Making 1.06.1: any interest?

[Gumboots]

Oh here's something Milo might know the answer to. From another thread:

"Was just wondering about something. 1.05 and under have a 100 limit on locos, IIRC, and I think 1.06 has 129. How is this actually decided?

What I mean is that back when looking through some of the .exe hex I noticed that some default engines are mentioned by name. These can be removed from play be removing the .lco and .car files from the EngineTypes folder, but does that affect how many engines slots the game has available?

Say there are 50 (or whatever) default locos and you remove the .lco and .car files for half of them. Does the game now think you have an extra 25 loco slots available, or does it still think all 50 are taken?"

[milo]

As far as cargoes go, I count 51 in the 1.06 release and 52 being the stated limit. I may also go ahead and make another cargo to use that last slot for this patch.

Test it carefully. I hit some instabilities trying to use that last slot, and suspect there are some off-by-one bugs still hiding in the RT3 code.

P.S: One question I have concerning the buildings limit. In the .lng you reserved 25 lines for Building names (4425-4449, using a tilde prefix). 10 were used by 1.06 buildings, leaving 15 unused numbers in that series. If I am correct about there being 16 building slots open(94/110), how would I number the last one?

You should be able to use 4450 for a building name. The .lng reservations aren't defined in code; they were just recommendations for if other modders wanted to add or replace resources. You'll see reservation notes like that all through the rt3.lng file. (And apparently I can't count either. )

Has anyone heard from Bombardiere? He was the model expert in 2007, and could probably help you guys far more than I could.

Also, if you're not planning to change the executable, then you should probably construct your release as an add-on rather than 1.06x. Changing the reported version numbers and handling .GMP version compatibility unfortunately requires mucking around with rt3.exe innards.

[Stoker]

@ GB: For the purposes of this patch, all of the original locos have to at the very least have their file names left intact in order to not cause crashes in existing scenarios. I know that you are aware of this, but I thought that should be clarified for the general readership of this thread.

[milo]

Oh here's something Milo might know the answer too. From another thread:

"Was just wondering about something. 1.05 and under have a 100 limit on locos, IIRC, and I think 1.06 has 129. How is this actually decided?

What I mean is that back when looking through some of the .exe hex I noticed that some default engines are mentioned by name. These can be removed from play be removing the .lco and .car files from the EngineTypes folder, but does that affect how many engines slots the game has available?

Say there are 50 (or whatever) default locos and you remove the .lco and .car files for half of them. Does the game now think you have an extra 25 loco slots available, or does it still think all 50 are taken?"

The number's determined by available slots in the internal locomotive and event tables. I don't think it'd be easy to increase the number of locomotives further, but you can definitely swap out existing ones. Main thing to be careful of is that you'll break scenarios that reference the missing locomotives - for example, the Orient Express does odd things without the Orca.

[Stoker]

@ Milo: Thanks for the clarification on the building enumeration and .lng call #s. I suspected that the primary intent of specific # series being set aside for certain things was simply to keep things straight, but I wanted to make sure. I will trust your insight on leaving the cargo count at 51.If you read through this thread (and it appears that you have) you know that I was unsure what we should call this patch. The simple building swap I created to change out the Warehouse placeholders used for most new 1.06 buildings I made some years ago I called a "Bandaid" because it was completely forward and backwards compatible and did not actually change or add anything. This patch will be different, as any map created using any of the new assets will no longer be able to be played in previous versions, but efforts are being made to ensure that most, if not all, existing scenarios will be playable with the patch (or add-on- or whatever term is eventually used) is in place. Another small question I have concerning buildings is whether you know of any issue in replacing the "dummy"/ "XXX" building ? I thought Ned had looked into this, but he is MIA and a search did not turn anything up for me.

[Gumboots]

The number's determined by available slots in the internal locomotive and event tables. I don't think it'd be easy to increase the number of locomotives further, but you can definitely swap out existing ones. Main thing to be careful of is that you'll break scenarios that reference the missing locomotives - for example, the Orient Express does odd things without the Orca.

Yes I realise that. I'm mainly thinking of it for my own personal installation. Being a steam nut, and noticing that removing .lco and .car files removes loco from play (I play with all diesel and electric locos removed) I was wondering if that also freed up slots for more locos.

[Blackhawk]

I wonder what the instabilities with 52 cargoes were. If I remember correctly, TM uses all 52 cargoes. Although the player base for that isn't near the player base for 1.06 so instabilities may go unnoticed if they are minor.

