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[OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 09:52
by Leanden
I've started work on an adaptation of FIRS tailored to the British economy, and with layouts based on real life industries. Included in this I will be adapting the layouts with branded warehouses etc to make a realistic environment.

I have planned to use the full 32 cargo IDs and the following cargoes will be included:

Alcohol, Metal Oxides, Building Materials, Chemicals, Clay, Coal, Vehicles, Machinery, Fish, Food, Produce, Goods, Cereals, Metal Ore, Livestock, Mail, Electronics, Metal, Milk, Oil, Passengers, Petrol, Cotton, Waste, Sand, Nuclear Fuel, Nuclear Waste, Aggregates, Timber, Wood, Wool.

The first layout i'd like to demonstrate is the Rio Tinto Alcan Aluminium Smelter in Lochaber, Fort William.

Is there a grid type template for drawing ground/industry tiles so that they are within the right tile areas?

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 10:17
by piratescooby
Leanden wrote:I've started work on an adaptation of FIRS tailored to the British economy, and with layouts based on real life industries. Included in this I will be adapting the layouts with branded warehouses etc to make a realistic environment.

I have planned to use the full 32 cargo IDs and the following cargoes will be included:

Alcohol, Metal Oxides, Building Materials, Chemicals, Clay, Coal, Vehicles, Machinery, Fish, Food, Fruit, Goods, Cereals, Metal Ore, Livestock, Mail, Electronics, Metal, Milk, Oil, Passengers, Petrol, Cotton, Waste, Sand, Nuclear Fuel, Stone, Sugar Beet, Timber, Wood, Wool.

The first layout i'd like to demonstrate is the Rio Tinto Alcan Aluminium Smelter in Lochaber, Fort William.

Is there a grid type template for drawing ground/industry tiles so that they are within the right tile areas?
Great Idea , are we going to have Crofting , you have the cargos , fish,livestock and wool ,looking forward to seeing the final product .

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 10:24
by Silverx50
this is impressive. what is the largest size industry you are planning to make?
I've only expanded the template Quast65 supplied to a 4x4 template at the moment. But I don't know if it works the same for industries?
if it does I'd be willing to attempt to template a larger one for you, but it would take some time.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 10:28
by Leanden
To be honest these would be huge, but thats really going to be an element throughout all of my sets, with the size of maps we can have now, there isnt really any reason we cant have bigger industries.

Below is Dungeness B Nuclear Power Station.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 10:39
by Alberth
Leanden wrote:... there isnt really any reason we cant have bigger industries.
Andy found that bigger industries run into the problem of not having flat areas of the map where you can place them. This then leads to having a gap in the dustry, or the industry allowing to get build on sloped tiles.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 10:43
by Leanden
Not all of the industries will be massive, but those that would naturally take up lots of space would typically be built on flat land anyway :)

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 11:04
by 3iff
I have a new industry that's 10*10. Tested on mostly flattish terrain (it's mainly trees) so wouldn't suffer from having to be a coherent building structure.

That alu plant will need a lot of flat land (it looks very impressive).

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 11:19
by Leanden
Thanks 3iff, there aren't that many aluminium smelters in the UK anyway, and all the alumina and coke is imported from Jamaica/Australia for the most part, so its not even a huge industry over here.

This would reflect that because due to the size placement would be difficult which in theory would reduce how many you'd see on a map :)

This one would be 11x11 by the way.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 12:01
by 3iff
I'm not sure how big you can go but I'm guessing 11*11 wouldn't be an issue.

Map generation complains when it can't place industries (I get that a lot with bulk terminals on the coasts) and I can see small or hilly maps might be problematic but that's something the player would have to contend with.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 12:34
by Leanden
I will likely put a parameter in to allow or disallow massive industries, then the player has a choice whether to include then or not.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 13:11
by 3iff
It is possible to have multiple industry designs, so you could have a massive alu plant and a smaller plant design. That way, if the massive one can't find a place then the smaller design might be used.

You just need to create different layouts. FIRS does that a lot, check out the fruit plantations for example.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 13:39
by andythenorth
Leanden wrote:Is there a grid type template for drawing ground/industry tiles so that they are within the right tile areas?
I use photoshop, which has layers. I place a ground tile on a different layer to the building sprites, and use the ground tile as a guide to placement. Then I turn off the ground tile layer before exporting the png.

I've done so many that I often just place the building by eye now ;) FIRS can do a fast compile of just a single industry, so testing and adjusting sprites is quick.

If you're using a graphics editor without layers, use a solid pink tile shape, then fill it to the blue to remove it after the building is placed.

Ground tiles here if that helps.
groundtiles.png
groundtiles.png (6.06 KiB) Viewed 8445 times
The big layouts could be a problem. The game can't place them reliably and you'll have players reporting broken industry chains on small and/or hilly maps. You might consider that's worth it for the visual effect, dunno.

I have progressively reduced the size of industry layouts in FIRS over time. Aluminium plant went from 8x6 to 5x5 or so :D

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 14:06
by Leanden
I use mspaint to draw them and then GIMP to palletize

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 17:02
by andythenorth
Have you sliced any up yet?

If you look at FIRS spritesheets, especially newer ones you'll see I mostly use single tile buildings, avoiding the need to slice.

I don't use a fixed template for the spritesheets. All sprites have the same width and horizontal spacing, but the height and the layout vary a lot.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 18:49
by Leanden
I also will be aiming for single tile elements, any assistance you could give would be exceptional, im not really an artist :P

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 03:59
by le_harv
Also following this thread with interest! A suggestion on the proposed industry footprints. I think it might be better to have the industry itself as a smaller footprint, say the main building of a particular industry then you have a bolt-on with objects similar to how you can make sprawling industries currently utilizing the small footprint industry and station/object packs such as ISR. Just a thought.

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 05:44
by Leanden
Ill have both options available through parameters :)

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 11:39
by andythenorth
Leanden wrote:Ill have both options available through parameters :)
I'd recommend defaulting to the smaller one btw, "first do no harm" ;)

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 17:33
by Leanden
Oh i will :)

Re: [OTTD] BRIndustry - Development Thread

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 18:30
by Dave
Now then.

An 1800-1950 coal merchant for 2x2 city placement would be good. I've run out of ways to justify a power station in 1870 now :lol: