"Iron Horse" - A modular train set based slightly in reality

[andythenorth]

Iron Horse 2.0.0 Alpha 14 now on Bananas

Changes from 2.0.0 Alpha 12

• no Alpha 13 due to superstition
• added Coil cars, refit various metal cargos
• sprites complete for
  • Flindermouse electric engine
  • Hurly Burly electric engine
  • Pinhorse electric engine
  • Stoat electric engine
• fixed incorrect offsets for / and \ angles
• fixed some minor sprite bugs
• adjusted order of wagons in buy menu
• updated translations from web translators

[Diesel Power]

AAAAwwww man!! I only just downloaded v12! gotta start again now!

Thanks Andy. keep 'em comming.

[le_harv]

Pretty excited about the final outcome of this set! I have some missing cargo sprites (I think) and a question. EDIT - JGRPP 31.3, Alpha 14.

Cargo sprites are far from complete, but they are worth reporting if missing, I won't be able to test them all myself.

Does this count? Could not get wood to show up on the large stake wagon nor goods on the large flat wagon.

As for the question, I am curious if you still planned to do intermodal/container wagons?

[Fairyfloss]

Looking good! Need to remind myself to toy around with this some more. But before I do, I had a question!

What are you hoping to get done before you release the Beta? Will you finish all locomotive sprites for it, or is that lower on the Todo list?

[andythenorth]

Does this count? Could not get wood to show up on the large stake wagon nor goods on the large flat wagon.

Yes, those count, thanks.

As for the question, I am curious if you still planned to do intermodal/container wagons?

Definitely yes, but probably not in the 2.0.0 release.

What are you hoping to get done before you release the Beta?

There are 15 steam engines with incomplete sprites, I want to get those done, then ship a beta release.

[trainman1432]

The Merrylegs and Proper Job outlive its competitors far into the 2000s. I do have expiring vehicles on.

[andythenorth]

The Merrylegs and Proper Job outlive its competitors far into the 2000s. I do have expiring vehicles on.

Confirmed in my current game, thanks, good spot

EDIT: fix done, will be in next release.

[Dave]

So essentially the Blaze HST is a Iron Horse Knock off of the real HST but with support for hauling freight

"Support" => I didn't see any point in banning player from attaching freight cars

But actually HST freight could be a thing...each power car is just a 2k horsepower locomotive with a pointy front and high-speed gearing.

Also https://www.railmagazine.com/news/netwo ... ks-gbrf-md

Meanwhile, Horse has an upgraded HST at a later date (train 138)


scorcher_2.png

That updated HST is most agreeable!

[andythenorth]

Iron Horse 2.0.0 Alpha 15 now on Bananas.

Probably savegame compatible with Alpha 14.

11 trains left to draw, 346 drawn. Done by Christmas?

Changes from 2.0.0 Alpha 14

• sprites complete for
  • Lark steam engine
  • Spinner steam engine
  • Gwynt steam engine
• increase power for Cheddar Valley and Chimera, for more differentiation from Grid and Blackthorn
• reduce running costs of some early engines, including Lark, Stoat, Merrylegs and Spinner, to aid profitability in early game
• core set of freight wagons are introduced at same time as core freight engines, in most cases
• fixed incorrect expiry dates on Merrylegs and Proper Job, and some early short freight wagons (gen 1A)
• fixed HST coach intro dates so they are introduced at same time as HST engines
• fixed one door sprite that was too wide on gen 6C mail car
• fixed some minor sprite bugs
• updated translations from web translators

[Alberth]

hihi, running the alpha 15, and wagons and engine don't seem to always like each other. Not sure if it is openttd bug though, it seems weird, but here we go.
Year is 1931, moving sand from the quarry. Picked the biggest wagon I could find:

some wagons

Screenshot_20190722_201814.png (12.66 KiB) Viewed 6715 times

Also, most powerful engine:

and an engine

Screenshot_20190722_201846.png (15.39 KiB) Viewed 6715 times

Any reason why it's not one complete train??
I can manually move the wagons behind the engine and make it a useful train, but when I buy the engine, the engine is dropped at a separate line instead

[andythenorth]

when I buy the engine, the engine is dropped at a separate line instead

I can repro this with the base set.
This is in a build of 'recent' OpenTTD master.
Doesn't happen in OpenTTD 1.8.0 or 1.9.1, with either base set, or Iron Horse.

depot_behaviour.png (17.37 KiB) Viewed 6647 times

[Alberth]

Thanks for further testing, it's an OpenTTD bug thus.

