A way to activate scenario editor tools in game

[Mrsunman]

I was recently thinking of making a city in Openttd (JGR patch pack), and I soon realized the steps were a tad bit complex.

1. Create the terrain in scenario mode
2. Place the roads, train tracks and infrastructure in a game
3. Place the buildings (Town buildings and objects) in scenario mode.

It would be cool to have a command for activating scenario tools in a game, or to at least have a way to place objects owned by a company (Trains, Roadstops and Stations) so that all the city building nerds, like me, can have an easier way of building cities in Openttd.

[Eddi]

so what do you think is overall more complex?

1. a handful of people quitting the game, renaming their file from .sav to .scn and back, and reloading the game.
2. developing a graphical user interface to switch game modes, while making sure all the game mechanics don't go haywire when switching.

[jfs]

It might be possible to add a console command to "switch mode".
The way it would actually work would probably be more like saving the game to a temporary file, then switch mode and reload the file in the new mode.

A similar thing would probably be required anyway for the goal of letting a player convert a single-player session to a multi-player session for an "invite your friend to join this game" feature we've been airing from time to time.

[Mrsunman]

that would be cool

[Captain Rand]

so what do you think is overall more complex?

1. a handful of people quitting the game, renaming their file from .sav to .scn and back, and reloading the game.
2. developing a graphical user interface to switch game modes, while making sure all the game mechanics don't go haywire when switching.

Obviously "a" is easier from the dev point of view, as you don't have to bother doing anything, do you?
However. Having to open folders and rename files is a royal pain for everybody.

Option "b" would be overkill, So how about this:-
Include a menu item that says "Save as scenario". This could be programmed to save the game as an .scn file in the scenario folder (perhaps change "Save" to "Save Game" to further clarify the difference).
The player then "Abandons" the game and loads the scenario editor.
Do whatever you need to do in the scenario editor, then select "Play Scenario" and immediately save your game. This converts your scenario back to a .sav file and stores it in the proper folder.
Continue playing! And all without having to exit OTTD entirely.
No having to quit the game and mess about in Windows opening folders, moving files from one folder to another, renaming them, clicking the "Yes of course I'm sure how many times do I have to tell you you stupid machine" button, moving the file back (again), renaming it (again), clicking the "Yes I'm sure yada yada" button (again) then reboot the game and wait through the (inevitably long) GRF check. That really is a pain.

How hard can this menu item be to program?
(Please don't tell me "If it's that easy do it yourself". Trust me, if I knew how to program in C++ I would, and just submit the patch to JGR for inclusion in his patchpack and I wouldn't ask anybody for anything.
I do know enough about programming to know that it wouldn't be that hard and would have zero impact on any other part of the game.)

One last thing. Don't demean this by saying "A handful of people". Having this abilty is incredibly useful not only to players but also scenario developers. That's more than a handful. We've already heard "nobody uses it" and "Useless Feature" elsewhere, haven't we? Someone is bound to come along and decide it's an "exploit" and somehow eliminate the ability.

Pete.

[Mrsunman]

that sounds pretty good