Mini GRF: NARS 2.5 Passenger Mod (v0.2a)

[arikover]

Do you like playing with the North American Renewal Set (NARS) version 2.5x?
Do you enjoy playing with Cargodist?

Then you probably have had a lot of passengers waiting in stations. And maybe a lot more if you like single tracked networks.

This NARS 2.5 mod changes (doubles, most of the time) the capacities of coaches, railbuses and MU in NARS 2.5x. As of version 0.2a, it also changes the mail cars capacities (complete list of changes in readme).

Available via online content, or at your local Banana store: >> DOWNLOAD <<

License GPLv2. Here is the NFO source code, with a lot of comments:

NARS_pass_mod-0.2a.nfo

Source code (0.2a)

(6.3 KiB) Downloaded 420 times

At the moment, it is translated into French, English and German. If you want to translate it into your favorite language, here is the base .lng file

english.lng

Base language file

(543 Bytes) Downloaded 331 times

I hope it is useful! Suggestions are welcome!



*edit: added version 0.2a (with source code and base .lng)
*edit: added link to Bananas, removed files
*edit: added source code

[arikover]

Some ideas I have so far:

Different levels of capacities (like those in Iron Horse: classic, marvellous, cheating)?
Also change Mail capacities?
Add a NARS 2.03 compatibility?
More translations?


I also have a question: as NARS 2.5 is copyrighted by pikka, am I allowed to license my mod with GPLv2 (as it is now?)

[ColdIce]

Add a NARS 2.03 compatibility?

Yes.

[PikkaBird]

I also have a question: as NARS 2.5 is copyrighted by pikka, am I allowed to license my mod with GPLv2 (as it is now?)

Sounds fine to me.

[Phreeze]

i guess that licensing stuff depends if you include his code or not ?

but as pikka is an active autor, and he's giving you the permission, noone will sue you and punish you with the whip and stone tossing ^^

[arikover]

Well I don't use any of the NARS2 code (unless vehicles IDs are considered part of the code).
So GPLv2 it is, then!

Oh another question concerning the GPLv2 license: souldn't I include the nfo code in the package?

Add a NARS 2.03 compatibility?

Yes.

Concerning the NARS 2.03 compatibility, and considering:

• - my poor coding skills
  - my lack of experience at nfo coding
  - the fact that a lot of NARS 2.03 have properties overrides (I think it's the right term) that make them change over time
  - the fact that I have no idea on how to override these overrides (no idea whether it's possible or not)

My conclusion is:
At the moment, I am not able to implement a NARS 2.03 compatibility, and I don't think I will in the future.
Sorry for having suggested that I could.

I would really appreciate some feedback though:
Has anyone tried the mod ingame?
Does it come in handy?
Are there possible ways to make it better? (except for NARS 2.03 compatibility, sorry)
Thank you for your interest.

[Phreeze]

not coded in NML ? a pity, NFO is unreadable to most "newer newgrf programmers" like me.

the finished newgrf should just contain the newgrf and a readme (see the open ttd wiki for details what must be included, bananas gives you an error if sth is missing the zip i guess). The sources must be available in a repository, you can point to it by providing the link in the readme and in this thead.

[kamnet]

While a repository is helpful, it's not necessary. You could post the source code here, or at another location. You don't even have to make it immediately available, people can personally contact you to obtain it, if you wish.

Personally, I upload binary to BaNaNaS, post source code on TT-F.

[Supercheese]

If this is GPL'd, then where can we get the source?

[arikover]

I just added the NFO source to the first post. It is heavily commented, so it is easier to read for everyone.

[Alberth]

Small question (or bug report) for NARS 2.5.

I am confused by advertised running costs in the buy menu:

consolidation_costs.png (68.48 KiB) Viewed 14336 times

This looks like the buy menu tells the running costs while running (would I think is fair, as it's the highest running costs).

