US Set Development Thread

[uzurpator]

Indeed - altho some texture would be nice

Anyhoo - C&NW c40-8

4000 hp
174 tonnes
70 mph
480 kN (estamined)
year 1987-1996
runcost 19000/yr
price ??

[DanMacK]

C40-8's looking good, now how about an NS version

[krtaylor]

C40-8's looking good

That replaces something in one climate, right?

[DanMacK]

Quite possibly... Not sure what it's going to replace however (RF16 in arctic perhaps?)

[krtaylor]

I get all the letters confused - I did up a nice table for the steamers as to what goes where, you need to update it for the diesels. Do you have Excel?

[Raichase]

Been working on the GCT a bit. Wanted to let you guys take a look, and feedback would be greatly appreciated as always.

Cheers!

Oh. Your. God.

That is amazing! Outstanding! Terriffic! Incredible! Stunning!

[DanMacK]

Do I have Excel... uhhh, no

I'll go over the list when get home

[Oz]

Got 'em, Dan. I'll fiddle around and see what I can come up with. I'm gonna be out of the loop for a few days, though. I have a data summary Powerpoint that I have to put together for a meeting. Real life getting in the way of my hobbies, again.

Texture. Check. Still working on that. Wanted some overall comments before I started getting into the nitty-gritty. Coding shouldn't be too difficult. I drew it with some inherent symmetry. Once I get it all nice and purty, I'd like to give the sprites to Oracle, to see what he can do with them. If that's OK with Oracle, of course. Then it's on to the opposite view.

Thanks for everyone's kind comments for my 'little' project.

[krtaylor]

It even looks like it's stretchable - you can add additional modules in the middle to make it wider or longer, up to a point.

[DanMacK]

I'm thinking this is intentional to prevent unnecessary puchases, but it turns out that you can't double-head MU's, be it the MP54, the M-2 or the RDC. I'm assuming this is done due to Continuous power from the coaches?

Just thought I'd post it as I hadn't noticed it before.

[cornelius]

Been working on the GCT a bit. Wanted to let you guys take a look, and feedback would be greatly appreciated as always.

That looks fantastic Oz. You could maybe give the glazed section transparency so we could get a peek at the trains inside. Do you know how to do that in TTD graphics?

[krtaylor]

You could maybe give the glazed section transparency so we could get a peek at the trains inside.

That's not the way GCT really is, though.

[Monty]

When do You plan to release the next version of the US set with the new engines added?

Cheers,

PS - the GCT is marvelous!

[DanMacK]

Monty, Once we finish squishing all the bugs

[Oracle]

Before I start dealing with the bug reports, I should just say that there is another new version available at the same location that fixes quite a few of the bugs mentioned. However, I'm away for most of this week and my USB drive is too small to fit all my files on (I really should buy a new one; they cost almost nothing these days...) so there won't be any more updates before Friday evening at the very earliest.

2. Where's the Shay? It should be available through the whole steam era.

Someone told me not to put it in Arctic, I'm sure.

Well, it should be...

Well, it should be there now. (Press Apply in the New Graphics Status window to get it into an existing Arctic game.)

AFA town names, I'm convinced there's a Patch bug as I've described elsewhere, or a significant coding misunderstanding. Once that is nailed down, I imagine they'll be fine. The town names really ought to be included in the set itself when it's released, of course assuming we iron the bugs out. But then, that's what we're working on.

I believe that there is quite possibly a coding problem but the town names code will definitely not be happy under some combinations of parameters so I am not going to put them in the main GRF, and that's not going to change any time soon.

The quality is superb - especially positioning of the sprites has much improved since the last revision

Thanks! I am trying, but it's a long and tedious job. (Your alignment guide is still very useful, though .)

Consolidation - power is too much - it should be in the 1200-1500 hp range.

Changed.

Also - weight is wrong - should be about 90-100 tons. Is 40. [...] Also [Shay] weight should be about 110 tonnes.
Mikado is too light - 129 tons - should be 240+ tons.

You've made me realise that the weights of articulated locos have been messed up for quite some time now. I forgot that when Josef made second and third (and any more) pieces of articulated locos not contribute power or TE, no weight was added so tenders now have zero weight, in effect. I think that I've fixed this now, so all locos do have the correct weight, but please check and see.

N&w Y6b [...] - yr 1936. And a single tender. Double tender Y6b's were song of the future - introduced about 1955.

Changed the year. But didn't you notice that double tenders are only added to locos built in 1955 or later, with single tenders before that date?

Allegheny has its tender wrongly positioned in horizontal view.

Could you elaborate?

re: the End-Of-Train Device, I had it come in in my current game around 1958 so something's amiss there

Hmm - 474Ah = 18250 = 50*365 so 1970 to me so I can only suggest pressing Apply in the New Graphics Status window in case your game has the old data.

re: the 2-8-2, it should be "USRA 'Mikado'

Changed.

f40ph - amtrak
f40ph - MBTA + stock
f40ph - NJT + stock (the cars also fit alp 46)

I didn't quite have enough time to fix this before I left but we do have NJT cars on the ALP-46. Will be added ASAP.

