[OTTD] The Vactrain Set

[Emperor Jake]

As you know, this set is being updated. A beta release is now available on the new development thread

Stay tuned here, there will be a proper new introduction and description soon.


Original post:

Hello everyone,

I would like to proudly present Vacuum Tube trains for OpenTTD! These futuristic trains have been asked for and suggested so many times, it's time somebody made them. So here they are
What inspired me werethese graphics, drawn by Zephyris some time ago. They were rather useless when they just replaced the default catenary, and over the regular train tracks. I thought they would look great over the monorail tracks and matching trains, so I used the wonderful and easy NML language to code a new railtype, and also a few really, really fast trains.
The railtype itself is, of course, VERY expensive, but any reasonable so-much-money-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-it company should be able to afford it. Level crossings are of course disabled, and even though the tracks look great on bridges, even the fastest bridge will severly hinder the speed, so tunnels will probably mainly be built to cross with other tracks, roads, or bodies of water (with Chill's Patchpack).

I would like to thank Zephyris for the track graphics and the OpenTTD developers for enabling us to use railtypes, NML and for making a wonderful game.

[Emperor Jake]

Some random screenshots of it in action:

[planetmaker]

Nice

May I still suggest to keep tracks and trains in separate NewGRFs or to allow to use only tracks or only trains via a parameter?

Also if I may concerning the German translation:
STR_GRF_DESCRIPTION :Ein Vakuumtunnelbahn-GRF für OpenTTD. Kombiniert mit Magnetschwebebahn-Technologie ermöglicht Vakuum ein reibungsloses Umfeld in dem Züge in der Lage sind, extrem hohe Geschwindigkeiten zu erreichen. Programmiert in NML von Emperor Jake, Schienen-Grafiken hauptsächlich von Zephyris, Zug-Grafiken von Emperor Jake. Copyright 2011, unter der GPLv3 veröffentlicht
STR_NAME_LONGDIST1 :VACT-0002 "Flugzeug-Killer"

[Emperor Jake]

Thanks!

May I still suggest to keep tracks and trains in separate NewGRFs or to allow to use only tracks or only trains via a parameter?

The problem is, what would the trains run on if the user disabled the tracks?

Also if I may concerning the German translation:

Yeah, thanks... German obviously isn't my main language

[Terkhen]

This looks quite futuristic. I'll try how much money they make on long routes

I agree on disallowing level crossings, but in my opinion vacuum tube tracks should have one or two super expensive bridges that fit them. I don't know if this is feasible or not, but take in mind that in some cases building bridges is the only option (at least with unpatched versions).

I have also noticed that the trains require a lot of distance to accelerate to their max speed. You might want to increase the tractive effort to alleviate this issue.

The source includes backup files (at least in the lang folder). I'm attaching the spanish translation to this post. I couldn't test it because of this error while compiling the source:

Code: Select all

"input", line 183: Block 'bridges_overlay_group' is not referenced, ignoring.
"input", line 176: Block 'bridges_overlay' is not referenced, ignoring.
nmlc: Image file "vactrain/sprites/local1.pcx": File doesn't exist

I would like to test the translation to make sure it's working as intended, can you please upload the source again?

EDIT: Outdated translation removed.

[Ailure]

Bugwise, the first time I ran this newGRF I saw "A fatal NewGRF error has occured: Attempt to use invalid ID" But that seems more of a openTTD problem anyway, as removing the extra trainset i had fixed that error (I had a lot of newGRFs active).

Anyway, I'm loving this set so far. If it wasn't for the low low running costs i would been fooled it was fully complete already. I think the trains could be more expensive, and the lowest maintenance cost be around 10k or higher. Those are gonna be mayor money makers for anyone that affords them anyway.

My only major bother is that building a bridge over a magtube creates a quite noticeable hole. Which I assume is a side-effect from how the tube is overlaid?

[SquireJames]

I am not sure if there is a modern compatible version of it, but that GRF that resurrected the Mars Landscape from TTO would be perfect for use with this set

[Emperor Jake]

I agree on disallowing level crossings, but in my opinion vacuum tube tracks should have one or two super expensive bridges that fit them. I don't know if this is feasible or not, but take in mind that in some cases building bridges is the only option (at least with unpatched versions).

