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OpenTTD 1.0.0 Released
Gmer writes "Eming.com reports that OpenTTD, the open source clone of the Microprose game Transport Tycoon Deluxe, has reached a milestone. OpenTTD 1.0.0 has been released 6 years after work started on the first version, with the help of hundreds of contributors and thousands of testers/players. Over 30 language translations are considered complete, and OpenTTD is available for *BSD, Linux, Solaris and Windows. OpenTTD is a business simulation game in which the player is in control of a transport company and can compete against rival companies to make as much profit as possible by transporting passengers and various goods by road, rail, sea or air."
on my n900 :)
...with a lot of time on their hands. Like slashdot; without the productivity. Link's down for me: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://eming.com/en/openttd-1-0-0-released/&hl=en&strip=1
Dear Overlord of Cargo Transport,
I don't have time for your pathetic versioning proposals! (My south-western 6-line maglev connection is filled with stuck trains!)
Last time I played OpenTTD (a couple years ago), I found it entertaining for a while, but not challenging. The AI didn't present much competition, and I got the impression the game wasn't designed with that in mind. It seemed like it's a game for people who like playing with model trains.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
I was 14 when the original came out, and one of my friends had it. God we had no fucking clue what we were doing.
Going back to games that crushed my spirit as a kid is so vindicating.
I am sure that the development team would be glad if a lot of people started playing OpenTTD. However, as things stand you have to download the engine, then do a bit of reading, go to the source repositories and download graphics, sound and music separately (which means the downloader needs to distinguish between nightlies and release, ZIP, source.ZIP, MD5 files...). Perhaps the next step after doing version 1.0.0 might be to put the game into a single installer file for the non-developer part of the world? But still - thanks for all those years, I will gladly return to my young days and share the joys of TTD with my kids :o)
I have been playing openTTD a bit with my n900. Works very well with the stylus except for one thing: I can't scroll the map. Only the world under the map scrolls and to set the map to new location one has to close and reopen it. I suppose it has something to do with not being able to send left mouse button signal but so far I have not been able to figure it out.
So closed source is so much better? Go back to playing Duke Nukem Forever then.
Nobody believes the official spokesman, but everybody trusts an unidentified source. -- Ron Nesen
Freeciv 1.0 was released 1996, so no this is not the first "open source clone" to reach 1.0.
And then you have games like Nethack that's been worked on since the 80's and is a timeless jewel and that nice turnbased medieval strategy game I forgot the name of. I am a huge gamer and I mostly play commercial games (Team Fortress 2 being my current favorite), but I wouldn't sneeze at the open source games.
Keep in mind that generally, open source projects only reach version 1.0 when a major milestone have been reached. It doesn't mean that 0.x versions are unusable or buggy/unplayable, openTTD have been rock solid throughout it's history as far I know (the only bugs I stumbled upon was in the nightlies... which is to be expected).
I don't think cloning is the word you're looking for. I'm pretty sure I couldn't play TTD with all the crazy cool things that are in it now, back in 1995. (Wooo, Canset + ECS, I can make a day vanish in an instant =D)
Indeed. After you been spoiled with various custom trainsets (UKRS, NARS, 2CC, the upcoming PJ1K) industries (FIRS is very promising), aircraft (AV8), ships (FISH) and road vehicles (eGRVTS), it's really hard to go back to the original vehicles. Most of the custom stuff feels more balanced (Aircrafts/trains are somewhat less profitable, road/ships are more profitable) and more interesting (with the default vehicles you always just pick the fastest vehicle for your line...).
The only bad thing with those sets is that they generally make the game a bit harder, so I help newbies to learn with the default stuff.
It has been 100% playable for years, 1.0 is more of a milestone than anything.
I also find it very difficult taking anyone seriously who has the audacity to criticise other people who give their time freely into completing a project, whether it's a computer program or anything else in life.
It's not as though trolls like you who have no doubt been sat on their fat backsides moaning at everyone else for 15 years have tried to make any valid contribution in the project - so kindly climb back into your dark little hole and be miserable on your own, because none of the rest of us give a toss about your griping.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Better yet was the opportunity for murder. Run your highspeed trains back and forth over their truck / bus roads, wiping them out. You could even create train disasters by running a line to one end of their stations, wait for their fully laden trains to arrive and then set your own train off to crash into them. Puts them out of business in no time...
I played the original TTD for years and on odd occasions I dig out OpenTTD for a quick spin.
However, despite also owning the game guide for the original game, I have never been able to work out how to do track splits and signals correctly to get multiple trains running properly on single track spans.
I shall endeavour to finally master the technique in celebration of the 1.0 release!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I spent thousands of hours gaming with TTD and Heroes of Might and Magic. I wasted my childhood with those 2 games. They're awesome.
that nice turnbased medieval strategy game I forgot the name of
Battle for Wesnoth probably?
