2.5 progress: Beta 9 (October 29)

[Patchman]

I've posted alpha 18, which fixes the crashes using the GRF status window.
-added by eis_os-
And a canals bug that should be fixed already in alpha 17

[Patchman]

I've once again released another alpha version at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

In addition to the usual number of bugfixes (a lot of them for the GRF status window), I've added a new switch called "freighttrains". For the manual page see the wiki at http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php ... ightTrains .

What this switch attempts to do is make the behaviour of freight trains more realistic in TTD. TTD really doesn't work well with very long trains of more than 10 or 15 wagons. In reality, freight trains can have 100 or 200 wagons, though. These just wouldn't fit in TTD's map, so what this switch does is simulate those very heavy trains by multiplying the cargo amount carried by freight wagons with a certain factor. By default that factor is 5, but you can specify it as a parameter to the freighttrains switch. Note that this does not allow the train to actually carry more cargo (which would unbalance the game too much), but only makes the train heavier and therefore behave more realistically.

I've also started working again on the new stations, although the feature is still nowhere near being usable yet. But it can't be too much longer now

Have fun with alpha 19!

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 19 (March 8, 2004):

• fixed bug with being unable to change activation of graphics sets below the first ten
• fixed bug with grfstat window not honouring the shift key
• fixed bug with grfstat window not showing invalid grf files in gray if they have no grfid
• fixed bug in enhancegui ttdpatch.cfg description
• action 5 in grf file with regular GRFID (not FFFFFFFF) will always override any action 5 if grf file without GRFID (i.e. FFFFFFFF)
• fixed broken graphics of locks if no canals.grf loaded, still not quite perfect (leaves "hole" in water when in transparent mode)
• action 0 prop 1F for trains is coefficient of tractive effort
• added new flags for patchflags test in action 7
• new switch: "freighttrains on|<factor>" or -Yf, multiplies freight train cargo weight by the given factor (5 by default), to simulate really long freight trains
• made sure to use default loadamount if loadamount callback returns zero by accident
• fixed trains losing wagons with train vehicles shortened by more than 50%
• allow grfs changing rail type cost multipliers; is action D variable 8F
• moved old newstation code from morebopt.asm to statspri.asm
• added code to keep new station IDs consistent between saving/loading
• fixed bug with new, previously unknown graphics set not getting activated or deactivated correctly when loading a savegame
• fixed width of the scrollbar, and names sometimes getting written over it in the GRF status window
• fixed bug in Windows crash logger possibly causing repeated crashes

[Patchman]

Hi all,

Yet another alpha version is available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

It includes Oskar's latest changes to the canal code, including improved dike displays (especially corners and under bridges) and changing the icon in the construction window. For this reason, you need to download the updated canals graphics from http://www.ttdpatch.net/newgrf.html

The electrifiedrailways feature has changed slightly, now TTDPatch properly supports mixed power trains, e.g. trains with both electric and diesel engines. These trains now use the correct power when on unelectrified track, without the contribution of the electric engines. It also allows a train whose first engine is electric to run on unelectrified track, as long as other non-electric engines are present in the train.

A small improvement to the "freighttrains" switch stops trains from getting overloaded. As soon as the train is so full that the engine can't pull the train with at least half its top speed, the train will stop loading. Note that this doesn't take into account hills, so that the train may still get stuck if it has to go uphill. Mainly this is intended to "help" the AI who sometimes build trains with horribly underpowered engines when the freighttrains feature is on.

Finally there are some more improvements to the new stations graphics support. Now the graphics authors can make stations use custom sprite layouts.

And that's it for today, have fun!

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 20 (March 24, 2004):

• fixed bug causing random crashes if newstations was turned on
• fixed crash at start when neither of curves, mountains or multihead is on
• fixed bug deactivating and showing wrong .grf file if first sprite is wrong
• correctly calculate power and acceleration of mixed power trains on non-electric tracks
• integrated changes from Oskar's alpha 19.1a:
  • improved dike support code, corners and under bridges
  • added support for different locks at sea level and inland
  • changed icon in the ship construction window
• fixed bug with action 0 properties for props>07 not accepting numinfo>1
• catch grf error if action 0 doesn't have as many props as specified
• if freighttrains on, prevent loading more cargo onto train than engine can handle at half the top speed; this currently only works if fullloadany is on
• fixed XML output of -!S-
• moved enhgui search code from enhgui.asm to patches.ah
• fixed bug with transparent station sprites not using new graphics
• added props 09 and 0A for stations, can now specify custom sprite layout

[Patchman]

Alpha 20 crashes when building a new stations if "newstations" is off. Just turn on "newstations", even if you don't have any new graphics that make use of this feature. It doesn't hurt, and prevents the crash.

I'll fix this soon.

[Patchman]

Another quick update at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Alpha 20 had a problem with crashes at the start of the game if "newstations" was turned off. This is now fixed, along with another few bugs. Also, new stations get a few more properties, otherwise there's nothing new in this alpha version.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 21 (March 26, 2004):

• fixed crash when building station if newstations was off
• added rudimentary descriptions to switches.xml
• removed station graphics selection buttons if newstations is off
• fixed bug with action 0 for stations often changing the wrong stations
• added props 0C and 0D for stations, to disallow certain platform lengths and numbers; doesn't work 100% yet but it's a start
• fixed bug with mixed power train being unable to pass signal tile

[Patchman]

Yet another alpha version is available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Again, most people won't know the difference, because most of the changes are related to implementing the new station graphics. Getting closer and closer there...

The only changes which might be noticable is that if graphics files encounter an error condition, they will normally no longer display an error popup, but rather that message will be shown in the GRF Status Window from TTD's toolbox menu. Only fatal errors will show popup messages.

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 22 (March 29, 2004):

• stations props 0C and 0D are now bytes, but now they work properly
• added station prop 0B to set callback flags
• added station callback 13 to check whether station should be available in construction menu
• new station props 0E and 0F to set and copy station layouts
• added station special var 40, which may be more convenient than altering the station layout
• station prop 09 can now redefine only some tiles and use TTD's layout for others without having to copy it
• added WAYP class for new stations, when these stations are built they will never accept or receive any cargo, and trains won't stop even without using the nonstop switch
• made new stations multiplayer and AI compatible (though the AI will never build new stations, now it won't do so accidentally)
• fixed helicopter rotor override which was broken for a long time
• allow random graphics for stations
• record construction date of stations and allow var.action 2 to access it (this caused the previously defined variables to change)
• allow grf to change station class desc (textids C0xx)
• grf error messages are now only shown as popups if they occur during initialization or if they are fatal errors, all other messages and warnings are stored and displayed in the GRF status window

[Patchman]

Hi all,

Yet another alpha version is available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one introduces a new switch "gamespeed on" or -Yg, made by Sander van Schouwenburg. It allows you to slow down or speed up the game by using the 'q' (slower), 'w' (normal) and 'e' (faster) keys. Currently it only works for the Windows version, and it can't speed up the game more than your computer can handle. Also, when slowing down, the frame rate and response of the game drops accordingly. If you have a ttdpttxt.dat file, you must edit the hotkey definitions there by replacing the characters between the initial "x" and the "!" by "qwe", e.g. changing

Code: Select all

hotkeylistwin="x   !@#$t%1234567890-=`\\\00"

into

Code: Select all

hotkeylistwin="xqwe!@#$t%1234567890-=`\\\00"

TTDPatch now also removes TTD's title screens (the "Microprose presents" etc.) unless you add miscmods bit 16 (value 65536). I'm open for feedback whether this should be enabled by default as it is now, or whether it should be a choice, however.

As a more experimental change, I've modified the realistic road vehicle acceleration to use the same code as the train acceleration. Previously they were using slightly different calculations, and it turns out that this has underestimated the power of road vehicles. As a result, I've had to adjust the power of TTD's road vehicles to about half of their original power. However, for the road vehicles from new graphics sets this means that they will now have too much power. I'll see what we will do about that.

Other than that, there's another heap of bugfixes and small changes to the new graphics system, including some improved error handling and display of total number of sprites and active sprites. Those who are interested may look in the full changes list below.

Have fun!

