Since I didn't see a topic on this, here we go!
Well before I get too far ahead of myself I suppose I should first tell you what it is and how to get it, yes? But before that, since I fear this post may be a bit long, lets set up a Table of Contents! Like with Gamefaqs just Ctrl+F the code(which is in brackets] if you want to find a particular section fast. It looks long but most sections will hopefully be small.
[C1WHA]~Chapter 1: Briefing on what I am talking about and where can you get some
[C2TTO]~Chapter 2: A bit, colored by my experiences, about the original Transport Tycoon
[C3TTD]~Chapter 3: A short section on the official sequel to Transport Tycoon; Transport Tycoon Deluxe
[C4ADD]~Chapter 4: A brief overview on what Open TTD has added to the game
[C5SIG]~Chapter 5: A bit on the new signaling options in Open TTD
[C6AIR]~Chapter 6: A bit more on the new airports available in Open TTD
[C7ADV]~Chapter 7: A bit on the Advanced Options you can enable or disable at your convenience
[C8GRF]~Chapter 8: A guide on the customizations you can apply to make yourself happy
[C9STO]~Chapter 9: Finally I talk about my most recent game!
_________________________________
Chapter 1: Meet Open TTD
[C1WHA]
Open TTD is an improvement upon the Transport Tycoon series. In these games you build a Transportation empire to span the map. You can deliver fuels(coal, oil, wood), goods, grain, livestock, mail, valuables(from the banks), passangers, mail, and more. You can deliver all kinds or pick to focus on a few. Or long story short it is a sandbox game where you can build as long as you still have cash to spend!
Open TTD as the description of the thread indicates is a open source program that mimicks the original game. More specifically it makes heavy use of the game's deluxe version graphics and code. Or rather it did at first. With each revision it becomes more and more its own game.
You can get your hands on this gem from Open TTD's website. Just select the package you want. If you want the source you can get it. If you want to play on a 64 bit system just pick the installer for 64 bit. Nice and easy. Where it gets tricky at is since it utilizes Transport Tycoon Deluxe's original graphics you need to have those files. However, you need not own the original game. The files needed have been made available on the official forums for Open TTD. Rather than make you search for it yourself I'll [url=http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3407]link[/url] to it for you. Just grab the one that says "TTD original graphics". That should work
So to summarize
1) download the graphics here
2) download the Open TTD installer from Open TTD's website.
Though truthfully it doesn't matter which order you download them in. As long as the graphics are available when you install. Also I should link to the Official Forums.
_________________________________
Chapter 2: Meet the Original
[C2TTO]
Transport Tycoon is quite the aged game being released in 1994. Your goal was to create the most powerful transportation empire possible by the year 2050(you started in 1930). To achieve this goal you had access to planes, boats, road vehicles, and trains. While most forms of transport had their pros, trains very quickly become the focus of most players. Very high potential earnings and great fun and sense of accomplishment from making the complex train lines, stations, and junctions that made those earnings possible. However, the Original had many short comings when it came to managing high traffic networks(basically true super networks were more or less impossible). In addition it at first lacked a scenario editor, though with the release of the mars landscape and editor also came out. But despite all that I, and many others, found it to be extremely addictive and fun. The computer geeks train set!
_________________________________
Chapter 3: Meet the Sequel
[C3TTD]
In 1995 Transport Tycoon Deluxe came out. It created mixed feelings for some. For one, it altered the way farms worked. Rather than being a single block sized industry like every other industry farms now sprawled all over the map(in many cases dwarfing even the largest cities), however, despite that farms didn't generate significantly more(so size of farmland doesn't equal amount of productivity). In addition farmland GREATLY increased the costs of building and caused when built over, if memory serves, the local authorities to be much more touchy about you(if they dislike you enough you can't build in the city's territory).
But that was just a minor inconvenience to early train networks and most people just adapted easily enough and grew to like it. More importantly was the introduction of 1 way train signals. This enabled networks to become exponentially complex in comparison to the original. Also of note is that it brought fourth new climates to play in that had different gameplay in some cases(such as desert towns that needed food and water delivered to grow at all).
_________________________________
Chapter 4: The New Era
[C4ADD]
As one could probably guess from me posting at all this open source project greatly excites me. A few things they have done:
-Even BETTER signals that make train networks even more impressive.
