US Set Development Thread

[krtaylor]

All the sprites shown on the tracking table have not been coded yet. Now, mostly their trains have been coded, but those particular liveries have not been. In some cases, the new sprites are an improvement over the old ones, and the old ones are to be removed and replaced; that's particularly the case with the animated sprites. In other cases, they are new liveries that are to be added to what's already there without replacing it.

There are a couple of locomotives that have not been drawn, which, if they were, would allow us to make a bit more climate-differentiation. I have a schema drawn up which would have some locomotives not available in some of the climates; but for this to work, a couple more need to be drawn, as specified in the table. Probably better, for now, to just code the sprites that already exist, and worry about the rest as/if they come in. Right now the major US Set artists are generally busy on other sets.

[Death]

Death,

Am curious if you've had a chance to begin working on the US Set. If so, any notable progress?

Thanks - hope all is well.

No, I haven't.
And I'm afraid I even won't begin, because in the mid of August I'm leaving my home for studies that are far away from my home.
I won't be able to touch a computer for coding.
And when I finish there, I'll join to the Army for 3 years (duty for our country).
So I may say goodbye for the years of coding...

I'm so sorry but thats the truth.

[Chicago Rail Authority]

You'll be missed. Best wishes over the next few years - and look forward (hopefully) to your return when your tour ends.

[m4rek]

Conscription... It is a b*tch... My brother narrowly avoided it as the year he was up they abolished it in the Czech Republic

Good luck and I hope you return to us in one piece

[krtaylor]

Good luck to you!

Before you go, would it be possible for you to upload all your working files for the various projects you've been working on, so they can be completed by others? You can PM them to me if you'd prefer, or post them to the relevant threads. Thanks! It's just that some of these projects have had to be restarted several times, and I want to avoid that happening again if I can....

[ISA]

Good luck Death and I/we hope You return here someday!

[orudge]

Good luck, Death, and all the best for the future!

[SkeedR]

Hope you get to come back man. Nice work so far though. Have fun

[Death]

thanks guys,
I'll be here around though, but won't code.
So I'm not going to say goodbye for you, just for the coding work.

[orudge]

Just wondering, are there any updates planned for the US Set at all? I guess coders and artists are probably all busy, but I'm thinking I'll have a play with the US Set for my next tropical game, and it made me think - a suggestion for a potential future version: any chance of a little descriptive text thing saying "Suitable for: passengers/freight/universal", as you tend to get in a lot of the other new sets nowadays? It's handier than having the readme open and flipping between each looking for the appropriate train to use, anyway!

Anyway, I imagine this suggestion has been made before, but I just thought I'd post it anyway.

[White Rabbit]

Good choice. You are given such an multitudinous, all-encompassing array of beautiful engines and carriages, sometimes filling a niche twice over, that you're afraid of neglecting even a single one of them, so you end up almost obligated to use them all. I had some of my very best TTD experiences with the US Set in the Sub-Tropical climate (you may remember my screenshots posted some years ago), and I still yearn to repeat those magical months with the US Set. What makes it most fun is that many of the locomotives are general purpose types, while specialized ones are distinguished by their unique HPs, TEs, top speeds, and the type of wagons they can be attached to, so you're free to populate your networks the way you choose, without infringing on realism.

[Marshy]

I'd also love to see an updated version of this set as its such a wonderful set to use and still looks fantastic. I started a game with it the other day but made the stupid mistake of using pikka's basic industries with it.

[Oracle]

This is probably the point at which I should stop lurking and actually post something...
At Easter I realised that I did actually still enjoy playing TTD and made a mental note to come back here in the summer. Since I came back, I've been around here for a few weeks, lurking, working out what needs updating on the set, and making a few improvements. I would like to see this set improved too but unfortunately university takes up 120% of my time from late September until late June and that's why you don't see me here.
Since Owen posted his suggestion, I've spent a few hours this evening adding some text to the purchase window for all the engines and I've updated a few sets of sprites over the last few days too. Hopefully I can get some sort of release together on Tuesday or Wednesday - if you've got anything small you'd like to see in it, post soon and it might just happen! I am going to try to get some basic newcargos support in but I'm not exactly very clued up on that front .

Unfortunately (as far as you're concerned) I'm spending almost a month away from home (without my laptop too), starting late next week, so there won't be any updates then. However, that gives a month for anyone to finish off any lingering sprites that they started and never finished and I'll hopefully have a few weeks to code at the end of August. I can't make any promises - I'm sorry about my appearance last year not coming to anything - but fingers crossed you'll have something slightly better to play with this week.

[orudge]

Wow, thanks, Oracle - I didn't expect my suggestion would be fulfilled the same evening! I look forward to playing with it when you're ready, anyway.

Thanks very much for your work, again, and I hope your trip away goes well.

[Chicago Rail Authority]

WELCOME BACK

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Ameecher]

We ought to get orudge to bump things more often, it certainly seems to get things going, this is great news!

[lws1984]

Holy cripe.


*bows to Oracle*

phpBB3, and now this?

This is a bloody good weekend.

[lifeblood]

Indeed! Welcome back Oracle. I've been longing to play a USSet game for a while now. I think I will, next Tuesday or Wednesday.

[wallyweb]

I went forth to Delphi to consult the Oracle.
They said that the Oracle was at the Forum, lurking after news from the New World.
They said that the SROTU would cause the Oracle to reveal himself.
Who here dares now to doubt the word of the sages at Delphi?

Good to see you back for the summer.

[CharlieMTA]

Sorry I haven't posted any new work in a long time despite promises to the contrary. Life has been pretty busy lately, but I don't intend on giving up on the set.