Multiplayer OOS issues

[DarthVeda]

OOS = Out of sync.

So I got uppity and decided to try RRT3 in multiplayer after years of neglect. One weird issue though after a few years of play, track is appearing out of nowhere on my opponents screen, and his new track is no longer connecting or updating on mine.

Is this a known issue or is it because we're playing a large custom map? Or because we're playing with an AI? Ideas?

[DarthVeda]

It seems to happen when we have four players (or three + AI) and a lot of track building.

[KevinL]

Is this a network game or an internet game? High speed or dial-up? What version of RRT3 are you all playing?

[DarthVeda]

It's a LAN game and we're all on 1.05.

[KevinL]

Is it happening on everyone's computer, or just one computer? What are the specs of the slowest computer in the group? What operating systems? 10 megabit, 100 megabit, or gigabit ethernet? Is everyone on the same switch or are there multiple switches and hubs?

I havent been around that long and have never played a multiplayer RRT game, but since no one else is responding I guess its never happened to them either. So I'm trying to narrow it down to something with your configuration.

Do you guys play any other games together? Do you have any problems with those?

[JoshM]

I've tried multiplayer a couple times but usually get a lot of delay when building, and different amounts of cargo at the same station. I have decent computers on a 100 mbit network and can play lots of other games multiplayer. Some people have said it works fine for them, so I wish I could figure out why it won't work.

[DarthVeda]

It's a company network on off-hours, so its backbone I neither know nor have access to. We typically don't have problems with other games.

The last few days we've enjoyed some success by keeping it 3 players and below. Once we hit that four player (or 3+AI) mark though, it seems like after about 20 or so minutes, we start getting phantom track. Everybody can lay their own track fine and it updates on their own machine, but others see competitors track laying in strange, nonsensical locations (imagine a spiderweb gone berserk). Basically the game exists in N states, where N is the number of players. Saving the game saves only the state of the saving machine.

One possible solution would be to just play it as an internet game as opposed to LAN, which might potentially circumvent any local weirdness. Though I don't think it's a config problem, I think it's just a game size problem.