Why on earth ALP-7 got derated?

You mean the AEM7, surely? I downgraded it because I read that Amtrak have downgraded it to 6000 hp because of electrical problems. But seeing as you've complained, I've changed it back...

Cars: Amtrak California Bilevels, Superliners (all), Metra and metra f59phi. All those should be realigned.

I have done some more work on this but I believe that it's the Amtrak California F59PHI which is at fault, not the bilevels. (And seeing as the two are only used on the same train, that makes enough difference.) I haven't had a chance to look at the Superliners/Genesis yet (although I have seen that problem previously) but I will do so.

Also, another bug re: the S2 Northern. It has rong livery override for the coaches, it should pull the Pullman green heavyweights only, regardless of era. Right now it has the N&W coaches and the normal era-specific baggage car.

Interesting bug, that one. That was a slight oversight on my part but iI don't think it should have worked like that at all. Fixed now, anyway. (Also fixed the green observation car bug you reported, I think.)

Covered Hoppers should be refittable to goods in all 3 climates. The white car and the brown one should only be used for goods, the green one for all, the brown/yellow, red and blue ones should be grains/food only.

Changed, I think.

Now, here's the revised RDC sprites.

These sprites obviously are intended to replace the current blue ones. What do you want the MBTA ones used for, though? MBTA passenger cars behind the GP9 and F7? (If so, what about uzurpator's?)

Been working on the GCT a bit. Wanted to let you guys take a look, and feedback would be greatly appreciated as always.

Brilliant! That's really nice! (The only problem is, as cornelius will tell you, that you will have to split it up into individual sprites...)

Now the next question... how do we code it

Shouldn't be too difficult, as long as Oz correctly splits it up into sprites. We will have to decide how to use it (as in how to cope with larger stations), though.

Anyhoo - C&NW c40-8

Will be added, although is it a replacement for an existing loco or an entirely new one? And which climates?

Coding shouldn't be too difficult. I drew it with some inherent symmetry. Once I get it all nice and purty, I'd like to give the sprites to Oracle, to see what he can do with them. If that's OK with Oracle, of course. Then it's on to the opposite view.

I can do just about anything with them, as long as the sprites are cut up correctly . It would be nice to do both views together but I'll do one on its own first if that's how far you've got - we'll just not have to build it the wrong way around.

I'm thinking this is intentional to prevent unnecessary puchases, but it turns out that you can't double-head MU's, be it the MP54, the M-2 or the RDC. I'm assuming this is done due to Continuous power from the coaches?

No, it's a bug. I spotted it for the Acela Express and JetTrain because I couldn't move the second head but it's a bug here - I've restricted the coaches that you can add but haven't permitted the loco itself to be added. Will be fixed.

When do You plan to release the next version of the US set with the new engines added?

When it's done! (soonish)

Oh, and nice (train) graphics, Dan and uzurpator!

[DanMacK]

Oracle, the MBTA coaches are to be a livery override if a coach is put behind an MBTA GP9

[DanMacK]

Anyhoo - C&NW c40-8

Will be added, although is it a replacement for an existing loco or an entirely new one? And which climates?

Oh, and nice (train) graphics, Dan and uzurpator!

C40-8 is a new loco for all 3 climates ATM (As is the GP40-2). We noticed a significant lack of new motive power in the 1970-1990 period. krtaylor has the info for the GP40-2 and uzurpator posted the stats for the C40-8.

Also, re: the EP5 - the 90MPH limit was one imposed by New Haven, but they could reach speeds of 110MPH.

[jebartle]

The Grand Central Station Is excellent, and really the windows don't
need to be transparent. Good work! Now lets get it coded.

JEB

[krtaylor]

Oracle, the MBTA coaches are to be a livery override if a coach is put behind an MBTA GP9

Let me clarify this. The MBTA Budd RDCs **look** like Budd RDCs, and IRL they were originally, but in TTD they are just ordinary coaches. They appear behind a GP9 when a GP9 is used to pull passenger cars (basically, it's a livery override). Eventually we will have a proper MBTA GP9 livery. This is because the GP9 is a freight engine with no head-end power or heating equipment for passenger trains, but RDCs were designed to be self powered and provide their own heat. The MBTA took out the prime movers but left in their heaters and generators, thus they could be pulled perfectly well by an ordinary freight engine, which is convenient because MBTA got some cheap.

The other MBTA cars should appear behind an MBTA F40, and also (eventually) behind MBTA F and GP40s. Notice the end-car livery override. There will also eventually be MBTA Kawasaki bilevels.

[DanMacK]

This is because the GP9 is a freight engine with no head-end power or heating equipment for passenger trains, but RDCs were designed to be self powered and provide their own heat. The MBTA took out the prime movers but left in their heaters and generators, thus they could be pulled perfectly well by an ordinary freight engine, which is convenient because MBTA got some cheap..

This isn't entirely true, some roads had GP9's built with steam generators in the long nose. Due to larger fuel tanks and water tanks, the air reservoirs had to be mounted on the roof. This earned the passenger GP7's adn 9's the name "Torpedo Boats" Which, ironically is one of the NYC schemes I'm plannign