Hi,
After a long absence from OTTD, I decided to try the new 0.6 beta 1 (Windows version) and get my hands on all those lovely new industries.
I've not done much experimenting with the NewGRFs. My choice of which ones to include was based on the ECS Compatibility list at
http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php?page=ECSSupport
Here are my GRF files in order:
ECS. Town Vector Beta 3 (24 Nov 2007)
ECS. Basic vector for arctic (13 Jan 2006)
ECS. Chemicals vector (21 Oct 2007)
ECS. Machinery vector Beta 3 (23 Nov 2007)
ECS. Wood Vector Beta 3 (22 Oct 2007)
ECS. Agricultural Vector Beta 3 (24 Nov 2007)
UK Renewal train set v3.04
Newships
av8 AH-64 Apache
Long vehicles v4 (07 sept 2007)
When running in the Arctic climate (have not tried any other climate), these sets work fine. The only warning I get is from the "Long vehicles v4" set warning about road traffic that's supposed to be on the right. However, I also tried the "ECS. Construction vector by Pikka (18 Oct 2007)" (placed between the Wood and Agreicultural ECS vectors), and when I use that, I get the following error: "ECS Construction vector by Pikkabird is incompatible with ECS construction vector" even though I don't have "ECS construction vector" installed. As well as the "ECS. Construction vector by Pikka (18 Oct 2007)" being disabled, the "Long vehicles v4 (07 sept 2007)" set also becomes disabled with Pikka's ECS construction vector. I have not tried the non-Pikka construction vector (the other 6 ECS vectors are proving to be quite a handful so have not bothered with the 7th).
I tried adding the "Generic Tramset v 0.3" to the mix. If it's included before "Long vehicles v4", the "Tramway construction" menu-entry is greyed out (presumably, the long vehicles override all the trams). I tried placing the trams last, and then, I do get trams, although I'm wondering if some of the road vehicles from the "Long vehicles v4" set were overridden, so I decided to not include any trams. I'm wodering if I should use the
"Generic Road Vehicle and Tram Set" instead of "Long vehicles v4", but according to the "Still todo:" list in the first article, the "Cargo translation table" still needs doing (I'm not sure what a cargo translation table is but I'm guessing it has something to do with the new cargoes).
Someone mentioned that the trams should be included as default. However, as I found out, if I'm using "Long vehicles v4", it seems to clash with the "Generic Tramset v 0.3", so that's a reason why it shouldn't be included as default (at least until clashing vehicles have been sorted out).
My biggest gripe with this version (using the ECS industries) is that the industries close down too early. I've spent ages building a supply chain, and then, a vital industry closes down

. It's too early in the game to build long-distance train routes and already I have to hope that I can find an alternative industry to supply the other industries that would close down themselves thanks to lack of products. I think it should be possible to prevent industries from closing down until at least 30 years after the game has started. Come to think of it, there could be a patch setting to prevent industries from closing down (not sure how this would effect oil-wells being replaced by oil-rigs in the temperate climate). One idea I had was that if an industry was about to close down due to supply problems, instead of closing down without any warning, there should be a message that says that unless industry X recieves supplies within a year, it will close down (this mechanism could be similar to subsidies ecxept that the industry closes down if no supplies are recieved).
Another major gripe is that the news-messages are flooded with industry production changes (I'm running a 1024x1024 map). Even with the "smooth economy" patch turned off, there's loads of messages about secondary industries "decreasing production essentially!". If I go to the message-settings dialog and switch off the "Other industry production chages", I find that some important messages (such as subsidy offers or new vehicles becoming available) are buried because there seems to be some kind of maximum limit of about 30 for howmany messages are remembered/displayed. I would appreciate it if the message history length was increased, or if the number of industries that are "decreasing production essentially!" per month are reduced. I hate having to manually check the Subsidies dialog once a month

. Also, I noticed that industry-closing-down messages are in the "production changes" message category. How about creating a separate category for "Industry closing down" so I don't miss closing industries if I've got production-changes turned off. While on the subject, an idea I had is that instead of having just two types of economic smoothness (Original TTDLX's economy and the OTTD "Smooth economy"), there could be several levels of smoothness in between these two, eg, a limit of one primary industry changing it's production per month. The reason I don't turn on the smooth econimy is because I'm overwhelmed by production-change messages.
One thing about the PBS industry sets that I think shold change is that there should be at least one food-producing industry that works at high altitude. At the moment, food plants, tinning factories and breweries require access to nearby water. One of the reasons why I choose to play the Arctic climate is that I like placing food-processing plants in a town above the snowline and then distributing the food to the town and nearby towns without the need for high-powered trains to climb the hills. One idea could be to transport water as a cargo so that any industry that needs to be located near water can work away from water provided it is supplied with a supply of water. Also, I think I heard that the TTD-Patch guys are working on rivers. Not sure if this means I can have water at a high altitude.
Anyway, I've noticed a few bugs and graphical glitches:
- When I'm in the scenario editor, I'm having trouble placing certain industries. For example, if I've deleted a sawmill and made a bump in the landscape to prevent the sawmill from being rebuilt at exactly the same spot, I end up with messages such as "Cannot build sawmill here, sawmill in the way" even though there is no sawmill to be seen. Also, I'm told "This industry requires flat land" even though the land in the surrounding tiles in all directions is flat. I notice that sometimes when I place an industry, the land is terraformed so it becomes flat enough to place the industry, so why do I still end up with "This industry requires flat land" messages?
- The "modify production values" cheat does not work when using the PBS industry-sets (although it works for oil-wells in Arctic climate (not tried any other climates)).
- If there are lots of industries, the minimap default size is so small that some of their names overlap the buttons. Also, in the "Industry directory", the text overflows the box and when moved to the left, glitches are left behind.
- When using the "NewStations 0.4.2 05.09.05" GRF, the stations drawn with lots of magenta pixels.
Here are a few assorted ideas:
- In the NewGRF list, there should be a means of displaying which vehicles (be they default vehicles or vehicles from GRF sets) have been taken over by vehicles from other GRF sets. This should also include mentioning multiple takeovers (eg. vehicle A in GRF set 3 takes over vehicle B in GRF set 2 which in turn takes over vehicle C in GRF set 1 which takes over vehicle D in the original game)
- If a vehicle is in a group, it should have a button for bringing up the window for the group it is in (and some indisction of which group it is in).
- I notice that Autosaves are saved in the "My Documents/OpenTTD" folder whereas regular savegames are saved in the game's directory. It should either be possible to select the default directory for autosaves, or there should be a button in the file-selector that jumps between the "My Documents/OpenTTD" folder and the game's installation directory.
- If a piece of track is selected in track-lay mode, the mousewheel rotates it.
- Scenario editor: As well as "Many random industries", there should be a "Many random industries of this type". This is useful if you've just installed an extra PBS vector on top of your existing PBS vector and you want to add these industries to an existing scenario.
- Scenario editor: If placing many random industries, there should be a progress indicator. This takes ages with the PBS indstries.
As for the PBS industries, the available tourist resorts should depend on the climate. In the arctic climate, instead of having a caino resort, there should be a ski-resort instead.
And finally, just a quick question: Why is YAPF for ships off by default?
Anyway, I hope the I hope the
"small map industry selector" patch makes it into the next beta - those colours are just too similar.
Keep up the good work!
