Concept: Housing blocks as industries

Emperor Jake · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:32 pm

Have you ever wanted to be able to boost passenger production near a station quickly, without waiting for the town to grow? Here's your answer! This was the result of a trip to Sydney and then mucking around with NML - A GRF that adds an Apartment Block as an industry. It accepts Passengers, Mail and Goods, and generates passengers and mail, similar to larger towns. They must be near a town, but it can be any size town.

Suggestions and discussion about the idea are very welcome. This is not really intended for gameplay, it is merely a concept, but it is perfectly playable and works well. (however it is somewhat ugly :twisted:

) If the idea is well-received then I will continue development with proper graphics and industry layouts, better game balance and any ideas and suggestions people may have

.

Here's a screenshot of the GRF in action, and a tar containing the source and the GRF.

oberhümer · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:47 pm

FIRS has a hotel in it that's supposed to do pretty much the same thing (and probably looks better). I don't believe it produces mail though.
This would actually fit pretty well into an Industrial Revolution-era city - cheap, shabby housing for all those workers.

APDAF · **Joined:** Sun Jun 22, 2008 12:26 pm **Posts:** 2552

I will like this.

Emperor Jake · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:56 pm

oberhümer wrote:

FIRS has a hotel in it that's supposed to do pretty much the same thing (and probably looks better). I don't believe it produces mail though.
This would actually fit pretty well into an Industrial Revolution-era city - cheap, shabby housing for all those workers.

Hmm, haven't checked out the latest nightlies of FIRS - I will try that

However it fulfills a slightly different purpose. This GRF might even have FIRS compatibility, as it doesn't define any cargos.
About the appearance, you may recognise it as part of the default coal mine - it was simple to code that way as it's temporary. There could possibly be several different styles for housing depending on time period - Industrial Revolution era like you mentioned, then turn of the century tenements, then ugly Soviet style concrete blocks, and finally shiny modern apartment blocks.

planetmaker · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 1:33 pm

I'm not entirely sure whether defining houses as industries is the best approach from an overall game perspective. After all those houses fulfill the same purpose as currently any decent town does - but those are houses which you can never remove (just like industries).

SAC · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 1:54 pm

Terrific idea as it allows for a more personalized town layout with buildings that actually has a purpose - rather than just standing there using space! Very good! :))

Level Crossing · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 3:22 pm

Looks a bit like a coal mine at first glance.

Good job though. Should it be an industry? Or maybe a NewObject (is it possible to have NewObjects produce and accept cargo?)

FooBar · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:23 pm

Level Crossing wrote:

(is it possible to have NewObjects produce and accept cargo?)

No. Objects have no purpose ingame other than just sit there

wallyweb · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2011 8:50 pm

FooBar wrote:

Level Crossing wrote:

(is it possible to have NewObjects produce and accept cargo?)

No. Objects have no purpose ingame other than just sit there

... and look pretty.

Simons Mith · **Joined:** Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:45 pm **Posts:** 132

planetmaker wrote:

I'm not entirely sure whether defining houses as industries is the best approach from an overall game perspective. After all those houses fulfill the same purpose as currently any decent town does - but those are houses which you can never remove (just like industries).

Houses appear and disappear at a rather fast rate in the game at present. If they turned over at the same rate as industries, I think that would actually be an improvement. Once a house is built, it ought to stay there for at least 30-50 years, really. Even when you want to demolish something it can easily take ten years of legal struggles before you can go ahead. And shops, yes, some individual businesses may turn over at a rate of every few years, but a row of shops will usually still be a row of shops 50 years later. We're far too spoilt in the game at the moment, IMO :-)

Nite Owl · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:50 am

What if you got together with SAC and took her wonderful buildings and turned them into industries that only produce and accept passengers and mail. This would be ideal for those that want to play passenger only type games. All other industries could be overridden. This would lead to a combo city building and transport type of game but it is a possibility that some may like. Another option could be to have some of these "town" industries also accept goods and food. This would require this Grf to be compatible with either the default industries or new industries Grfs. In either case this idea does have a large range of useful possibilities that could change the landscape of the game in significant ways. Good work.

Emperor Jake · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 3:22 am

@planetmaker: The advantage is that the player can build them whenever they want, and they can be in complexes much larger than town buildings can be. - besides, the idea seems to be quite popular among others

It also serves as a way to absolutely guarantee that a station will accept mail and goods.

@SAC: Thanks! As Nite Owl said, I would be honoured to code some of your graphics into this set, if you were willing

.

@Level Crossing: It is actually part of the coal mine - it was simpler to code it to use one of the default industry tiles. It is only a test concept after all.

@Nite Owl: I'm sure it's possible to write a NewGRF that removes all other industries. I haven't tested this set's compatibility with other industry sets thoroughly, but loading it together with FIRS didn't cause any problems at first glance :wink:

I'm glad to see that this idea is being well-received. I may throw together a version with an ugly concrete tower block soon :twisted:

planetmaker · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 6:10 am

Simons Mith wrote:

(...)Once a house is built, it ought to stay there for at least 30-50 years, really.(...)

That's just a matter of adequately programming the NewGRF. Easily done.

andythenorth · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 7:28 am

You can reuse the base set house graphics - just find their IDs using the sprite picker in-game.

There's something weird about doing houses as industries but there's no harm in it.

You'll probably want to disable closure.

ColdIce · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 7:57 am

thank you. very useful when I dont want to wipeout a town just to put a station so i can have more passengers (i dont like the ideea of remote station

)

Simons Mith · **Joined:** Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:45 pm **Posts:** 132

FooBar wrote:

Level Crossing wrote:

(is it possible to have NewObjects produce and accept cargo?)

No. Objects have no purpose ingame other than just sit there

Trees are a kind of removable object... Some coding changes would be needed, naturally, to stop the game letting you plant forests of pylons, to customise the demolition cost etc. But you could reuse much of the tree code for all manner of ephemeral objects.

Bob_Mackenzie · **Joined:** Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:36 pm **Posts:** 775

You could use much the same approach for caravan parks (can you restrict to within x squares of water?), stately homes and all other manner of tourist attractions

(edit)

If it was used with FIRs which mechanism for production increase would it use?

planetmaker · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:40 pm

Bob_Mackenzie wrote:

If it was used with FIRs which mechanism for production increase would it use?

The one it is programmed to use. It cannot reference FIRS' functions (though it could be copied, if the newgrf is GPL-licensed).

Checking for water vicinity is definitely possible.

Emperor Jake · **Posted:** Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:43 am

I've been working on this, using some TTRS apartments blocks (with Zimmlock's kind permission of course). Having gotten the hang of tilelayouts and spritelayouts I put together these complexes:

Attachment:

apartments.png [ 569.82 KiB | Viewed 1469 times ]

Now I have some questions:

- How do I make the buildings vary depending on the date it was built? For example, the big grey blocks should only appear if the apartment is built between 1960 and 1990, and from 1970 the smaller modern one would appear. This would also extend to Victorian-era tenements and stuff.

- Is it possible for the buildings to vary depending on whether they're built near water? More luxurious buildings would appear near water.

Thanks,
Jake

Leanden · **Posted:** Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:27 am

Do these work with other Industry GRFs? FIRS for example?

How many available slots are there for industries anyway?

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Concept: Housing blocks as industries

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