive, massive job. It would be a much better option to focus on the basics of multiplayer and get this ready for people to play sooner, rather then trying to do everything at once.

So I can't make any promises as to how map editing will work, or when it will happen. There will be more news on that once the core features of multiplayer are done.

The player model will be customizable & moddable

You will be able to customize your player model with things like basic clothing and colors, as well as choosing from some default model presets. And of course player models will be fully moddable using a similar system to prop modding, so you will be able to import 3D models to use as your player avatar.

Player animations

I haven't yet decided how to manage player model animations, but the most likely system will be that your player model will have pre-set "gestures" like pointing and waving. But if you have a modded player character model then you will also be able to import custom animations!

VR players will hopefully have some form of hand tracking, but I haven't researched anything about how to do this yet.

Support for voice chat and text chat

Pretty much a requirement for any good multiplayer game, this will of course include voice chat and text chat. I would also love to add some sort of hand-held radio system, but I can't confirm details on how this will work yet.

And much more!

I won't make too many promises since multiplayer is still VERY early in development and I'll be confirming things as I go. At the moment I am just focusing on the core framework and getting things to a fully playable state, so all the finer details will come later.

Speaking of which, here's the first ever captured photo of Rolling Line running in multiplayer!

Progress so far

The reason I'm announcing this now is because I've finally gotten the core functionality of multiplayer working and I'm starting to get a good idea of what's possible (and what's not). I'm still testing out various networking connection options, so a lot is still not set in stone. Most of what you're seeing is placeholder and VERY work-in progress.

The character models are just temporary, in fact these are from Spicy Tamale's prop mod:

View on Steam Things like animations, and displaying what players are holding in their hands is not in the game yet, but here are some examples of what the current state of multiplayer is like:

Train interaction

All of the train interaction from singleplayer also work in multiplayer, so you can pickup and place trains, push trains, etc. And other players can see you doing this:

Riding trains

You can ride on trains, and see other players both on & off trains! You can have multiple people riding on a single wagon, so people can be inside the cab while others stand on the outside:

Miniature & large scale

And you can be in both miniature and large scale, and see other players doing the same thing!

And of course you can play on any map you like! When a player joins a server they will download the map data directly from the server. (Though I have not yet confirmed how I'm going to manage mods, whether it will require everyone to be using the Steam Workshop, or whether mod files can be downloaded directly when joining a server).

Anyway, in conclusion, I'm really excited to finally be announcing this, and there will be lots more news coming as I make more progress.

Multiplayer has always been such a far off dream, so seeing it actually in action is quite surreal.

But this is going to take a TON of work! The progress I have so far is just the basics, there's a huge amount of work between this and a finished and fully-featured multiplayer update.

My estimate would be several months at least, but we shall see. And I'm still going to be releasing some smaller gameplay related updates before then.

Exciting times!

And thank you to all my Patreon supporters!

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