RRT3 Going Nukular

[nedfumpkin]

Last night I made the bank out of the post office skin. I'm still trying to decide if it is going to be a "General Industry" which means it can be bought or built, or a "Limited Industry" where it can be spawned but neither built or bought. The military base and fort are limited industries.

Since the apothecary and the confectionery are both municipal buildings, I am not going to make skins and I am just going to use a small retail. I'm having a difficult time coming up with ideas...my head is somewhere else right now.

The Hospital skin that I made out of the brewery will do unless someone makes a new one, I am open to it.

I'm going to work on the co-op skins and get those done before I do any industry skins. I still have to make the skins for the new rolling stock....armoured car, I might just use the WP&P mail cars. Then the car for explosives, maybe another for isotopes.

I still have a few cargo icons to make....isotopes, gum, hides, textiles, weapons (cannon) and maybe plastic.

I am going to make all 2D images like the ones above for the industry. This will be tedious, but shouldn't take too long once I get going. After thinking about it, I have decided that in most cases I am not going to rename 3dp files unless there is a need to since it will reduce how much people will have to download.


I am also going to make some other minor modifications to other files, like the ledger front. I'm only going to customize it a bit and change the colour of it to a burgundy from brown....just to be different. Or maybe dark blue...or dark green....or dark red...or Care Bear stickers. It'll be a surprise. :)

There are 6 load screens that I want to replace. They are 1600 wide x 1024 high at 72dpi. These are the images you see when a map is loading...bye-bye flat penny...I'm open to offers and suggestions here.

Then I am going to make some new players...again, open to offers and suggestions.

Once all of that is done, I am going to put it all into pk4 files and a zip.

And then I am going to make two maps ...one from 1847, and another from 1947.

Then I am going to play with my choos choos.



As always, if anyone wants to do some building skins, off the top of my head these remain to be done...

Fort - an 1800s style fort...ideally should be of stone rather than a frontier fort of logs so that it is more international, I was thinking of the Southwest station or the military depot. Also thought of using the stadium with a transparent rood and lowered walls, but then it looks like a budge castle.

The military base needs a skin since the military depot looks like something you bought for your GI Joes when you were a kid.

Factories...electronics, explosives, missile plant, sugar refinery, flour mill...anything really.

Grain elevator.

Shipyard....this is a port, but I was going to try to transparent out the pier so it looks like a partially built ship..anyone else is free to give it a go.

[coruscate]

Cool, as for me I finished up putting events into my San Diego map last night, started beta testing it myself and ran into a few minor issues. But once that's good to go I'm righ back to finishing up my custom buildings (tourist trap, etc.) and putting those skins up for you guys to use. I will be skinning a hospital off of one of the commercial buildings, should be simle I now have enough real photos of skyscrapers and what not to change them around.

Once we have something to play with I'll start making new maps, haven't decided if I want to try for a historical recreation or just to create a fun map and have fun with it. I found this random metal texture in my skin searches that looks like the perfect graphic to make a heighmap from so... that's my next level.

[nedfumpkin]

Here's a screenshot of the ledger and some of the icons for new cargo visible. I'm thinking of going more with a 1940s style instead of the traditional old west style.

Oh..and rather than call it Nukular...I'm calling it Railroad Tycoon 3 - Trainmaster

from the CNR site:

The Trainmaster manages the day-to-day operation of their territory, customers and their unionized staff. This role is critical to ensuring the on-time performance of trains and delivering on CN’s commitments to customers. Trainmasters perform and supervise various tasks and must remain focused on safe haulage of merchandise to their destination.

*
Safety orientation, compliance and enforcement
*
Strong problem solving and decision making skills
*
Strong planning and organizing skills
*
Building and maintaining an effective team
*
Appropriate technical knowledge and/or certifications relevant for the functional unit

[WPandP]

Looking really good!

But I'm rather fond of the "Nukular" moniker. Maybe it can be preserved in some fashion, like as a campaign name maybe? I like the idea of this being a more broad "Expert" edition, and I'd like for it to include as much mod content as we can fit in it (engines, buildings, cars, logos, etc.). But the initial impetus, of a Nukular expansion set, essentially, has a lot of appeal too.

Maybe we just develop "Nukular" scenarios, which require the Trainmaster Edition in order to function.

BTW, a big for all your effort!

[nedfumpkin]

The problem I am facing is that being a Canuck, we don't say nukular the way some Americans do, and I didn't want to come across as being politically incorrect. But at the same time, I have been trying to do as much to the 1800s as I am the nuclear stuff, so I thought that Trainmaster, based on the job description, sort of fits the entire game and suggests it being an expert version since that is what I am trying to achieve. Also trying to give it more "expert" look as well without going too crazy.

I have been thinking about the campaign idea as well. I was thinking of looking into creating small campaigns based on themes, with perhaps 3 or 4 maps.