-New types of Airports. Some of which can handle much large traffic. In addition there are Helicopter specific airports... though Helicopters are still rather useless when compared to trains and planes.
-An easy to use NewGRF Patch system so that one can easy select what optional content they want from within the game. You can also download new maps and AI's from with it.
-Speaking of AI's. New and MUCH improved AI's. In addition different AI's can be assigned to each computer player or to give each opponent their own strategy and techniques or you can just ignore it and let them randomly pick an AI for themselves. Many of the AI's are still undergoing improvements so they can only get better.
-Easily Adjustable Advanced options so that each user can play to their own ruleset.
-Multiplayer that works and can be played online!
-And no doubt I am forgetting a bit and possibly have failed to discover some.
_________________________________
Chapter 5: Meet the Signals
[C5SIG]
A brief section indeed since I haven't worked out all the intricacies of the new signals yet. There are two way signals like the original had, one-way signals, the new pre-signals which when used right allow you to avoid bottlenecks, there are priority signals which I have failed to get to work for me(but I didn't play with them much), and last but far from the least there are block signals. This things Are life savers for busy stations and tracks. Basically in the routes 'blocked' in with them the trains each calculate their own path if they don't intersect any of the trains already in the block they can go regardless of if there is another signal separating the trains or not. The block signal is the signal furthest to the right in the signal options(note that the right most button in the line up is the 'convert signal' option. Use that to convert one type of signal to another without the need to demolish it.
Long story short the new signals are AWESOME even if I haven't been able to use them to their greatest ability yet. More information can be found Here(has a basic guide) and here(basic info thought it is out of date last I checked
_________________________________
Chapter 6: Meet the Airport In-Laws!
[C6AIR]
Before in Transport Tycoon and Transport Tycoon Deluxe there were only two airports. The small one that large planes couldn't land on without a risk of crashing and that was very easily clogged(planes could circle for many months at a busy one) and the larger airport that could still get easily clogged but at least larger planes were safe to use!
In Open TTD they divide airports into various categories. These categories are Small Airports, Large Airports, Hub Airports and Helicopter Airports. Each category has at least two styles. I'll include the sizes in parentheses.
Small Airports
-Small(3x4): this is the default airport from the first two games. Really only used in the early game when you lack other options.
-Commuter(4x5): Comes out late and large planes can not land on it. But it is small and doesn't jam as easily as the small one does. Good for when you can't get enough space for a large or hub airport.
Large Airports
-City(6x6): The large airport from the first two games. No longer is it always used.
-Metropolitan(6x6): Same size as the city airport but due to having two runways(one for take-off and one for landing) it handles much more traffic. However, the runways are not optimally layed out and it can't load up any extra planes than the City can.
Hub Airports
-International(7x7): Slightly larger it sports two runways just like the Metropolitan does, however, the take-off and landing run ways are on opposite sides so that the planes can't obstruct one another while taxing to the loading rams. In addition it has twice as many loading ramps available as does its predecessor. It can also service helicopters separately from planes. thus the helicopters can't get in the way of plane traffic. This also has two aircraft to service aircraft in.
-Intercontinental(11x9): This monstrosity has four runways allowing two planes to take off at the same time that two are landing. It has two individual helipads like the International and 2 more loading rams. No extra hangers, but two is generally plenty as is. Getting enough space to build this thing can be tricky.
Helicopter Airports
-Heliport(1x1): From Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It takes up 1 square and can fit easily into any city. The downside is it can only handle helicopters. In addition it lacks a depot so it can't build or service helicopters.
-Helidepot(2x2): A 2x2 square capable of building an servicing helicopters. a copter can land as one is taking off with ease. It can handle a surprisingly large number of helicopters for its size. Easy to fit in cities, but once again helicopters being as pathetic as they are diminishes it use.
-Helistation(2x4): A supersized Helidepot capable of handle a significant number of helicopters. Overloading this baby is highly unlikely. Still easy to fit into the center of town.
More information on Airports can be found at the official wiki.
_________________________________
Chapter 7: Advanced Settings
[C7ADV]
Here you go!
Wait... you thought I would go into detail?! No friggin way, that is way to much to go over! However, I will say this. I would recommend going to Vehicles>Trains>Acceleration Model and set it to realistic. The Original style in Transport Tycoon Deluxe can cause all sorts of annoying issues. One should note that on realistic mode trains can't make sharp turns at super high speeds. More in depth info here. However, you really can just leave it at the default. The game plays just fine like that. But you do have many customization options available to you!
