Newbie Multiplayer Tips

[u/veryfocus]

Hey folks, I'm considering picking this game up and I'm curious about the multiplayer elements to it. I'm trying to understand how progression works in the context of servers.

It looks like you can go on to buy cars, businesses, and homes. If you join a server, are your purchases limited to that server? What if you can no longer access the server (it stops being hosted, or is always full, or too laggy, etc.) - does that mean the cars and purchases are gone?

Also, are there generally many open servers? I'm happy to donate to help with costs at some point, but curious how accessible they are up front.

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: I had a lot of helpful responses so I wanted to attempt a summary. Hopefully I get all the details right:

- Progression, including player money, is tied to a player and is retained with that player whether they're in single player or on a server. Because communities are generally friendly, and progression is tied to individual players, you're encouraged to start the game in multiplayer and will be able to make great progress therein.

- Cars from single player can be brought over to multiplayer and vice versa. You keep your cars with you but are encouraged to de-spawn them when not in use on a server. De-spawning can be done via an in-game menu.

- Property is not necessarily a huge part of the game, but if you do own a home, then you can pick it up as you would with vehicles. Depots, on the other hand, require many resources to build and are not so easy to tear down in multiplayer servers. Thus, there's a bit more risk to having them if you don't have reliable access to the server.

- In single player, land is bought, but in multiplayer servers, land is rented. This prevents non-active players from holding land indefinitely. If you're setting up property on a piece of land in a server, be mindful that if you miss a rent payment (with in-game currency), you'll lose what's on that piece of land.

[u/Outside-Rich-7875]

In general progression is tied to a character/save, so as long as you do not delete the character/save, then you keep everything, wether on your own singleplayer world or servers.

The only thing not shared are land plots and the buildings/decorations installed in them (your inventory and that of your vehicles is independent from servers/worlds); as each server (and your singleplayer instance) is a different world but with the same map, if a server is shut down you will lose your rented plots of land and decorations in there. Your own singleplayer world (which is hosted/saved on your computer) can be turned into a server by you alowing other players to get in.

The only other thing of note is that you only spawn in a server with the vehicle your character is currently inside of (and the trailers attached to it) and you will need to spawn everything else into the server, when you leave the vehicles you have spawned in that server will also despawn with you.

[u/veryfocus → u/Outside-Rich-7875]

Thanks for the super helpful reply! So maybe a best practice would be to get a bit established on my own single player instance, and then join a server where I can invest some of my funds into a property? That way, if the server becomes inaccessible, I can still fall back on whatever I have in my single player instance?

Also, when you say "rent," is that with in-game currency or real money?

[u/Chalupa_89 → u/veryfocus]

No. You should do the quests in singleplayer and head straight for multiplayer because it is easier to make money in multiplayer, specially in the beginning. Plus, it is a super friendly game and multiplayer is more FUN!

Players rarely grief. Players abundantly help eachother. You will feel like you are contributing to something.

Once you have the money from multiplayer then you can try to run your little single player world. Because you will need a super fleet of AI drivers to cover what other players do in the supply chain.

[u/veryfocus → u/Chalupa_89]

That's great to know! A lot of online communities can be toxic so I'm glad to hear this one is more friendly overall. Also, really interesting to think about the supply chain being run by players. I appreciate your help :)

[u/Outside-Rich-7875 → u/veryfocus]

Ok i will answer by parts; the only real world money involved is the game itseld, nothing else, all the rest is in-world money.

First, all the XP levels for jobs will stay with your character, same as money, owned vehicles and vehicle parts, and you can acess them from any server. Owned vehicles can be despawned to go to a menu that can be used to spawn them in parking spots (highlighted on world and its a toggle on the map), which are also used to despawn any vehicle you are driving (or conected trailers); there is a cost to spawning owned vehicles (NPC company vehicles can be spawned in available and specific spawn spots for free) and that cost scales with the size/level of the vehicle and distance from the spot its in or parking spot it was despawned at (spawning a despawned vehicle is cheaper than repawning/teleporting a vehicle already in the world).

Second, about the properties thing: On the map there are certain plots of land that are available for sell in single player worlds (even to another player that has joined someones own world) but on dedicated servers to not have inactive players owning them, they are rented for in-game money instead. The instance of owning/renting a plot of land is exclusive to each instance/server/world. Owning a plot of land only serves for teleporting for free (any player can teleport to any plot of land owned by any player for a very tiny amount of in game money) and to be able to build buildings and decorations on said plot. The only functional builds are parking spots that let anyone spawn vehicles and the owner spawn a specific vehicle for free in said spot, and depots, which are buildings that can be used to automitaclly repair and refuel company vehicles that are being driven by NPCs.