Thanks go to you and Coruscate since you guys are contributing as much. And I really appreciate the help.

[coruscate]

Hey no problem, it's mutual help the way I see it.

I do like the Nukular thing, it's just funny. But I also understand why you're leaning towards Trainmaster now. Either will work, but if nothing else, a Nukular map or two would fit the bill.

Also, I see no reason to simply be stuck recreating actual history in all of these, no reason we can't be tongue in cheek or fantasy in some of these.

[nedfumpkin]

I'm definitely doing a nukular scenario; it's what started all this. I am going to do a bit of historical fiction based on the beginnings of the CIA, Cold War, and Intrepid's fictional successor. So no worries there.

Last night I sent an e-mail to National Steel Car to inquire about what's available in their heritage department. They've been building rail cars here in town since 1912, and I am hoping that I can get some really cool stuff from them in the way of profile images, specs etc. Their site has a ton of info, but it's all flash. [url]http://www.steelcar.com)[/url]

An idea I am working on is swapping load screen presence for stuff. What better free advertising than a full screen ad every time someone loads a map? Not a commercial "buy our stuff" type ad, but more of a product placement...... okay...I'm just trying to get a tour of their plant and archives. :)

[WPandP]

I've been meaning to mention this for a while, I hope the suggestion doesn't come too late.

For at least one of these farming community things, I think the main farmhouse could be replaced with a reskinned Barracks. This looks like a collection of duplex houses in form. Is this still on the to-do list for skinning? If so, I can work on it next week.

I haven't tried to figure out how yet, but I've toyed with the idea of making the Grain Elevator behave kinda like a farm, with an array of covered hoppers surrounding it. Maybe this cannot be done in a convincing way... I don't know if the spacing can be controlled, for instance, such that the cars don't overlap or have big gaps between them.

The Tudor Medium station would make a very decent small industry, brick with slate roof. Maybe I can make this the flour mill? Or does that need to be a bigger building? I guess I can just make something, and you (NedF) can decide later how best to use it.

[nedfumpkin]

Right now I am waiting for all the tga files from your various cars to convert to dds. It takes a while, but the results are worth the time it takes. I will be inserting them all into the game later today.

Actually, your suggestion comes are a very good time since today I am working on the farm community models, and it turns out that I won't be able to get collections of houses to function as farming communities, so the barracks will be good for that since we won't use it for anything else.

I'm just wondering which farm you had in mind. I'm using a big Kyoto house surrounded by rice for the Asian community, and the Rice farm buildings surrounded by corn for the bio-mass plantation. I was thinking of using the grain farm surrounded by coffee for the Amish , the Cattle Ranch surrounded by grain for the Western co-op, and the Tropical plantation as the rubber farm as it is. The European co-op was going to be a dairy farm surrounded by corn. The sheep farm was going to end up as the scrapyard sans sheep.

So that would leave the cotton plantation, which I think the current cotton building would be better used elsewhere, or the vegan commune, or both styled a bit differently.

I have yet to make the flour mill, and the medium station would be a good fit. I'm all for using the small buildings because the take up less space, and offer us more possibilities.

As much as possible today I am trying to sort out all the files and put clean everything into the game. Then I can add on to all of that. This means I have to clean up the explosives factory, the tannery, and the missile factory.

Ideally, in the end, I am hoping that there will be one zip file that has everything in 1 pk4 file, and the complete replacement of the buildings, engines and cars, and cargo, etc.

I was thinking of using the quarry from 1.06 for the sand pit, and the ceramics factory for the electronics factory. This will save having to create two skins, when these are already really good.

A good prospect for the grain elevator might be the warehouse with the outbuildings cleared out. I've been toying with it for the mall, but have got it to work out right just yet. I was thinking of trying the tire factory instead.

[WPandP]

Did you see the Grain Elevator that I recently uploaded? I posted it on my "Rail Yard Structures" thread.

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1063&start=15

I think that using the barracks for the cotton plantation makes sense... it was a (slave) labor-heavy industry for much of its existence. I'll get to work on the Flour Mill then, and email you the graphic assets when done.

[nedfumpkin]

Yes, I did see your grain silos. They looked good, but I must've misunderstood what you wrote. I thought you were looking to do something else.

Good news is that everything I am doing today is working out well. Hope to have some screen shots later.

The current collection of files unpacked and unzipped is about 100 meg. I'm going to try to reduce that as much as possible.

[WPandP]

While I like the thought of bundling all of this together, I think maybe we should break it into "modules", several PK4 files and not just one. Buildings in one PK4, cars and locos in another, logos and portraits in another, cargo in another. That way, the thing can be downloaded in smaller chunks. Also, if something needs to get tweaked or replaced later, it is not as cumbersome to do so.

