Hawk & Badger Railroad Forum

This is a collection of fixes expected to go out probably in late February 2007, and marks the first patch release that drops support for networked games. Here's what made the cut:

• include updated Loco Pack (bombardiere) [90%,AF,weeks] - Bombardiere Done
• add cargo types (canis39) [80%,AC?F,days] Cancelled
• fix crashes when deleting track (milo) [60%,C,weeks] Done
• fix early exits from multiple-factor event loops (milo) [90%,C,hours] Could Not Reproduce
• fix tests for deliveries to/from cities (milo) [50%,C,days] Could Not Reproduce
• fix unimplemented events, such as specialized track counters (milo) [50%,C,days] Done
• prevent AIs from reusing logos (milo, davey917) [30%,C,hours] Done
• fix alignment of custom logos in message lines (davey917) [90%,C,hours] Done
• fix instabilities after deactivating players (milo) [80%,C,days] Done
• be able to turn off non-evented storms and economy changes (Grandma Ruth, davey917) [30%,C,weeks] Done
• be able to ship at a loss (JSS, dj, Grandma Ruth) [90%,C,hours] - Not sure about side-effects, though Done
• merge maintenance buildings into stations (CJNyfalt, Grandma Ruth, Steve) [70%,C?S,hours] - Fixable in scenario; might need coding to stop AIs building them Cancelled
• support drop-shipping: leave cargo at station for pickup by another train (hawk) [80%,A?CF?,days] Done
• be able to 'reserve' certain amount of cargo in each building (Steve) [60%,CF?,days] Done
• support express traffic to/from warehouses and ports (milo) [90%,C,hours] Done
• fix railbed and rail-connection graphics (JSS, dj) [70%,AC,days] - Lower bed, maybe fix joint mitering, maybe redraw railbed texture - note that Bombardiere votes against this, so it may get dropped Cancelled
• slightly increase possible zoom distance to cover huge maps (milo) [80%,C,hours] Done
• cut down track 'exclusivity' radius to permit stuff like parallel rails (canis39) [80%,C,hours] - Cost: have to have finer touch to make connections to existing rails Cancelled
• cut down river nonbuildable radius (CJNyfalt) [30%,C,days] - Radius is 1 square; not sure I can cut this without permitting building >in< river Cancelled
• add tool to import and export heightmaps (?) [90%,C,days] Done
• make it trivial to submit scenario reviews (EPH) [70%,?,days] Cancelled
• add tool to import and export events (milo) [70%,C,days] Delayed - as a utility, it can be released separately from 1.06

Volunteers:

• A bombardiere, pure al
• C milo (man, I hope PJay comes back!)
• F bombardiere, pure al, Wolverine@MSU?
• I JayEff(French), Elite Marksman (German, Spanish?)
• M JayEff, Wolverine@MSU, kriss, pure al, bombardiere?
• S JayEff, Wolverine@MSU, kriss, pure al, Grandma Ruth?
• T JayEff, canis39, Grandma Ruth, Wolverine@MSU, kriss, Elite Marksman?
• ? Gwizz

edit 2006/12/09: set volunteer categories for kriss
edit 2007/01/07: added pure al
edit 2007/01/12: fix pure al's categories
edit 2007/02/03: update status
edit 2007/02/19: update status
edit 2007/03/03: update status

Yep I am here. I guess that it is best for me to consentrate with locos. I do some corrections and improvements and possibly couple extra ones. (P.S. milo any idea of my question about possibility to add cargo file to an engine. I am working a nice two car EMU)

If industry or other work is needed, let me know and I see if I can find time.


A good list. :) I have one following comments.

merge maintenance buildings into stations (CJNyfalt, Grandma Ruth, Steve) [70%,C?S,hours] - Fixable in scenario; might need coding to stop AIs building them

A stuff, which I also want to see, but perhaps best to leave with scenario eventing.

add cargo types (canis39) [80%,AC?F,days] - NOTE: All I plan to do for 1.06 is determine how to add cargoes safely without disrupting existing scenarios.

Adding new cargo types have caused issues, but it might be because Ned made a slight mistake. Perhaps more of this on another post.

support express traffic to/from warehouses and ports (milo) [90%,C,hours]

Or perhaps new different type of building (Passenger Harbour).

fix railbed and rail-connection graphics (JSS, dj) [70%,AC,days] - Lower bed, maybe fix joint mitering, maybe redraw railbed texture - note that Bombardiere votes against this, so it may get dropped

I voted against this because implementing this would fall on me and for me it would be too much effort for the result. :) I am not bothered with the track bed and rail breakake can be fixed in the game.

For organizing this subject better, may I suggest that we start a separate thread for each individual item or closely related group of items? This would make it easier to discuss each of them without having to wade through unrelated information.
For instance, I might have some specific additional information about the crashes caused through the elimination of A.I. players. They would best be made in an area specific to “fix instabilities after deactivating players” thread.

JSS wrote:For organizing this subject better, may I suggest that we start a separate thread for each individual item or closely related group of items? This would make it easier to discuss each of them without having to wade through unrelated information.

Absolutely. See the "Stopping storms" topic for an example. The planned releases themselves are stickied so that we don't lose track of what we're working on; we should post on them when we've hit release milestones.

Strongly seconding JSS!

I'm in!

me too. I'll be happy to test things incrementally as soon as they are done.

I'm on board now, other project is almost a wrap.

