New Chris Sawyer interview

[Pinkyoz]

... why cant people just post their opinion in a topic with out getting slagged of?...

I agree in principal, its the enforcement that becomes a problem.

I have read this tread, and from what I've seen (baring one possible slip up) there hasn't really been any actual personal attacks per se, just words that hint at it.

We don't want a forum where those with unfavourable views are being attacked for having unfavourable views, but at the same time we want to be able to discuss the issues, take opposing sides and debate on the merits and flaws without being censored by overzealous moderators (not that I have seen any here so far).

Ah the problems with public forums, I guess this won't last forever, we can't discuss the pros and cons of this game infinitely. In the mean time, we might be well advised to be careful in the words we choose to use.

PinkyOz

[spaceman-spiff]

And if it gets to nasty, I'll just close this junk
I don't want wars between loco lovers and loco haters, say what you want but keep it decent please

[lcandy]

Bah, I try and post a reasonable, middle of the road view that looks at both sides, then people ignore it and keep flaming each other! It seems the only way to get an answer from most people on these forums is to have an extreme view one way or another.

[DarkMatter]

Bah, I try and post a reasonable, middle of the road view that looks at both sides, then people ignore it and keep flaming each other! It seems the only way to get an answer from most people on these forums is to have an extreme view one way or another.

Sounds just like real life then....

[Pinkyoz]

Bah, I try and post a reasonable, middle of the road view that looks at both sides, then people ignore it and keep flaming each other! It seems the only way to get an answer from most people on these forums is to have an extreme view one way or another.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil, unfortunately, and there is no doubt that the loudest voices on the forum are coming from the "We hate Locomotion" side of the debate.

I did go back and read your post though, good gathering of the facts, and yes it is moderate.

PinkyOz

[lcandy]

Thank you, you two. It's nice to know I'm not being completely ignored in favour of the repetative, "I'm uninstalling Locomotion and it sucks" people. Fortunatly there are people on the forum's who are comming up with interesting new stuff already, tip's on gameplay, scenarios, mod's. So it's not all bad

[lobster]

There are all sorts of possibilities and the game was designed to be expandable, but it really depends on the success of the game and whether we can come up with an add-on design which players would really appreciate and enjoy.

we should contact him about our improvements already. i bet he's interested.

[teeone]

There are all sorts of possibilities and the game was designed to be expandable, but it really depends on the success of the game and whether we can come up with an add-on design which players would really appreciate and enjoy.

we should contact him about our improvements already. i bet he's interested.

Ya know, I'd like to think he's ready to accept critism and fixes/patches from a community voice....That he's interested in a community voice.... But then I look at his track record on his games so far and realize this will never happen to the level we want it to.

[jules]

Im starting to wonder if hes a retard who plays barbie adventure in his big pink bedroom.

nope, im afraid i think most people will use Born's definition

I just think these types of statements are completely inappropriate for the discussion. I don't think they serve any purpose other than to either propagate the problem further (via retaliation), or force someone to stop partaking in the discussion.

I'll just leave it at that. I should probably just ignore them in the first place.

Just to clear up: in the UK "retard" or "being lame" are under 99.8% of circumstances no way being offensive to dictionary defined retarded or lame people, its just a slang insult term, same way as "my bitches" arn't dogs, they are actually rather fit (err.. 'b****' meaning female friends and dog meaning 'ugly').
Now stop being gay. Sorry coulnt resist that one

ON Topic: I belive that CS has however ruined this game by not listening to the community. If he had spent even a few minutes going to the ttd patch, open ttd and simutrains websites and downloading a list of fixes/ planeed fixes, he would have instantly included about 10 years of fan based oppinions, fixes and modiications, and made the game much more in demand by, well, us.
This can only be blamed on CS.

Also it would seem only mildly sensible to release a limited open beta phase (by that i mean give a beta version to openttd, patch and simutrains programmers and develepers) and get a few oppinions.
This would have been dictated by Atari, with their strict and limiting time guidelines, as with the obvious lack of organised bug testing (which many programers will admit anon. that most companies can't do yet..) - see article in UK's PCZONE mag

Btw, my definition of ruined is that it has no where near reached its potential that it should have done.

