I've created a YouTube series showing how I build huge maps

[ZestHusky]

I enjoy trying to cover enormous maps with large Transport networks, a few people on some other sites suggested I create a Video Series where I explain myself Planning, Building and Managing the network that I build in the world. I hope it's informative for people to watch, as I know it can be hard knowing where to start once you've learnt the basics! Anyway my Introduction video is below, if you want to carry on watching then Part 1 is already up, just follow the Annotation or click the Related Video!

[Baldy's Boss]

I'm getting an error message about needing a plug-in,can you post a link to the Youtube page?
I have no problem seeing the Zhatt/Strictoaster Llama vids.

[Redirect Left]

I'm getting an error message about needing a plug-in,can you post a link to the Youtube page?
I have no problem seeing the Zhatt/Strictoaster Llama vids.

His video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4OFlXJsdt4

I can't see it at all, I assume either Ghostery, Flashblock or Adblock is blocking it.

[Baldy's Boss]

I'm getting an error message about needing a plug-in,can you post a link to the Youtube page?
I have no problem seeing the Zhatt/Strictoaster Llama vids.

His video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4OFlXJsdt4

I can't see it at all, I assume either Ghostery, Flashblock or Adblock is blocking it.

I have AdblockPlus installed,but following your link starts the video with no problem.

[ZestHusky]

I'm getting an error message about needing a plug-in,can you post a link to the Youtube page?
I have no problem seeing the Zhatt/Strictoaster Llama vids.

His video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4OFlXJsdt4

I can't see it at all, I assume either Ghostery, Flashblock or Adblock is blocking it.

How strange, yeah just following the link should work. Must be an issue with YouTube for you? YouTube's been weird for me lately, failing to load on occasion and just timing out. Hmm ~

[Redirect Left]

I'm getting an error message about needing a plug-in,can you post a link to the Youtube page?
I have no problem seeing the Zhatt/Strictoaster Llama vids.

His video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4OFlXJsdt4

I can't see it at all, I assume either Ghostery, Flashblock or Adblock is blocking it.

I have AdblockPlus installed,but following your link starts the video with no problem.

For future reference if you have trouble seeing a video, you can get the direct link by quoting the post, this will give you the post with bbcode & link intact.

[bencze]

I never did passenger games before. That's a really insane map, looks like you'll have spend a few years on it!

[sziha]

Hi ZestHusky!

Your thread about making videos of OpenTTD came up just after a week after i started to make a similar thing (i mean a map, i'm not doing any videos:) I watched all your movies and the concept you have about the game is really great!
Anyway, one thing that drew my attention was your station menu. That's really cool and i couldn't really find it anywhere. Can you post here list of NewGRFs you are using and any patches (if there are any)?

Thank you so much in advance!

[ZestHusky]

I never did passenger games before. That's a really insane map, looks like you'll have spend a few years on it!

Aww thank you! I hope so! I tend to spend 1-2 years on a single map, hah~

Hi ZestHusky!

Your thread about making videos of OpenTTD came up just after a week after i started to make a similar thing (i mean a map, i'm not doing any videos:) I watched all your movies and the concept you have about the game is really great!
Anyway, one thing that drew my attention was your station menu. That's really cool and i couldn't really find it anywhere. Can you post here list of NewGRFs you are using and any patches (if there are any)?

Thank you so much in advance!

Oh best of luck with the map! Thanks a lot for watching too ^^ The Station Menu is built in to the game, it's the icon in this image below!




And sure! Here's a list of all the GRF's I use in the map :3

- Bobs British Buses
- British Station Set v0.0.4 (prerelease)
- British Town Names v2.1
- BROS - Brittish Rail OpenTTD Set Prerelease - nightly - r52
- CHIPS Station Set 1.4.0
- City Stations
- CS stations - extras [cS stanice - doplnky] v0.8
- CS Stations Set - Buildings
- CS Stations Set - Platforms & Stops v0.3 alfa
- Czech Railways set 1.0
- DACH Train Set 0.3.0
- Dutch Trainset 2.0.0-beta1
- UK Railway Set (UKRS2)
- UK Railway Add-on Set (UKRS2+)
- Dutch Trainset Alpha 1.1
- Dutch Trainset Cargo Extension
- Finnish Trainset 0.5.8
- FIRS Industry Replacement Set 1.3.0
- Generic European Set (GES) Public Alpha 2.2
- Generic Tram Set v0.4
- Japan Set3: Stations
- Korea Train Set v0.8.23
- Light-rail/Tramtracks
- Modern Tram Set r3.1
- Modern Waypoint
- Modular Locomotive Sheds 0.2.6 - D. Erikson 2010
- More British Town Names v1.0
- Rural Stations
- Suburban Stations
- Town and Industry - UK Houses
- UK Renewal Train Set v3.04
- UK Renewal Train Set v3 Add-ons .04
- UK Roadset v1.1a
- UK Town Names v1.0
- UK Town Set v2.2
- UK Waypoints Set v1.1
- VAST: VAST Assortment of Station Tiles - with extra
- UK Roadset with Signs v0.2
- Generic buffer-stops v0.1
- eGRVTS v1.0
- eGRVTS v2.0 - r188
- HEQS (Heavy Equipment Set) 1.5.2
- water_edges.grf
- CFL Trains - Luxemburgish Trains
- CSTramSet v0.2
- Dutch station set
- Dutch Station Addition Set v0.8
- Dutch Tram Set 2.0.1
- DWE-Stations - Fences V1.2
- DWE-Stations - Industrial Terrarin Tiles V0.7
- PolTrams v5398M (01d2006091d5)
- Romanian Train Set
- US Stations set v0.86(09 Jan 2006)
- Hungarian stations
- Very large ships 0.1
- FRISS - Station and Other Infrastructure 0.5.2
- Industrial Stations Renewal 1.0.1
- North American Railway Set (NARS) 2.5

