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The original idea was started 3 years ago here, but a lot of things have changed, especially features in OTTD. After much experience playing the game, and beginning a little .grf coding, i'm now confident in the plan as presented. Many coders and artists have had their own ideas about their own futuristic OTTD version, and some have gotten pretty deep into developing them. I've seen what causes good ideas to fall by the wayside, and surprisingly enough, it's usually not lack of feasibility; but rather, both lack of support and destructive naysaying, as opposed to constructive criticism. Yes, there are some impervious barriers to what can be altered, like the map layout, sprite structure, and variable maximum values, but given some constructive feedback and a little brainstorming, a lot of features now exist in OTTD that were once decried as being too difficult to implement.
With massive interest in this mod, i expect a lot of forum members to put in a little time and “2 cents” into making it a reality. This is good, because one member cannot hope to accomplish something this big by himself. (For example, SAC has been working on INFRA by herself and it's already taken over a year!) I thought about keeping this a closed project, but i would rather open this up to the “general public,” as it were, and wade through the negativity that this big idea is bound to attract from some folks, in order to get to those few who have the talent or know-how and can-do attitude to bring this project to fruition.
This idea in raw form will start out as simply a new .grf, executable by the latest nightly. After a playable version is ready (i'm expecting this to take at least 12 months unless EVERYONE who can jumps in), it will be released for alpha testing, to find bugs and gameplay problems. During this time, for about 6 months, hardcode alterations will be tried and tested by programmers. Those patches that work when most of the alpha problems have been fixed will be incorporated into a beta version, which will actually be a branch of the latest OTTD nightly at that time. I'm sure some of our implemented ideas will be transferred to regular OTTD.
The nice thing about a brand new version of an old game is the freedom to try new ideas for the code, for gameplay, and even for the way the objects in the game appear. No more limitations based on keeping the gameplay as expected, or keeping the data structure the same for the sake of backward compatibility, as long as a standard is kept. If you think you can make a beneficial change, start from the latest nightly, develop your program or grf change and when you get it working, present it to us (heavily commented) if you'd like it to be included in this mod. No promises are made, except that we'll consider anything helpful.
Many of you have already developed patches and are waiting for inclusion into the OTTD trunk. You are welcome to submit them here if you think it would definitely help this mod play better! (Keep in mind you may need to rework the GUI or text so they'll fit right in to the futuristic theme of this mod.)
Otherwise if you just want to contribute artwork or help in the NFO coding, or play a part in the administration of this mod, make yourself known in this thread or by PM to me.
Anticipated Assistance for OTTD+500
Soft-coders for various aspects of the new mod will be needed, as well as contributing artists. The following is a list of the volunteers needed for the upcoming tasks.
Project Director (that'll be me I guess): Oversees the project development, determining if contributions are staying true to the original vision for the mod. Works closely with the Moderator and the development team to move the project smoothly to final release.
Project Moderator: Maintains and monitors archives of contributions by all members and donors of the project, and acts as internet site moderator for OTTD+500. Designates tasks to volunteers based on work availability and contributor's talents. Also serves as liaison between contentious parties that donate to the project, enforcing the rules of the forum, and reminding guests and members alike of the vision and goals of the project. Will also need to provide current builds after important changes.
Industries Coder: Primary developer of the coding for the Industries, including the structures they use and the cargoes for the mod. Also serves as executor of industry suggestions and contributions, implementing new ideas permitted by the Director and incorporating third party artwork and code into the .grfs.
Industries Artists: Contributors of graphics that involve the cargoes, the industries, loading/unloading animations, etc.
Vehicles Coders: Up to 6 developers of the soft-coding of the vehicles, one per vehicle type. Each vehicles dev oversees the coding for the vehicle sprites, working closely with artists of both vehicles and industries, and the Director in vetting contributions.
Vehicles Artists: Contributors of graphics of any of the vehicles, not only those for the player's use, but also those that are used in animations.
Structures Coder: Primary developer of the coding for the infrastructure in the mod, which may include some cargo handling, in which case work is done in conjunction with the Industries programmer to implement town-based industries (such as passengers). Also serves as executor of industry suggestions and contributions, implementing new ideas permitted by the Director and incorporating third party artwork and code into the .grfs.
Structures Artists: Contributors of graphics of the infrastructure, from town buildings to transitways to stations.
Landscape Artists: Contributors of the terrain graphics and animations. The Director shall serve as the arbitrator of the graphics for the terrain.
GUI Artists: Contributors of graphics that involve the user interface's design and style, which will be altered for OTTD+500 to offer a more futuristic “space” or mechanized mood.
Primary Programmer: Hardcoder who can develop changes to OTTD that serve the stated goals as described in the next post.
Economic Programmer: Hardcoder who can attempt to develop changes to OTTD that use a different economic model than the distance-based calculations in regular OTTD. This part of the project is directed primarily by the Project Director, but may include input from any members or guests.
The only “jobs” that MUST be filled for this project to proceed are the first two. Without a moderator to handle those responsibilities, this will in essence be a basement hobby. I will be attempting a lot of the NFO coding, but i won't start with anything serious until i've heard from anyone who wishes to contribute artwork or coding; that way i'll know what will be left to code.
The last two vacancies need not be filled, but the project will fall short of its desired objectives. If no one else fills the other vacancies, i will be soft-coding by myself, and the project may not see the light of day for at least 2 years...
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
But forward we march! Here are the specs for the project (go to next post)....