RCT Discussion / OpenRCT: advantages and disadvantages

Yeah I don't really get how you can complain at Posix for giving you what was asked for. It's not like Posix is saying this needs to be done and done right now, he was just giving you guys a list of differences which was asked for so you could better understand how RCTLL is different to RCT2.

I didn't mean for that to sound like complaining, I'm sorry. I meant to explain why that wasn't available yet in OpenRCT2.

@Louis! we have collected @posix's input, thanks. I was only pointing out it will probably be a long time before it all gets addressed.

 

I have another question to ask of you, NEdesigns crowd:

 

Now that you have a server of your own, how do you find multiplayer experience, especially compared to single player? We know there are some tools missing, but which ones do you actually need to build a park in multiplayer?

^being able to use tile_inspector. I find it quite annoying having to delay my park, because I need to go into tile inspector to do something. I know you can use object selection in multiplayer by typing ` , then typing open object_selection, so I wonder why it shouldn't be done with tile inspector.

Multiplayer is just incredible, well done.

Another 2 points that come to my mind:
-LL has different chain lift sounds

-LL had slightly less banked track on the 4 seater wooden rollercoaster

So there are a lot of differences if you really want an authentic LL feel, but what you guys do is awesome:)

Regarding the land surfaces and edges: OpenRCT2 is already capable of drawing them. It means that Good Knight Park can look like this:
 


Or if you prefer a video: https://vid.me/SPhv

This is the future - as soon we switch to our own format.

Did you just swap the sprites in g1.dat for that or is it another clever workaround?

^being able to use tile_inspector. I find it quite annoying having to delay my park, because I need to go into tile inspector to do something. I know you can use object selection in multiplayer by typing ` , then typing open object_selection, so I wonder why it shouldn't be done with tile inspector.

 

Because the tile inspector manipulates game data directly and doesn't go through the networking code. If the tile inspector was available, it would only affect your local machine and not anyone else's. There is an open issue about this.

Did you just swap the sprites in g1.dat for that or is it another clever workaround?

It actually reads the sprites from the csg1.dat file from RCT1. Then, changing one constant in the code is sufficient.

I have another question to ask of you, NEdesigns crowd:
 
Now that you have a server of your own, how do you find multiplayer experience, especially compared to single player? We know there are some tools missing, but which ones do you actually need to build a park in multiplayer?

The only thing missing from multiplayer is the tile inspector. Other than that, it's perfect.

Can I get any response as well from green-fonts and red-fonts? Liampie, Lagom, Cocoa, G Force, Steve, Belgian Guy, I summon you.

Hello OpenRCT2 .. contributor here! everyone introduced themself like this so why not xox

 

OpenRCT2 is always trying to improve - Leaving suggestion to Janisozaur or another DEV/filing a issue on our GitHub page is the best way to hand out suggestions that would improve the game.

Hope you all enjoy your multiplayer server

Multiplayer is of course a great experience, and something I'd never dreamed of having. It's bizarre.

 

As said before, the tile inspector is sorely missed, and the console would be nice to have as well. But i can believe there are good reasons why these are not in multiplayer. I'm also missing the object selector, but this is mostly a problem for us because of the logistics on our side.

 

Really, the biggest possible improvement I can think of right now is the server management.

- In the permissions window, the 'default user group' is not hidden away well enough. It has happened on multiple occasions that someone accidentally set the default user group to the most powerful group, which is naturally very dangerous. It's too close to that other drop-down menu with all the user groups, easy to confuse. I think you should move it elsewhere!

- Spammers are a problem sometimes. We usually deal with them by silencing the 'guest' user group, but that takes away the chat permissions for anyone else new who might join at that point. It's inconvenient. It would be great if we could hand out IP bans, which should of course be a seperate permission.

