Dev Blog: Under the Hood of the Replication Framework

[Brian Benton]

I play TruckersMP only because of VTC.World. I sincerely despise the local inhabitants of flora and fauna of childhood in the area of the Calais-Duisburg road and do not respect their racing and unpredictable driving style, and I also hate their ways of expressing themselves and their truck assembly, which has nothing to do with reality: chassis only 8x4, maximum engine power, maximum number of chrome elements, acid colors, flashing lights, driving with high beams 24/7, maximum number of trailers and semi-trailers in a hitch, and so on...

 

The open world outside of "CD Truck Simulator" is dead and boring, but VTC.World's career, ranking, and penalty systems are excellent and, unfortunately, don't work in solo mode. I really hope that I live to see AI traffic in TMP just because I play the VTC.World project.

[Cups1237]

Initially I like the idea of AI Traffic, but I think I like the idea more on the basis that it will encourage players to go anywhere in the map versus only the most popular areas.

 

The reason I don't necessarily like AI Traffic, is that it kind of negatively impacts my driving style. Which is a little more "careless" when people are not around and a lot faster than AI Traffic will drive, and I can't be so "careless" if AI Traffic was there that I'd have to constantly worry about it.

 

Although I think with SCS' Convoy, it's a necessary thing. And will hopefully revive the servers to what they once were. Yes, you can use Mods in convoy, but I'd think AI traffic is a bigger reason.

 

In the past I liked AI traffic more, but as long as I see a few players on my journey, I really could care less. But I think without AI there will continue to be journeys where you see no other players; so it's a "double-edged sword."

 

And it especially sucks if you don't live in Europe, cause I tend to play on the more off-peak hours since the servers start dying down around 5pm Eastern Standard Time? And the Americans really don't play either game on TMP, it seems. IDK if that has to do with 'Convoy' and them choosing to play that over the relatively dead servers, or what?

[Guest Marcus Media TTV]

I'm really looking forward to This! Seems Like A Huge Step For TruckersMP, AI Traffic sounds good also, Can imagine what the CD Road would be like 

[Niuro]

On 5/8/2023 at 7:31 PM, CiRaz said:

Good day,

here is my opinion about this topic:

 

AI definitely is a huge topic for quite some time in TruckersMP, as it can be seen in earlier posts.

But one difficulty you might run into is that many players will either not be able to play the game anymore, due to their low end computers which can not handle all the synchronization packages that it receives.

Not to mention that many people already struggle with lags on the current C-D road because of the same problem.

What should be done at this point, and I am sure that you guys already try to figure that out, is finding a way to keep the package sending at a bare minimum but the permformance still high end or AI cars should not be allowed to drive on the C-D road, or in very populated areas, in the first place, which can surely be accomplished through code.

 

Thank you for taking your time to read this message and God bless you!

 

Having a potato PC in 2023 is no excuse. If you go with a DDR4 platform you have quite low prices on mid-high range components. I see no issue in an upgrade.

People strugle with lag for the following reasons:
- C-D is a kindergarden literally;
- obsessive amount of local mods and save edits on a large scale;
- slow | unreliable | very long distance Internet connection from the main servers (Sim 1 (Mostly Euroean continent players) & ProMods Sim (mostly East European, Asian and Americas);
- player location & player PC power.
 

On 5/25/2023 at 3:20 PM, Brian Benton said:

I play TruckersMP only because of VTC.World. I sincerely despise the local inhabitants of flora and fauna of childhood in the area of the Calais-Duisburg road and do not respect their racing and unpredictable driving style, and I also hate their ways of expressing themselves and their truck assembly, which has nothing to do with reality: chassis only 8x4, maximum engine power, maximum number of chrome elements, acid colors, flashing lights, driving with high beams 24/7, maximum number of trailers and semi-trailers in a hitch, and so on...

 

The open world outside of "CD Truck Simulator" is dead and boring, but VTC.World's career, ranking, and penalty systems are excellent and, unfortunately, don't work in solo mode. I really hope that I live to see AI traffic in TMP just because I play the VTC.World project.

Yes, the VTCs are the primary reason to stick with the mod these days and the overal experience you get from those activities. BUT, the server balance and variety are lacking big time.

