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Fancy Yourself a Tycoon? OpenTTD 1.4.0 On Its Way

Posted by timothy on from the all-tunnels-clear-conditions-good dept.

phmadore writes "Version 1.4.0 (.TAR.GZ)of the most intellectually challenging OSS game out there (IMO), OpenTTD (Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe), is near at hand. Of course, most servers are still running 1.3.3 (the last stable, major version change, from November/December-ish). N-Ice.org typically waits until a stable release has been around for a minute to implement the changes into its online client (which is as yet unavailable as a binary for Linux; it varies only slightly from the official release and non-Windows users are able to interface with it no problem), but there are exciting developments coming down the pipe for OpenTTD. 'The new SSE blitters were also further improved. Not immediately noticeable but useful in the future, are the new string codes to display amounts of cargo in NewGRFs. For our Korean users, the separators in numbers were fixed.' Here is some information on the history of OTTD."

18 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. It's OK, but... by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Informative

    For me OpenTTD has lost a lot of the fun of the original TTD. The graphics and music are all replaced and I just prefer the original graphics and music. The signaling is now way more complex and while I'm sure that makes the train tracks much closer to real life, it makes it a lot harder to get into the game than the original by Chris Sawyer. I also think that unfortunately the development team have an extremely stubborn attitude to porting nice new features over to the main codebase. Last I checked, the copy/paste functionality wasn't ported in because "it's cheating". Sorry, no it isn't; it means you don't have to keep creating the same boring complex junctions over and over again.

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    1. Re:It's OK, but... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

      For me OpenTTD has lost a lot of the fun of the original TTD. The graphics and music are all replaced and I just prefer the original graphics and music.

      They're not "replaced", they're just not the same. If you own the original TTD, you can use its data files with OpenTTD. If not, you don't have the right to use those graphics anyway.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:It's OK, but... by phmadore · · Score: 2

      I don't like the train signals myself, but then I really prefer the road vehicles and I am pushing for a road-vehicles-only server on N-Ice.org.

    3. Re:It's OK, but... by ifiwereasculptor · · Score: 2

      I prefer Simutrans. Passengers having specific destinations is essential to a transport game. It's what makes it interesting and challenging.

    4. Re:It's OK, but... by jones_supa · · Score: 2

      What can I add, really. Transport Tycoon (Deluxe) has some amazing MIDI jazz. A gem in the history of video game music.

    5. Re:It's OK, but... by Konowl · · Score: 2

      The whole reason I stopped playing is because of a lack of copy and paste. There was an addon for it a while ago but it's not there anymore that I can see. I don't want to create the same station over and over again, and how on earth is it cheating to not want to?

  2. What would Chris Sawyer think? by Skinkie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am really interested what Chris Sawyers opinion is on these improvements on his original brainchild. Would give a great tech documentary on (open)TTD.

    --
    Support Eachother, Copy Dutch Property!
    1. Re:What would Chris Sawyer think? by phmadore · · Score: 2

      That would be awesome. Owen Rudge should interview him about it.

    2. Re:What would Chris Sawyer think? by Nemyst · · Score: 2

      Considering his spiritual successor, Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, went in a rather baffling direction, I'd say he probably isn't on the same page as the OpenTTD devs.

  3. Re:Dude. by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is OSS gaming supposed to remain at 1999 levels?

  4. One of OpenTTD 1.4.0 new features is CargoDist by paskie · · Score: 5, Informative

    *The* big new feature of OpenTTD 1.4.0 is CargoDist, i.e. exactly that - passengers and cargo having specific destinations.

    If only the summary wouldn't be just a jumbled tangle of text... :-(

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    It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams
    1. Re:One of OpenTTD 1.4.0 new features is CargoDist by paskie · · Score: 3, Informative

      It makes total sense for me, if you realize that your job is to be just a transport company, not a redistribution company.

      Up to now (and of course you can still stay in that mode in the new version), you would just take the lumber from a forest and deliver to whatever sawmill. But in reality, you should deliver it to whatever sawmill the forest has contract with! I.e., sawmills will make contracts with forests and use you just as a transport company - then your job is to get the cargo from the correct forest to the correct sawmill.

      (An important playability factor is that only reachable destinations are considered. So if you just created a dedicated line between two industries, you will not be asked to transport the cargo elsewhere.)

      (N.B. I didn't try the cargodist mode yet so I'm not 100% sure if it works the way I'd suppose it works. I'd also expect it to allow you to enable it just for passenger+mail, as these are really special cases compared to other cargo.)

      --
      It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams
  5. What the hell is this? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is going on in the summary for this article? What is OTTD? Want to tell the rest of us? Why does it immediately start talking about "most servers", as if I should know what those are? What the fuck is an SSE blitter? NewGRFs? Gosh, I'm so glad to know that Korean number separators were fixed. I can sleep well tonight knowing that.

    No, don't waste your time explaining. I spent too much time on this already. The whole thing is written like it's by insiders for insiders. But then again insiders already know about this and don't need an announcement on Slashdot.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  6. Re:Dude. by Chemisor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Dude, I wish OSS gaming would reach 1999 levels. It is more at 1988 levels.

  7. Re:How about Open Source Tycoon? by jones_supa · · Score: 2

    Linux Tycoon

  8. Re:Fullscreen doesn't work in latest OSX by Xtifr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They've also had an announcement on the front page of their website for at least a year asking for help with the Mac port. If they don't own Macs and aren't familiar with the platform, and can't test, I don't know how you think they can magically fix these things.

    This is open source, not charity.

  9. Re:Fullscreen doesn't work in latest OSX by Xtifr · · Score: 2

    If you look on http://www.openttd.org/en/abou... you'll see the list of supported platforms:

    * *BSD, especially FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
    * Linux
    * Solaris
    * Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7

    Notice what's missing from that list? You should be glad it works at all!

  10. Re:Artists should support free speech by jareth-0205 · · Score: 2

    Artists should support free speech even when its their speech that is being commented upon.

    That's not really how art or artists work... Good art is nearly always the product of a strict hierarchical or one-man's-vision approach to a creation. And OpenTTD is a bit more than just 'inspiration' isn't it... the interface and graphics and copied *exactly*, with extra features. It might be entirely legal, but we're not jumping off from inspiration to new game, we're copying the first game and extending it.

    Also, it's not a matter of free-speech, he's not tried to shut the project down, he just doesn't like it. That is entirely his prerogative.