Title game for OpenTTD 1.1 releases

[RAMMAR]

Thank you for update, planetmaker, now it's all right. I've a final entry, I've got some time for that one, cause I'd (and my family) to change my (our) plans (because of the bad weather), anyway. After a full day I've managed to make one more Title, that should be good too in some ways. I'd to take a small map (128/128) for this one, cause I was sure that I won't make it if I'm was going to take a bigger one:

P.S. The more Title games I'm making, the better they become.

P.P.S. Be advised that updated screenshots are in the high resolution...

[Level Crossing]

Yet another update:

The only change is that I added an iron ore route in the lower right (of large screens) to avoid having too much empty space.

[RAMMAR]

Hmmm. I got an idea (to add two more rails) and I've two weak points: at the start of my last Title happens - bus crash by monorail. The other is a bug (not mine) (only visible at the max screen size), mostly it's ship pathfinding bug (or game engine?), anyway some ships are making several loops under an aqueduct as they do when they are lost and later they continue their trip as they should so... I've made these changes so, I've replaced old save with this one and notice my new screenshots, I've got today a much newer monitor, so almost of all of high resolutions are avalable for me now...

Title game is updated (this is a final version, there no more place to add anything, I guess):
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=930044#p930044

[planetmaker]

mostly it's ship pathfinding bug (or game engine?), anyway some ships are making several loops

Ships require bouys every few tiles (about 10 ... 15 is a good guide). If you didn't change that in the recent modifications, those ships travel VERY long distances without... - like zillions of ships crossing half the map on maybe two buoys.

[Level Crossing]

Yet ANOTHER update:

Changes:
Ro-ro station w/ 3 tracks.
Drive thru road stop moved.


Question: Should I use cantilever bridges? They look bad in the original graphics.

[Sylf]

Here's my submission.

BTW - I'm very impressed with all the submissions so far. Kudos, everyone.

[Level Crossing]

Sylf: Nice, but you could add a block-signal crossing and a presignalled station.

[Drury]

Only 29 hours left...

[Flowi]

Oh... Here already are so many ideas. I yesterday invented a new title too, which I would like to present now

I also used Semaphores and some different train types^^

[Bad_Brett]

It seems to as many people here want to present title games with tons of expensive vehicles and advanced track combinations. In my opinion that's not a good idea. I think that a title game should be exciting and give you a hint on what the game is about - not show a perfect station or a perfect city in action. Otherwise new players will likely compare their own games with the title game.

[RAMMAR]

2 Bad_Brett (it will be off topic in some way, but still)
The Title (it's a face of the game) shows a goal for a player to reach, if it will be poorly made, then a player probably will make his transport poorly organized, of course there are several variants for a making roads and so on (I like to make straight ones or with only one 45 degree turns somewhere and a second for the station (because they are slow here anyway - and I got this way after a several years of playing) for the trains, without crosses, independent train railroads and so on. The same goes for simple roads and ships.). But if you manage to show a good sides of a playing, then this player will make a note for him/herself and later he/she will advance this technique or reshape it for him/herself as he/she sees it fits. So, in total it's a game demo, a player has to make his/her world by him/herself by basing upon this Title (and not only) and it will be good to show something really useful to him/her.

[Bad_Brett]

(I like to make straight ones or with only one 45 degree turns somewhere and a second for the station (because they are slow here anyway - and I got this way after a several years of playing)

You just proved my point.

One of the most important aspects of making an addictive game is to make the player feel good about him/herself. This happens most frequently when you discover something new. For example, if you play an RPG game, you feel good when you get that new cool weapon by solving a challenging puzzle. Being presented with a step-by-step guide in the beginning of the game on how to obtain that weapon, would ruin the excitement and sense of exploration.

You probably won't get very excited when your first city reach a pop of 1,000, if the one in the title game has a pop of 30,000. You won't get excited when you can afford to buy your first aircraft, when there are 50 super modern aircrafts in the title game. Sure, some people would consider this a contest. But I'm sure that this would make many people lose their interest in the game more quickly.

I think that a good demo/tutorial should give a sneak peak on what's available, but that90% of the game should be up to the player to discover on his/her own. For those who are interested in learning how to build better stations, these forums and wiki pages give great information on those topics.

But remember that a game should be about having fun and explore things on your own, not about doing everything right already from the beginning.

[planetmaker]

Not even 24 hours to go till submissions close - time for some last-minute changes? So far I'm quite pleased to see that many nice contributions

Update with savegames and screenshots on the usual page with the recent additions.

[Arie-]

One thing I noticed, not 100% sure though, is that the amount of smoke on vehicles not uses default OpenTTD setting in the title screen but that setting is used from the save game. Be sure to check that setting in so that it is what you like it to be .

[Drury]

I set it to realistic (more smoke), so there is higher contrast between TTD(Patch) and OpenTTD.

That's basically my main goal - make title screen showing mostly new features, both old and new in 1.1
Also, some of my vehicles are actually profitable, and rest of them would be profitable if map was bigger (airplanes and buses, long trains).

[Arie-]

Oh and another tip, when creating a map, a lot of the size is in the trees in a map. So when making a tropical map, just convert everything not visible in the title screen to desert so trees won't increase map size. Little effort to reduce bandwidth usage a bit.

[Yoshi]

My last one:

[MinchinWeb]

So I decided to create another entry. This one was trying to implement a fjord with the snow, mountains, and the sea. The railways are a big part of the game so I wanted to add an interchange as well. I think I have something that works well on 640x480 all the way up. I hope you like it as much as I do!

[Level Crossing]

Last minute update!

Changes: more trains added to the farm line, more trucks for the iron ore.

[planetmaker]

Submissions are closed and voting round 1 is up

All entries can be viewed in an anonymized form at the title game page.

Voting round 1 will chose three entries from all submissions. Votes are cast by sending an e-mail to planetmaker@openttd.org with the title "Titlegame Round 1" which lists your choice of the top three games. Rank your entries in order. Your top choice is worth 3 points, the 2nd one two points and your number 3 choice is worth 1 point for the scores.

The winners of this first round will be subject to a final round of votes so that everyone will have the chance to pick the best of the most favoured games.

Consider when voting that the title game is a demonstration of the game which every player will always see when s/he starts up the game.

Cheers,
pm