[W.I.P.] The Valuables Mod Final Version

[hoborailcat]

Can't wait to get my hands on the mod, it looks great. Will the hoppers for the raw ore be the default company color hoppers? I like to play with the AI (I'm probably the only one) so I like to be able to differentiate the various company trains by color.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

No unfortunatly not. There are a few standard vehicles that I converted for the mod, trucks and some boxed trainwagons which serve as armored vehicles. But the standard hopper-vehicles (trains and trucks) are not converted (I can convert them, but then they don't have the gold, silver and diamond graphics in it), if you would like the original vehicles converted I can do that for you, but they will come as a seperate download and will not be included in the mod as long as they don't have the new graphics.

I asked Tattoo if he could help me with those, but he's busy at the moment and I respect that.

In the meantime there are lots of other nice vehicles that people can use...here's an overview of most of the stations and all of the vehicles so far:



So far this small update...

Erik

[hoborailcat]

That's fine, I can convert them if need be. I can retexture the converted hoppers to have the new loads, it'll just take a while and the textures will be far from perfect.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Hoborailcat, can you tell me with what kind of program you will do that ? Maybe I can try it for myself, because I still have the original graphics...

I sure hope that the program can be found on the internet because I'm in no way going to pay for some programs just to create some graphics for one mod ...After all it's a small hobby and to make sure that other players have fun with the mod. I don't intend to make a lot of more mods for the game, just ocasionnoly and for my own fun hahahaha.

Via that way I made those stations as well, but vehicles are a lot more sprtes, so a lot of more work...

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Hello again,

I'm testing the Peninsular Scenario again (had a crash last night, but not to worry I know what it caused)...After the testing is over I'm gonna release the mod. The goal is to deliver 100.000 tons of Jewelry in 100 years. Here are some of the first screens of the mod in action:


Since the mines are lying a little further I started with lumber and paper first. In this scenario I only make use of standard vehicles and of course the vehicles needed for the mod.


Oww yeah...The only thing I use (as always) is the Long Station Patch. You don't need it for the mod. Here you see the long station where all of the cargo's from this map will be brought together.


Here's the papermill. Lumber is delivered, paper is taken and brought to the big cargo-station...You need to start makin money somewhere

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

On to the next screens:


The first raw gold is being transported from the goldmine to the gold-mill, no minecarts at this point there added later because production wasn't that high...So I only used two long trains for it.


The silvermine however did already have a high production, so minecarts are added here directly...

Now that raw gold and raw silver is delivered at both the gold and silver mill. Production of bars has started...I must get used to brokin trains again, the trains in my US ObjData Folder never break down...


Trains deliver the bars to the large cargo station. Standard vehicles and mod-vehicles. More screens in the next post, as the delivery of jewelry (by trucks) in the nearby town is on it's way...

[hoborailcat]

I use Photoshop CS4 to retexture the sprites, one at a time. Rather time consuming and the results aren't perfect, but it looks good enough for me to use.

[Greyfox]

Nice work EDS, Looking forward to this. Funny thing, I had a post here before yours. I don't know what happened to it.



edit: My mistake with the "missing post". It is somewhere else. I'm sorry.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

I use Photoshop CS4 to retexture the sprites, one at a time. Rather time consuming and the results aren't perfect, but it looks good enough for me to use.

If I send the three stations (which have the graphics for raw gold/silver/diamonds in it) to you in a PM before the mod is released do you think that you can work with that ? Just by taking these graphics and use them for loads in hopper trains and trucks ? Like I said Tattoo will look at it as well and his graphics are always great...But we will see what you can make out of it. Thanks for that !

Greetz !

Erik

[hoborailcat]

The problem with using textured graphics such as those in the stations (for my limited Photoshop skills) is when the train or truck goes around a curve, the load will remain stationary. What I usually do is simply color in the existing coal load with the color of the new load. Honestly, it doesn't look very good, but it works to distinguish what the vehicle is hauling.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This is the scrap gondola I made for personal use with the automod. All I did was color over the coal load with a metallic gray.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Well, they don't look to bad. You can give it a try if you like. Sorry for late response, but I'm working at two mods at the moment...Haven't played with the VM in the past days because I had problems with testing the food mod. One thing that I must mention about both mods...They both work fine until now, but when the long station patch is installed before one of these mods is installed, the game might crash when saving a newly made scenario.