- Spammers' last resort is repeatedly logging in and out of the server, clogging up the chat even if they don't have chat permissions. This should not be possible. I think the 'Janisozaur has joined the game' messages and announcements like that shouldn't be in the chat anyway, especially since the chat window is so small. If a few people join at the same time, it's easy to miss parts of the conversation. It should be seperate.

- Similar to the 'Show recent messages' button that has a log of in-game messages, there should be a similar button with the chat log for like the last hour or so.

- There should be the option to have a welcome message/window pop up when you join, where people can state what the server is about and how to get permissions. It's not just on our server that people whine for permissions. We have to refer them to the forum to check out the rules, but even then, if they find it at all, they don't bother to read. It's annoying. A window like this should be great! Stuff like this should also be a seperate permission. I think plenty of servers, definitely ours, are hosted by some kind of bot. At least a computer running 24/7. Things like these shouldn't be restricted to just the host, 'server management' like that should be a seperate permission. Which includes being able to change the server name and description. We can't do that right now, again, because of the way we have things set up on our end.

 

 

- We use signs to communicate in the park, like "someone finish my building" or "Liampie will come back and finish this". Usually like 2 to 4 signs because otherwise it doesn't fit. It's not an awful way to do it, but it would be awesome if there was a system in place that makes this kind of communication easier. Markers, pointers, stuff like that. I'd lovesomething like the place markers in google maps/earth, that will show a message if you hover your cursor over them.

- We use staff patrol areas to mark who built what. Again, a seperate tool for marking areas with whatever, for whatever purpose, would be great.

- A bug: repainting track pieces with alternative colours is not registering for other users.

 

If I have more, I will let you know!

 

edit: I have more!

 

- It's super annoying to see "Member has joined the game", only to have them disconnect due to No Data seconds later. They never actually joined yet. It clogs up the chat, and it's confusing. We're never sure if someone actually joined. Chat is often like "User joined" "Hi user!" - "User disconnected (no data)" - "Oh" - "User joined"

 

Happens all the time.

Liam, just a heads up, the console is already usable by pressing ('), and the object selection can be accessed by typing object_selection there.

Oh. I would never have guessed. Any reason why this is so hidden away? Not very user friendly... Although that's not the word I would use for the console anyway.

 

edit: Doesn't work

Oops, sorry, never actually tried it out

Any reason why this is so hidden away?

 
It's not exactly hidden ... that's the usual key to open the console. However, it's my guess that this is accidental and the console was supposed to be disabled, because many of those commands shouldn't be available.
 
I started a local server on my machine to test this, and I found that the object selection doesn't sync over multiplayer. Selecting an object will work on the client but not affect anyone else's client. Attempting to build the object also works on the client but generates a (non fatal) error on the server, because the object isn't loaded. The result is that actually using this command will result in an immediate desync. The same goes for the friction command.
 
To make object selection work properly over multiplayer would be somewhat more complex than just syncing the command, because not all clients will have the object - there would have to be a mechanism to send the object to all clients, or to check that everyone has it before allowing the command to go through.

 
It's not exactly hidden ... that's the usual key to open the console. However, it's my guess that this is accidental and the console was supposed to be disabled, because many of those commands shouldn't be available.
 
I started a local server on my machine to test this, and I found that the object selection doesn't sync over multiplayer. Selecting an object will work on the client but not affect anyone else's client. Attempting to build the object also works on the client but generates a (non fatal) error on the server, because the object isn't loaded. The result is that actually using this command will result in an immediate desync. The same goes for the friction command.
 
To make object selection work properly over multiplayer would be somewhat more complex than just syncing the command, because not all clients will have the object - there would have to be a mechanism to send the object to all clients, or to check that everyone has it before allowing the command to go through.

 

I know that it would probably not work on multiplayer, but if you save and reload, it would show up for the other users. How do you open it using the command? 

The command is "open object_selection". Even if you're the server, you'll still have to force all clients to disconnect if you want this to work ... which means you might as well just stop the server temporarily and change it offline.