US Set Development Thread

Thade · Post by **Thade** » 12 May 2005 06:10

The building is pretty nice, reminds me of some industrial stations I've seen around here in Tuscany. The shading is somewhat wrong IMHO, probably because walls are so light. Maybe darkening it a little?

lifeblood · Post by **lifeblood** » 12 May 2005 13:49

krtaylor wrote:Oooh, nice. Definitely getting there! Wrong platform texture though.

The tiles are a no-go?

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 May 2005 13:52

They don't look like tiles, they look more like large, irregular stones. That might work in a European context, but not in an American station, and certainly not with an Art Deco one. This station would almost certainly have poured-concrete platforms, or possibly have been modernized with ceramic tiles, but those would be square and regular.

lifeblood · Post by **lifeblood** » 12 May 2005 14:53

Very true. I suppose I was trying to take the easy way out.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 May 2005 15:01

You can use Cornelius's poured-concrete platforms and still take the easy way out.

He's said anyone can use them, just make sure to credit him is all.

lifeblood · Post by **lifeblood** » 12 May 2005 16:02

Poured concrete? Are these in the generic stations set?

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 May 2005 16:03

Actually, I don't remember where they are, but I know I've seen them. I think they may be the platforms underneath the Amshacks. They have yellow safety edges.

cornelius · Post by **cornelius** » 12 May 2005 19:34

Here are the platform sprites I did. krtaylor could you post them on the tracking site so we don't keep "losing" them in the depths of this topic?

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 May 2005 19:48

Yes, I will put them on the stations page, where we won't lose them again.

Oracle · Post by **Oracle** » 14 May 2005 20:10

Well, I'm doing a little work on the Industrial stations, starting on the General Industry station, and have some questions as to how people would like it to work. I'm basically recoding it so it works how I think stations should work, which gives me opportunities to make quite a few changes.

(Please reply if you have any opinion at all, whether you normally reply to this thread or not.)

Do you like the way empty spaces appear in some places at the moment or should there always be platforms and/or buildings on each side?
Do you like the combinations of platforms/cranes/buildings at the moment or would you prefer to see some more variation?
Do you like the total randomness that you get at the moment or would you like layouts to be a little more predictable?

I don't have a huge number of sprites to play with (tall building; medium building; short building; bare platform; platform with crane) but I can do whatever I'm requested to do with them.

If you have any other comments at all on this station feel free to post them.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 14 May 2005 20:23

Here are my thoughts on the subject:

1. I do NOT like empty spots in the middle of a station. It's perfectly fine to not have buildings all the way along, but it makes no sense to have a missing section of platform.

2. Personally, I like the way the rural station automatically realigns itself when you expand it. I mean, if you have a two-track station, and expand it to four tracks, you don't wind up with two main buildings; the whole thing reconfigures automatically so it looks correct at the new size. The Industrial Stations should do the same thing. I frequently have to make my coal-loading stations longer by a few tiles. That causes several separate loading towers, which looks odd. I'd rather it reconfigure so it looks correct as a whole at the new size.

3. Some of the restrictions need to be lifted. For instance, there's a limit on the number of width of tracks you can make a coal-unloading facility. This makes no sense, the conveyors underneath can be as long as required.

4. I do not like the generic industry station at all, especially as compared to Born Acorn's freight stations in the Generic Stations set. I would almost argue we should just dump it entirely. Or, we could get rid of it as such, but combine its office building with the wood-loading station from the old Silverline stations set (which we're absorbing into this set) to make a good-looking wood loading/unloading station. Or, if somebody wanted to draw a bunch more sprites to add more variety, that would be OK too - maybe a good overhead crane or something.

5. Don't we have fake-sidings around somewhere, that we could include in the set? It would make sense in the context of the Generic Industrial station.

6. How's progress on the missing station types?
- steel mill station
- iron-ore loading
- iron-ore unloading
- copper-ore loading
- copper-ore unloading
- rubber (no idea what that would even look like)
- One other thought - maybe we could borrow some of Born Acorn's sprites, and add barbed-wire and searchlights, to make a loading dock for valuables? Graphically it would be pretty easy to do I think.

