Due to lots of requests to extend the end date of the Multiplayer Map Jam, I've decided to extend the event by an extra week with a new finish date of December 22nd!

And along with the new end date, the final weekend of December 20th-21st is now going to be a dedicated multiplayer map sharing festival! This means that over the weekend is an especially perfect time to host a public server running your own map for other people to play!

If you are hosting a server, you can post about it in the multiplayer server forum to advertise it to other people and share extra information about what map your server is running or any special rules and requirements for players to join your map.

Even if your map is not finished yet for submitting to the map jam, hosting a public server is a great way to test it out with real people and see how people interact with your map.

For more detailed information about the Multiplayer Map Jam event you can read this news post.

But that's not all, this update adds several new features to the game!

Spectator mode

This update adds a new "spectator mode" feature, where players can be locked from interacting with the map (e.g. driving trains, toggling turnouts, opening doors, etc).

This is perfect for if you want to host a public operations session with a group of friends but still allow random people to join in and watch (without having to worry about them messing things up!).

When setting up a server you can toggle a new setting in the hosting options which will cause any people joining to automatically be set a spectators:

Once a player has joined, you can then choose to remove their spectator status and let them control trains as normal. Only the server host can toggle whether a player is a spectator or not:

Huge multiplayer security changes

The other big part of this update is a complete re-design of how the game handles multiplayer server security. When I originally programmed the multiplayer systems I made the assumption that "who would bother to use hacks in a model train game?" ...but turns out I was absolutely wrong.

Looks like there are definitely some people out there who are modifying code in the game directly to mess with multiplayer servers, so this update does a big re-work of how multiplayer functionality is handled so that it's more resistant to hacking.

For example, it is now impossible for anyone to bypass server passwords by manipulating how the game sends data over the network. The server has complete control of how information sent from players is handled, and restrictions like server bans and passwords can't possibly be bypassed even with hacks.

While it's certainly annoying to have to work around hackers, it's actually a very good thing since it forces me to make more bullet-proof networking code. Hopefully this update really helps!

Server log files

Another nice feature this update adds is the addition of server log files.
Just like the error log files which you can find in the game's folder, you can now find dedicated log files which show events happening on a multiplayer server.

Only the host has this log file, and it lists things like:

• Names of players joining and leaving

• All chat messages

• All player actions (like pressing buttons in train cabs, changing the speed, toggling turnouts, etc)

• Warnings about players potentially trying to bypass security features

You can find these new server log files in the folder:

C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\Rolling Line\\Server_logs\[/b]

Every time you host a new server a new log file is created with the time and date.

These are just simple text files and you can read all the info collection from that server hosting session:

Christmas menus!

Since it's almost Christmas, the usual winter/Christmas themed menus are back!

You can also find a bunch of special props and trains in the "Miscellaneous -> Christmas" drawer:

Other fixes

This update also fixes a few other minor bugs:

• Fixed bug where waybills would still be visible when wagons were inside hidden regions

• Slightly raised the height of waybills so that it doesn't get blocked by loaded double stack wagons

• Extended the view distance for waybills

• Waybills auto refresh when editing the roadnumber information for a wagon

• Waybill settings are now included in the quick-search menu (pressing ~)

• Fixed bug where pressing the gesture shortcut keys would cause camera issues when a 2D menu was active

• Fixed bug where the gesture menu would not be usable when in miniature and the "allow interaction in miniature" setting was disabled

• Teleport controls are now disabled wile a gesture is playing

• Fixed bug where the "engine on/off" button would not show the correct state in some situations

• Fixed the voice muted toggle setting not being set correctly when re-opening the player list menu

And that's everything for now!

I hope everyone is having fun with the Multiplayer Map Jam, and remember there's already a bunch of entries you can play right now! You can find them on the Steam Workshop:

And thank you to all my Patreon supporters!

Carter Shew, Gazzac100, Taerom, Trainiac 21, Codebag Playz, Joey Drysdale, Clae, The_President, Teapop311, Chloe Surett, Rowan Mackenzie, Matt, Ábris Pataki, JohnR, ItzAerozic, Matthew Johnson, Microcosmologist, Blake Prevett, TrainTiny, Thomas Merolla, Don Willis, Jayton Hawkins, Helga Nordgren, Leto Gloas, TheAmazingRyry, Outertoaster, Nathan Perez, TrainMann, Railraider, Garst, Richard Prior, Joblogh, Detroit_, CAMOGUY54321, Ben Burch, Gustavo Sanchez, Michelle chan, Jack Fruh, Jonathan Ginsburg, Lynk_Wyland, SmokeStream, KathalLasagna, Ethan Lamont, Rivet, HuskyDynamics, Trackmeister, Lutz

You can join the Patreon to help support me to keep making free updates!