[doktorhonig]

I'm getting an error message about needing a plug-in,can you post a link to the Youtube page?
I have no problem seeing the Zhatt/Strictoaster Llama vids.

In any case, you can click the "quote" button and copy the link from there.

[ve_od]

Hi,

I really like what you are doing, please continue making videos, I enjoy watching what you build. Having watched your videos, there are a few suggestions
I want to make and hopefully some of them will be helpful to you:

1 You will no doubt have noticed that building in ottd is not the most entertaining part for the viewers, thus you have sped up videos in places where it gets repetetive. However when you do build on camera in normal speed, you are not the fastest builder around (sorry to say that). So I would suggest that you practice your building speed a bit, use the hotkeys that are available and really try to build at a decent speed, which the viewers might enjoy watching more (it is always entertaining to see a skillful builder) and enable you to focus more on the parts of the game that make it fun for you personally (like the eyecandy, the line mechanics etc.).
Tip: Play online on the servers of a competetive community (like BTPRO) and just practice those mundane tasks (games on their servers take typically around 1 hour or less and there are nice people to talk to, even I am around there)

2 On your sprinter line, put path signals in front of the crossover of the local and express line. That way a local and an express train can drive side by side and the express train will never have to wait for local trains just because it happens to be in the same block.

3 Pay attention to curve lengths (your trains are short, but in places you put curves that are 1 tile long)

4 You can prohibit towns from building level crossings (see 1.3 here: http://wiki.openttdcoop.org/Tutorial_Savegame_Mainline).

5 You may want to take a look at GameScripts that accelerate growth of the towns you have connected (since you connect locally maybe the "Neighbors are important" (http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=57963) script would be cool, though it would have to be changed a bit to work with pax only)

6 While timetables are really cool, they are also very tedious and if your goal is to have trains spaced out more or less equally across a local line, you can do that without timetables if you use timers (if you are interested, we could have a little chat on how to do that). However the downside is that trains will not try correct the space between them while on the line (which may be an issue for a longer line).

7 In my opinion it is ok to have a certain set of platforms only serviced by express trains and a different set of platforms only for local trains (isn't that similiar to what they do in the real world too?), so you could employ such a seperation in the somewhat larger stations, rather than having all platforms available to all incoming trains.

Hopefully I haven't overwhelmed you with feedback and hopefully you find some of this useful.

[ZestHusky]

*SNIP*

Thanks for the feedback! ^^

1 - Yeah I looked over one or two videos and was cautious as to how slow some of it ran, I use shortcuts anyway for all I can.. so I think I might try just speeding up the video in general as I construct. You raise a good point. I might play on some Servers in the future, but I play a lot of Online games and OpenTTD to me is almost like my own personal space just to explore some ideas for myself xD I'm not sure I'd want it to become something competitive, as I'm worried It'd lose its charm for me D; But I may try it in the future.

2 - That was a mistake, when I was populating the line after I finished recording I noticed, thanks for the heads up haha!

3 - I do? I try to make the effort not to do that o: Maybe I've made a mistake again, I've noticed sometimes I get a bit too focused on making sure the recording is coming out okay that I miss out on some details in game!

4 - AHHH THAT'S SUCH A GOOD IDEA, THANK YOU! <3

5 - Yeah, It's interesting. Though I've literally just come home now after running an experiment. I raised 2 cities, created a Road grid and FLOODED each city with buses. They've grown into huge Metropolis's I might artificially create some mega-cities, though I'm concerned that I don't want to use it to "cheat", I just want to try make the game more realistic xD

6 - That's a good suggestion and one I've not seen before! However the reason I timetable as I do is that I need them to account for errors in spacing after each route x3 It's a good suggestion but I'll have to just plough on using the tedious method D;

7 - I would absolutely LOVE to do that, though every time I tried.. I'd have an Express train (7 tiles long) attempt to enter a Local platform (3 tiles long) and just gridlock my network. Is there a setting I'm missing or something?

