I think the time has come to reveal what has been cooking secretly on my stove.
Czechoslovakia was always known for it's transport vehicle industry, be it the Tatra trucks, CKD Tatra trams, Skoda locomotives and trolleybuses, or Karosa buses.
Some 14 years ago I worked on graphical sets within the Tycoonez.com:munity, drawing trams for the CSTramSet and dreaming of a separate bus set, which I didn't have a coder for. I then worked with George to have my bus drawings coded and incorporated in his Long Vehicles set from the eastern Europe. But I always dreamed about a big and very detailed bus set from the area where I live.
Some time ago, when I was again brought to OpenTTD by my friends and after I checked there was no czecho-slovak bus set, which I would consider good enough, I decided to again start working on tycoon graphics. And NML was easy enough, so it made it possible for me to not rely on someone else with coding. So now I am at it.
I was inspired by the marvelous Ikarus set, which is very well done and I wanted my set to be compatible with it, so I used their scale.
CSBusSet is a set which has more than 170 types and subtypes of buses and coaches planned. It contains all the major czechoslovak, czech and slovak manufacturers like Skoda, Praga, Tatra, Karosa/Irisbus/Iveco, Sor, and also most of the smaller and little ones like Walter, Fross-Bussing, Oasa, Prima TL, Zliner, Granus, Novoplan/Preos/Troliga Bus, SlovBus, Tedom, Kars and others. It will also contain some foreign buses that were in service in this region like Fiat, Ikarus, Robur, Chavdar, TAM Bus, Mercedes, Bussing etc.
I currently have the following 60 buses and coaches in a working testing set:
The following features are already included in what I have coded so far:
- Each bus has at least one realistic livery and one company color livery. I use both company colors, split to one being used as city buses and the other for regional coaches, long distance coaches often having both CC1 and CC2 versions. There are bus types that have more than 20 liveries available to spice up the game and allow you the diversity to have the bus service more realistic.
- You always buy the bus in a "production" livery. On some buses they epend on year of build and on some, when there were multiple color varieties produced in one year, you have a chance to get buses from multiple, so when buying 5 Karosa LC735.00 buses it can happen 3 will have yellow stripes, one will have red ones and one will be completely white.
- some buses had bodies changed during the production. If it was significant, you will get the bus with the body based on when you will buy it.
- Buses that have known prototypes or some special pieces of significance, will have them as easter eggs - there will be a chance to get them when you buy that bus in that year (is not yet fully implemented).
- Easy icons in the buying menu showing the purpose of the bus and the fuel type
What I am currently working on:
- debugging
- fixing alignment issues of buses on the road
- setting the loading speed of each type based on the amount and width of entrances, and the height of the floor
- Special reality based bus acquiring - After WWII there were captured buses, or buses that were simply found where the nacists left them. If the government wasn§t able to find the owner, they were giving out these to the Czechoslovak railways for their lines. There will be a randomized purchase option, that will offer german and austrian buses with limited lifetime and reliability for a very low price. You will be able to get buses that were never sold before or after.
- In 1948 the socialists got into the government and started collectivisation - they were taking private property of various businesses and put them under the direction of the country. Private bus companies had to give their buses to the government and it again gave them to the czechoslovak railways. These were often old buses from twenties and thirties, maybe some newer. Again there will be a possibility to gain buses that were not sold before.
What is planned:
- system of eras, which will split the buses according some technical complexity, generations into some logical groups, it will be used for passenger satisfaction, which will influece cargo value dropping
- Influence the cargo value drop rate by eras and the comfort of seats, onboard equipment (like bar, television, toilet..), AC
- ballancing of the vehicles (price / reliability / running costs)
- dynamic fuel type based running costs (like raise costs during WWII for petrol and diesel, while keep low running costs for wood generator gas powered vehicles). Fuel types planned are Petrol, Diesel, Holzgas/Generator gas, Natural gas and Electric. I plan to have the possibility adding a generator to petrol powered buses in thirties and WWII.
I may be missing something, if I'll remember, I will add it here.
Here a couple pictures from testing:
So many buses! ![:]](./images/smilies/pleased.gif "Pleased"){kind=small}