Put me down for M,S &T initially.

milo wrote:Volunteers:

• A bombardiere?
• C milo (man, I hope PJay comes back!)
• F bombardiere, Wolverine@MSU?
• I JayEff(French), Elite Marksman (German, Spanish?)
• M JayEff, Wolverine@MSU, kriss, bombardiere?
• S JayEff, Wolverine@MSU, kriss, Grandma Ruth?
• T JayEff, canis39, Grandma Ruth, Wolverine@MSU, kriss, Elite Marksman?
• ? Gwizz

edit 2006/12/09: set volunteer categories for kriss

I'm here, but I don't have any assembler experience. If you put your modifications somewhere online and give me pointers about what exactly you did and which tools you use, I might be able to help ...

If you get python support in there, I'll really try to help! Have you thought about using Boost to accelerate python ?

First of several partial releases is available in the FTP account in the Patch106 folder as setup106.exe.

• Back up your existing RT3 installation if you're as paranoid as I.
• Revert your installation to 1.05 vanilla. The patcher doesn't know how to deal with other versions yet.
• Run setup06.exe to install the 1.06 Alpha 00 patch.

This is an experimental patch that enables hauling at a loss. It's just a first pass for you to play with; the final version should enable ship-at-a-loss for custom consists only, and should support negative ship values rather than just clamping them to zero. When you're done playing with it, you can remove it by uninstalling 'Railroad Tycoon 3 1.06 Alpha 00' using the Add or Remove Programs control panel.

I'm interested in the various tricks you can come up with. Does this make drop-shipping work by itself? What abuses does it open up? How does it affect game balance? Try out a few of the existing scenarios and let me know how differently they play - the Japan Quakes campaign, for example, probably becomes far easier. Please post your results in the 1.06 Subproject: Shipping at a Loss thread. Thanks!

1.06 Alpha 01 has been uploaded to the Patch106 directory on Hawk's FTP server as setup06.exe. This version supports a slightly more refined version of ship-at-a-loss that operates on custom consists only. I still haven't solved the ship value clamping problem; it may be more complicated than I thought, because the text formatting code doesn't appear to understand negative numbers. Again, please post feedback on this version to the "1.06 Subproject: Shipping at a Loss" thread.

The older Alpha 00 is still available in the same directory as setup06_00.exe for a short time. If you need to install this version, download the file, then rename it to setup06.exe before installing it.

Milo- Back up your existing RT3 installation if you're as paranoid as I.

I downloaded and was going to install until I read that! :D How do I back up the installation (the whole 2GB folder?) and what files are edited? (Removed content)

Cargo additions, rail mitering - discussed in separate Subproject threads. I'm trying to keep this one fairly clean so that we can use it for release announcements.

On backing up RT3 installations: The only file that the alpha patch installer currently modifies is RT3.exe, so it's probably sufficient just to copy that file to a safe location. Later, when we start adding new messages to RT3.lng or including new 3D objects, you may want to back up part or all of your Data directory as well. Be prepared to reinstall RT3 at least once during your illustrious modding career, because we all make mistakes...

1.06 Alpha 02 is out. Quite a few improvements from the previous version, including the final version of ship-at-a-loss. The questionable technology for you to play with in this one is warehouses that can convert X to X: Does it work? Do you have to create extra 'waste' products for the building to operate well? Is it good enough for drop-shipping?

The current setup06.exe on the FTP server is A02. A01 has been renamed to setup06_A01.exe and won't be there for long.

1.06 Alpha 03 fixes a bad port/warehouse creation bug in A02. Only other change I can remember is enabling the 'annual supply' field in port/warehouse demand->supply recipe entries. I've removed A02 from the FTP server, but 01 is still around.

I downloaded and tried to install the latest patch, but got an error message that the .exe file was not upgradable. It turns out that I have been using the "NoCD" patch version, which is not upgraded by milo's patch. Would it be possible to make the "NoCD" version patchable?.. If not, I will probably bypass installing any newer patches. I really like not having to have my "Play CD" in the drive, so much so that I would probably continue with the "NoCD" version rather than have to shuffle a CD in and out of the drive every time I want to play the game.

What I've done in the past (this may not work for the new patches but it did for the 1.05a) is to rename the no-cd exe to something like RT3_nocd.exe. Revert back to the original RT3.exe (you did save it, didn't you?), apply the patch, rename that exe to something like RT3_org.exe and then rename the no-cd back to RT3.exe.
Does all that make sense.

Hawk wrote:What I've done in the past (this may not work for the new patches but it did for the 1.05a) is to rename the no-cd exe to something like RT3_nocd.exe. Revert back to the original RT3.exe (you did save it, didn't you?), apply the patch, rename that exe to something like RT3_org.exe and then rename the no-cd back to RT3.exe.
Does all that make sense.

That doesn't work - the patches are TO RT3.exe, so swapping out executables means that you don't get the changes applied to the no-CD version. It's also dangerous if you uninstall. Looks as if something I did hit code that was different between the CD and no-CD versions, and the patcher's afraid to proceed.

Thanks for catching the issue, Wolverine. I definitely want to support both editions!

Thanks for straightening me out on that. :D

1.06 Alpha 04 is up. This one supports the NoCD version of RT3 and enables real express traffic for ports and warehouses. If you ever wanted to convert passengers to troops, now's your chance...

As usual, it's on hawkdawg.com under the engmod account (see the forum welcome thread) in the Patch106 folder as setup06.exe. Alpha 03 is still available for a short time as setup06_A03.exe.

If you run into issues, please create a new thread to discuss it.