[nedfumpkin]

I have thought of doing that, and I will probably end up doing it. It all depends on how large the final file zips to be. I want to make this easy to install. But at the same time, I also want to make individual modules available...so I will figure it out when the time comes.

[nedfumpkin]

Here are some screen caps of the 2D images files I am working on for the various industry types. (I've enlarged them 150%. I thought making index cards would be more apropos for the 1940s style.

General Industry: Can be bought or built, can also be placed or spawned.

Limited Industry: Can be placed or spawned, but not built nor bought.

Rail Yard Structure: Can be built, includes elevators, hopper yard, etc. I'm going to do a card for service industries, i.e. hotel, restaurant, etc. These are station buildings.

Municipal Building: can be placed or spawned, but neither built nor bought. Includes houses, etc.

Agricultural Community: can be placed or spawned, but neither built nor bought. Ideally should be placed near small towns.

(note: prices subject to change)

[nedfumpkin]

The European Farmstead Co-operative using the dairy farm surrounded by corn.

[nedfumpkin]

Just an update on progress....

Logos: Yesterday I spent a few hours unpacking all the individual logo files from Mr Scott and H&P and then repacking them into one pk4 file. Didn't work for some reason. So rather than mess around with it, I have stuck all the logos in the PopTop extra content folder. Even though there are a few duplicates, I want both sets of logos, and I also want to do a logo for the TH&B Ry since I am considering doing a map with them and all the other RRs that became CN.

Locos: I tried installing the Loco pack but it came back telling me to uninstall it first. Drove me nuts for an hour before I decided to manually install new locos. They too ended up in th poptop folder. I am debating on whether or not to unpack these pk4 files and repack as one, but if it is something I am doing wrong then I want to find out first what it is. So now there are 97 locomotives in the game.

I'm managed to insert all the casinos, church, Sea World, etc into the game. I love the new church. I've also changed the "Attraction" to a theme park, and I am going to make it with a 1910 start date. Sea World looks really good, so I am not making it an alternate building for Attraction, and instead will be it own industry...a successor to the smaller theme park.

So as it stands, here's what is left to do as far as creation....

- Ledger tabs need to be modified to fit in with the new ledger style.

- the new load screens.

- modify track image so that tracks don't look so crappy.

- modify trees image to better correspond with the crops.

- building skins.....sand pit, shipyard, tannery, explosives factory, missile factory, shopping mall, grain elevator. I still need the skin for the lavender farm. I might be forgetting some things right now.

- rolling stock.....still need an armoured car for gold. A reinforced boxcar for explosives, a shielded boxcar for isotopes. These are just extras that needn't be a priority..I want see if National Steel Car gets back to me.

- a few cargo icons still need to be cleaned up and made spiffy. I'm going to try to do that today. I also want to change how uranium is on a flatcar, and should be in a covered hopper. Depletalloy will be on the flat car in its place.

Today I am going to begin testing all the cargo and industries to make sure that they function and are profitable. I am going one by one through them, and through the different periods. This will take a bit of time as you can image.

I want to make some industries more lucrative than others and then price them all accordingly. I want to go with the rule of thumb that it will take about 10 years at full profit with or without upgrade to pay off the industry investment.

[nedfumpkin]

Testing went well, discovered that Bakery is hard coded as a name so to make the bakery an industry I had to rename it Bake Shop.

When fully supplied, I have some industries, like the bank, generate 300k in profit per year, and others are making 500k - 700k. Some industries will be more profitable than others, but those will require more inputs to be fully supplied.

I've started making a scenario starting in 1847 to see how things work in a game environment.

Mines are barely profitable unless they are supplied with explosives and machinery, then they make about 300-500 k per year.

Paper and textiles are a constant almost to the point of annoyance since they are required for packaging of flour and sugar.

Glass isn't a medium profitable industry, but is demanded by the booze factories as well as homes and restaurants, etc.

[Traegon]

Will this be compatible with 1.06, as far as the expansion is cocnerned? Very curious as it sounds intresting, but i know in your original Nuclear theme post you stated only 1.05, but thought perhaps things may have changed since then.

[coruscate]

Well from what Hawk said, what we are doing here is kind of what they had planned for 1.06 later on and that's why so many buildings have the same skin.

But according to Ned there's some coding changes they made that are causing the compatilibility problem, so this was made to help out the people that couldn't get all the goodies in 1.06.

So your answer is probably no ^^;;

[nedfumpkin]

Will this be compatible with 1.06, as far as the expansion is cocnerned? Very curious as it sounds intresting, but i know in your original Nuclear theme post you stated only 1.05, but thought perhaps things may have changed since then.

Things have changed ins respect that this is going to be a completely new version of RT3. It won't be compatible with 1.06, or 1.05.

It will require 1.05 to be installed, but then a lot is replaced to give a whole new cargo-industry chain.