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 23 (April 5, 2004):

• fixed bug with fatal error messages from action 0B
• fixed bug when using engine variational action 2
• fixed bug with multiple sets in action 0A incorrectly reporting "invalid sprite"
• experimentally changed road vehicle code to use same code as trains for realistic acceleration; this might require adjustments to RV powers
• added xml version and charset to switches.xml output
• allow life time of wagons to be limited; all vehicles with prop 04 set to FF will never expire; this is set for all wagons by default
• when vehicle prop 00 is before 1922, the random amount is not added to it
• reset action 5 sprite vars when reloading; previously this could cause incorrect sprites if sprite limit reached
• added display of current number of sprites in use in grf stat window
• change default for prop 22 for wagons to 0 instead of 40 to allow prop 1B to work by default
• show non-action B error messages in grf status window as well
• when trying to activate more sprites than possible, the grf which reaches the limit will no longer be deactivated permanently
• fixed bug with station prop 0A, copying from wrong station ID
• version ID in xml file made by dos version was wrong
• fixed display of wrong rail type in monorail/maglev stations with newstations on
• added consistency check to action 4
• generalfixes skips intro screen unless miscmods bit 16 (value 65536) is set
• by Sander van Schouwenburg: gamespeed on (-Yg) allows you to control the game speed with the 'q' (slower), 'w' (normal) and 'e' (faster) keys (Windows version only at the moment), needs keys updated in ttdpttxt.txt if it exists

[Patchman]

Hi, I've released a quick bugfix version at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/ that fixes the crashes which have been reported when trying to start newly bought road vehicles or looking at ship or plane details.

Please update if you've experienced any crashes in alpha 23.

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 24 (April 6, 2004):

• fixed crash in showspeed option for ships and planes
• fixed crash when trying to start newly bought road vehicles
• added prop 18 for road vehicles, to set max TE like prop 1F for trains
• XML output now shows whether switch is on by default
• adjusted realistic road vehicle acceleration

[Patchman]

Hi all,

I've finally released the first version of TTDPatch that officially supports new station graphics. You can get is as usual at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

As you've read in Michael's announcement, the first new station graphics file is available as well, at http://www.ttdpatch.net/newgrf.html .

To use the new station graphics, set "newstations on" in your ttdpatch.cfg, download the graphics and put them in newgrf(w).cfg. Then you can use the yellow arrows in the station construction window to choose the graphics selection. The top arrows will select the station class (at the moment, regular or waypoints), and the bottom arrows select the individual graphics within that class.

Note that the new station graphics may not be active by default in existing savegames. If the arrows are grayed out, try opening the graphics status window from the tools menu and enable the new stations there.

As for using waypoints, if you build a station using the signal-boxes (or waypoints), then that station will become a pure waypoint. That is, it will never receive or accept cargo, and trains will not stop there, even if you don't use the non-stop command or the "nonstop on" switch of the patch. Also, these waypoints will not reduce your local authority rating for being unserviced stations.

Now have fun playing with the new stations! The next alpha version will probably take a bit longer since I'm going on vacation the next two weeks.

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 25 (April 11, 2004):

• added format attribute to error message functions to let gcc check the printf-like arguments
• fixed bug in text-ID version of action 4 overwriting semi-random texts
• fixed bug in changing new station class names; text-ID is now C1xx
• fixed bug with wrong display of built stations
• fixed bug with apply button/resetvehicles clearing new stations
• waypoints within a town's transport zone no longer reduce the LA rating
• fixed bug with train wagons sometimes keeping power of previously sold engine
• modified station action 2 and 3 to be like vehicles; supports cargo types and different amounts
• new property 10 for stations to set cargo amount for which we switch from "little" cargo to "lots of" cargo
• can now distinguish regular and pseudo-sprites and show error message for wrong type instead of crashing
• fixed callback 10 not using the right default value if it fails
• make sure station graphics are refreshed when changing cargo (from industry or vehicle), when changing rating and/or maybe only when aging cargo
• actions 2, 3 now check that the ids they refer to are already defined and display error otherwise
• road vehicle acceleration back at alpha 23 settings
• adjusted default bus powers

[Patchman]

Hi all,

Here's the latest alpha version: http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Because of changes in the internal graphics format, you have to download the new station and canals graphics again, the old files will no longer work in alpha 26. Just go to http://www.ttdpatch.net/newgrf.html#201 and get them there.

