What do you think about locomotion?

[Andrex]

1. Deploying tracks tile-by-tile is indeed hard and annoying. There should be a way to make them faster and easier with the click and drag mode.

2. I don't know how some people rated the GUI as "good", if there is no GUI at all! I only see a few ugly buttons around. This game will be a total failure unless it includes a decent interface, I think the SimCity 3000 one is an example to follow, it features the best GUI I ever saw.

3. Someone please buy a decent graphics card for Chris S., it seems he still uses one of those old 256 color Trident cards. I think everyone has a 32 bit video accelerator by now.

4. The word smooth doesn't seem to exists in Chris' dictionary, since I can clearly distinguish each of the 480000 pixels in the screen one by one at any time.

5. I don't know the proper english word to describe the ugliness of the fonts, they just hurt my eyes.

And notice I did not reach the demo limit to make this list short. I would have voted for option 4 if it wasn't so aggressive towards the game developer.

[alphagamma]

2. I don't know how some people rated the GUI as "good", if there is no GUI at all! I only see a few ugly buttons around. This game will be a total failure unless it includes a decent interface, I think the SimCity 3000 one is an example to follow, it features the best GUI I ever saw.

You can not be serious! The interface does what it needs to do be intuitive, you have all the necessary buttons to do quick route planning, check statistics, spy on the competitors , ...

[LorenzoDV]

I hope that pre signals will be added in the final version

Pre-signals are there: they are automatically created before intersections. That's somewhat limiting compared to TTDPatch, but not too much.
I like the addition of 3-aspect signals: so cool!

By the way, did you notice that signals remain on ("red") even when they should be off or distant-on ("green" or "yellow") until the train approaches? Is this a bug or do they behave this way?

[alphagamma]

like in rct, you have to beat one map to get the next one, (good). bad, because there are no 'random' maps (shall we take bets on the number of expantion packs???)

I agree, yes. No random map generator is definitely bad, since that removes the ability to "just play" a scenario without knowing what awaits you. Player-generated scenarios should counter that a little, though, but it's not optimal.

I do like that you have to complete a mission before you can play the next map. That adds a bit of challenge to it, and provides some goals. No doubt, I'll eventually curse this "feature", but over all I believe it's a plus.

Expansion packs ... if they release any, it means that the game has been a success, so any expanasion is good for the game (and for us). I really don't want to wait another ten years for a sequel.

HELLO there is a random map generator, but not in the demo. So stop whining about it.

[Nemesis]

1. Deploying tracks tile-by-tile is indeed hard and annoying. There should be a way to make them faster and easier with the click and drag mode.

2. I don't know how some people rated the GUI as "good", if there is no GUI at all! I only see a few ugly buttons around. This game will be a total failure unless it includes a decent interface, I think the SimCity 3000 one is an example to follow, it features the best GUI I ever saw.

3. Someone please buy a decent graphics card for Chris S., it seems he still uses one of those old 256 color Trident cards. I think everyone has a 32 bit video accelerator by now.

4. The word smooth doesn't seem to exists in Chris' dictionary, since I can clearly distinguish each of the 480000 pixels in the screen one by one at any time.

5. I don't know the proper english word to describe the ugliness of the fonts, they just hurt my eyes.

And notice I did not reach the demo limit to make this list short. I would have voted for option 4 if it wasn't so aggressive towards the game developer.

1. Well. Okay, it's a little more work, but it works great, it's goes faster dan before clicking on the screen itself.. further you can with simple clicks now make turns or elevated rails everything.. just like in RCT it's much better then the old TT(DLX).

2. The buttons work perfectly for me, okay you have to find the right keys, but it's recognizable.

3. The game is in 16bit or 32bit. You need an eye examination

4. Maybe you should raise the resolution, Maybe you have to buy a good monitor en don't use your TV for the PC. I think everything is very smooth and it looks al great and even more fun to watch dan TT(DLX)

5. The fonts can be lived with. Okay, they are not the best thing the game has to offer but it is not important for the game.

I have played the demo several times now.. and every time it's get better and better. Oh.. I wished it was friday

[JamesM]

y the way, did you notice that signals remain on ("red") even when they should be off or distant-on ("green" or "yellow") until the train approaches? Is this a bug or do they behave this way?

I think it's meant to be like that, yes I noticed it too. But if you've played "Trainz" signals in that game are exactly the same. All signals will be red unless a train is approaching. I assume this is the way signals in some areas of the world behave. (I don't know, I'm not a rail enthusiast)

[oboka]

Nobody's perfect, not even our beloved Chris... Ships don't do this this way, do they?

I assume you're talking about the 'plume' of water behind it. Yes, they do do that - I go on a ferry twice a week, believe me.

Last week I went in a ferry, for what I remeber, the 'plume' had the same width that the ferry at the begining, then it becomes slightly wider as the ferry goes farther till it desapear in the sea.

[Jakal]

Hm, i have to say im beginnign to liek the game more and more, just built some junctions, and being able to build curved tunnels, signals in tunnels, signals on bridges, signals under bridges and so on makes it so easy and adds so many possibilities, i cant even think of it yet.

What really sucks is the goddamn time limit, oh man that was the worst idea ever of chris. I had a nice junction layout ready to test earlier when i got kicked out of the game, VERY ANNOYING!