This is caused by the LSP and I don't know what's wrong here...

So if there are people out there who use the LSP and want to play with the Valuables and/or Food mod they should install these mods first and then the LSP.

So far...

Release in a couple of days !

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Hello again,

I have a few updates for now. Zimmlock is working on the default hopper-trains and trucks, he's converting them for the valuables mod so that they can carry raw gold, silver and diamonds. They will be released seperate if there not ready when the release is coming.

The test-game proved to be alright, one thing was a problem. One time bank-buildings weren't build at all by the city, the other time the city was crowded with bank buildings. So I decided to change that.

I have build another industry for the mod: The Federal Bank. It accepts goldbars, silverbars or old-money. It produces money. On the other hand I also converted two default city-buildings to act as regular banks. These are builed by the city in small proportions. One is for 1900 to 1970, the other one from 1972 to forever. The can be destroyed and be re-build by the town, however only the Federal Bank and the Jewelry-Factory accepts gold and silver bars. The citybanks now accept money and mail and produce old-money and mail.

The jewellers accept jewelry and money. The savings and loans accept jewelry and money. I also include the gas-stations. The accept money, mail and gasoline and produce mail.

Here's a screenshot of the Federal Bank (it still accepts paper, but I already changed that), the two city-banks in the back, and the jewellers, savings and loans and the gas-stations in front.

Valuables Mod Buildings.PNG (139.28 KiB) Viewed 937 times

If anybody has something to mention about it, please let me know. I also need someone who can test this mod before I will release it so please let me know if you would like to test it.

So far,

Regards,

Erik

[Greyfox]

Hi Erik,

As you know, I'm always available to test your mods. Just email me to my private email addy with details.

Cheers.

Greyfox

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Sure Greyfox, I'll send it to you...Please give the feedback in this topic when you are done testing. I will give you the test-scenario too...

In the meantime Zimmlock has made the graphics for the standard hoppers, it's up to zimmlock if he changes them a little more...The smaller standard hoppers are done in the same way as the ones pictured here. Zimmlock will also make the large truck with all three cargo's...After Greyfox is ready with testing and I have tested the mod with the new buildings and the new industry the mod will be released.

Regards,

Erik

[hoborailcat]

Wow, those hoppers look really cool. That's exactly what I had in mind, and they certainly look better than what I could have done with them.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Well, you should realy thank Zimmlock for that...

B.t.w. I included two more industries for the mod in it today. Here's a screenshot of the new version of the Federal Bank:

New Federal Bank.PNG (106.6 KiB) Viewed 937 times

This new bank needs paper (like originally planned), Goldbars and Silverbars. I put the buildings from the printwork-factory in it, because paper is being delivered here. Money gets printed in the Federal Bank. So one building (like in the previous version) wasn't enough anymore. Testing proved to be positive.

The other 'new' industry is a modded papermill (no screenshot, everybody knows what the papermill looks like). This is where old money from the city gets delivered along with lumber paper is produced. Wich then gets delivered at the Federal Bank.

So far this small update...

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Hello there !

Testing is over...

Here are the final screenshots (a reply about the testgame from Greyfox is coming in a day or two) of the testgame. I'm playing the easy version of the scenario (while Greyfox played the difficult one) and as always I have used my own mods in it. Mind that these vehicles will not be included in the mod.


Here's where most people will start when they play this scenario I guess...With lumber to the papermill. I think it will give a steady income.


The Sleepstone papermill where lumber (from the forest) and old money (from the bank in Sleepstone) is delivered, and paper is produced.


Next, raw gold and raw silver are being transported from the mines to the gold and silver mill in sleepstone...


This is how the mill looks like now. Because there are quite a few mines on the map I need a wide and big station to get the raw gold and silver delivered here. The stations on the right of the mill accept the raw gold and silver. The station left of the mill are the loadstations for gold and silver bars (the wagons in that station are converted for this mod, their heavier and can only carry jewelry, bars and money).