Thanks to Oskar's diligence, it's now possible to build bridges that are more than one height level above the ground, something that used to be firmly planted in the "impossible to do" category. Well, it's only impossible until somebody does it.... To use this feature, set "higherbridges on" (-Yh), and just build the bridges as usual. Note that it's still not possible to have crossing bridges, bridges over diagonal track, or anything else that used to be impossible. But they can be higher now, finally.

A new contributor to TTDPatch, Marijn (not to be confused with Marcin), has improved the "moreindustries" switch. It now allows you to fund prospecting of primary industries such as coal mines. This is very expensive, and with no guarantee of success, in fact, the more industries of that type are already on the map, the less likely the prospecting is to succeed. Just open the "Fund Industry" window, and click on a primary industry to fund prospecting.

For my part, I've fixed a host of bugs that were present in alpha 25, in particular those related to the new station graphics. Now they no longer need "signalsontrafficside on", and neither does the waypoint selection in the rail station window apply to other station types. So it's now safe to leave it set to waypoints.

Also, the gamespeed feature now works in the DOS version as well, using the same "q", "w" and "e" keys as the Windows version. Finally, if you have "morehotkeys on", the space bar will now cancel news messages in summary mode as well (that is those scrolling blue messages in the status bar).

And that's it for today. Have fun with the new features!

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 26 (May 10, 2004):

• make gamespeed hotkeys work in DOS too
• by Marijn: "moreindustries" now allows funding the prospecting of new primary industries, with less chance of success the more industries of that type there are
• by Oskar: "higherbridges" or -Yh allows building bridges more than one height level high
• fixed bug with station waypoint selection being applied to other station types as well
• fixed bug requiring signalsontrafficside on for new station graphics to work
• fixed bug with removing electrified track from under bridge and pylons not being removed as well
• changed meaning of station var 40, and introduced new var 41 which gives separate tile information for all individually built sections
• changed definition of station prop 09 to allow defining variable number of tiles
• added callback 14 for stations to display other tile types
• by Oskar: changed canals to use action 1/2/3 system
• fixed bug with showing wrong error sprite in grf status window
• allow forcing a .grf to activate
• with "morehotkeys on", space bar now cancels summary news messages as well
• fixed inverted meaning of miscmods bit 10 (value 1024), without it now vehicle names will really be used in news messages; set the bit to disable this
• change freighttrains to show "20 tons of coal (x5)" instead of multiplied amount

[Patchman]

Hi all,

I've released 2.0.1 alpha 27 at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

It's mostly a bugfix release, as well as adding a few new features for the new graphics authors. Get it if you had problems with alpha 26, but it's not really urgently needed...

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 27 (May 17, 2004):

• fixed newstation prop 40 not being right after station attached to other facilities
• fixed 'c' key again
• added fixed by Csaba:
  • fixed bug in Windows-TTD overwriting wrong savegame if it has a filename with lower case letters (e.g. Trt01.sv1 instead of TRT01.SV1)
  • fixed bug in Windows-TTD with sounds effects being too low volume
  • fixed bug with vehicle names not being shown properly in news messages in some translated versions (these message can now be customized separately)
• new station prop 11: bit mask that sets for which tiletypes pylons are drawn
• now higherbridges turns on buildonslopes automatically
• now newstations turns on enhancegui automatically
• in crash log, show currently processed .grf file and sprite number, if any
• crash log now shows current patch configuration as well
• by Oskar: fix bug and possible crash with desert detection for canals
• by Oskar: fix bug in crash logger not making logs in Windows NT/2k/XP
• turning GRF files on/off with GRF Status window (or Cht: Graphics) no longer requires saveoptionaldata on
• reset vehicle lost time when it gets new cargo (so it will not be lost while loading unless no more cargo arrives)
• stations now support up to 16 different random graphics per tile in addition to the existing per-station randomness
• fixed bug in prospecting being charged to wrong expense types and only being charged if it fails
• var.action 2 variable 41 like var. 40 but only counting consecutive vehicles of same type
• var.action 2 variable 42 for vehicles allows to check what cargo the consist transports
• realistic acceleration air drag coefficient c2 can now be set by train prop. 20 and RV prop 19

[Patchman]

The new alpha version is available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one again contains mostly bugfixes, as well as the addition of 1/4 and 1/8 speed to the gamespeed switch. Note that these speeds make the game really choppy, even the mouse cursor will be slowed down.

