US Set Development Thread

[DanMacK]

OK, seeing as how a North American bus set wouldn't be compatible with George's Long Buses, I'll put my status here... Let me know if you want a new thread. Current Buses in progress are below, although I'm working on a number more.

Hey, what do you mean saying “American bus set wouldn't be compatible with George's Long Buses”? What would be wrong when they would be a part of the set? Just send me a copy and I shall insert them in right now. They are in the right scale and the graphics is cool, there is now problem in inserting them.

I think there are not enough road vehicles in total, made by different graphics authors, which could fill enough one set, and it is bad idea to divide it into subsets. Someday in the future, when we should remove some RVs because of sprites or ID limits, then we should think of splitting the set, but for now we should join them and our efforts.

If you would like, I can split the Longbuses file into parts, made by different graphics authors. Then you or other players could play with “American buses” just by activating only one part of long vehicles.

Resume:
There are not enough RVs now, so, the ID management can be done in general, one for all the vehicles. That means they can be separated parts of the one whole set. It will allow users to select the amount of graphics to use without any incompatibilities. So, please, do not start an independent set, just take part in the whole project.
Should I split Longbuses now?

Well, all of the ones there except the GMC New Look are in various stages of construction. What I meant as far as the "compatibility" issue goes, is precisely what you said We can't have your set and a second set running at the same time. Once I get these done, I think there should be a straight "North American" bus set for those of us who want compatibility with the US/Canadian train sets.

Have a "European Bus Set" and a "North American Long Bus" set. That GMC Scenicruiser of yours would fit great in with the rest of the buses I've got in the works. It's mainly that most of the current buses in the set save the Scenicruiser and the New Look" don't fit with the North American trains.

[George]

OK, seeing as how a North American bus set wouldn't be compatible with George's Long Buses, I'll put my status here... Let me know if you want a new thread. Current Buses in progress are below, although I'm working on a number more.

There are not enough RVs now, so, the ID management can be done in general, one for all the vehicles. That means they can be separated parts of the one whole set. It will allow users to select the amount of graphics to use without any incompatibilities. So, please, do not start an independent set, just take part in the whole project.
Should I split Long buses now?

Well, all of the ones there except the GMC New Look are in various stages of construction.

It does not matter now. I've asked about conceptual decision

What I meant as far as the "compatibility" issue goes, is precisely what you said. We can't have your set and a second set running at the same time.

Unless this set is integrated into my set. And it can be integrated as a INDEPENDENT part. This will allow both running all the vehicles (other set and my set) and the set separately. Isn't it what you want?

Once I get these done, I think there should be a straight "North American" bus set for those of us who want compatibility with the US/Canadian train sets.

But why you don't want to allow to use "North American" buses into variants - separately, as independent set, and in the whole set, and to allow a user to choose the way, that fits best for his needs?

Have a "European Bus Set" and a "North American Long Bus" set.

But why do you separate it this way? Why do you try with all one's might to disallow the "United set", there all the vehicles are present and the player can choose the ones he likes?

That GMC Scenicruiser of yours would fit great in with the rest of the buses I've got in the works.

Well, no problem here. I can move it to that block.

It's mainly that most of the current buses in the set save the Scenicruiser and the New Look" don't fit with the North American trains.

No problem

Resume:
I'll split the long buses set in to 3 parts
1) European buses. It will include my buses, except my Scenicruiser, LiAZ and Ikarus
2) American buses. It will include your buses and my Scenicruiser.
3) West European buses. It will include buses by Greyfur and Wile E. Coyote and my LiAZ and Ikarus

Ok now?

[George]

Admins, please move bus discussion into Long vehicles thread.

[DanMacK]

Well... it somewhat belongs here as well...

I wasn't aware there were that many ID's left... If I add 12 US buses in addition to the 2 that are already there, will you have enough ID's for them and all of the others?

If you can fit them in with the rest of the buses, by all means, and you have my permission to use them in a generic one.

My main concern for wanting a North American set was I didn't think there'd be enough ID's if one was running all of the LV files. If there is enough room, I have no problem with you putting them in the current set.

[uzurpator]

Well - I wanted to start working on the entire "US Trucking Set"...

[DanMacK]

Well, here's the prelim drawing for a Mack AC "Bulldog" tanker from 1919, I've also got the basic chassis for drawing the other versions

[krtaylor]

I agree with George's proposal. If there are enough IDs to keep everything in one set, and if he's willing to set it with switches so we can play with just US busses, just European busses, just East European/Russian busses, or all of them, as we choose, then I don't see why not. It would be useful cross-marketing.

AFA the loading of bilevels, that's a known problem. The US set intentionally has the single-levels load very quickly, but the bilevels don't. Normally they get stuck only at a large station with significant amounts of incoming passengers. Perhaps we should raise the default loading speed on them.

[DanMacK]

Hmmmm, never noticed the bi-level glitch before

[krtaylor]

It's not technically a glitch, it's more of a misfeature I guess. But either way, we probably should adjust it in the next version.

