Now also available via the BaNaNas in-game content service!
Current Version: 0.5.1
Hello there and welcome to my thread for the PIGM NewGRF. You might be wondering what this NewGRF is all about so I’ll get straight to the point without any further fuzz: This NewGRF aims to improve the OpenTTD gameplay by making it more challenging and balanced.
This means balancing all the different modes of transportation in terms of both relative internal costs in that group (i.e. cost and effectiveness of the various aircraft compared against each other) and relative to the separate transportation groups (trains, road vehicles, ships, aircraft).
In one simple sentence I want all modes of transportation to be viable (in terms of cost effectiveness) and the deciding factor on what mode of transportation is the right choice in terms of cost-effectiveness should be mainly dependent on the randomly generated map.
Secondly I want the game to be far more challenging, which means that if you do not choose a cost-effective approach to building your transport empire you will struggle severely and or even go bankrupt. Choices should matter more. Money should no longer be irrelevant by 1960.
Now, I’ve balanced the stats and tested quite a bit to the best of my ability, however this is a time consuming process and I really need help from the community to play test and deliver balance feedback. To make this more entertaining I figured we could have a small competition with predefined goals and settings to play with.
Competition!
Advanced Settings: Download my config: http://www.aveimil.com/OpenTTD/openttd.cfg for the settings.
Also, you should preferably not be running any other NewGRF's, at least none that include new vehicles as those will not be balanced in terms of cost. Other NewGRF's like FIRS (Industry Replacement Set) should work fine however.
Difficulty:
settings changed for 0.3
We don't want any AI's as we are competing against each other (or yourself) instead.
Map Settings:
settings changed for 0.3
The Goal: The goal is simple, make it to 1980 with a high a Company Value rating as possible. Please post your save game and also a screenshot (if possible) with the company screen and the currency set to Pounds (£) for easy comparison.
Other: If you don’t want to play with these settings, that’s fine too, but please state in your post what’s different in your game, otherwise it’s very hard to compare.
Play from 1950 to 1980 as many times as you want and try to get the highest possible company value at the end of 1980, post your results!
The changes
Vehicles: In general vehicles have undergone massive changes. There are now much larger differences in prices when comparing old to more powerful new equipment. The changes are too comprehensive to list, please check them out in-game. This part of the balance process will need much more work and to get there I badly require feedback from user testing.
Building Costs: Infrastructure is now quite a bit more expensive. Building roads, rail track, bridges and tunnels come at a hefty price tag, which means you'll be planning the most cost effective route to take. Early in the game you might not even be able to afford to build that route between that high producing coal mine and power plant. Terraforming is now far more expensive, putting more emphasis on using tunnel and bridges instead of just flattening everything without considering the cost.
- Base Build Bridge cost x2
Base Build Tunnel cost x2
Base Build Rail Track cost x8
Base Build Road cost x2
Base Build Dock cost x8
Base Build Airport cost x2
Base Terraforming cost x16
Base Clear House cost x16
Iron Ore and Wood follow the same price graph. While Coal still nets a better price than both Iron Ore and Wood both Steel and Goods have been increased in price, which means that Iron Ore and Wood might be more valuable than Coal by proxy, assuming you can do something useful with the goods produced from the Iron Ore and Wood. You'll no longer automatically look at the map for the best Coal Mine -> Power plant route.
Livestock and Grain have had their price potential increased by quite a bit, but they are at the same time very time sensitive. If you can deliver Livestock and or Grain quickly, it will pay off. Otherwise it's still more lucrative to transport Coal. The increased Goods price also means that Livestock and Grain are more attractive Cargo.
There is a new cargo king in town and it's name is Oil. This comes at a cost however, both Oil Wells and Oil Rigs (oil rigs have been changed in PIGM to reflect this new behavior) have a tendency (i.e. it will given enough time) to run dry which means infrastructure and other investements (vehicles) you have made to transport Oil are more easily lost. Valuables are the second most lucrative cargo, but very time sensetive. The price for mail has also been increased and made more time sensetive.
Screenshots
Here are some screenshots of the cost changes for various vehicles.
Dedicated Server
I've setup 6 dedicated servers for PIGM:
#1 http://www.openttd.org/en/server/37498 <- Restarts 2050
#2 http://www.openttd.org/en/server/37695 <- Restarts 2050
#3 http://www.openttd.org/en/server/37697 <- Restarts 2050
#4 http://www.openttd.org/en/server/37696 <- Restarts 2050
#5 http://www.openttd.org/en/server/37718 <- Restarts 2050
#6 http://www.openttd.org/en/server/37719 <- Restarts 2050
The NewGRF can be downloaded in-game via the BaNaNas service (check online content->AveiMil PIGM).
Feedback is pivotal to the success or failure of this mod. Thanks for reading!
Regards,
AveiMil