Me, I'm waiting eagerly for open Heroes of Might and Magic 3 engine...but it seems somebody is working at most on HoMM2 :/ (oh well, it will be a good starting porting presumably)
One that hath name thou can not otter
(Open)TTD focuses its scope on trains: road/sea/air transport exist, but the main thrust is rail.
Remarkably, while the signaling dynamics are incredibly intricate (most 'real world' rail systems can be duplicated), for those who aren't trainspotters, or don't have days to burn on one single section of rail, simple signalling is still possible, and quite easy to roll in.
There are literally scores of sites a google-hop away explaining all sorts of systems, from one-to-one single and dual gauge systems, right up to 4x4 rolling junctions (nuts)
The general rule of thumb is: imagine you're a train, and follow the rails and signals. Place a signal before a split. Make a split long enough for your longest train, and then some.
Place a signal before the end of the siding. Repeat the operation for the other direction.
While I admit that getting solid signalling + junctioning going for me remains on of the biggest challenges, it's also the most fun.
Looking at the screenshots, I think some players approached this game differently then I did. For me the challenge was not the insane AI, but trying to create a maximum efficiency rail network. Getting the most goods transport, with as few trains with as little track as possible.
This game is closer the Sims and Sim City in that there is no AI to beat. The spiritual succesor of Roller Coaster tycoon makes this bloody clear by removing the AI altogether.
When you managed to pump up a city from nothing to a thriving metropolis with thousands of passengers, that for me was the challenge and the reward. I always switched the AI of.
Quite frankly, very few games have AI that is challenging. If you find satisfaction in beating a path finding AI... well then good luck to you.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Once again OSS proves that it doesn't have an original thought
OSS is not a single entity. There are lots of different OSS developers in the world, with their own goals. One of the points of OSS is that you can take an existing program and extend or modify it to better suit your needs. The original Transport Tycoon was not Free Software, so this was not possible, but it was clearly something that people wanted to do. They wanted to do it so much that they rewrote the original game from scratch. Other games, like FreeCiv, FreeCol, LinCity, and so on have been created in the same way.
Just because some (good) Free Software games are clones of proprietary games does not, however, mean that all open source games are. Indeed, if you look around a commercial game store, or on a flash games site, you will see lots of games that are clones of existing games with a few improvements (or not, in some cases). This does not mean that proprietary games companies don't have an original thought.
If you want to try some fun and original games, take a look at something like Battle for Wesnoth or Vega Strike.
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I rarely play a game without UKRS, AV8 or eGRVTS any more, they're just so much better than the default vehicles. I haven't really tried FISH, I'll have to give it a go.
FYI, there is a patched version flying around the openttd forums which implements cargo and passanger destination, which means that cargos and passangers want to go to a specific location not just to any city,
this gives the game much more depth
http://wiki.openttd.org/Passenger_and_cargo_destinations
I run it @ 1920x1200 on a machine with similar specs to those you listed, runs just fine.
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Indeed - commercial projects suffer from "version number" inflation much higher than open source. OpenTTD could have simply made every release a full version release instead of a point release, and be on say, version 10 by now.
It's not uncommon for earlier versions of commercial products to be rather unusable (e.g., DirectX didn't become viable until version 5 or later; or the first versions of the Windows GUI). Then there's the skipping of versions (e.g., Windows NT starting at 3.5; or OS X simply starting at 10, even though the previous "versions" were for an entirely different OS). And the norm for many PC games seems to be that version 1 is rather unstable, and you have to buy the next version to get better.
Since open source developers aren't worried about sales, they don't have to differentiate it as being a "different product, honest".
Exactly what I was thinking myself. Runs fine here.
1680*1050 here without a hitch...with 2 EVE Online clients and 2 flash games actively running in the background.
I don't know what, but there's *something* you're doing wrong.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
I played the pants off of this game at 1024x768 on an 800 mhZ thinkpad with a 8mb on-mobo video card with no issues.
I haven't checked, but have you tried all the options? There are options to change the scrolling and move it to a right click, as well as a left click, IIRC.
Have you heard about SoylentNews?
If you want to try some fun and original games, take a look at something like Battle for Wesnoth or Vega Strike.
Wesnoth is a clone, though. So... horrible example.
The problem is that the games that people hype up are all clones: OpenTTD, FreeCIV, Wesnoth, Frozen Bubble, the various Quake III clones around. If you want people to start believing that open source can produce original games, start dropping the names of some original games, guys!
I haven't played Vega Strike, so I can't speak for it.
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What is Wesnoth a clone of? It's a game in an existing genre, but so are 99% of proprietary games. It's loosely inspired by Master of Monsters and Warsong, but calling it a clone of either is like calling Quake a clone of The Catacomb Abyss.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlords_(game_series)
The entire time I played Wesnoth (which wasn't that long, because I don't think it's all that great, but I digress), I was thinking nothing but: Warlords II, Warlords II, Warlords II.
