Brainwave

[SwissFan91]

Now, as some people may know on here, I seem to have these brianwaves, and use topics to just get all the ideas down, hopefully without making them sound like big requests.

So there I was, staring at some of the incredibly realistic screenshots we are blessed with in our screenshots forum (SAC, Isa, Ivan Furlanis, the Vassie-Ameecher partnership to name but a few), and I thought, they are all missing something. All the railway networks and infrastructure is pushing the boundaries of OTTD realism, yet the other 3 methods of transport, aren't.

Where are all the ambulances, fire engines, police cars, tow trucks, cyclists, canoes, hot air balloons etc.? Now, I'm sure many of you are thinking that I can shove that small list somewhere, but I think it would make the game a lot more eye-candyerific.* If I myself can come up with a list just from looking around my town, surely there must be loads of random eyecandy vehicles that could be made to spice the game up a bit. Even with generic cars** installed in a game, roads can still look a bit boring with just cars, and buses and trucks. Similarly, we build all these rivers, and yet only have large boats on them.***

Road
Police car - Have seen a GRF for this somewhere already, Supercheese may draw
Ambulance - Possibly seen one around somewhere, Supercheese may draw
Fire Engine - Supercheese may draw
Tow truck
Tractor - HEQS
Combine Harvester
Learner driver
Motorbikes
Scooters

Ships
Canoes - Supercheese may draw
Swimmers(?)
Rowing boats
Jetskis - Supercheese half drawn
Olympic rowing boats
Lifeboat
Banana boat

Air
Not so many here, but...
Hot Air Balloons - Supercheese may draw
Heliski helicopters
Touring aircraft
Air ambulance
Does anyone agree? If anyone knows of any of these things that can be obtained already, let me know!


*Yes, yes it would.
**Still a very good GRF.
***FISH is a marvellous set which has somewhat addressed this.

[andythenorth]

Most of the boats you mention would be too small - literally just pixel blobs.

I've thought of doing fire trucks and snow ploughs before. Someone's done a taxi I think.

There's also something I working on for HEQS which is related. Dunno when it will be done though.

There are already tractors in HEQS btw.

[SwissFan91]

I suppose so, yes. Now I look at HEQS, they're mighty fine tractors

[V453000 :)]

:DDDD Right, and what would you transport with an ambulance or a police? Same for majority of the rest of the list

[Supercheese]

I've been planning on trying my hand at drawing/spriting some of those, when I have some more free time in a week or two (or three).

I already have two rotations of a jetski drawn (although I have yet to add the water wake), and if I am able, I want to do a hot air balloon, a kayak, and the emergency vehicles (fire engine, ambulance, and police car) -- unless they're already drawn, that is.

[SwissFan91]

:DDDD Right, and what would you transport with an ambulance or a police? Same for majority of the rest of the list

They don't have to transport anything, really. The generic cars set, they don't. Eye candy is purely that. This could be a lie, but I believe giving them no capacity will mean they do not attempt to stop at bus stops and lorry stations, is that correct?

I've been planning on trying my hand at drawing/spriting some of those, when I have some more free time in a week or two (or three).

Sounds great!

I already have two rotations of a jetski drawn (although I have yet to add the water wake), and if I am able, I want to do a hot air balloon, a kayak, and the emergency vehicles (fire engine, ambulance, and police car) -- unless they're already drawn, that is.

That sounds super. There is a police car somewhere, although you may want to redo it to fit the style of the other emergency vehicles. Also, many people have different perceptions of police cars, as they differ all over the world.

[lawton27]

Sounds like a good idea, personally I think you should rework the air section, department store blimps and Chinese lanterns don't fly between heliports / airports and it's not possible to make an aircraft stay still (for the blimp), a hot air balloon doesn't exactly fly between airports but i think you'd get away with that . I'd conciser adding things like privately owned aircraft such as small planes used to take aerial photographs or preserved military planes (I was thinking WW2).

Thanks,

Lawton27

[SwissFan91]

Sounds like a good idea, personally I think you should rework the air section, department store blimps and Chinese lanterns don't fly between heliports / airports and it's not possible to make an aircraft stay still (for the blimp), a hot air balloon doesn't exactly fly between airports but i think you'd get away with that . I'd conciser adding things like privately owned aircraft such as small planes used to take aerial photographs or preserved military planes (I was thinking WW2).

Thanks,

Lawton27

You're right, I guess the air section was a bit hastily put together. I'll update the list.

[Pingaware]

Remember that General Av8ion from Pikka does exist, which has tiny useless aircraft like the biplane (1 whole passenger!). And as that's going to be incorporated with Av8 for version 2.0 of the larger .grf, it's fair to say that is a pretty widely available eyecandy .grf.

There was going to be an accompanying screenshot, but OTTD crashed. However, suffice to say - I have an F1 car, various taxis, multiple small cars including sports cars, a schoolbus, a pizza delivery scooter, lots of small planes from Av8ion, an Su 27 fighter, an Apache helicopter, a flashing blimp thing, and a battlecruiser from Battlestar Galactica all in my data folder. I do approve of an increase in this eyecandy stuff though. Most definitely.

[andythenorth]

Remember that General Av8ion from Pikka does exist, which has tiny useless aircraft like the biplane (1 whole passenger!)

Try it for FIRS supplies. Ideal

[kamnet]

I posted a suggestion a little over a year ago regarding the creation of an emergency response vehicle set, and maybe an AI that plays with them. Would be nice to see that moving forward.

Although thought about doing a hot air balloon as well, seems simple enough in and of itself.

If Andy finishes implementing the recycling chain in FIRS, he'll need some garbage trucks, too.

[wallyweb]

There are taxis, a formula1 race car and even a pizzabot available for download here.

[kamnet]

There are taxis, a formula1 race car and even a pizzabot available for download here.

I'm not sure if those vehicles are compatible with the latest OpenTTD.

[wallyweb]

There are taxis, a formula1 race car and even a pizzabot available for download here.

I'm not sure if those vehicles are compatible with the latest OpenTTD.

well I'm not currently able to run my OTTD install so why don't you download the grf and give it a test?

[Supercheese]

There are taxis, a formula1 race car and even a pizzabot available for download here.

I'm not sure if those vehicles are compatible with the latest OpenTTD.

I tested and they worked with OTTD 1.1.1.

[wallyweb]

I tested and they worked with OTTD 1.1.1.

Thank you. How was the speed of the Formula1?

[Supercheese]

Thank you. How was the speed of the Formula1?

It seemed fine, reaching half of max speed (125 mph) in about 3 tiles, and max speed (250 mph) in 33 tiles or so. 200 mph took about 15 tiles.

[SAC]

Too bad the game doesn't automatically dispatch ambulances, police cars and fire brigades when accidents occurs... Still, in my game I have built away all my road/railroad crossing as I got waay to annoyed in the end having to replace trains and vehicles smashed up...

Anyway, some good ideas you have there "Swissfan", but as Andy points out, some of it would be to small to even recognize... But hot air balloons wouldn't be to difficult to create and use in game - if one is prepared to replace something else with a balloon...

[Bob_Mackenzie]

As a hot air balloon has rotational symmetry about its vertical axis you could do it with two sprites (if using a square basket) or one if the basket was round

[Zephyris]

Boo.

Two sets of sprites, one with the burner on, one off. The graphics are all rendered so can be scaled easily, and 32bpp versions are easy to make too.