[andythenorth]

Thanks for further testing, it's an OpenTTD bug thus.

Now fixed https://github.com/OpenTTD/OpenTTD/pull/7668

[andythenorth]

Still can't get the metro to make money at all, probably using it in a wrong setting.

I've now seen this in a test game. Metro network had 2 problems:

• Distance between stations was 16 tiles or so, I usually build metro stations really close together (8 tiles or so).
• Network had lots of transfers, so metro vehicles would be receiving fractional or negative payments for trips.

Metro trains had a really big cargo aging nerf, to try and stop them being far too profitable with their high capacity. I've reduced that nerf, and metro in my test game now makes money or breaks even.

----

Unrelated: 6 trains left to draw, then I can ship 2.0.0 Beta

----

Also 2.0.0-Alpha-16 now on Bananas.

Changes from 2.0.0 Alpha 15

• sprites complete for
  • Braf steam engine
  • Carrack steam engine
  • Merrylegs steam engine
  • Proper Job steam engine
  • Upcountry steam engine
• reduce the aging period nerf on metro trains, restoring profitability of typical metro networks in-game

[andythenorth]

Drafting a gameplay guide, early days, but eh. Clarifications?

Gameplay Guide - Iron Pony

"The main thing is that in Iron Horse you can still have a good game by just picking the train that you think looks nice".

For those who want more, Iron Horse has a fully developed tech tree, with multiple different railtypes and engine roles.
It's best explored by diving in and just playing, but this gameplay guide provides a brief outline of the tech tree and the vehicle types.

General Purpose / Express Engines

• passengers, mail and valuables
• high-priority freight cargos like food and engineering supplies, which can be carried in high-speed mail cars and express cars
• general freight, but if a dedicated freight engine is available with similar power, the freight engine will generally be lower cost, and higher performance

Freight Engines

• all general freight except cargos like food and engineering supplies, which can be carried in high-speed mail cars and express cars, which freight engines can't haul at maximum speed

Railcars / Multiple-Unit Trains

• these run at the speed of freight trains, and are suited to
  • short routes
  • routes which are heavily used by freight trains, which limit the maximum speed of other trains on the route
• railcars can generally haul one additional unpowered coach, mail car or other wagon, on level routes
• railcars can be combined as needed

High-Speed Trains

• high-speed diesel passenger engines with dedicated high-speed coaches
• can attach other types of cars to haul mail or freight cargos but will travel at less than maximum engine speed

Very High-Speed Trains

• TGV-style electric passenger trains with very high speeds
• power is distributed throughout the train
  • engines are relatively low power
  • every set of coaches attached to the engine adds more power
• tilt bonus for higher speed through curves
• attaching other types of cars is not recommended, the train will be very underpowered and will travel at much less than maximum engine speed

Metro Trains

• pax, mail, valuables, food and similar town cargos
• for very busy routes in and around large cities
  • metro trains have very high capacity and relatively high run costs
  • cargo will age quickly due to crowding
  • to be profitable, metro needs to be used on routes with short distances between stations, and very high loadings
• can be used in stations as small as 1 tile
• metro trains can be combined as needed

Narrow Gauge Trains

• low power trains with low buy and run costs, and relatively low speeds
• effective for short routes
• can be quite effective on long routes
• one general purpose engine per generation, combine them as needed for more power
• narrow gauge railcars available later in the game
  • same speed as general purpose engine
  • can generally haul one additional unpowered coach, mail car or other wagon, on level routes
  • narrow gauge railcars can be combined as needed

Electric vs. Steam / Diesel

• electric engines generally cost more to buy, and less to run than similar steam / diesel equivalents

Electro-Diesels

• go-anywhere-do-anything engines that work on both diesel and electric power
• power on electric will generally be much higher than power on diesel
• for routes with a mix of electrified and non-electrified rails

Brake Vans

• just for eye candy on freight trains, no gameplay effect

Passenger Coaches vs. Luxury Passenger Coaches

• on long routes (64 tiles or more) luxury passenger coaches will benefit from a better cargo payment rate compared to ordinary coaches
• on shorter routes there is little difference

Livery Tricks

• All engines and coaches use both company colours
• Some wagons use both company colours
• Some vehicles have alternative liveries available, including all coaches and railcars, and some wagons
  • Alternative liveries are either random, or engine specific, or cargo specific
  • Some liveries can be selected by the player by flipping (ctrl-click) the vehicle in depot