I understand that you are not found of chieldren ruining your game, but you have no choice as there is no way to control it, as per TruckersMP words from some years ago. There is no way to identify user's age because of GDPR. In turn we are left with an overal 5yo to 50+yo bunch, where all over 25yo complain at this point.
Yes, the roads outside the two idiot roads (C-D & Quarry road) are almost desolate due to the lack of events. In turn, the use of Convoy-mode outside VTC-convoys is the norm.

Toward TMP,
nice to see you are doing something about the stability of your servers and strive to improve the defacto state of your mod. I understand the dificulties, but for most of us, players, is really impossible to support you financially, on mass, in upgrading the server . You must offer better methods of donation. Debit/Credit cards and PayPal are insufficient as they connect to a bank account and some of us would never use such for that purpose. Adding services like a Paysafe card (voucher card types) would be a step forward. Removing the ability to local mode and save edited vehicules would be another step forward toward stability. Add TMP-only content similar to SCS content and allow ROEX map to the ProMods server (more exiting content). When the time for the AI come, make one of your own.
I have nothing more atm.

[Interstate Nomad]

@Leon Baker,

 

what is the status of the AI road traffic progress given in percent?

 

[^Asuka^]

Nice

[Leon Baker]

On 6/6/2023 at 1:32 PM, blabberbeak said:

@Leon Baker,

 

what is the status of the AI road traffic progress given in percent?

 

Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with the percentage of the development because it is not that simple to measure it in such a way. Currently, there is no active development of the AI feature itself. However, adding AI does not only require the work on AI feature itself but also the systems that will eventually make the feature work, even if we take the example of the Replication Framework which was explained within this blog. That is one of the systems that needs to be developed first.

[Brian Benton]

On 5/29/2023 at 12:06 PM, Борислав said:

Yes, the VTCs are the primary reason to stick with the mod these days and the overal experience you get from those activities. 

I'm only talking about the "VTC.World" project from the developer Alex KERNEL. The guys implemented an excellent addition to TMP with a penalty, tax, rating systems, but did not take into account the fact that the TMP community specializes in NFS-style driving and Project Kolkhoz design and the main element of the cargo transportation simulator - interaction with road users - was left without attention . If this project worked in a single game mode with AI traffic, then I would delete my TMP account with peace of mind.

 

As for the children's audience... I did not mean a specific age of people, but their behavior and ways of self-expression, which are inherent in children rather than adults. If I close my eyes to the CD road zone, then there is a chance to meet players who behave relatively adequately: they drive with an excess of about 10 km/h relative to the speed limit on a given section of the road (because if you move, for example, 80 km/h on ABSOLUTELY DESERTED road for several hours, you can just fall asleep at the wheel), are within their lane, switch from high beam to low beam at an oncoming intersection, use turn signals, brake smoothly, do not ignore traffic lights and priority signs, and so on. But at the same time, they use some unrealistic Scania 730 HP with an 8x4 chassis, 50 flashing lights and 100 additional bulbs as a tractor, pulling 3 acid-green trailers behind them. It's funny :D. I see real people, their fussy behavior and self-expression, and I have an irresistible desire to press ALT + F4 and switch to single player mode with adequate AI traffic that behaves and looks as close to the real world as possible. To meet people in TMP who drive, for example, some classic white MAN TGX 4x2 440 HP with an XLX cab with a gray Krone curtainsider semi-trailer and wholeheartedly appreciate the RP in this game, follow the traffic rules (in addition to the TMP rules) - this is an exception to rules.

[*Bugs Bunny*]

nice

nice

[Interstate Nomad]

*bump*

 

Any news regarding the development and implementation of AI traffic?

[Leon Baker]

On 8/11/2023 at 12:00 PM, blabberbeak said:

*bump*

 

Any news regarding the development and implementation of AI traffic?

 

It remains at the same stage because the essential systems required for AI traffic to function, like the replication framework, have not been completed yet.

Devs can only start work on the AI traffic feature once these systems are in place. When those systems will be ready? Well, there is no ETA for this time being.

[Red_Jhon]

I hope AI comes in quiet regions, like in DLCs where trolls don't travel and in low numbers as a first experiment.  

[Interstate Nomad]

21 hours ago, Red_Jhon said:

I hope AI comes in quiet regions, like in DLCs where trolls don't travel and in low numbers as a first experiment.  

 

That's the who idea and has been suggested.

Ai traffic should only spawn in areas with a defined low player-to-area ratio.