I've also uploaded a minor update of the DB Set XL. It's still version 0.64, but now it will work in the Spanish version of TTD as well, which previously caused it to abort with an "invalid sprite" error message.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 28 (May 25, 2004):

• fixed generation of current grf file and sprite number in Windows crash logs
• by Sander van Schouwenburg: allow 1/4 and 1/8 game speed as well
• fixed bug with trains sometimes getting a refit button even if not refittable
• train info window now shows tractive effort, wagon power and refittability
• fixed with gotodepot: train would advance to next order even if it enters the wrong depot
• allow defining new station classes (by simply using them)
• action 4 textid C4xx now refers to the class of station ID xx, not class xx
• fixed spanish translation of dbsetxl

[Patchman]

Another alpha version is available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one has mostly bugfixes, in particular to the broken "gotodepot" feature from alpha 28. I've also added a "Default" button to the GRF status window, which resets everything to the default, as if a new game had been started. This is in anticipation of removing the "loadallgraphics" switch in one of the coming alpha versions.

Have fun,

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 29 (June 25, 2004):

• fixed bug with station callback 14 not working in NW-SE direction
• added "reset" button to grf status window
• fixed bug with vehicle length callback sometimes causing lost wagons or a crash
• fixed bug in train var 41, "bb" was one too large by all but last vehicle of train
• fixed incompatibility between "higherbridges" and "bridgespeedlimits"
• fixed bug when refitting to mail giving half the intended capacity
• added train callback 15 for refit capacity
• fixed gotodepot not working for planes
• fixed lack of "vehicle waiting in depot" messages
• fixed incorrect wagon lengths when reversing train with short wagons
• fixed station callback 14 not working for layouts beyond 06/07
• make sure callback 14 never tries to use nonexisting sprite layouts
• fixed bug with GRF status window and new station selection window changing company name if it was "unnamed"
• changed station vars 40&41 to xTNLcCpP, T=tile type (in callback 14), x=undefined

[Patchman]

Hi all,

the latest patch version is now again available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Please note that this one is a little more experimental than the previous ones, particularly the new "articulated engine" feature. Please read all of this message to find out the precautions you need to take if you want to test it.

Articulated engines are train engines that are made up from several vehicles. This might be a steam engine with a tender, or something more complex. Previously, you had to buy all pieces individually and assemble them yourself, hoping that you got them in the right order in orientation. For .grf files using articulated engines, the patch will now do that automatically, and it will treat such engines as a single entity. This means that the AI players will now be able to use such engines properly as well, in particular they will buy tenders along with steam engines as appropriate (if so enabled in the .grf file).

Please note that there are still some problems associated with articulated engines, particularly when they are multiheaded. When adding or removing additional heads of a articulated engine, you currently have to make sure the game would not "automatically" attach or detach these additional engines.

To buy additional articulated engine head:
- buy the real engine first (without Ctrl)
- buy all additional engines (with Ctrl)
- buy the wagons

To sell a train with articulated engines?
- sell all additional engines first
- then sell the train

It should be safe to move engines around in a depot, however. To be really sure, save before rearranging trains.

Other new features are the new "newgrfcfg" switch (-Yn on the command line), which allows you to choose a different file name for the newgrf(w).cfg file. This way you could have a different newgrf.cfg file associated with a different configuration, and switch between them.

It is now possible to turn off .grf files by default, by adding a "!" parameter after the filename. For example, the line "newgrf/bla.grf !" would make bla.grf be loaded and available for savegames that need it, but it wouldn't be enabled by default. You can still enable it manually of course by opening the Graphics Status window from the tools menu. Along with this change, I've disabled the "loadallgraphics" switch, because a better mechanism exists now to enable/disable graphics. An updated version of Graphics Manager that can take advantage of these changes is available at http://www.ttdpatch.de.vu/ .

I've changed the multihead switch slightly, in that it now always buys two heads of normally two-headed trains like the T.I.M. You can still sell the second head if you don't like it, however.