It might be "loosely inspired" by Master of Monsters, but it's definitely "firmly inspired" by the Warlords series. If you call that "in an existing genre", then so be it, but I'm classifying it as "clone."
In any case, when people say "original game," I think it's safe to say they mean more in the vein of, say, System Shock II, or Tribes, or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, or Halo. Games that introduce significant new features (whether or not they're in an existing genre or not) that nearly all future games also employ.
System Shock II's voice diary mechanic was taken by dozens of games since. Tribes' combat class + vehicle combat that became the foundation of the Battlefield series (among others.) Sands of Time's rewind feature* as well. Halo's auto-recharging energy shield is in a significant number FPSes now. I've never seen an open source game influence games in the same way as these commercial titles.
* Ok, I think technically Blinx: The Time Sweeper beat them to this one, but nobody remembers that title so it doesn't make for a good example. :)
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Although the OpenTTD code has been excellent for some time, I think this is the first version that's actually had a full set of graphics to go with it - with previous versions it required a copy of the original TTD graphics files.
Version 1.0 fits well because this is the first complete version of the game.
I've spent several hours/days as a kid playing Transports Tycoon. Then, several years later, I've spent several hours/days as an adult playing OpenTTD.
When I discovered OpenTTD back in 2006 or 2007 I remember I was so thrilled I didn't sleep that night - played all night long.
Transports Tycoon is probably the most overlooked game. It should be right there, next to SimCity. To be honest, I spent much more time playing (Open)TTD than SimCity. Everyone should give it a try - the multiplayer is awesome.
What about Nethack? It's probably still one of the more original Roguelikes out there, with a long legacy. :) I believe some "original commercial" games was actually inspired by Nethack.
That's it? That's all you got? That's pathetic.
Nobody even likes that game, except about 15 Slashdotters who think it's the best thing ever-- normal people have either not heard of it, or stopped playing once they realized it takes three weeks to learn it's godawful UI alone.
What commercial games did it influence? Off the top of my head I can think of... maybe... Dungeon Hack and Mission: Thunderbolt. Assuming those games were influenced by it, they're different enough that they're probably just in the same genre. Of course, both Dungeon Hack and Mission: Thunderbolt have usable UIs, so they obviously weren't influenced there.
What specific feature from Nethack has influenced the industry? Its Wikipedia article's got nothing.
Come on, seriously. If Nethack is seriously the best example you got, then either:
1) You know nothing about open source games, or
2) Nobody should be debating the point that Linux games aren't innovative, because it's self-evidently true
I hope it's option 1. But I'm really starting to doubt it. Pathetic.
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I like Nethack, thank you very much. It's steep learning curve is part of the charm, and the fact that lots of things can kill you. It's not a game for the impatient.
You might want to check out the Diablo series. Blizzard themselves admitted that they were inspired by Nethack (and Angband) when they made Diablo, AFAIK people still play it and is very hyped for Diablo III.
If you want to see popular games with awful UI, you might want to check Dwarf Fortress. Manages to be way worse than Nethack (with even steeper learning curve), but is very popular. Not open source however.
I don't try to claim that the average open source is innovative, rather I was trying to point out a huge exception (innovative dosen't mean it have to be mainstream friendly). I have a feeling it's much easier to get developers together to make a clone of a already loved game (which then can be improved upon), than something new and original.
For innovation, I'd personally rather look amongst what the indie developers offer.
I like Nethack, thank you very much. It's steep learning curve is part of the charm, and the fact that lots of things can kill you. It's not a game for the impatient.
I know *you* do, that wasn't my point. My point was that most people do. Most people? The thing you just described? That's not fun.
You might want to check out the Diablo series. Blizzard themselves admitted that they were inspired by Nethack (and Angband) when they made Diablo, AFAIK people still play it and is very hyped for Diablo III.
Diablo's a dungeon digger, but what's the influence other than being in the same genre? There's been craploads of dungeon diggers with randomly-generated levels.
If you want to see popular games with awful UI, you might want to check Dwarf Fortress. Manages to be way worse than Nethack (with even steeper learning curve), but is very popular.
Very popular... among the 15 Slashdotters who also love Nethack. You're deluding yourself if you honestly believe Dwarf Fortress is "very popular."
When I think "popular game with awful UI" I think, for example, Battlefield: 2142. Since it was, you know, actually popular... although its UI was significantly better than Nethack or Dwarf Fortress.
I don't try to claim that the average open source is innovative, rather I was trying to point out a huge exception (innovative dosen't mean it have to be mainstream friendly).
That's true, but it also has to be... innovative. Rogue might get a credit as being innovative, as it (likely) created the genre in the first place. But Nethack? Nope.
I have a feeling it's much easier to get developers together to make a clone of a already loved game (which then can be improved upon), than something new and original.
And that would be exactly the problem in a nutshell. It doesn't help that most open source fans don't give a shit about stealing ideas.
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