Weight Multiplier for Freight

• Iron Horse has been designed and play-tested with 'Weight multiplier for freight to simulate heavy trains' set to 1
• Obviously this setting is a player choice and Iron Horse will work with other values for the setting
• Typically each increment of the setting requires adding one extra engine to a train

Inspiration

• The Iron Pony roster is inspired by trains from Britain and Ireland
• Vehicle stats such as power, speed, intro date etc are all inspired by reality, but adjusted for well balanced gameplay
• Train appearance is inspired by a range of sources, including:
  • Iconic real-life trains, such as the HST ('Blaze', 'Scorcher'), Pendolino ('Brenner'), Midland 4-2-2 ('Spinner'), SR 4-4-0 Schools ('Tencendur'), LMS 0-10-0 Lickey Banker ('Girt Licker'), LNER 2-8-2 P2 ('Pegasus'), NER electric locomotives ('Hurly Burly', 'Flindermouse'), and BR diesel and electric locomotives like classes 20, 37, 45, 56, 59, 70, 73, 76, 77, 86, 90, 91 and 92
  • Trains which are a composite of similar real-life trains, such as class 25/27/33 ('Kelpie', 'Griffon', 'Shredder'), class 42/52 ('Dragon'), class 47/50 ('Thunderbird'), the DMU and EMU railcars, and multiple steam locomotives.
  • Trains which are fictional, such as the 'Pinhorse' electric, 4-8-0 'Lemon', 'Hercules' and 'Goliath'
  • Narrow gauge trains are inspired by real-life examples from Ireland
  • Metro trains are inspired by London Underground
  • Coaches and freight wagons in many cases resemble recognisable real-life equivalents, but extensively adjusted to fit into the roster tech tree
• Compared to other planned Iron Horse rosters, the Iron Pony roster is balanced to offer relatively high speeds, and medium capacity per unit

[Fairyfloss]

I'm having a lot of fun with this set so far! The 'flip-for-liveries' thing I hadn't noticed yet, and is really nice!

I have however encountered some graphical oddities, and thought it best to report them in case you haven't noticed them yet.

Medium Coal Hoppers' cargo seems to be trying to escape the hopper, it sticks over the edge a bit compared to other hoppers (see image). I assume this isn't intentional?

Hoppers that are pointed at here are 1970s Medium Coal Hoppers

CoalHoppers.PNG (20.66 KiB) Viewed 6298 times

Secondly, there are strange flashing red lights on some Narrow Gauge vehicles, and they don't appear to be some kind of end-of-train lights, given how they're not where one would find them...

1970s Narrow Gauge Mail Carriage & Workish Mail Multiple Unit

PhantomLamps.PNG (21.81 KiB) Viewed 6298 times

This is all that I've found so far that isn't missing cargo graphics, which I assume will come later on?

Either way, I'm really enjoying this set. It looks very good and is fun to toy around with!

[andythenorth]

Medium Coal Hoppers' cargo seems to be trying to escape the hopper, it sticks over the edge a bit compared to other hoppers (see image).

It's a bug! I'll fix it Cargo is out of place.

Secondly, there are strange flashing red lights on some Narrow Gauge vehicles, and they don't appear to be some kind of end-of-train lights

It's also a bug! I'll fix it It's end-of-train-lights, but in the wrong place.

This is all that I've found so far that isn't missing cargo graphics, which I assume will come later on?

Yes, cargo graphics will be 'later'

Thanks for spotting those two bugs, I'd never have found them, exactly what alpha releases are for

[andythenorth]

Iron Horse 2.0.0-Alpha-17 is now on Bananas. 99% of train sprites complete

Changes from 2.0.0 Alpha 16

• sprites complete for
  • Girt Licker steam engine
  • Lemon steam engine
  • Tencendur steam engine
• minor tweaks to multiple other sprites
• reduce Proper Job running costs to aid profitability
• fixed cargo sprite out of place for gen 4B coal hopper
• Very High Speed trains no longer attempt to use player's EMU company colour choice, as the middle units don't pick it up

[trainman1432]

When you complete the Iron Pony roster are you planning on doing the North American set or something else? (I'm assuming the NA set will be low-speed, high capacity, correct?)

[andythenorth]

North America roster will be next.

Probably lower speed and higher capacity than the Iron Pony roster. Exact details still need worked out and tested