Transport Tycoon Forums

Noticed you guys are discussing a "possible" TTD clone, and thought I'd let you know one is already well underway.

Same game, same graphics (they don't seem to care much about the legal aspect - they are ripped straight from TTD) but many improvements (larger maps, multilevel bridges etc.).

Check out Transport Tycoon Super Deluxe

Seems many people don't know about it, their forum only has 4 members!! But they are recoding the entire game and it seems they are pretty far along the road - good work!!

Gil wrote:Noticed you guys are discussing a "possible" TTD clone, and thought I'd let you know one is already well underway.

Same game, same graphics (they don't seem to care much about the legal aspect - they are ripped straight from TTD) but many improvements (larger maps, multilevel bridges etc.).

Check out Transport Tycoon Super Deluxe

Seems many people don't know about it, their forum only has 4 members!! But they are recoding the entire game and it seems they are pretty far along the road - good work!!

Yes, we know, they keep us up to date
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?t=4783

Yeah cheers Spaceman, I read that forum. just wasn't sure if the other guys on here were aware of it - they seemed to be discussing a clone "hypothetically", just wanted to let them know that one exists already!

Anyway, the more publicity the better, the peeps doing the rewrite deserve some attention, they're doing a great job as far as I can see.

I have been following TTD in this forum for quite a while and I did NOT know about this project. I agree, it needs to be more widely publicised.

But their website is down so I can't go to look at it.

Not anymore it isn't.

Ummm...
http://tts.balloz.nl/
When I do it I get this message:

Due to physical server migration this site
might be unreachable for a short time.

the webmaster

Is this the wrong place?

...No, it's not the wrong place, but I'm not having any difficulties getting in. Maybe it's just you?

Aha. It works in Internet Explorer, but not in Netscape. That is very odd.

I get it too.

I'm on the forum as well....under the same name.

I do think that this should be advertised somewhat in these forums, if they won't just merge them which would be better.

But I get the impression that the project is not ready for prime time yet.

I am surprised of this project, there seem to be actually several projects to clone TTD. It might be more sensible if everybody just teamed up.

It looks like it will still have some of the same limitations of TTD though, namely:
- No ability to do train-tracks underground (subways and subway stations)
- No trams (trains running on tracks in the street)

It seems to me that you'd need to at least allow for the possibility of that from the very beginning, or you wouldn't be able to add it afterwards.

I also hope they have thought through how you add additional modules, environments, etc. the way we do with the Patch. There's got to be a more elegant way than with newgrfw.cfg.

This is the official topic: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?t=4783

krtaylor wrote:I do think that this should be advertised somewhat in these forums, if they won't just merge them which would be better.

YES! Advertise us please (having a forum here would be a possibility, though we do like some control

But I get the impression that the project is not ready for prime time yet.

Also correct, we're doing our best to code as much as we can, but we just don't have extremely much free time due to our studies.

I am surprised of this project, there seem to be actually several projects to clone TTD. It might be more sensible if everybody just teamed up.

I doubt whether teaming up would be a good idea. The code progress would definitely go faster, but different people also have different ideas (never seen any clone, or even a idea that thought about using the original sprites)

It looks like it will still have some of the same limitations of TTD though, namely:
- No ability to do train-tracks underground (subways and subway stations)
- No trams (trains running on tracks in the street)

You shouldn't call it limitations, since there is a magic word: 'source code' . Also there will be at least some kind of configuration files to customize the entire game (primary for tweaking, but it may become a fully blown scripting language).

It seems to me that you'd need to at least allow for the possibility of that from the very beginning, or you wouldn't be able to add it afterwards.

Our engine is very flexible, the are not much of limitations in the engine itself.

I also hope they have thought through how you add additional modules, environments, etc. the way we do with the Patch. There's got to be a more elegant way than with newgrfw.cfg.

At first we will implement 'GRF overloading'. With which you can replace original sprites with new ones. This can be done either with new GRF files, with which you can replace ranges of sprites. Or you overload with single pcx/bmp/tga files.

TBOT wrote:YES! Advertise us please (having a forum here would be a possibility, though we do like some control

I'm sure Owen would give you a forum and make you mod of it if you asked him nicely...
PS - should these posts be moved to this thread?

Now we have two topics, I copied these out of the corporate topic
(sorry, I can't merge topics)

So it sounds like TTSD will be capable of handling the various additional graphics sets already provided. Good, we wouldn't want to waste work.

One other question - Are you guys expecting to make money off of the game? If so then there would be copyright problems. If you are planning to make it open-source, GPL, or free, then it would be unlikely to be a problem.

Money ?!
We will be happy when someone visits our site

More serious, TTS will be freeware and open-source (thus leaving options for mods).

Glad to hear it. I figured this would be the case but it never hurts to ask. Goodness knows we have a TON of mods that people want, just go through the forums and see all the stuff that's in development and that was rejected as impossible...

I'm not sure what programming methodology you are using, but I'm assuming you are familiar with the Patch and making sure that its functions can be replicated in your system. Also you might find it useful to read the forums and see some of the other things that people want and include them from the beginning, or rather, make sure to leave a "stub" to easily add them later.

Having the source code does make this a whole lot more convenient, that's for sure!

Do you have any idea how long you might expect this project to take?

krtaylor wrote:Do you have any idea how long you might expect this project to take?

I don't like to say it, but since it's fair for you interested people:
long, very long...

TTS is made in our scarce spare time, and there's more in life than TTS.

I suspect that there is more to all of our lives than TTD, for instance, I run a company, have a family, travel, etc...

But I hope you are talking "long" in terms of months, not years...

krtaylor wrote:I suspect that there is more to all of our lives than TTD, for instance, I run a company, have a family, travel, etc...

But I hope you are talking "long" in terms of months, not years...

If you look at 3DTT or Simutrans, it's rather years but months. OTOH the TTS team only wants to create a copy of TTD which is probably easier, and they are using all graphics from TTD which saves some time, too.

I'll watch and wait

@krtaylor: You mention development methodology and speed. In your opinion, which methodology will allow the fastest progress and which will be the best long-term strategy (-> maintenance, extensibility)?