I would have changed the newest bridge to a faster speed, but the NML documentation is somewhat blank when it comes to bridges.

I have also noticed that the trains require a lot of distance to accelerate to their max speed. You might want to increase the tractive effort to alleviate this issue.

That's intended, as shorter trains will acellerate a lot faster, but still not so fast that passengers faint. I may include a Power booster vehicle in the future for longer trains.

About the "Local1.pcx" not being found, it should be there, because I just checked and it's definitely in the tar file. And also it compiled fine for me using the downloaded tar. (Ignore the bridge_overlay error, it is just left over and I will clean it up)

Bugwise, the first time I ran this newGRF I saw "A fatal NewGRF error has occured: Attempt to use invalid ID" But that seems more of a openTTD problem anyway, as removing the extra trainset i had fixed that error (I had a lot of newGRFs active).

Were you running NuTracks and 2cc Trainset? NuTracks uses up all available railtype IDs when 2cc Trainset is loaded, but you can change the parameters and disable the metro tracks, for example. Future versions will possibly use the Planning track slot, if I figure out how...
About the running costs, that will get fixed soon.

My only major bother is that building a bridge over a magtube creates a quite noticeable hole. Which I assume is a side-effect from how the tube is overlaid?

AFAIK catenary isn't drawn directly under bridges anyway, it's just more noticeable when it's a tube. Building the bridge higher over the track should alleviate it, so will building a tunnel.

Bugwise, the first time I ran this newGRF I saw "A fatal NewGRF error has occured: Attempt to use invalid ID" But that seems more of a openTTD problem anyway, as removing the extra trainset i had fixed that error (I had a lot of newGRFs active).

Thanks for the positive feedback so far! I'm sure this will become a popular NewGRF!

[Emperor Jake]

I am not sure if there is a modern compatible version of it, but that GRF that resurrected the Mars Landscape from TTO would be perfect for use with this set

It does work See above.

[Terkhen]

That's intended, as shorter trains will acellerate a lot faster, but still not so fast that passengers faint. I may include a Power booster vehicle in the future for longer trains.

It is difficult to measure exact distances in the case of airplanes, but a Dinger 100 is at about 30 tiles from the airport when it reachs its max speed of 2328 km/h. The VACT-0002 requires 770 tiles to reach its max speed of 4099 km/h in a straight tube without slopes, and 215 tiles to reach the Dinger 100 speed.

About the "Local1.pcx" not being found, it should be there, because I just checked and it's definitely in the tar file. And also it compiled fine for me using the downloaded tar. (Ignore the bridge_overlay error, it is just left over and I will clean it up)

Hmm... Now I see what is happening. The file "local1.pcx" is present, but "Local1.pcx" is not. Take into account that many operative systems have case sensitive file names. I managed to compile it, but I had to rename all pcx files to lower case (both in the sprites folder and in the nml file) and to remove the "vactrain/" part from the sprite file path in the nml file. I'm uploading the complete source (modified as described above), including the corrected spanish translation.

[Emperor Jake]

It is difficult to measure exact distances in the case of airplanes, but a Dinger 100 is at about 30 tiles from the airport when it reachs its max speed of 2328 km/h. The VACT-0002 requires 770 tiles to reach its max speed of 4099 km/h in a straight tube without slopes, and 215 tiles to reach the Dinger 100 speed.

Okay, I made the wagons powered for the MU style units, they accelerate quite a bit faster now, and it is about the same in different train lengths. They're also maglevs, so they don't take tractive effort into account.

Hmm... Now I see what is happening. The file "local1.pcx" is present, but "Local1.pcx" is not. Take into account that many operative systems have case sensitive file names. I managed to compile it, but I had to rename all pcx files to lower case (both in the sprites folder and in the nml file) and to remove the "vactrain/" part from the sprite file path in the nml file. I'm uploading the complete source (modified as described above), including the corrected spanish translation.