This is where it all happens. The paper is delivered here is delivered at the Federel bank. The gold and silverbars are not yet delivered at the bank because that is not needed yet. The bars are delivered at the Jewelry-Factory because the goal here is to deliver 100.000 tons of jewelry in the towns. So I will later deliver the bars at the Federal Bank and then it will produce money out of paper, silver and goldbars. Later in the game I will deliver food and other things here as well (from the food-mod as I'm testing both mods in one scenario).


The Diamond-mines are on the other side of the Peninsular. There's a Jewelry factory here on this side as well where raw diamonds can be delivered. So I already started on this side of the map as well because I had the fundings for it.


Last but not least I also started a passenger transport from Waterwell to Sleepstone and vice versa. Between these city's money, mail and passengers are transported. The jewelry from the main loading station gets delivered here and after 20 years in the challenge I'm now at 35%. The line in the middle will be the on-going line and is reserved for the ICE3 wich goes to the other side of the map.

So far on the screenshots.

RELEASE IN FIRST POST !

Regards,

Erik

[Greyfox]

Hello everybody,

Once again, I have been asked by Emporer Darth Sidious (EDS) to test one of his mods. This time it is the Valuables Mod V3.0. Last time I reported on the Food Mod. My report can be found here: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=66487.

The Valuables Mod came with two versions, The difficult version, and an easy version. Details and download are here: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=65622

Here is my report on the Valuables Mod V3.0(difficult version):

I opened the game using the scenario supplied, (The Peninsular Scenario), and I used the vehicles supplied, no additional mods of any kind. Everything was "as is". I thought that this was the best & fairest way to test this mod.

I had a look around the map and realised that supplying gasoline was the key to completing the goal of the scenario. I realised that a lot of industries required this resource to produce other commodities. This I found difficult as there was only one refinery supplied, and that was at the bottom of the map, together with only one gold & silver mill near bye. There is a reasonable supply of oil near the centre of the map to deliver oil to the refinery, so as to produce gasoline. I realised that long train lines had to be built to deliver what was necessary to produce Raw Diamonds, Raw Gold and Silver, and of course Jewelry, not forgetting gold & silver bars. I soon realised that this was a very difficult scenario. I recommend planning your track layout before you do anything.
There is, of course other items to transport, such as passengers/mail/food/goods, and different types of money, into townships. (btw, the Long Station Patch (LSP), is highly recommended). I do recommend that you try this mod "as is", just for a challenge, because that it will be. You can, of course, use your own maps and/or vehicles to play, but that may make the difficult version just to easy, defeating the object of the mod.

We also see the introduction of steam trams, which I found to be a bit of a novelty, but effective. It made the mod a little more interesting, including all of the other resources. If I remember correctly, the original Peninsular Scenario came with Boundry Markers. This one doesn't, so it might encourage some of you to cross the water. Try not to,as, once again, it decreases the difficulty. So, if you are up for a challenge, leave everything "as is".

Summary:

Well.....EDS has done it again. I can only reiterate what I said about the Food Mod. The Valuables Mod V3.0 is an excellent mod, quite brilliant, well worth a look and a download. Although I didn't complete the scenario, (I was just testing), I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. I imagine you will spend a lot of hours playing it. I hope so, because EDS has put a lot of time & effort into this, and it wasn't all "plain sailing", but it is a brilliant mod. Good luck to all who play it.

My Rating: 9/10.

Greyfox

[ConrailHeritage]

I downloaded the mod, and the hard version came out fine, however, when i tried to open the new scenario, I was missing these objects:

Code: Select all

--- Cargo Types ---
DRINKS   : --- Not installed!!! ---
FERTILIZ : --- Not installed!!! ---
FORAGE   : --- Not installed!!! ---
MEAT     : --- Not installed!!! ---
SHEEP    : --- Not installed!!! ---
WOOL     : --- Not installed!!! ---

[Greyfox]

Hello Conrail,

I also have downloaded the latest version of the Valuables Mod V3.0, but those dat files are not with this mod. I would say they are related to EDS's Food Mod. Best wait for EDS to clarify and answer your problem.

Cheers,

Greyfox.