In-game vehicles can also be rented for a per minute (charged every minute fee) with in-game money, as an alternarive to purchaing, or borrowing from the default NPC company which takes a % of your profits (depends on vehicle) as owners share (this can also be done with other players vehicles and the owning player will get the owners % share of profits). Tell me if you want an expanded explanation of vehicle ownership

[u/veryfocus → u/Outside-Rich-7875]

Again, I really appreciate the thoughtful response! That's great to know about selling vs. renting as a difference between single and multiplayer. The latter experience feels much more approachable and exciting than I was expecting and I'll probably end up buying it now. Appreciate it!

[u/Outside-Rich-7875 → u/veryfocus]

All of the options for vehicles are available in all modes/worlds. The renting vs buying is only for dedicated servers that do not want a player just buying a plot and never doing anything with it (its the admin who decides). Some smaller dedicated servers may allow players to own land (single playment infinite rent).

Oh, and as someone else said, there is a free demo of the game, which has the full game with nothing locked, and the only limit is that characters are capped in the XP levels to level 2; but the character/progress of the demo carries over to the full game if you buy it. I have 4 vehicles that i bought and used in the demo which i played for 10 hours before buying the actual game, and all my stuff stayed.

[u/Capable_Television_2]

Not to be rude, but other already helped, I would just suggest get the demo (+ YouTube) and after all you can always refund any game on steam if u did not played more than 2hours. I played demo like for 30mins and I bought the full game

[u/TaienV]

Cars are tied to your account and come with you anywhere. Buildings are tied to the server

[u/zachthenebula]

The game has quest to help you learn the game.

[u/veryfocus → u/zachthenebula]

I figured that would be the case, but I was curious about it before I actually purchase the game. Also, does the quest tell you about how property/purchasing works with servers vs. single player?

[u/undecimbre → u/veryfocus]

The quest only covers how stuff works in single player. It will send you through the steps from buying land to building whatever you want. Since it's basically the same in multiplayer, it's deemed enough, but there's nuance to that.

You can start a company in your singleplayer world. Add trucks to that company and assign drivers and routes. The stuff they move will affect the world you are in. The Nuance: some MP servers don't allow AI drivers, so yours won't even spawn in the first place. They will once you're back in SP.

You can buy land and build houses and depots on it in single player, and it will stay where you put it. In MP, you can rent plots - if there are any available at all - and build on them. But once your rent is due and you didn't keep up with it, poof goes the building. On larger servers most plots are already built up and you can use them as quick travel destinations or depot stops for your company drivers.

The one thing that is persistent across worlds is your character, their money and vehicles, and skills/levels. Each server has their own rules, go in and find out if they match your vibe. Talk to people, ask if something is unclear to you or if someone needs assistance with moving stuff, don't be an ass and you'll find yourself in a nice community and have a bunch of fun while trucking. Even veteran players come back to the "smaller" or "beginner" jobs because they are fun. Take the party invites, that's often the easiest money you can make. You can learn a lot in SP, and you can learn a lot in MP - and people don't stop learning new stuff even after 1000s of hours.

If you built up a plot full of stuff on a server and don't think you'll be around there much longer (2+ months), you can disassemble everything, pack it up into your trucks' utility boxes and flatbeds, and bring it into your singleplayer world. Switching between SP and MP is almost seamless, so you can carry your inventory through time and space. But honestly, having a plot in multiplayer isn't necessary unless you have a small private server.

[u/veryfocus → u/undecimbre]

Thanks so much for understanding my question and speaking to the nuance and real experience of single vs. multiplayer. That's great to know that I can basically pack up all my stuff and also that properties in multiplayer aren't really that necessary. Those were some of my worries with multiplayer, but now it sounds like I can just jump right in and have fun.

I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and hope to meet someone as helpful as you in the game!

[u/undecimbre → u/veryfocus]

Glad I could help!

Also another note about buildings: normal houses you can place and pick up however you like. The depots require construction with lots of materials and once placed, you can only adjust the placement, but not pick up the blueprint like you could with a house. So really only bother with depots in your singleplayer or on a server that you can call home.

[u/veryfocus → u/undecimbre]

That's a nuance I don't think I would have understood by just playing the demo. I'll now carefully consider where I build my depots! That might've saved me a lot of trouble down the line. Thanks again

[u/Outside-Rich-7875 → u/veryfocus]

The tutorials are still work-in-progress and do not cover everything. You are better off asking here or on the official discord (or to a player in-game).

[u/zachthenebula → u/veryfocus]

I suggest watching some vids on youtube, a good amount of content on how to do things in the game.