It wasn't the cases of the filenames, as I'm sure that they were right. BTW, I use Ubuntu Linux, which is also case sensitive. It has something to do with the way the command is typed into the command line, because when I used your file, I got the same problem that you got previously. Here's what I type in:

Code: Select all

nmlc -l vactrain/lang --grf vactrain.grf vactrain/vactrain.nml

Anyway, here is an updated version
Changes:
- Improved running costs
- Powered wagons for better acceleration
- Improved German translation (thanks planetmaker)
- Spanish translation (thanks Terkhen)
- Fixed a small bug in tunnel entrance sprite
- Cleaned up code

(Edit: Deleted outdated files)

[Ailure]

Another release already? You work quite fast. I give this a spin as soon I get home from work.

Were you running NuTracks and 2cc Trainset? NuTracks uses up all available railtype IDs when 2cc Trainset is loaded, but you can change the parameters and disable the metro tracks, for example. Future versions will possibly use the Planning track slot, if I figure out how...
About the running costs, that will get fixed soon.

I was using Nutracks, NARS2 and the UKRS2 set together (I also used av8, FISH, FIRS, eGRTVS and HEQS), so I wasn't surprised that I ran out of ID's (error message is a bit cryptic, so I'd assumed that the GRF was corrupt at first ). Removing the alpha UKRS2 or Nutracks made it all work again, so replacing the planning track might work? (At least make it a parameter option in that case)

You reminded me that I need to test 2cc sometime.

[ISA]

Try'd it out too... looks very nice!!!
And I didn't saw any problems with Nutracks!

[Hirundo]

I would have changed the newest bridge to a faster speed, but the NML documentation is somewhat blank when it comes to bridges.

Alas, NML does not support bridges yet. If I have some time I may look at it this week, since all properties except 0D seem pretty straightforward.

[Terkhen]

True, I forgot that tractive effort is ignored for maglev

[GullLars]

Thanks man, i've been thinking about this for some time as something that could be usefull IRL in the future, and been wanting to try it in OTTD. I find it funny i just mentioned this a couple of days ago after registering here for the first time to ask about a set. I'll be trying this out


I really don't mean to hijack this thread, so feel free to delete this part if you find it too OT. I don't expect a reply here either.
If you want another futuristic set to play around developing, i just made a thread from daydreaming about a faster and/or futuristic boat set with some ideas, since there doesn't seem to be any really interresting or usable boats after 1950-75.

EDIT:
Also, have you thought about PulseJet, RamJet, SCramJet, and low orbit planes as possible futuristic fast planes? Experimental (unmanned with no cargo) SCramJets have already been tested by NASA and flown under own power. They could possibly compete with maglev and vacuum trains.

[Ailure]

I played with them again last evening. My gut feeling is that the maintenance costs was a little bit on the cheap side, i would make them at least three times more expensive. They could probably be 100x times more expensive and still rake in a profit.

This is probably a bit obvious bug but... Airline killer and it's wagons is refusing to pick up passengers for me.

[Supercheese]

This is probably a bit obvious bug but... Airline killer and it's wagons is refusing to pick up passengers for me.

I have the same problem...

[Emperor Jake]

Yes, I know. The loading speed was not set, as I had assumed it would default to the default loading speed for trains (which is slower than the other trains in the set)
Anyway, it's the same as the others now.

Here is the new release
Changes:
- Fix loading speed bug
- Added "Shinku-Eki" Double Decker train
- MUCH higher purchase and running costs

...

I'll think about it. I have a heap of other stuff planned, though

(edit: Latest available from first post)

[3iff]

Tried the grf last night and I like it.

Insanely expensive tracks...although I started a quick game from 2030 to try the set. An 850 tile or so single line cost me £30m at £37.5k per tile but in a normal game I'd be swimming in cash so that would not constitute a problem.

Once I had a couple of towns generating sufficient cargo, I found a double header train carrying around 430 passengers and 120 mail would generate £3.5m profit in a year. That compares with some maglev coal trains making around 400k a year for about 400 tiles travelling distance.

I'll give the updated grf a try tonight. It could certainly use price increases (that you've just implemented).

Didn't see any problems or glitches