US Set available [Trains v0.87.4d released 27 April 2008]

[HaroldV]

The industrial stations set has sprite sorting issues, so I hope that whoever owns/developed it will fix it up a little (as well as adding it to GRF Crawler).

The same sprite sorting problem also occurs with the darker asphalt tile of the US Stations' Amtrack and Alderson station too, BTW.

On a related note: will it be possible to have the "City Stations" component of the US Stations grf coexist happily with the City Stations grf made by Aegir/SingaporeKid/Purno? As it is the Toronto Station won't appear on the station building lists with that other grf active. (A problem with not enough station categories to go around?)

[Aegir]

Well, the two station sets dont share any resource, any id fields, classes, anything. So, you must have too many station sets loaded, and USSet is the one getting bumped off the list.

[HaroldV]

Hmm ... I'm nowhere near the sprite limit, and the other elements of the US Stations set appear, just not that particular station designated as a "City Station" in the drop-down build menu. Let me see ...

OK, I deactivated some station grfs. You're absolutely right Aegir. That one entry was just getting bumped off the bottom of the menu list. I never knew the menu was limited to 19 entries. Sorry about that.

[krtaylor]

I've long hoped Oracle would give a touch-up to the Industrial Stations. He did do that once, a long time ago, adding the wood station among other things. Nobody's drawn new industrial stations to add to the set, though, which might be an added impetus for an update. (hint hint).

[White Rabbit]

I've found another bug, with the E60CP:

I was trying to explain an OTTD auto-replace bug to Bjarni, when I found that it wasn't auto-replace's fault, but the US Set's. The below is copied from the other discussion thread:

'

I can't see how autoreplace would be able to trigger this bug. It looks more like an unsupported feature in newgrf files. Feel free to proof me wrong

On further inspection, this newgrf feature is supported (peter1138 specifically made a patch for it, and it's in the trunk). If you test the US Set in OTTD/TTDP, you'll find that the E60CP can't carry freight cars.

Boxcars, TOFCs, heavy-item flatcars, intermodal container flats, high-cube boxcars, autoracks, and roadrailers are the exceptions to this rule, because the US Set readme states

E60CP - can only haul passengers, mail, valuables, food and goods.

(Yes, that's quite a lot of wagons, but they're still a minority, since it IS the US Set ).

Explanation to why this was believed to be a bug:
I thought that the E60CP could haul no freight. This was due to a real bug in the US Set that disables the attachment of valid wagons after the player tries to attach an incompatible wagon (such as a tanker), and then sells that wagon. This is all in TTDP. OTTD is mentioned later.

For example:
1. I add 1 coal wagon to my E60CP train of 5 boxcars. I then sell the coal wagon. Now I can no longer add any freight wagons (this even goes for armoured cars), unless I remove those 5 boxcars from the train.
2. I add 1 coal wagon to my E60CP engine, and then sell it. Now I can't add freight wagons at all, and must sell, then rebuy, my engine.
3. I add 1 coal wagon to my E60CP engine/train, and then remove it without selling it. I can still add freight wagons to my engine/train.

As you can see, this is easy to work around, but nevertheless a bug, and it's heading for the US Set thread soon. Ish.

Strangely enough, OTTD does not experience this bug (i.e. examples 1 and 2 do not apply).'

This bug does not seem to occur with any other engine, apart from the AEM7, which has identical wagon restrictions.

[krtaylor]

Hmm. I've got no idea about this. Oracle would have to speak to it, if he's around. Or maybe DanMacK?

[Raichase]

Hmm. I've got no idea about this. Oracle would have to speak to it, if he's around. Or maybe DanMacK?

Oracle would be the man to go to, as he's the coder. Dan (with all of his many talents) is still an artist, and wouldn't be in a position to fix the bug.

[DaleStan]

I believe that a GRF set could be coded this way, but it would involve a lot of complex callback 36 work, which, to my knowledge, was not possible when the latest USSet was released.

I haven't yet inspected the code[0], but I would currently be inclined to file this under "Patch bug".

[0] And don't have time to do so now. If I don't reporte results in the next 2 days, it probably means I forgot; feel free to ping me on IRC.

[DaleStan]

OK, I'm punting this one to Patchman.

[Oracle]

I'm sorry that it's been 20 months coming, but here's at long last a new version of the US Train Set. It's only an incremental release, with updated sprites, bugfixes and a few new things, but I hope you'll all enjoy playing it!

I haven't had time to do everything I wanted so there are a few things to note:

• Not all the posted sprites are integrated - in particular, the GP40-2, replacement Superliners and some of the Alaska sprites aren't in the set: I simply haven't had time.
• Newcargos support isn't complete - it should work for fully compatible GRFs using cargo classes and labels but doesn't seem to. Also, I've somehow irreparably broken support for Michael Blunck's NewCargo set - it used to work but now doesn't and I'm flummoxed. If anyone is able to work it out (all the code is just before the first real sprites) then I'd be incredibly grateful.
• Related to the newcargos problem, the boxcar doesn't seem to want to refit to maize in the tropical climate whatever I do. To work around this, it now has maize as the default cargo so you can still use it that way.