_________________________________
Chapter 8: Further Customization
[C8GRF]
There is a button called Check Online Content. This loads up a list of items you can download to further customize your playing experience. Like the original Transport Tycoon vehicles and want to start earlier than 1950 and still have building options? Well there is a NewGRF for that!
Another example GRFs are the av8 Aircraft Set which re-balances the entire airplane system and even lets you build Airships! There is also one that gives you larger ships(the stock ships are a bit small in comparison to real world ones and tend not to fare well in game). And much more. More information on each one is in the online content window.
Once you download a GRF you can select which ones you want active through the NewGRF configuration option. You can even do this in the middle of a game(though I won't guarantee it will not crash!)
But the real reason for this section is this. As of the latest release it doesn't come with a default AI, instead you must select your AI(s) through the online content. A bit on a few of them.
-Admiral utilizes various forms of transport, except boats(funny isn't it?). And is of moderate difficult I think.
-Convoy uses only buses and can make a very good start. However, due to the limit on the number of vehicles one can own it eventually caps out. It may take first place for the first 10-20 years though. And maybe longer. Pretty fun to watch they long Convoys of buses go past train tracks though. You are guaranteed to hit more than a few :D.
-TransAI is a train AI. He builds trains and lots of them. If you are unfamiliar with railroad builds and don't want to read up on it, play him and you'll see some basic strong railroad strategies. Still doesn't work as well as a human optimized stations though.
All the AI's have a bit of information on them in the online content window. Pick as you will. Past that you can edit the AI's behavior even further. In the AI settings window you can pick and choose which opponents are managed by which AI's as well as set their start times. Furthermore each individual AI comes with its own customizations options(well most do anyways).
But before I go on I should not one last thing NewGRFs can sometimes conflict with one another. For example if you have the TTO GRF added in after the av8 set the names don't get aligned properly with the new graphics(since TTO GRF changes the name after av8 sets the new graphics). Therefore the TTO GRF should be set as the first one in with the av8 after it.
And before I get to my fun talk. Feel free to ask any questions you may have. I don't know everything(far from it), but I am willing to help when I can. I should note, before I forget, that the official forums are here. If you don't want to ask me, ask them, or better yet search it may already be answered :D! But if you don't want to search, I can understand and I like to help :D.
_________________________________
Chapter 9: My Story
[C9STO]
And now to what I really wanted to share!
First let us start with a link to a screen shot of the main train station in my game! Click Here.
It is rather mild compared to some I have seen... The track is beginning to reach its limit at only 45 trains. I have seen some with well over 100 train capacity. However, I have learned a lot in the making of this route. Normally I didn't use big combined lines. Back when I first started playing the original I was 8 or so years old. Though I didn't REALLY start playing until 10 or so(I thought it was too tough at 8, couldn't figure it out :( ). And I haven't played it in quite a while. I tried TTD around 97 if memory serves and had some issues. The farms bugged me, the new graphics for the new climates bugged me, the changes in vehicle lists bugged me, etc. The 'betrayal' of my child hood nostalgia caused me to only give it a small play despite all the advances it made. Open TTD and its easy to convert to original vehicles and timeline hooked me into giving it a shot.
So what this means is this is the station where I was testing various types of track combinations. This is a real man's Train Set! Thankfully the AI didn't mess me up much at this station.
At this point I should note that competitor construction can really interfere with your building. TransAI blocked off one of my station exits elsewhere that I hadn't yet connected due to lack of current need versus cost(though I thought I might just need it in the future so I left an extra exit just in case!). However, now that I learned how to demolish train platforms one by one I could probably get out by alternating train station lengths. But I don't have any need yet.
Anyways I want to get back to playing. I think I need to play with the av8 set and the bigger ship set. That combined with the TTO set should enable me to play a game from the 30's with many vehicular options. Perhaps I need to find an early bus/truck set too.
And no I didn't use a special color. I figure this length meets my torture quota for the day.
Just call me "His Great Excellency of the Most Glorious Verbose; the Exuberant Garrulous Grimoire!" like this signature indicates, or not.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...valentine2.png
Tip: Always read the fine print!
