Version 2.0 - Look to the Future

[gregorywest]

The wish list for me would be:

Being able to use a competitors train line. Speed of track (ie min / max train speed on a track) This would be nice for trans continental track for freight and high speed passenger.

Some way to upgrade trains from rail to monorail and mag-lev. It is a pain to take 100 trains and send them to depots only to have to totally recreate them from scratch when you upgrade the track type.

[Drury]

Being able to use a competitors train line.

It's already done as patch (Infrastructure sharing)

Speed of track (ie min / max train speed on a track) This would be nice for trans continental track for freight and high speed passenger.

NuTracks

Some way to upgrade trains from rail to monorail and mag-lev. It is a pain to take 100 trains and send them to depots only to have to totally recreate them from scratch when you upgrade the track type.

If you want faster trains, download NewGRF sets containing high speed trains for normal tracks.

[City Builder]

Is the "IS 2" going to be included in the main OTTD game? I run an IS2.1.1 server and obviously nobody other than those that know about the IS2 version of the game are going to be able to connect up to it, so it would be really great if the features in "IS" were to be included in the mainline game so that everybody would be able to enjoy sharing the infrastructure as the server owners desire or not desire to set the settings.

[petert]

Is the "IS 2" going to be included in the main OTTD game?

Maybe. It isn't really finished yet. Hirundo is still making the code better(?). A reason it may not be included to the game is because it completely takes away all competition, which is what OpenTTD Multiplayer is about. To be completely honest, I prefer it as a separate version.

So I guess you've seen my IS2 server?

[City Builder]

Is the "IS 2" going to be included in the main OTTD game?

Maybe. It isn't really finished yet. Hirundo is still making the code better(?). A reason it may not be included to the game is because it completely takes away all competition, which is what OpenTTD Multiplayer is about. To be completely honest, I prefer it as a separate version.

So I guess you've seen my IS2 server?

Yes, everytime that I login with the 2.1 client, it's only your server and mine that I see. In my limited exposure to OTTD I've never thought of it as a competition game but rather many people playing on the same map but where 2.1 IS open it up to playing cooperatively and giving a purpose to play the game multiplayer beyond being just sort of social about it. Hmmm go figure.

Edit... Last time I checked your server was about 136 years into the game and little to no industry left, so I left. At what point does it reset on your 2.1 server?

[petert]

Edit... Last time I checked your server was about 136 years into the game and little to no industry left, so I left. At what point does it reset on our 2.1 server?

We reset upon user request. The game is connected to IRC, so we will always see if someone joins/parts/messages.

[mfans]

hope the 2.0 can be,
1. The GRF can be a open source and anybody can add his dream
2. Some GRF can be unified, e.g., if you add two GRF of cars, the depot you can only see one car at one time, not the same car be shown for times at the same depot when you choose buy
3. The road should be widened, or can add traffic lights, the cars are not turn over at the roads end
4. The depot can be rent from other players'
5. Can add weather and earthquake?
6. The plants can be lasted more time or add more basic models, when the plants with a low supply should mention you that you should give a high supply
7. The road can built overhead? or trains railway can be built over roads?
8. when you rebuild the city roads the traffic will not be stoped, add more ways to develop city evaluation
9. add some emergency, like fire army and hospital,can add ambulance for emergency aid for a bonus
10. more goods diffinition, not all the plant make only one type of goods.

Thanks, team, we are waiting for 3.0. You have a real masterpiece of 1.0

[Zuu]

Some of your requests are being worked on, but are not part of 1.0. I've decided to not reply on everything that is work in progress, but just inform you about what is already possible today in 1.0.

1. The GRF can be a open source and anybody can add his dream

For the NewGRFs available through the content system you can on this page see which license each NewGRF uses. Those who are GPL 2 or GPL 3 are definitely Open Source. Those that uses a CC-license may be open source, I don't know those licenses exactly to tell if all CC-licenses qualify as open source.

7. The road can built overhead? or trains railway can be built over roads?

Partly possible using bridges, tunnels and small hills.

10. more goods diffinition, not all the plant make only one type of goods.

Try some of the industry NewGRFs

• ECS
• FIRS
• PBI

(forgive me if I forgot some other industry pack)

[aantono]

If we're dreaming here. . .

Fantasy stuff? How about power lines, a' la' Simutrans? Give the power stations a reason to exist other than to suck up coal. Hey, it IS transport, after a fashion. . . You'd have to monitor the "congestion" of the grid, add more/heavier lines, transformer stations, etc.

And on this line, what about pipelines? Hideously expensive to build, but once built a faster, cheaper way to move oil (a solution to not being able to run long rakes of oil tankers on MAGLEV tracks, perhaps?)

+1

Would be especially useful and increase gameplay with industry sets like FIRS where you have lots of heavy industry like an Aluminum Plant, Smelters, Oil and Chemical refineries, which all would require LOTS of electricity and oil supply, as well as supplying power to the electric train lines and cities, so having to make sure those are provided would make the game a lot more interesting.