[ConductorBob]

Hmmmm. The only thing i geuss i get is the statement about 2013. Its 2004 and 9 years since TTD realeased in 1995. So 2004 + 9 = 2013. It's good to know he can do math, other than that, I don't think Loco will last a year without a patch or something.

[kamnet]

He thinks we might be playing Locomotion in 2013... doubt it. We'll be playing Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

Well, it's 2013 now, and it looks like the support for both games is as strong as ever, and so is the RCT franchise. Anyhow, just updating this topic because the link to the original article in the first post is dead. Here's the revived link via Internet Archive:

http://web.archive.org/web/200410091430 ... p?id=26196

[maquinista]

The biggest problem of Locomotion is that doesn't have a wide support for add-ons (224 vehicles, only 16 indusries, limited load states...). This makes the game less playable than OpenTTD.

[Zakos]

And thus it is generally less-popular than OTTD.

[kamnet]

I look at it like this: once OpenRCT is out, an open-source clone of Locomotion isn't far behind.

[Zakos]

I'm not so sure. The RCT franchise was much more popular than Locomotion. But if both ideas became realities (OpenRCT is already on its way), then yes, OpenLomo would follow closely behind.

[SquireJames]

Do correct me if I am wrong, and I know it is referencing a very old post now, but in regards to Chris Sawyer "ignoring" the community and "ruining" Loco due to it, I seem to recall somewhere that Chris had seen and possibly even played some TTPatch (OTTD wasn't mentioned, possibly not in an advanced state back then, not sure) and had stated that the changes people had made were not in synch with the gameplay he had invisaged when making Transport Tycoon.

Now, it's possible it's just sour grapes, but as a game designer myself I can see his point. Many people don't like the direction I have taken my mods in, and undoubtedly if they were to make their own versions they would probably deviate from my original intentions.

Also, look at the amount of discussion on here about what is to be included in trunk, what is or isn't part of the "goal" of OTTD (i.e town builder game scripts and things being 'mods', not in trunk). No game could ever be all things to all fans, clearly. And, lets be reasonable here, a good part of the stuff in Loco IS what people made clear they wanted in a TTD sequel. There are more realistic sized trains, curved tracks, flexible tunnels and bridges, underground stations, roads and tracks that can be built directly over one another in parallel (double-decker networks in Simcity terms) , trams, different train sets for UK, US and EU, an expanded timescale, dynamic station construction, and although not to TTPatch or OTTD standard, the signalling has been improved from basic TTD.

I know we as humans are sadly more prone to look at the negative, what's missing etc than the positive, but there is a lot there

[Plastikman]

As we start to get way off topic here..
I think what most people in the Locomotion community wants. Are just bug fixes. there are many bugs in the game. It was clearly rushed out or not well beta tested.
The other big changes are to extend the limits of the game (more objects per map, larger maps, longer trains, larger stations).
followed by better AI. both signal based pathing and NPC AI.
then possibly extending out the color pallet from 8bit.
Basically just some patches.. I dont think this game needs to be completely rewritten (not that I would complain if it was)

I don't think these changes would "change his vision" of what the game is.. just bring the game to a level he had not foreseen at the time.

that would just make this from a good game to great game in my opinion..

I am sure the game died thanks to atari ripping him off and his lack of support in following the years due to that.
He had visons of add-ons. its coded int the game.. and that is as far as we get..

but maybe this is stuff that should go into yet another "what would you change post" instead of trolling this antique thread.

[Densha]

Didn't he mention on his website that he intended to make a Japanese region too but decided no to include it in the game (at least the basic version):
http://www.chrissawyergames.com/download3.htm

[siu238X]

I do believe that games like Locomotion would be as attractive to at least some just like cults. So I am not that surprised that there're still a significant group of players in 2013.

I admit that I might like to play Locomotion again but having since switched to OpenTTD I had been drawn over by open games and found that commercial games, unless adequately supported and funded, would never achieve the completeness of those developed and enhanced by communities.