What is your favourite NewGRF combination ?

[cybdan]

Hi everybody!

As the title says, I am trying to get some opinions on NewGRFs, so far I tried myself FIRS (industry set) which I didn't like at all, it was way too much overloaded in my opinion, and as a "standard" for everygame I use UniversalRailType since it really helps transitioning from railtrack to monorail and maglev without having to stop services or have massive headaches.

Tho I haven't tried other GRFs and I would like you guys tell me which sets you think are "a must" on every new game you play and why, what does these sets offer and how much does the game experience change.

PS: Anything for airports that solves the inefficiency of having a lot of plains trying to land on the airport and that makes them not so slow while in the ground? Perhaps a set that makes better airports or something?

Leave your sets and some opinion please, I'll gladly read all of them, thank you.

[Alberth]

I don't know what FIRS you tried, but FIRS 2 uses "extreme economy" by default, which is a very bad choice to start with the newgrf. Better change the economy to some "basic" economy on the first tries, it's much more easy to understand that way.
I use FIRS pretty much by default, although I tend to use development versions to do some testing for andythenorth. Currently FIRS3 with "arctic basic" economy, as that is redesigned. Steeltown is also very much recommended, especially with Iron Horse and Road Hog vehicle sets. Another much used vehicle set is Nuts trains, which works very well for transporting cargo. I always use Fish2 for ships, and Chips for station graphics.
To avoid getting bored, I run the Busy Bee script that gives me random transport assignments.

An alternative industry set is OpenGfx+Industries, which is default set, which extras, which you can try.

[kamnet]

I agree with Alberth regarding FIRS - try a basic economy. OpenGFX+ Industries is a small step up from the default OpenTTD industries. You might also like PikkaBird's Basic Industries (PBI).

You'll probably want a new train and road vehicle set to go with that. OpenGFX+ Trains and OpenGFX+ Road Vehicles are the default OpenTTD vehicles that are better balanced and work with all NewGRF industry sets. 2CC Trains, UKRS and NARS are popular train sets, and there are lots of national/regional sets to play with. eGRVTS is also a nice road vehicle set, and lots of various truck and bus sets to try. For a little more variety, try some trams/streetcars like 2CC Trams.

For airports, there really isn't anything different due to limitations of the original Transport Tycoon game. OpenGFX+ Airports gives you airports that you can rotate 360 degrees, and a few other small designs (download a nightly version from the repository rather than the current version from the in-game content download service to get them).

You might want to try that by playing with a few aircraft sets. AV8 is quite popular, and World Airliners Set (WAS) gives you a lot of high-capacity modern planes in real-world liveries. VACE gives you some options to complement the helicopter pads

[cybdan]

I don't know what FIRS you tried, but FIRS 2 uses "extreme economy" by default, which is a very bad choice to start with the newgrf. Better change the economy to some "basic" economy on the first tries, it's much more easy to understand that way.
I use FIRS pretty much by default, although I tend to use development versions to do some testing for andythenorth. Currently FIRS3 with "arctic basic" economy, as that is redesigned. Steeltown is also very much recommended, especially with Iron Horse and Road Hog vehicle sets. Another much used vehicle set is Nuts trains, which works very well for transporting cargo. I always use Fish2 for ships, and Chips for station graphics.
To avoid getting bored, I run the Busy Bee script that gives me random transport assignments.

An alternative industry set is OpenGfx+Industries, which is default set, which extras, which you can try.

Hey Alberth =) I used FIRS 1.0 or whatever the first version of it was, the economy didn't feel extreme, its just that industries has too many dependencies and there's way too many different ones so at first try and after playing a whole game I had a lot issue to find viable do infraestructures to send cargos etc etc, was too tedious, perhaps some people love complicated things, I don't enjoy them, I enjoy easier, but at this point yep I'm getting bored, its always the same industries, the same trains, the same planes, I don't even use road vehicles anymore and if I use ships is because passenger ferry is cool since ships are not efficient, not even for oil rigs, its better to build up terrain next to them and do a train station.