Anyways, i like it, i dun exactly like the scenarios delivered with the demo, too many hills and stuff on it, cant build a decent network on them, but im beginning to see what youll be able to do with a scenario editor, oh my god. Just hope a random map generator will be included as well, otherwise i dunno how long ill be motivated to play it, creating scenarios with the rct landscape engine will be a pain.

[LorenzoDV]

oh my god. Just hope a random map generator will be included as well, otherwise i dunno how long ill be motivated to play it, creating scenarios with the rct landscape engine will be a pain.

In the first interview, CS confirmed there would be a random scenario generator.

[Andrex]

3. The game is in 16bit or 32bit. You need an eye examination

Wrong. I can clearly see my Winamp always on top changing to 256 beatiful colors when starting the game. If it's in 32 bits, then it uses only 8 of them.

[Born Acorn]

Its actually 32bit colours, you must obviously have a fault with your drivers.

[Jakal]

hm, i have encountered the same thing really. When i alt-tab locomotion then my colours get fuxed, that usually only happens in 256 color games. Now i dont wanna say that it really is in 256 colors, but isnt that a bit weird?

[LorenzoDV]

It happens in RCT2 too: is it 8-bit? I don't think so.
It's just the Desktop graphics engine that can't work well when a directX game is running.

[Nemesis]

hehe Is counterstrike in 256 colors... no offcourse not.. omg..

[LorenzoDV]

Ok, I sorted out this color-depth thing.
First RCT2 alters the colors of my Desktop when switching with ALT+TAB, while Locomotion doesn't.

The solution is in the screenshots: they are saved as 8-bit (256 color) bitmaps (check with a graphic editor) with no noticeable quality reduction, so that means the game they are taken from works with 256 colors.

But please note that Roller Coaster Tycoon (that someone said had superior graphics) is 8-bit too! The difference is just in the textures and colors used.
RCT and TTD have cartoonish colors, that's why they are "bright". Locomotion uses darker colors (closer to reality in some way), making the graphics look "washed out" when compared the aforementioned RCT and TTD.
So 256 colors... but they needed a lot more to draw realistic shades. So, what did they do? They used the "error diffusion" method: put pixels with contrasting colors aside so that the eye blends them in one solid color.
Graphics in Locomotion look "grained" because they use 256 colors, but the artist wanted to use more, resorting to the error diffusion trick

I really don't understand why CS doesn't switch to 16 or 32 bit: I hope he will, hopefully in a future version.

In the end, the graphics are still good IMO, a lot better than TTD.
There are however some clipping problems that I hope will be gone in the final version (the demo is probably from an alpha or beta version).

[Advance]

Well The graphics aren't the problem to me, It give the perfect TT feel to the game, but, I don't like the train rails, it's just the RCT trainrails, I dont think you can make a dubble rail, and the trainstations can only have on peron(is it called that in english?)
Well, I hope he makes a real sequal to TTDX, one day with atleast graphs that looks like SimCity4. and al the things you could do in TTDX

[Born Acorn]

you can.

[LorenzoDV]

I don't like the train rails, it's just the RCT trainrails, I dont think you can make a dubble rail, and the trainstations can only have on peron(is it called that in english?)

Never heard of a "peron"... do you mean the station platform?
In that case, all you have to do is lay many sections next to each other: you can make very long platforms and stations with multiple tracks, not even restricted to the same length as they were in TTD.

[alphagamma]

Ok, I sorted out this color-depth thing.
First RCT2 alters the colors of my Desktop when switching with ALT+TAB, while Locomotion doesn't.

The solution is in the screenshots: they are saved as 8-bit (256 color) bitmaps (check with a graphic editor) with no noticeable quality reduction, so that means the game they are taken from works with 256 colors.

But please note that Roller Coaster Tycoon (that someone said had superior graphics) is 8-bit too! The difference is just in the textures and colors used.
RCT and TTD have cartoonish colors, that's why they are "bright". Locomotion uses darker colors (closer to reality in some way), making the graphics look "washed out" when compared the aforementioned RCT and TTD.
So 256 colors... but they needed a lot more to draw realistic shades. So, what did they do? They used the "error diffusion" method: put pixels with contrasting colors aside so that the eye blends them in one solid color.
Graphics in Locomotion look "grained" because they use 256 colors, but the artist wanted to use more, resorting to the error diffusion trick

I really don't understand why CS doesn't switch to 16 or 32 bit: I hope he will, hopefully in a future version.

In the end, the graphics are still good IMO, a lot better than TTD.
There are however some clipping problems that I hope will be gone in the final version (the demo is probably from an alpha or beta version).

I checked it also but I knew it already. It's a good question to ask Chris. One thing is sure the size will be doubled form 8 -> 16 bit

[LorenzoDV]

I checked it also but I knew it already. It's a good question to ask Chris. One thing is sure the size will be doubled form 8 -> 16 bit

Yes, the size factor is not trascurable IMO. Remember that Locomotion uses pre-rendered sprites. That means each frame of each animation is stored to disk: they are not generated in real time by the GPU.
Doubling the color depth would literally double the size of every pre-rendered frame.

BTW, do you think the demo is complete? We know it is just 30MB without music: small for such a game with lots of sprites.