[supermop]

I do think that the power plant should have greater functionality as well, although I am not sure about having the player manage the transmission and distribution of electricity. What would be interesting, and likely possible with a .grf, is power plants that boost or enable the production and growth of nearby industries and towns. That however is not something that I feel is really a feature for the developers to work on including into the core game. It would be better for us, the community, to provide it as additional content, and therefore it's a bit off topic for this thread.

Best,

[stimpak]

Just hit me:

A preview of the savegame your going to load. Be it a screenshot, or a layout of the network, but just a plain string with the name is not enough anymore more!

[dihedral]

that is because you probably do not choose / change that 'plain string' in order to help remember!

[Wasila]

As for including IS2, surely all that would be needed to overcome people not liking it is an on/off switch?

[mosfet]

Maybe too ambitious for 2.0, but an engine like this would be nice:

http://osm.kyblsoft.cz/3dmapa/

[thetzar]

7. The road can built overhead? or trains railway can be built over roads?

Partly possible using bridges, tunnels and small hills.

There's a larger question behind this, and it's something I'd love to see worked on for 2.0. The map array core for OTTD is crude when compared to the one for, say, Locomotion. Now, the interface choices and some of the repercussions of the Locomotion system aside, what it did was awesome: It (almost) completely decoupled the landscape from the buildable infrastructure.

In Locomotion, you can build underground networks, at-grade networks, and elevated networks, all in the same fashion. There's no need for a special underground building mode, no little hacks with hills and bridges; even bridges don't exist in the sense that they do in TT. They're just infrastructure without ground under them. Curves, diagonals, signals: there's no need to code for them as exceptions, because they come along for the ride when you decouple landscape and infrastructure.

The capabilities this would bring to OTTD are amazing. Without some of the silly choices, bizarre limitations, and general opaqueness of Locomotion, having this power in OTTD would be fantastic. True subway networks. Elevated trains above streets. Diagonal viaducts. Switches on bridges. Sub-surface stations and terminals (Think Grand Central or Penn Station in New York).

This is more than a check-off feature for 2.0. This feature could alone be 2.0.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say this would be easy. It would be damn hard. There are significant interface challenges. But I think it would be awesome and entirely worthwhile.



PS: The Devs are going to have to make a philosophical decision very soon. As of right now, virtually everything added to OTTD in the future will not just be completing, it will be changing the body of the work as it stands now. The future may well hold either smaller and smaller refinements leading down into stagnation, or radical shifts of gameplay alienating some existing audience or, *gasp*... forks.

[Wasila]

I think getting CardoDist into trunk would be a key. I like thetzar's ideas, but of course it would be a major commitment from the devs. Perhaps when they've finished their 'pet projects'.

Speaking of which, what are the devs working on right now? Or is it a secret?

[Zuu]

By being at the right IRC channel at the right time you can get information about what is going on. Or you can follow the commit log to see if there is any pattern going on. I think some of the projects they are working on are not strictly secret but while trying out different ways to implement something or even design a feature you might want to discuss with a limited set of people and not the entire forum. Therefore, I leave it up to you to find out what is going on.

[kamnet]

If we're dreaming here. . .

Fantasy stuff? How about power lines, a' la' Simutrans? Give the power stations a reason to exist other than to suck up coal. Hey, it IS transport, after a fashion. . . You'd have to monitor the "congestion" of the grid, add more/heavier lines, transformer stations, etc.

And on this line, what about pipelines? Hideously expensive to build, but once built a faster, cheaper way to move oil (a solution to not being able to run long rakes of oil tankers on MAGLEV tracks, perhaps?)

+1

Would be especially useful and increase gameplay with industry sets like FIRS where you have lots of heavy industry like an Aluminum Plant, Smelters, Oil and Chemical refineries, which all would require LOTS of electricity and oil supply, as well as supplying power to the electric train lines and cities, so having to make sure those are provided would make the game a lot more interesting.

I don't necessarily need power lines clogging up my landscape (I already tend to disable the overhead lines on rails & trams), but giving the power plant more to do would be helpful. For example, having a power plant within 'x' tiles of an industry will boost production. Then again, that could probably all be accomplished with a NewGRF that modifies how power plants and industry behaves...

[Zuu]

Since coal is already really profitable, I think it is fair that the coal chain doesn't continue after the power plant. We don't need to make the coal chain even better.

[supermop]

Maybe if the power plant has a secondary function, it would not be necessary for it to be so profitable inorder to justify coal transport. When i play vanilla games, I refrain from transporting coal myself (more of an ethical issue for me). With a diversified "power chain", we might see various fuel sources over time, and reasons other than quick money to transport coal. I still feel like these are better as newgrf additions rather than changes to the core game.

Best,