Thank you!! :3

[ve_od]

Just a follow up:

6 - That's a good suggestion and one I've not seen before! However the reason I timetable as I do is that I need them to account for errors in spacing after each route x3 It's a good suggestion but I'll have to just plough on using the tedious method D;

Yes thats true, the timers will however correct the spacing after a train drives through the complete route. (So it just makes sure that trains will enter the first station of the route say 20 days apart, independent of how close to each other they arrive at the end of the route and thats all it would do)

7 - I would absolutely LOVE to do that, though every time I tried.. I'd have an Express train (7 tiles long) attempt to enter a Local platform (3 tiles long) and just gridlock my network. Is there a setting I'm missing or something?

Well the solution is obviously not to connect the line for the 7 tile trains to the 3 tile platforms. That however means that when you got an incoming line where trains with different lengths are driving, you will have to sort them by train length first and then you have 2 lines (one for each train length), which you can easily connect.


Well then I am looking forward to more videos from you =).

[ZestHusky]

Just a follow up:

6 - That's a good suggestion and one I've not seen before! However the reason I timetable as I do is that I need them to account for errors in spacing after each route x3 It's a good suggestion but I'll have to just plough on using the tedious method D;

Yes thats true, the timers will however correct the spacing after a train drives through the complete route. (So it just makes sure that trains will enter the first station of the route say 20 days apart, independent of how close to each other they arrive at the end of the route and thats all it would do)

7 - I would absolutely LOVE to do that, though every time I tried.. I'd have an Express train (7 tiles long) attempt to enter a Local platform (3 tiles long) and just gridlock my network. Is there a setting I'm missing or something?

Well the solution is obviously not to connect the line for the 7 tile trains to the 3 tile platforms. That however means that when you got an incoming line where trains with different lengths are driving, you will have to sort them by train length first and then you have 2 lines (one for each train length), which you can easily connect.


Well then I am looking forward to more videos from you =).

Oh wow! I need to look in to point Number 6 then, thanks a lot!

[sziha]

Hello again!

Firstly, thank you so much for the GRFs list! that helped a lot

I have one small comment for ve_od's number 7 suggestion:

7 In my opinion it is ok to have a certain set of platforms only serviced by express trains and a different set of platforms only for local trains (isn't that similar to what they do in the real world too?), so you could employ such a separation in the somewhat larger stations, rather than having all platforms available to all incoming trains.

You can still keep the lines together (all the tracks can come in and out of one station). The way to do it is to use waypoints as the marking point through which the train should be directed towards certain platform(or platforms). The downside of this solution is that the station is little longer. You can also use different GRFs for waypoints so they are not that visible.
On the screenshot below i made 3 short lines (for demonstration only ). Lines are numbered from 1 to 3 and on purpose I complicated them as much as possible. Trains of different lengths go to the platform that suits their length because first I tell them to go through the waypoint before they enter the platform. Waypoints can be combined in groups as station platforms (hold Ctrl before you build it) to make the train choose any available platform.
If anybody wants i can post .sav file.

[ZestHusky]

Hello again!

Firstly, thank you so much for the GRFs list! that helped a lot

I have one small comment for ve_od's number 7 suggestion:

7 In my opinion it is ok to have a certain set of platforms only serviced by express trains and a different set of platforms only for local trains (isn't that similar to what they do in the real world too?), so you could employ such a separation in the somewhat larger stations, rather than having all platforms available to all incoming trains.

You can still keep the lines together (all the tracks can come in and out of one station). The way to do it is to use waypoints as the marking point through which the train should be directed towards certain platform(or platforms). The downside of this solution is that the station is little longer. You can also use different GRFs for waypoints so they are not that visible.
On the screenshot below i made 3 short lines (for demonstration only ). Lines are numbered from 1 to 3 and on purpose I complicated them as much as possible. Trains of different lengths go to the platform that suits their length because first I tell them to go through the waypoint before they enter the platform. Waypoints can be combined in groups as station platforms (hold Ctrl before you build it) to make the train choose any available platform.
If anybody wants i can post .sav file.

Ahhh thank you so much! That's a great idea, in the video I've just finished recording I do something similar actually ^^ I have 2 station entry points for different types of traffic, I prefer your method though!

[bobix]

When terraforming you can ctrl-click and drag diagonally. Makes building new lines faster. And can you tell me what newgrf those neat siding stations are from?

Edit: Nevermind. Explained and dealt with as I continued watching. Good series, keep it up!

[mrpwase]

Just chiming in to say I'm enjoying this series so far, keep it up!

[Phreeze]

yep cool, perhaps add the links to the map generator to all of the videos, i posted a question in vid 2 which was answered in vid 3

[GNRD]

This is my first post here, hello tt-forums!

I'm doing a similar playthrough and your videos have been really helpful - this is the first one i've enabled cargodist and getting it right can be daunting initially :0 Keep them coming!

And I have a question; I always make my trains as long as possible (usually 5 tiles long for short, intricate stretches, but longer ones for intercity and such) and i see you mostly use shorter ones for your network. Is it because you're going for a more aesthetic look or do they provide a benefit I ignore being shorter?