Finally, I've fixed a bug in TTD, which caused it to forget the mail capacity when refitting a plane. This was most noticable when refitting a plane to carry only mail, in which case it would be only half the passenger capacity, instead of half the passenger capacity plus the original mail capacity. Now the original mail capacity is properly taken into account.

And that's all for now, I hope to bring out another alpha fixing the articulated engine issues soon!

Have fun,

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 30 (July 20, 2004):

• fixed bug with multiple actions 0 setting prop 08 not working
• fixed bug with custom vehicle names not getting saved if it had shared orders
• fixed bug with different acceleration setting for regular and electric railways
• prevent crashes from division by zero or overflow on division
• new switch "newgrfcfg" (-Yn) allows specifying an alternate newgrf.cfg file
• if veh can't be autorenewed because the model is obsolete, the "getting old" message now says so
• improved resilience of the newgrf.cfg parser (now less confused by spaces in odd places etc.)
• removed "loadallgraphics" functionality, instead individual .grfs can be disabled by default by adding a "!" parameter in newgrf(w).cfg
• added independent random trigger chains, now only the bits which actually get triggered will be re-randomized
• new station prop 12 to set cargo types that should trigger re-randomizing
• added station triggers for re-randomizing
• had to reduce random station bits from 16 to 8 because of the above changes
• when refitting aircraft, take original mail capacity into account too
• make sure train and road vehicle refit costs are accounted in proper category
• implemented callback 15 for all vehicle types
• allow setting refit cost for all vehicle types
• force redraw of depot window after refitting
• selling and re-buying a vehicle now copies the service interval, refitted cargo type and current destination as well (with generalfixes or sharedorders)
• allow articulated train engines, using callback 16
• changed multihead: by default buy both heads of dualheaded trains, and changed what the Ctrl key does when arranging trains: forward with Ctrl, backward without
• powered wagons work even with multihead off
• fix incorrect values of dualheaded engines with multihead on

[Patchman]

Hi,

The latest alpha is available at the usual place, http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

I've put a lot of work into making articulated engines work properly, and I believe everything should work right now, including multiheaded articulated engines, moving the individual engines around and building and selling trains. What doesn't work is reversing articulated engines and dual-heading them (as opposed to multi-heading), but there are no sets which requires this at the moment so I'll fix it later.

One other change is something that Marijn submitted months ago but I totally forgot to include in the patch: it allows you to build canals at sea-level. These sea-level canals have dikes too and thus won't flood into adjacent tiles, unlike regular sea-level water.

In other news, I'm going to be moving to a new city over the course of the next one or two weeks. This means I won't be working on the patch during that time, and it will also mean that the mailing lists will only be working sporadically. If you send requests to subscribe/unsubscribe or postings to the lists, please be prepared to wait a few hours or a day or two to see them appear. It may take two weeks for the lists to become fully functional again. For the same reason, the archives will be out of date until I'm done moving. Sorry about that!

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 31 (July 25, 2004):

• grf status window now also shows memory usage
• newstation var 42 gives tile and terrain type
• fixed bug with wagons getting lost when selling articulated multihead
• fixed bug with selling & buying setting cargo types that the newly bought vehicle didn't support
• fixed bug with copying orders also copying veh.name and cargo type (etc.)
• fixed incorrect power, weight and TE of articulated engines
• fixed bug with vehicles in "unattached" rows in depots sometimes not showing the right graphics
• fix crash when AI tries to sell dualheaded train
• show articulated loco on a single line in train details
• newgrfcfg entry is written to ttdpatch.cfg commented out if it's set to the default
• new action 0 feature 6 to modify bridge sprite tables
• by Marijn: canals built at sealevel show dikes too and don't flood into adjacent sealevel tiles

[Patchman]

Hi all,

I'm back! Well, I'm there, really, seeing as I've moved to a new city. I'm all settled in now and started working on the patch again. You'll find the new version as usual at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

I'm not the only one who's back either, Csaba has contributed two new features, together with a number of bugfixes. The first feature ("mousewheel on") adds mouse wheel support to the Windows version of TTD. Scrolling the wheel either zooms in or out, or scrolls lists of any open windows if there are any. For more details see the manual entry at http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php?page=MouseWheel .