So yeah, with so many GRFs in the menu to choose from I'm kind of looking for something that makes the game *more attractive* or gives me a new experience.

I'm 30+ and I played the game for the first time when I was a child so... yeah I guess I just want to discover cool new things xD

Thanks also kamnet, I'll just try those sets, is there anything important regarding configuration I should know?

Thanks so much

[kamnet]

Other than configuring FIRS 3 to use a "Basic" economy, the rest of those sets don't require any specific configurations. You're good to go on the simple stuff.

[Alberth]

I used FIRS 1.0 or whatever the first version of it was, the economy didn't feel extreme, its just that industries has too many dependencies and there's way too many different ones so at first try and after playing a whole game I had a lot issue to find viable do infraestructures to send cargos etc etc, was too tedious

I know what you mean, I added a new window to solve that problem

Did you try the "Display chain" button in the industry window? (Click at an industry in the main view, at the bottom-right is the "display chain" button.)
There is no Wiki page about it unfortunately, but it displays how industries and cargos connect with each other.
You can click on industries and cargoes to change the view, or select a specific industry or cargo. There is also a "Link to smallmap" button that opens the minimap showing where the selected industries are.

its always the same industries, the same trains, the same planes, I don't even use road vehicles anymore and if I use ships is because passenger ferry is cool since ships are not efficient, not even for oil rigs, its better to build up terrain next to them and do a train station.

So part of "boring" is what you do yourself. Make new rules for yourself. I used to level all ground to make trains operate at maximum performance, but someone once suggested to me to stop modifying the terrain, and instead find novel solutions without changing the terrain. It proved to be much more fun to setup feeder systems, transferring cargo over several stations to the destination. Also, I suddenly had to think how to handle a mountain as I couldn't level it anymore. (for extra challenge forbid tunneling ) If you're afraid you cant keep your own promises, install a basecost grf, and set the terrain modification costs or tunneling costs really really high. You may be able to change a few tiles, but then you're broke.

Other ways to get away from the usual playing style, use different map size, industry density or sea level. 60% water, few industries, and a 128x1024 map makes a nice challenge. For additional fun, add hills, and a high "freight weight multiplier" so long trains with a single engine aren't feasible, and around the mountain is faster than over it.

Other options are to use a game script. There are a lot of citybuilder scripts, I don't like to develop a town, so I cant tell you much about it. There are also game scripts that give you assignments or a challenge, Silicon Valley, NoCarGoal, Busy Bee, or Bee Reward (I wrote the 3rd script together with andythenorth, the 4th script is derived from it).

So yeah, with so many GRFs in the menu to choose from I'm kind of looking for something that makes the game *more attractive* or gives me a new experience.

The problem is that "more attractive" is very much personal, depending on what you like to do, the answer is different. There are at least 4-6 different ways of playing OpenTTD, and probably a lot more. Each NewGRF is pretty much tailored to a specific style of playing. That means that if your style of playing is not the same as someone answering here, their list of newgrfs is quite useless for you.

I'm 30+ and I played the game for the first time when I was a child so... yeah I guess I just want to discover cool new things xD

Tried cargodist yet? It makes that cargo has a mind of its own where it wants to go.

When you understand cargo-dist, a problem that kept me busy for several years was to connect all industries while having cargodist enabled, such that any producer could deliver cargo to any consumer, for all cargoes.

I believe there are pearls in the scenario forum, but I haven't investigated that yet. One scenario I ran into was the Freight Challenge, which is lots of industries with very little space for tracks. Could be a fun one to try.