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 14 May 2005 20:32

With the new modular station building, the readjustments of the country station is a bit annoying. If I add a freight platform behind a 2 track country station, it readjusts and cuts off the rear half of the station... I don't want that.

I'd prefer being able to drop a 2X4 station building on a platform and having it stay where I put it.

I don't mind the generic Industry station, I use it A LOT. The gaps are annoying hoewver.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 14 May 2005 20:36

Well, hang on. Is it possible to have the stations reconfigure themselves only considering whatever parts of the station are of that type? I mean, if you have a four-track station, of which three are rural station and one is industry, then the rural station will configure itself as if it were only three tracks, completely ignoring the other track? That would answer Dan's problem I bet.

Oracle · Post by **Oracle** » 14 May 2005 21:35

Comments noted, although I'm only working on the very first station ATM. The gaps will definitely be going, except at the edges of the station where there might be no platform at all.

Unfortunately, AFAIK it isn't possible to detect bits of the same type. It would be nice to do so but I haven't done so because I don't think I can. The only alternative to the current system is to set it up for each individually built piece, which wouldn't be too bad but you'd have to rebuild the whole lot after expanding.

Josef, it wouldn't be possible to have a 40+x variable for stations like variable 40 but only working for contiguous pieces of the same station ID, would it?

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 15 May 2005 01:14

Say, folks, I found a graphics problem, and I don't know how to solve it.

What happens when you're running an E8 passenger train in UP armour yellow livery (or GN Empire Builder, for that matter) and you put bilevels on it? Well, they stay as the SP red and black commuter gallery cars, which looks odd. What ought they do to? IRL they didn't overlap. But we can't ban bilevels from E8s, because then you couldn't use them in commuter-mode for Metra and (eventually) MBTA.

We could give them those odd Budd sleeper cars as a graphic overlay, that wouldn't match the yellow or Empire Builder but wouldn't look totally out of place. Or we could overlay them as normal passenger cars but then you can't tell them apart. I find it annoying when the Metra locos appear and give a bilevel Metra overlay to ordinary single-levels - we really need CNW single levels to handle that situation.

Thoughts?

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 15 May 2005 02:39

Thoughts?

Yeah, don't use Bi-levels with name trains

I am hoping on doing an FP45 in GN Big Sky Blue, with matching coaches so you can use a Big Dome as a Bi-Level Coach

fuzzy3 · Post by **fuzzy3** » 15 May 2005 04:38

Peter1x9 wrote:It looks like you are using the older livery for the metra train cars. I saw one go by here the other day with one old style (white with the stripes) train car and the new style train cars (all metallic except for the metra sign by the doors):

Some examples:
http://www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken/Metra-1a.html

Rear traincar:
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPho ... 070468&f=0

Regular traincars:
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPho ... 070469&f=0

It's good to see someone's using my website!!! Also check out http://www.fuzzyworld3.com/up02.html for some "more interesting" Metra car pics...

Andrew Barchifowski · Post by **Andrew Barchifowski** » 16 May 2005 22:14

It is good to see the United Way RBW unit still running. I think I maybe able to take a real live picture of it today, hopefully I can get out at about 6:30 then spend time in Wheaton. Their is a three hour wating period before a train gets to West Chicago, and that is still before Wheaton, so I might be able to get a good picture instead of the crappy one my cousin took.

B52 · Post by **B52** » 16 May 2005 22:18

Be quiet AB. I couldn't help it. The only lighting was a christmass tree and some street lights.

I suppose I will see you in Wheaton tonight huh? Well, we'll see who get's it to Railpictures.net first. Right now I am leading withe one picture in the database.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=104969

Oz · Post by Oz » 19 May 2005 06:16

Hey, hey, fellas! Finished up the transverse views of the steel depots. Would have been done a little sooner, but real life just kept getting in the way. I'd like for you guys to have a final look before I start hacking them up into usable sprites. Concerns, critiques, and suggestions would be most welcome before I do so, however.

Cheers!

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