Thrillville109's Locomotion Expanded

[Thrillville109]

WELCOME TO LOCOMOTION EXPANDED, MY FRIEND.

Locomotion Expanded is an expansion pack / mod set during an expanded time-span going from 1820-2150; and includes FOUR maps from two eras, Rise of Railroads (1820-1900), The Big Boom (Under Construction, 1900-1960), and The Jet Age(Under Construction, 1960-2050. They are to showcase the free-play mode in the game, and the progress so far on the latter locomotives (1900-2000) and also because I am reworking the normal scenarios involved in the game. There are many new locomotives, most of which are made between 1820 and 1920, others are still being fixed up for the final release.

The 1800's are a little wonky, but that's because of the inflation system and how it is usually set up between 1900 and 2100, and is hardwired into the executable, which is illegal to edit and/or publish. So, unless I am cleared to edit the exe, or get the rights to make an official expansion, this is what you'll get.

UPDATE! New Early US Locomotive: Muddigger; New Locomotive Start Dates (Based on RAILROAD TYCOON 2).

Coming Soon: More AMTRAK (1965-2040),GENERAL MOTORS (1975-2040), BOEING (1915-2150), and AIRBUS (1980-2035)!
Dunno when. Still working on the music replacements.

DOWNLOAD

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8h5cihbte34v ... LyDuYocsfa

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4j23kba4asm2h ... Expand.exe
Thanks to Glenjimen for the description.
Thanks also to Steve, because I have no idea how to make an airport.

[Thrillville109]

You will.... Build a transport system?

[Thrillville109]

Back to 1830, yes, vehicles are there. But not the train itself is in there yet.

[glenjimen]

Well, since no one will really describe what this is, I downloaded it, tested it and will now give my opinion.

Included are six new Scenarios;

Europa (EUR)
North America (1845 - 1900)
North America (Multi-player)
Pebble Smasher
The German Era
United States

Also there are some new locos, some look like built-in locos with the design dates changed.
There are also some rolling stock with changed dates.
You can now play locomotion starting from the year 1800.

The cost of things seems way to high. I was playing Pebble Smasher, the cost of the smallest loco was about $2 million in 1830, inflation should have made it more like 2 thousand. Locos don't even cost $1 million until about 1950. I could not pay off my starting loan (of about $10 million), then new industries started appearing in the already limited space making the scenario unplayable.

It's a good start, but there are some bugs that need to be worked out.

Here are some screen-shots of some stuff in the pack.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Nice map of Europe (I can see my house from here !!!), but unfortunatly as always with locomotion the scale is way of...Only one town in most of the countries and the distance between them is of course very short. I would rather release maps of one country at the time, but all and all it's nicely done !

[glenjimen]

I think I found the problem with this mod I was encountering earlier. As you can see in the picture of the first four locomotives designed, there is no consistency in cost. You start with the super expensive "Norris 8wheel", then ten years later, the much cheaper "Baldwin 6ft" is designed. This Baldwin is about 1/10th the cost of the Norris, but has almost the same stats, so of course I used this.
Also the pic of the four locos was taken in 1857, so I think inflation is causing the costs to rise a little to fast.

I'll change the stats myself and see if this helps.

The second picture is my attempt at playing Pebble Smasher, after 27 years I'm still struggling at about 18% performance. I'd like to see someone successfully play this scenario.

[Greyfox]

@Zakos: Try here: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 0#p1082561 it might work. Havn't tried it myself, so it might be a fake.

Cheers,
Greyfox.

[Thrillville109]

I'm curious; how did you manage to make the game begin before 1900? Countless attempts have been made before, with no permanent results or no explanation from the user (leading us to believe it to be a fake).

Download it yourself and check the map date, the economic system might seem overpriced, but hey, this is a beta.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Better do something about those overpriced loco's, there's no way you can make that kind of money in that specific era unless you are willing to cheat that kind of cash...It's a nice mod and a nice idea, but I wait with this one until the 'normal' completed version is released

[Thrillville109]

I said it might SEEM overpriced. the prices are actually normal, but because the prices are based in 1900, the money goes around the loop to a ludicrous amount to try and make ends meet for the game. You can very well make money, you just make an unusually large amount of it, because of said issues.

[Thrillville109]

The American 4-4-0 is the first vehicle with "new" graphics! Currently 2 new appeasing directions!

[Thrillville109]

I am converting the RCT Train Models, Got as far as ACTUALLY CONVERTING THEM, because renaming 512+ bitmaps to the game's standards, so I need someone to help me on this.

[Walter1940]

You can quick rename the images using the program IrfanView.
But the Locomotive has a black background and you would need a blue background. That's the biggest problem.
In addition, the Tender are messed up some pictures.

[Thrillville109]

Thank you, but that backfired when it was slightly above the rail.

[Thrillville109]

Back to 1830, yes, vehicles are there. But not the train itself is in there yet.

Scratch that, 1825.

[Thrillville109]

I am converting the RCT Train Models, Got as far as ACTUALLY CONVERTING THEM, because renaming 512+ bitmaps to the game's standards, so I need someone to help me on this.

Scratch that as well. I tried that, ended in the Ten-Wheeler's Graphics being different in a Windows 8 Sorta Way.

[Thrillville109]

Better do something about those overpriced loco's, there's no way you can make that kind of money in that specific era unless you are willing to cheat that kind of cash...It's a nice mod and a nice idea, but I wait with this one until the 'normal' completed version is released

That might require me to actually buy the rights to Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, because that would be hard-wiring the executable to extend the life of the economic system to start in the year 1800 instead of 1900. That's one of the risks of creating a mod like this. It's experimental. And besides a money problem, complete success.

[Emperor Darth Sidious]

Why start a game in 1800...It's still a very nice idea and all. Why don't you just convert the trains you need for your mod and use them from 1900 and further ? I'm sure trains from that era can be found for MSTS, and with the program to convert them you can also change the costfactors and buying-prices. If you don't know how to do that, I'm sure that there are people here (like Walter1940) who are willing to help you...

I wish I could be of some assistance, but the last time I converted some trains was three years ago, and I lost track completely on how to do that. I must go back to school if I want to do that and study the whole progress again...But because I have a family and two young kids I don't have the time anymore to do those things.

I hope you can still complete your mod...even with the limited needs at your disposal. Like I said, it's still a nice idea !

(And by the way...I play a lot of RCT2 at the moment, and those locomotives from that game don't look that nice anyway. They look a lot more like toytrains instead of the real work...But that's my opinion )

Good luck !!

[lsbc]

What program did you use to get the RCT2 pngs?

[Thrillville109]

What program did you use to get the RCT2 pngs?

I truly forgot. It's been so long since I did it.