Csaba also wrote another new feature that allows opening more in-game windows at the same time. TTD normally allows 7 regular windows open, with "morewindows #" you can set the number of open windows allowed. Note that three windows are always open (namely the toolbar, the main view and the status bar), so that you can open three windows less than what you specify for the switch.

Apart from this, most changes are bug fixes. See below for the full list.

Now have fun, and I'm sorry to have kept you waiting with crashes, hangs and various other nastiness while I was moving,

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 32 (August 15, 2004):

• fix planes getting wrong passenger capacity when refitting
• fixed bug with road vehicle/ship refitting to same cargo costing money
• new action 2 variable for current player and whether is AI or human
• fixed crash in Windows version when selling remaining head of dualheaded engine with fastwagonsell on
• by Csaba:
  • fixed manualconvert bug not changing both ends of a tunnel
  • new switch "mousewheel on/#" (-Yl #) adds support for mouse wheel in the Windows version
  • new switch "morewindows on" (-YW) allows opening more windows in the game at the same time
  • fixes a crash if the current currency is Euro, but Euros are disabled
  • changed enhanced GUI settings window, the texts can be localized now and the right mouse button no longer does the same thing as the left button
• fixed crash when looking at top corner of map with morevehicles and canals on
• new train prop 24 sets high byte of weight to allow > 255 ton vehicles
• fixed hang when choosing new station class whose stations are all unavailable
• query tool now shows names of station and its class, if available

[Patchman]

Hi all,

Just a quick bug fix for a few relatively major bugs in alpha 32, now available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Also, you can now build regular water (not canals) at sealevel again, by holding Ctrl when building canals. This does not work at higher elevations.

More or less experimentally, I've changed the display of vehicle status in the vehicle list. When an old vehicle is in the depot, its colour is now purple (for red+blue). Also, stopped vehicles not in a depot are shown in a white colour, or gray if they're old. Finally, stopped vehicles will not generate messages that they're lost or getting old.

To help fix savegames corrupted by the earlier alpha's buggie articulated engines feature, a new sign cheat, "Cht: FindLostWagons" allows you to make "lost" wagons visible again, i.e. those invisible wagons in a depot that prevent you from destroying the depot.

Have fun,
Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 33 (August 17, 2004):

• fixed canals having dikes in the wrong places
• fixed road vehicle refit capacity callback being called with old cargo type
• building sealevel canal with Ctrl key actually places regular water
• fixed incorrect mousewheel switch range being written to ttdpatch.cfg
• stopped vehicles no longer generate "getting old" or "lost" messages
• vehicle list now shows old vehicles in depot in purple, and stopped vehicles in white, or gray if they're old
• Cht: FindLostWagons can recover "invisible" wagons in a depot
• fixed hang or corruption of status bar when choosing new station graphics

[Patchman]

Here's another alpha, get it at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Not a lot of bugfixes this time, in fact most of the things reported since alpha 33 will still be broken here (there were only minor issues though).

The main reason for this release is that Csaba Varga has added a whole new graphics feature, allowing people to make new town houses and buildings, with the full capabilities afforded by the action 1/2/3 system. To use it, enable "newhouses on" and get a new house .grf file.

In addition, Marijn has written a new switch, "enhanceddifficultysettings on", which at the moments allows you to set the number of industries to "none" in the difficulty settings, to start a new random game with no industries at all if you like the challenge.

Finally I've been working a bit more on dxmci.dll, the music replacement DLL for Windows, after some input from "gulikoza". Now it will use the Midi Mapper by default, so the music should sound the same as it did without the DLL and not use the MS software synthesizer. Another change is that now any error messages will be shown in-game, because the previous version's use of Windows message boxes does not work in fullscreen. This new version is still somewhat experimental, so at the moment you can only get it here: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=189923#189923

Have fun with the new features!

