2-3 players: only one side of a double-track can be claimed. After that, the other side is effectively "closed"; 4-5 players: both sides of a double-track may be claimed (but not by the same player).
There is in fact a bug with the display of number of tickets you opponents have. I was playing someone today and I asked them how many tickets they have. They said 9 while the display clearly said 12.
Got it. Thanks. My only wish now it would support local MP (a price drop is too good to be true!), as you cannot have connections everywhere.
Note that there are two tabs near the top in the lobby. One shows online players, the other shows available games. Just touch the "Games" tab and then tap on one of the available games before it fills up. Does that help?
Pass and play coming in the next update, up to 5 players. http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/msg/?th=22345&start=0
Nice catch; thanks for the update. It's not a feature I'll be using a lot, personally, but I know lots have been clamoring for it ... (Pssst! Hairpiece! Any comment?)
I KNOW! EVERY TIME. Drives me crazy. Every time I look at the icon. Every time I talk to someone about the game. And it is stuck there for easily an hour+! As it is... right... bloody... NOW. sigh. There are a few other things that need to happen to really fix this game, being able to adjust the settings (sound, etc) from in game, allowing us to turn off the narration which is utterly grating, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi local multiplayer - but these are just there to make a great game better.
Yeah, that narration is obnoxious and I could do without the music (or just make it much, much quieter). But those are just little things. Fantastic game and I'm really glad we're going to get pass-and-play. I hope that update arrives before we go on a train trip this summer (late June). I suppose that might be unlikely, but I'll be hoping....
Update 1.1 has been released. Pass and play now available. Yea! NEW FEATURES Pass-and-Play: you can now play alongside up to 4 of your friends with your iPad! Select the "Pass & Play" option when creating a game, and tap on the characters to add players. Tap on the character's name to enter your friends' names. You can even mix real players and robots for added challenge! Tap again on a character to toggle the "BOT" icon. Pass the iPad to the next player when his/her name is displayed. You can view the actions taken by others on their previous turn by looking at the icons in each character's panel at the top of the screen. If a player claimed a route, tap and hold on his/her panel to highlight this route and see the cards that were played. BUG FIXES AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS You can now mute voices. Go to the Settings controls in the Mechanic's room to do so. You may skip various animations by tapping the screen, such as the start-up animation when launching the game or the Ticket completion animation. You may also skip the end-of-game animation by using the fast-forward skip button on the side. Better support for colorblind players: in zoomed-in mode, the map now shows the card icons on the tracks. To play in zoomed-in mode, double-tap on the map. Buttons in Central Station now have names for easier navigation. You can now set the number of players when creating an online game from the Restaurant. When you choose Tickets, cities of the currently selected Tickets are highlighted in blue for easier planning before confirming your choices. Just-in-time log in: to avoid problems for players with poor Wi-fi connections, Ticket to Ride now logs on to the Days of Wonder server only at the last moment, and only when necessary. We also added an automatic quick recovery in case of connection loss, so that you can jump back into your online game right away. Network connection errors are also better handled. Several crashing bugs have been fixed (e.g. trying to claim a city that was already claimed on the European map). Various user interface usability improvements. Various fixes to enforce some games rules in Solo mode (e.g. number of Tickets proposed in USA 1910 Mega and Big Cities games).
When creating a custom game you can now select how many people you want to play, a nice and needed improvement. Unfortunately they haven't improved the visibility of players karma/ranking during online match making. It seems like the only place you can see it is still just the initial chat lobby and not the join game tab or restaurant, so there is no easy way to see this info before joining or starting a game. Also, I don't like how they changed the cards by adding color blind symbols in the corner. I understand making the game accessible to more people, I just wish you there was a setting that let you chose a normal deck or colorblind accessible one. A minor complaint, but seems like it would be easy enough to change.