[George]

Well... it somewhat belongs here as well...
I wasn't aware there were that many ID's left... If I add 12 US buses in addition to the 2 that are already there, will you have enough ID's for them and all of the others?

Yes. I have 13 IDs free for buses and 16 for trucks. In case of lots of cool buses we can use trucks IDs for buses.

The thing, we need, is to ask Patchman to create more callbacks for vehicles.

If you can fit them in with the rest of the buses, by all means, and you have my permission to use them in a generic one.

Ok.

My main concern for wanting a North American set was I didn't think there'd be enough ID's if one was running all of the LV files. If there is enough room, I have no problem with you putting them in the current set.

We have enough Ids, but only 11k sprites

Well, here's the prelim drawing for a Mack AC "Bulldog" tanker from 1919, I've also got the basic chassis for drawing the other versions

Hm, why don'y you use my tamplates? It would make me much easier to insert them

I agree with George's proposal. If there are enough IDs to keep everything in one set, and if he's willing to set it with switches so we can play with just US busses, just European busses, just East European/Russian busses, or all of them, as we choose, then I don't see why not. It would be useful cross-marketing.

I've called the parts
"North America", "East Europe" and "standart". The last one also has cut version. NA and EE parts do not have girls and the cut version is not required.

P.S. I ask you to check the params when I realise the grfs, because sometime I make mistakes that I miss for the long time

[krtaylor]

Bugs (maybe):

- You don't get the Dreyfuss Hudson in the Arctic, and the generic one pulls the green coaches. Is this correct? The 20th Century Ltd. went to Chicago, and through northern NY, which are arguably in the proper Arctic climate, which is why the MBTA is going there.

- No Santa Fe livery F7 in Arctic? Seems odd. You only get the UP freight version for both passenger and freight, that can't be right. GN would make some sense, or CB&Q. Even B&M.

[DanMacK]

no streamlined hudson in Arctic is correct, as is pulling green coaches. You want a streamlined Hudson for Arctic? I'll do a Milwaukee Road "F7" Class that pulled the Hiawatha. That would be more appropriate than NYC. Arctic for me still says "Anywhere west of Chicago/North of St. Louis". with the new grasses... I'm now iffy. Green grass could put it more towards New England/Northeast (Except for the gold mines)

I still think the Metra stuff should be Arctic (That's where most of the C&NW stuff is), and the MBTA Temperate for the moment.

Now, re: the F7's... currently we only have 4 schemes for the F, 2 SF, Lehigh Valley and UP. I'm planning a Northern Pacific F7 in both freight and passenger (North Coast Limited) versions. We also need an SD45 in a more "Northern" scheme, I'm working on a Great Northern version, as they received the first one.

Needless to say, the "Arctic" climate is still a royal pain to classify.

[DanMacK]

Another thing I noticed, a lack of a "light to medium duty" freight loco after 2007. For this, I'd say keep the SD40-2 (and possibly the to-be-added GP40-2 or the GP38-2) available through to 2010+, units built in the 70's are currently undergoing modern upgrades and will be in service well beyond this date.

for a "medium/light" duty 4-axle unit after 2005 to replace those GP9u's and GP38-2's, how about the GP20D? it would be good for short-haul lines that don't require the oomph or cost of a 6000HP locomotive.

Just a suggestion, we don't necessarily need "high horsepower" for everything

[krtaylor]

I still think teh Metra stuff should be Arctic (taht's where most of teh C&NW stuff is), and teh MBTA Temperate for teh moment.

Oh. OK, that's fine with me.

Speaking of Metra, I've got a problem with the C&NW livery override for the E8. It looks fine, but even if you give it normal carriages, you get bilevels, and no matching livery for mail cars. That isn't right, surely the C&NW had single-levels and baggage cars. If we don't have the sprites for that, we need them.

[DanMacK]

No, we don't... it's a precursor livery to Metra, and that scheme should come in about the time of Amtrak (1970). Yes, C&NW had mail cars, etc, but it's designed for a commuter service, not intercity. We've got other schemes for that.

[krtaylor]

Yeah, but at least they didn't have bilevels that early. They didn't come until, what, the early 60s? It seems odd to see them in the late 40s. And I bet they did have baggage/mail cars on the commuter trains of that era. That would also solve the problem of mail in commuter trains later, because C&NW livery looks OK with Metra too.

[DanMacK]

No, they didn't, and if you want an alternate paint scheme for the passenger coaches behind a C&NW E-8, by all means, go ahead.

It's currently on my ever lengthening "to-do" list

[duffman74au]

is there any way of getting a bigger ore hopper say 40 to 50 tonner

by the way love the set

[wallyweb]

Ever since this morning I keep getting this ...

[The Irish]

might have something to do with todays date


Now I have been playing the US-Set as well again recently. One thing that striked me was the "Big Blow". IMO this thing is somehow out of scale compared to the rest of the engines and compared to the wagons behind it. For example when in front of TOF-cars, the engine is some pixels lower than the wagons. If I'm not mistaken, the "Big Blow" was one hell of an engine.
Are there any plans to make it bigger?

http://www.aat-net.de/chicago/005-012.jpg