[Stoker]

Ned could answer these things, too bad he isn't around. I did a search a few days ago and he is alive and well, posting on the "Only in Hamilton" facebook page regularly (as recently as yesterday) and on TheSmokingGun quite often as well.

[Hawk]

Has anyone heard from Bombardiere? He was the model expert in 2007, and could probably help you guys far more than I could.

He hasn't logged into the forum since April of 2011.

Ned could answer these things, too bad he isn't around. I did a search a few days ago and he is alive and well, posting on the "Only in Hamilton" facebook page regularly (as recently as yesterday) and on TheSmokingGun quite often as well.

Maybe you could get him a message about stopping by here. I've sent him a couple of emails and he hasn't replied to eother one, plus he has a PM from me he hasn't read.

[Stoker]

I see on that facebook page that Ned's icon does not light up or link . Not sure what that is about, maybe he has his account set to not receive anything. At any rate I am not on facebook. Even if I was, I am not sure that me dropping him a message would have the desired effect. Not that we are enemies or anything, but we did have our disagreements about things. Maybe he would respond better if you were to get in touch with him, Hawk.

P.S. Looks like Ned gave up RT3 for his new hobby of feeding squirrels.



Apparently he decided to drop the monkey wearing sunglasses thing for a fresh look,too. Now he rolls with a sporty pig wearing sunglasses avatar...

[Hawk]

I wouldn't go near Facebook with your computer.
I have no use for that site.

I thought you had a Facebook account since you said you saw him over there.

[AdmiralHalsey]

If you guys want I could create one and see if he'd swing by real quick.

[Hawk]

If he's still alive and well and active somewhere else on the Internet, I guess one could conclude that he no longer has an interest in being a part of this community.

If you guys want I could create one and see if he'd swing by real quick.

That's up to you.

[Stoker]

Ned will come back to RT3 some day. My interest in RT3 and games in general waxes and wanes, and I go through periods of months or years sometimes when I set it aside. RT3 is one of those rare games that keeps people coming back. I was playing RT3 a bit a month or two ago, and now I have caught the Mod bug again, so this will occupy my free time for a while. I putz around on the computer while the wife watches her Tea & Crumpet shows and whatnot on the tube.

[Hawk]

That's true. Right now my interest in RT3 is off. I'm currently working on a map for 18 Wheels of Steel.

[Stoker]

I have heard of that but never looked at it. Is there a strategy element to it? Or is it just driving a truck around?

[Hawk]

It's not really a strategy game - per say. You do have to make money. You can hire drivers, haul timed loads, over-weight loads (and avoid scales), haul fragile cargo, and if you keep the fatigue option enabled, you can only drive about 10 hours before you have to stop at a hotel and rest for 8 hours. Otherwise the screen keeps going black while you're driving, loosely simulating dozing off.
You can upgrade the engine, tranny, and other things on your truck. You can buy a new truck. Borrow money from the bank.
You can get tickets for speeding, reckless driving, by-passing a scale, and depending on which version you play, not stopping at a red light.
You can get in an accident, then have to find a service station to repair your truck to avoid diminished handling, power, etc.

A steering wheel or joystick is recommend, but in earlier versions you can use a mouse.

I have 5 versions of the game. Hard Truck, Across America, Pedal to the Metal, Haulin, and American Long Haul. My personal preference is Pedal to the Metal.
I've tried the demos of other versions - Convoy, Extreme Trucker, and Extreme Trucker 2 but didn't care for them enough to buy them.
There's also several European versions of the game, which don't really interest me.

You can download free demos of all versions that let you play for 1 hour.

As with most games I play, I like using the editors to mod the default map or create my own map.
Unfortunately in some or most versions, the downloaded game does not allow the editor to be used.

http://www.scssoft.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18_Wheels_of_Steel

[Stoker]

Thanks for the info. I will take a look at that. Right now I want to stay focused on getting the building/cargo patch for 1.06 that I have wanted for so long done. I intend to get in "The Zone" this weekend and get a couple of new industries completed.

[Hawk]

Here's the wheel I have.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/4048 ... 8PC-PS3%29

I got it last month for $20.

Across America and Pedal to the Metal are the only versions (American) that allow mouse control.

Haulin and American Long Haul have better graphics but the back end of game play (hiring drivers and such) got dumbed down too much for my tastes.

[Hawk]

I guess it would be considered more of a simulator than a strategy game.