Shared track button and a thing for shared tracks

[lucaspiller]

I am working on making shared tracks for OpenTTD (see this topic) but I need a few graphical things.

Firstly I need a button to go next to the convert rail type button so you can drag over tracks to make them shared. Secondly I need a way to identify shared tracks from normal tracks.

I don't want some completely finished graphics (but I wouldn't mind them), for now I just need a few ideas.

[Born Acorn]

you'd need two buttons then, one to activate it, then the actual cursor that moves around the screen.

[Alltaken]

can't you just make the fence posts a "white" or "grey" colour.

i suggest grey because oil platforms are grey.

this identifies them just as it identifes personal tracks.


also i think the paying method should be based on the distance ON the track.

so say this is a diagram of the track with shared and non shared.


====private track=======/======shared track======/=======private track.

since its about 1/3rd in shared track, one 3rd of the profits from the delivery should go to the company that runs that track.

otherwise the owner of the tracks could just start off with cheap tracks then as soon as a whole lot of enemy trains is on it, raise the price and suck all their money.

just my ideas/ concerns. hope they help

Alltaken

[Villem]

theres grey company color so it would cause few problems, i think the fences color should be pure black.

[BobXP]

good idea but the fence can only be recolored to company colors, i think

[Korenn]

this is ottd, not patch...
"only" is a relative thing

[worldofklaus]

isn't there a way to make it a bit more obvious that the tracks are shared? normally colored fences have a good contrast against the background, but I think grey or black would just fade into the background. I suppose you could still differ, but wouldn't it be heaps better if you could easily see which tracks are shared?

Besides, how are you supposed to see which company owns the track and therefore receives a share of your income?

Also, what about three parallel tracks, of which the middle one is shared? If all tracks belong to the same company, there is no fence in between.

[worldofklaus]

Just another thing:

theres grey company color so it would cause few problems, i think the fences color should be pure black.

Still, grey also seems to say "no owner", because there used to be a bug in TTDPatch where the tracks of companies that have recently gone out of business and that were under a road crossing stayed there and the fence simply became grey-colored. The info toool sayed owner: N/A

[lucaspiller]

Thats why I want something to identify them with.

[BobXP]

Still, grey also seems to say "no owner", because there used to be a bug in TTDPatch where the tracks of companies that have recently gone out of business and that were under a road crossing stayed there and the fence simply became grey-colored. The info toool sayed owner: N/A

I have some weird tracks belonging to the cities in my game. Sometimes they are blue, but if I scroll the square out of view and in again, it goes fiery-red

[Dan]

I have an idea, the shared tracks can look something like this:

[Dan]

I drew some graphics for shared tracks, tell me what you think.

[Magic_Pixel]

I like these graphics. They even give you a sense of speed (unlike the normal fence which blends a bit worse with the high speed trains).

IMO

[Alltaken]

yeah they are nice.

Alltaken

[Virtuall1024]

what about ordering fences like that - company- grey-company ?
the same time you will know track is shared and who's owner

[Korenn]

those sprites still need to be shaded though...

you could add a small band of company colors so you can see whose track it is.

[Dan]

Ok I changed it:

[lucaspiller]

They look good, I will see what I can do later...

[kemkim]

can't you just make the fence posts a "white" or "grey" colour.

i suggest grey because oil platforms are grey.

this identifies them just as it identifes personal tracks.


also i think the paying method should be based on the distance ON the track.

so say this is a diagram of the track with shared and non shared.


====private track=======/======shared track======/=======private track.
Alltaken

One third is too much. I would suggest one sixth, because if some company uses almost all leased track, it wouldn't get any money to itself.

[Jango]

thought i'd post my penny-worth..

in my opinion, the idea of shared track is an excellent idea. However, lets think about this carefully. It would be much more realistic if the track was "rented" instead of income-based (and probably easier to code IMO).

Suppose that for each tile of shared track, a company running a train over the tile would have to pay a fixed fee to the owner (probably best if it is distance-based rather than time-based).

Graphically, grey fences are fine, but don't forget (like someone mentioned) the possibility of shared track not having fences if boxed in by another track... You also need some owner identification so that it's possible to see who runs the track.

Economically speaking, it probably ought to be cheaper to rent a track in the short-term than to build a track. Maybe with this option enabled, track building should be more expensive so players would rather use shared track instead of building their own track alongside.

Practically, you need to think about how to connect track to someone else's shared track. You don't want some lamer to mess up the signalling for example down the track, and yet you DO want people to be able to connect to it. Perhaps this means that on any shared track, players are allowed to add to the tile, but are not allowed to remove anything from it, apart from their own connections.