[cybdan]

I used FIRS 1.0 or whatever the first version of it was, the economy didn't feel extreme, its just that industries has too many dependencies and there's way too many different ones so at first try and after playing a whole game I had a lot issue to find viable do infraestructures to send cargos etc etc, was too tedious

I know what you mean, I added a new window to solve that problem

Did you try the "Display chain" button in the industry window? (Click at an industry in the main view, at the bottom-right is the "display chain" button.)
There is no Wiki page about it unfortunately, but it displays how industries and cargos connect with each other.
You can click on industries and cargoes to change the view, or select a specific industry or cargo. There is also a "Link to smallmap" button that opens the minimap showing where the selected industries are.

its always the same industries, the same trains, the same planes, I don't even use road vehicles anymore and if I use ships is because passenger ferry is cool since ships are not efficient, not even for oil rigs, its better to build up terrain next to them and do a train station.

So part of "boring" is what you do yourself. Make new rules for yourself. I used to level all ground to make trains operate at maximum performance, but someone once suggested to me to stop modifying the terrain, and instead find novel solutions without changing the terrain. It proved to be much more fun to setup feeder systems, transferring cargo over several stations to the destination. Also, I suddenly had to think how to handle a mountain as I couldn't level it anymore. (for extra challenge forbid tunneling ) If you're afraid you cant keep your own promises, install a basecost grf, and set the terrain modification costs or tunneling costs really really high. You may be able to change a few tiles, but then you're broke.

Other ways to get away from the usual playing style, use different map size, industry density or sea level. 60% water, few industries, and a 128x1024 map makes a nice challenge. For additional fun, add hills, and a high "freight weight multiplier" so long trains with a single engine aren't feasible, and around the mountain is faster than over it.

Other options are to use a game script. There are a lot of citybuilder scripts, I don't like to develop a town, so I cant tell you much about it. There are also game scripts that give you assignments or a challenge, Silicon Valley, NoCarGoal, Busy Bee, or Bee Reward (I wrote the 3rd script together with andythenorth, the 4th script is derived from it).

So yeah, with so many GRFs in the menu to choose from I'm kind of looking for something that makes the game *more attractive* or gives me a new experience.

The problem is that "more attractive" is very much personal, depending on what you like to do, the answer is different. There are at least 4-6 different ways of playing OpenTTD, and probably a lot more. Each NewGRF is pretty much tailored to a specific style of playing. That means that if your style of playing is not the same as someone answering here, their list of newgrfs is quite useless for you.

I'm 30+ and I played the game for the first time when I was a child so... yeah I guess I just want to discover cool new things xD

Tried cargodist yet? It makes that cargo has a mind of its own where it wants to go.

When you understand cargo-dist, a problem that kept me busy for several years was to connect all industries while having cargodist enabled, such that any producer could deliver cargo to any consumer, for all cargoes.

I believe there are pearls in the scenario forum, but I haven't investigated that yet. One scenario I ran into was the Freight Challenge, which is lots of industries with very little space for tracks. Could be a fun one to try.

Hey Alberth more than challenge what I seek is to get entertained.


Let me explain, there's for hours where you can do nothing more than look and control your traffic, no faster train for a very long time (especially transition from electric to monorail and then to maglev), same with airplanes, and ship option is very very poor. Perhaps something that keeps me upgrading more oftenly? I'm trying some train sets and stuff, I liked the airport av8 set since I can rotate airports, that's cool, just tried couple train sets and dislike cargo wagons are speed limited. Going to try now vacuum stuff hehe.

Any suggs? ty in advance.

EDIT : not av8, opengfx+airports, sorry my mistake.

[Alberth]

I just stop playing that game and start a new one. However, it heavily depends on how the game goes. When I am having fun with ships and transfers, or the train network is giving me trouble, it easy to be busy for many years

Oh, and for the above reason I never (or rather, hardly) play with aircraft, plopping down a few airports, starting a few aircraft, and you're done, mostly.
One challenge that might be fun (but I never tried that so far) is to put all airports outside the towns, and connect all towns to the passengers and mail network. That should be mayhem with the amount of pax generated by the towns