A bunch of newb questions

[nemir]

I discovered OTTD a couple of weeks back and it has been a huge time sink!

I am starting a new game from scratch, and I have a few questions that I am hoping people can help me with.

Industries have a certain footprint (e.g. 4x4 for the Steel Mill). If I place a station so that I touch just a single corner I can deposit Iron and collect steel. Do I get to collect more steel if I make sure the station's coverage area encapsulates all 16 squares?

I've been watching how factories produce goods. It says it is making 480 goods per month, but it seems to make nothing until a delivery is made, then it splurts out a bunch of goods, and then nothing again until the next delivery. Is that the case?

I have tried making sure that I always have at least one goods train waiting for those goods, but I still can't seem to get a 100% efficiency on goods collection. How can you do that? Am I losing income, or is a backlog of stuff left at the station for me to collect as vehicles become available?

A factory takes in livestock and grain from a factory, and steel from a steel mill. What is the algorithm that determines how much stuff comes out/how much stuff went in? Do you get any bonus by making sure a factory gets all three types of raw material? (If not, do you think it would be cool to make it so?)

Is there a way to toggle outdated vehicles from the list of buildable stuff? I start out in 1930, in 1934 I get a new train, and in 1936 I get another new train. The 1936 model is gonna be the basis of my fleet for the next few decades, so I'd really love it if I never had to see those older trains again.

I saw a screenshot with factories that were producing hundreds of thousands of things per month. How the heck do I get that?

How are the city names generated? Would it be easy to supply a set of my own names?

Is there a tutorial around to learn me how to use boats ...? I tried once to set up an oil tanker delivery, but nothing worked.

How do I get my planes to pick up valuables instead of mail?

Would it be easy to change the land deforming tools to work so that rightclick lowered and leftclick raised, rather than having to go through all that mouse work?

(Is there a wishlist anywhere I could add that to?)


TIA for your kind responses! Or even your acerbic, scathing responses.

Cha

Nemir

[Toni Babelony]

A good read: http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Main_Page Most of your questions will be answered here. If your answer can't be found there try here: http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php

[nemir]

Thanks for the reply... I will give that a go.

What is the difference between TTDPatch and OpenTTD?

[PikkaBird]

Industries have a certain footprint (e.g. 4x4 for the Steel Mill). If I place a station so that I touch just a single corner I can deposit Iron and collect steel. Do I get to collect more steel if I make sure the station's coverage area encapsulates all 16 squares?

As long as one tile of the industry is within the station's catchment area, the industry will deliver to the station. There is no benefit to having your station closer to the industry.

I've been watching how factories produce goods. It says it is making 480 goods per month, but it seems to make nothing until a delivery is made, then it splurts out a bunch of goods, and then nothing again until the next delivery. Is that the case?

That is the case with the default industries. There are industry grfs such as PBI that change this behaviour.

I have tried making sure that I always have at least one goods train waiting for those goods, but I still can't seem to get a 100% efficiency on goods collection. How can you do that? Am I losing income, or is a backlog of stuff left at the station for me to collect as vehicles become available?

The "% transported" is actually the rating the industry gives your station (and thus how much goods they will deliver to the station to be carried away). Ratings of over 80% are very difficult to maintain. You can temporarily increase the ratings of stations near towns by buying advertising from the town.

A factory takes in livestock and grain from a factory, and steel from a steel mill. What is the algorithm that determines how much stuff comes out/how much stuff went in? Do you get any bonus by making sure a factory gets all three types of raw material? (If not, do you think it would be cool to make it so?)

Every default industry produces one unit in -> one unit out. Industry GRFs can change this.

Is there a way to toggle outdated vehicles from the list of buildable stuff? I start out in 1930, in 1934 I get a new train, and in 1936 I get another new train. The 1936 model is gonna be the basis of my fleet for the next few decades, so I'd really love it if I never had to see those older trains again.

They'll disappear from the list eventually.

How are the city names generated? Would it be easy to supply a set of my own names?

In TTDP, yes. I don't think newgrf support for town names is in OTTD yet, for whatever reason (most other things seem to get added quite quickly).

[DaleStan]

What is the difference between TTDPatch and OpenTTD?

Approximately the same as the difference between Linux and Windows.

[Rubidium]

How are the city names generated? Would it be easy to supply a set of my own names?

In TTDP, yes. I don't think newgrf support for town names is in OTTD yet, for whatever reason (most other things seem to get added quite quickly).

The NewGRF support for town names is in OTTD 0.6.0.

[PikkaBird]

Really? That is good news.

[Dave]

Really? That is good news.

Indeed it is, cheers for that Rubidium - I can build a huge network delivering to towns like Barnoldswick, Frankley and Nantwich!

If you don't know where those are, tough!