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 34 (August 25, 2004):

• station prop. 09 (sprite layout) now allows both using newgrf sprites for the ground sprite as well as TTD's sprites for the station sprites; both are selected by setting bit 31 in the sprite number
• new action 7/9 variable 91 holds current track type; only valid while rail tool menu is open (e.g. when building stations)
• improved dxmci error handling (now shown ingame with latest dxmci.dll version)
• by Csaba:
  • mouse wheel now respected the lines-per-wheel-motion setting in Windows
  • new switch, "newhouses on" (-Xh) enables graphics for new town houses and buildings
• by Marijn: new switch "enhanceddifficultysettings on" or -YD allows choosing "none" for the number of industries in the difficulty settings
• new switch "newbridges on" (-Yd) for setting bridge properties
• bridge prop. 08 had to be changed to 0D to make room for the basic bridge properties year (08), min.length (09), max.length (0A), cost factor (0B) and max.speed (0C)
• new bridge prop 0E sets flags for the bridge
• fixed station var. 42 (terrain type)

[Patchman]

Hi all,

Alpha 35 is now available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

As usual it fixes a number of bugs, most importantly the problems and crashes some people had with new station graphics, and the town buildings sometimes being built over occupied tiles.

Aside from that, Csaba has improved the new town building support a little, to allow built-in colour randomization and easier support for the construction stages by including them in the action 1 definition.

He also wrote another entirely new feature, namely .grf support for new town name styles. This is enabled by `newtownnames on' (-YN). Now we just need someone to write a .grf which uses this feature...

Finally, abandonedroads is now a feature which has three different modes, set by the switch parameter. Mode 0 works as before, where unused roads become unowned after a while. In mode 1 towns will take over nearby roads instead of them becoming ownerless after a while, and in mode 2 towns will take over roads in their vicinity instantly.

Enjoy!

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 35 (September 3, 2004):

• improved detection of pseudo/real sprite mixups
• improve crash log when drawing new graphics
• improve detection of invalid sprites (this breaks the tropicset)
• fixed crashes due to insufficient array size when station grf sets cargo triggers
• moved "no command line switch" to separate string and simplified switch writing
• wait for key after language error too
• fixed bug with water sometimes flooding tiles it shouldn't, with generalfixes on
• simplified getnewsprite function and changed it to use call tables
• improved utility of veh2 array, and moved realpower/fullweight/fullaccel variables there
• fixed cash overflow when merging with other company
• fixed problem with some engines being considered obsolete after 2050 and not being autorenewed
• implement non-vehicle, feature specific callbacks with action 3 that has n-id=0
• added callback 18 called by the AI when deciding on a wagon to buy
• fixed bug with action 4 feature 48 not being recognised as valid
• added track type value to station var. 42 (bits 8-15)
• fixed bug with vehicle callbacks of articulated engines not being set properly
• fixed bug with station selection back arrows not working when they would skip inactive classes or stations
• made ALLOCEMPTYOFFSETS larger since we were getting close to the limit
• by Csaba:
  • fixed bug causing cities to build houses on occupied tiles
  • added newhouses prop 17 to set the four colours available for random colour translation
  • added newhouses prop 18 to set probability of house being built
  • constructions stages are now built into action 1 by using from 1 to 4 views per set (though using a var.action 2 will still work)
  • new feature, "newtownnames on" (-YN) allows .grfs to define new town name sets
  • abandonedroads now has several modes, mode 0 works as before, in mode 1 towns will take over nearby roads after a while of them not being used, and in mode 2 this will happen instantly
• feeder services are now attributed to the right vehicles in the financial stats
• by chirho: round new currency factors to nicer numbers, fix some currency symbols and Euro introduction dates
• support more than one new text for newhouses names in action 4
• fix bug in capacity callback, causing callback to have wrong refit cycle
• thanks to lots of nagging by George, c2 is now set in units of 1/256

[Patchman]

Hi all,

Alpha 36 is now available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

It's mostly bugfixes, especially the bug causing trains to speed up while going uphill and slowing down downhill.

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 36 (September 6, 2004):

• fixed wrong sign of acceleration of trains on hills
• fixed bug with multi-vehicle action 4 causing crash or overwriting the date
• allow station ground sprites to be from different sprite set than main sprites
• fixed higher bridges built in scenario editor not working when playing game
• new ship props. 14 and 15 allow setting speed fraction in the ocean and in canals
• fixed bug with c2 coefficient not being set until save is loaded again the first time