The doodblebug however does things differently:

doodlebug_costs.png (91.06 KiB) Viewed 14336 times

While waiting at a platform, it's 4,2k euro / year, the advertised costs are somewhere in-between.

Am I missing something?

BTW: I like how you balanced the set, you have to work to make a profit while fulfilling short-distance-ish Busy Bee goals. The bigger running costs aren't very feasible. Maybe next time I should enable the 'reduce costs' parameter

[arikover]

As this is the thread related to a small mod I coded (that just concerns passenger capacities but doesn't affect running costs whatsoever), I am assuming you are willing to ask this question to the author of NARS 2.5, pikka. In that case, you should post this question in the (official) NARS 2.5 thread, your question will surely be answered more quickly (and efficiently) there.

(But that's true, with the high running costs, only longer routes are really easy to make profit with... For example, local passenger routes are often not profitable at all. A really good challenge.)

[Alberth]

Oh, sorry, didn't read the title carefully enough, will ask for moving the post.

[PikkaBird]

I shan't bother moving it, it's easy enough to reply here.

It's a simple typo in the NewGRF. The actual running cost for the Doodlebug is correct, the purchase menu is not (14 instead of 24).

I'll release an update.

[Mizari]

Would it be difficult to make a similar modification to UKRS? It also has some very low capacities.

[arikover]

Would it be difficult to make a similar modification to UKRS? It also has some very low capacities.

Well actually I was planning to do a similar passenger mod for the UKRS, but I ran into some problems:

• 1 - The NARS Passenger Mod I realeased just overrides some vehicle properties (passenger capacities)
  2 - Like NARS 2.03, UKRS is a complex set, with a lot of properties overrides (same wagons having different capacities depending of the locomotives they are attached to, for example).

Technically, That means my overrides (NFO actions 0) are overriden by UKRS built-in overrides (actions 2). Most of the time, everything is OK (with carriages), but when it comes to MUs, nothing works as I planned it.

As I am new to NFO coding, I have no idea whether it's possible to override another GRF's actions 2. I think it's not possible.

The easiest way to modify UKRS properties would be to modify the NFO code (with grfcodec), this can be done rather easily (and has already been done I think).
Beware though: as the UKRS is not under GPL, you can not make such mod publicly available.

[Mizari]

I tried to make such a modification myself (also, I tried to make the old CSD set all-climate enabled), but frankly, the fact that nfo coding is merely a bunch of numbers, none relevant that I can tell, is... intimidating (according to that wiki, climate was to be set by a specific sequence of numbers, but it was not possible to find it at all, anywhere, in the right order... I managed to make it display in the list of active newgrf's in all climates, but the vehicles were nevertheless not available). I also tried to modify UKRS to increase the silly 35 pax limit to something reasonable (at least a real-ish 64), but because I have no idea which number is which and the capacities seem to be calculated rather than specified...
Where would I find the passenger capacity, I suppose, is what I am asking?

[arikover]

For rail vehicles, default cargo capacities are defined by Action 0, property 14. That means a line beginning with
-- * -- 00 -- --
with a 14 followed by the capacity of the vehicle (in hex): that means for a vehicle with a capacity of 35 (23 in hex), you should look for "14 23" somewhere in the line. Of course, you have to do so for each vehicle.

This will do for vehicles that have capacities that do not vary. As for the variable capacities, I think it's supposed to be done with a callback 36, but I don't know yet how to use them. They are supposed to be part of an action 2.

[PikkaBird]

I'm still of the belief that excessive passenger numbers are best tackled by altering passenger generation, rather than vehicle capacity.

That said, I'm happy to provide the complete UKRS sprite sheets if anyone wants to take on creating a new set from them (or even just a new set of passenger wagons to override the UKRS2 ones...).

[PikkaBird]

I think it's supposed to be done with a callback 36, but I don't know yet how to use them.

I don't believe I set capacity with callback 36 anywhere in UKRS2, but I might be wrong. I do however use cb36 to change loading speeds for MU wagons, and cb15 to set refitted capacities for vehicles.