Please also check your newgrf[w].cfg files when you upgrade as well as the GRF Status Window in game - I have removed almost all the checks for other graphics sets so that you now have to do it yourself. If (for example) you were relying on the US Set to deactivate the DB Set XL then you will now need to do that manually.

If you find any other problems then report them here as soon as possible (preferably in the next 24 hours if you want a quick fix) and I'll do my best to fix them! Otherwise, I hope you enjoy playing with the set and, if you've got anything to contribute to the set, pop over to the Development thread and you'll be most welcome!

All changes in version 0.87:

• Now needs 2.0.1 alpha 66 or more recent.
• Added animated versions of Mikado, Mountain and GS-4 Daylight.
• Tried to improve the coding of some sections; shouldn't really be noticeable.
• Enabled Hudson in temperate.
• Added new SD40-2 livery in Arctic only and updated the previous liveries with new sprites.
• Added MBTA GP9 in temperate only.
• Updated F59PHI, F40PH-2 and F40C (livery of F40PH-2) Metra sprites.
• Updated Metra bi-level cars sprites.
• Changed behaviour of F40PH-2 with passenger carriages - much more variety now!
• Added brief description of usage of each engine to in-game purchase window.
• Corrected some usage mistakes in the readme (although there are probably some remaining).
• Removed all the checking for other trainset GRFs - people are mature enough to check which are and aren't activated.
• Tankers built from 1980 onwards can travel at 75 mph in TTDPatch 2.5 beta 6 upwards.
• Fixed some noticeable colour randomising bugs with intermodals - you might now have to rebuild them to get a decent mix of colours though.
• Added some newcargos support - hopefully works with Pikka's Basic Industries & some of ECS but is not perfect - NewCargos support also seems to be broken.
• C&NW passenger trains now don't always have an observation car.
• Added C628 diesel into temperate climate only.
• Added Amtrak AmCafe and Viewliner passenger cars (latter as refit).
• Made interurbans available in sub-tropical climate.
• Updated open autorack sprites - open autoracks now travel at 70 mph, closed autoracks still at 80 mph.
• Completely reworked reefers, with updated sprites, speed changing from 90 to 100 mph in 1976, and a High-Cube refit from 1976 with larger capacity but slower speed.
• Added Alaska RR GP38-2 and SD70MAC in Arctic climate with matching passenger & mail cars, and even a matching caboose!
• Probably some other small changes that I didn't write down...

[Ameecher]

Excellent, I'll start a new game with this tomorrow

[PikkaBird]

[*]Related to the newcargos problem, the boxcar doesn't seem to want to refit to maize in the tropical climate whatever I do.

It doesn't appear to carry grain in temperate, either.

I don't think there are any bugs in the refitting system; I haven't managed to come across any problems in it that weren't of my own creating. I'm having a look at your NFO but it's a little hard to find things without comments...

[DaleStan]

In my experience, the usual cause of refitting problems is failure to properly set properties 1D, 27, and 28. If I'm reading the code right, and the boxcar is IDs 20 and 21, then 21 has no prop 1D at all, and 20's various prop 1Ds have an unusually large number of bits set.

[PikkaBird]

properties 1D, 27, and 28.

By which you mean properties 1D, 28, and 29.

Hang on a second...

The cargo translation table for tropic appears to be an action C, not an action 0... I only spotted that because I was wondering why renum didn't beautify it when it did the other two.

[krtaylor]

Wow! Thanks, Oracle! What a great Welcome Back present!

Are you going to be around more, or are you off to University right away again?

I'll post this on the website right away.

The US Set is indeed entered in GRF Crawler; since that links to the official download page, I think that update purposes would be served. In any case, AFAIK you are the owner of the GRF Crawler entry, I certainly am not myself.

Again, glad to see you!

[DaleStan]

properties 1D, 27, and 28.

By which you mean properties 1D, 28, and 29.

*bangs head on wall* I even checked the wiki to make sure I got the numbers right.

I think I'll go hide now.

[krtaylor]

OK, I've updated the website with the new ZIP files and other info.

I also removed from the tracking table, the sprites which (I think) you have already coded.

Oracle, can you take a quick glance at the tracking table, and tell me of any sprites that I still have listed there, which are already coded (and hence can be removed)? Thanks! My server space is almost full and it's causing problems...

http://www.as-st.com/ttd/usa/trains.html

[lifeblood]

Oracle, great work! Even if it's been 18 months, I'm happy to see some life back in this set (I'm playing it now). And my passengers are happy to now have AmCafes and Viewliners. They can now have a snack, and catch up on some sleep.

[DaleStan]

Who needs a Viewliner to sleep? The coach seats work just fine. Getting to sprawl across two coach seats is plenty of luxury.

[krtaylor]

I've slept in a Viewliner, and they are surprisingly decent. Well, the water pressure is poor in the shower, and the bed was just a tad too short, but all in all, quite cool! I'd do it again if it wasn't so expensive. Someday perhaps.