RRT 3 - Trainmaster

[nedfumpkin]

Every time I give out a time line it gets missed so I would rather not specify any particular date beyond soon. Part of the reason is because I am trying things out and constantly making changes to what I have begun. The Express cars is just one example since I am changing my original idea to be...well.... so much better.

I just got a brand new computer, and surprisingly I was able to transfer everything over very easily. This means a huge difference in how fast things get done, especially loading maps to test things, or doing large graphics. For the first time in 20 years of using comuters, hardware limitations are not an issue.

Everything is on Vista now, so the end result will be fully Vista compatible. Unfortunately I am using the 1.04 beta patch, and have not so far gotten any no cd cracks to work, nor have I been able to get 1.06 to work yet. So I would be interested in any information from anyone who has been able to get it work on Vista

The only thing I can say is that I am constantly making progress and spending most of my evenings and weekends working on stuff, but I do have to take breaks every so often. So it sohlu be relatively sooner than later ...weeks hopefully at least for a beta.

[WPandP]

Guess I need to get back to work on my Vista Dome and other final tweaks to the Express cars, eh?

You've upgraded to a machine roughly equivalent to my own, and while I did not make quite as giant a leap (I had a 2.5ghz P4 previously), I did see a productivity increase, as the time to load my testbed scenario dropped and I could check progress much more easily. When I'm working, I have image editor, hex editor, and RRT3 all open simultaneously, and I edit, save, load in game, check, back to main menu, repeat. It all happens about as fast as I can push the buttons now! Sounds like you're seeing the same thing.

[nedfumpkin]

More teasers....here's some load screens I am working on and would appreciate others trying them to see if they work okay before I do too many and pack it all up. The default size for a loadscreen is 1600 x 1212 in case anyone else wants to get artistic.

There's no reamde...just four new loadscreens. Place these in your userextra content folder and they will enter the mix. There's a total of 8 possible screens that will load, but RT3 duplicates some.

Rather than give a preview...I'll let you be surprised...but one of them is the pic William uploaded of the snowy #40. And the other is the logging camp/train pic.

[JFMarvelous]

Hey Ned, I have downloaded your load screen zip two times, but it said there are no files to extract
Anyone else have a problem ( like everyone else I too await the release of Trainmaster)

[nedfumpkin]

Sorry about that...I re-zipped the files and discover that I had used the 7zip format by accident....

This one should work.

[nedfumpkin]

Hey! 7 downloads and zero comments on the load screens. Any comments would be appreciated: positive, negative, neutral, unrelated, unintelligible, what about 'em?

[BikerTim]

It looks just fine so far. Keep it coming.

[WPandP]

I eagerly DL'ed when you first posted, but at the time I was on my work computer, a Mac, nowhere close to being my RRT3 machine. The first ZIP didn't work, and you replaced it. Then, I tried to DL the second.

I had problems. It says the file is only 1.6kb, which is uber-tiny. I wondered, perhaps I just can't get the ZIP to extract right on this Mac. So now I'm at home, and I'm DLing to my PC, and I get the same thing... a 1.6kb ZIP that seems to contain only one tiny little icon.

So, I have yet to see these marvelous creations of yours, Ned! I hope we can get this fixed.

[JFMarvelous]

Ned, I installed as per directions(data\user extra content),but no new load screens,(on about 10 load attempts of 3 different maps).
running 1.06 with assorted mods on XP sp 3.06gh

[nedfumpkin]

I'll work on them some more this weekend and put them in a pk4 file to see if that works better.

[nedfumpkin]

Here's a pk4 file of the load screens. For some reason this won't work in neither the poptop extra content nor the user extra content, but it will work in the 2D folder if it named after RT3_2DDS.pk4 alphabetically.

[nedfumpkin]

Final for the menu page...

[JFMarvelous]

Ned, your load screens work fine now and of the 4 I've seen so far, are very nice. Are all 8 included in this download?
Also I guess I should delete old one that didn't work And to return to old load screens, just move the pk4 file to a backup folder.
and looking forward to the release of Trainmaster. (The main screen for it is very nice too.)

[nedfumpkin]

I've only included 6 screens in that file since I haven't been able to see more than five different screens. I'm beginning to think that not all of the 8 screens are used, and the duplication was just extra stuff they never deleted. ...and thanks, glad you like them. Eventually I am going to have different packs for different themes, etc. I'm still thinking about how to make it work.

[nedfumpkin]

After doing some poking around I've discovered that there are only 6 imb files for the load screens....loadscreen.imb and loadscreen1.imb to loadscreen5.imb. But I've not so far gotten loadscreen.imb to load yet, I can only get 1-5 to load.

I've also been thinking that I am going to re-do the rt3_2DDs.pk4 files and in doing that, I will be removing a bunch of stuff that is discarded, and replacing a bunch of other stuff. At the same time, I can also remove the loadscreens so that it can be a separate interchangeable pk4 file. This will also allow me to mass around with the portaits and company logo, and other stuff that's in the 2dds file.

[WPandP]

Can you get a loadscreen6.imb to load? Many other elements are numbered sequentially, and if you keep going on with the sequence it will use those assets. Maybe loadscreens are different, since it is randomly picking one at a time rather than displaying all simultaneously.

I like your thinking in terms of repacking that PK4, to make other elements more readily interchangeable. Indeed, part of my thinking when first releasing mods (before I figured out HOW to PK4 things) was that the unpacked version of things is more accessible, if someone else wants to create a skin of their own. The "all-in-one" PK4 approach that they took was not very mod-friendly.

[nedfumpkin]

I haven't tried making a "6" file because I am actually thinking of going the opposite direction and reducing the number of imb files screens, but having more "themes."

I constantly envision that when scenarios are created they will have more than just the map, and will include skins as well as loadscreens that are associated with the map being played. That's the idea I want to do with the CPR stuff. Rather than do a complete set of express cars, I'll just make what is necessary for the scenario I create, and then when the player plays that scenario, they will have the option of including the custom stuff that will include some CPR load screens. The extent of the detail will depend on the scenario creator.

I'm trying to avoid having unpacked files because after a while they accumulate and it makes it difficult to swap things in and out without risking moving the wrong thing. By repacking things differently, I should be able to separate the things that must be static from the things that can be changed.

[OilCan]

Maybe you've already created this...but a very useful feature would be a train list per station. By this I mean that when you click on a station, not only does the cargo list come up, but also a little list of all the train numbers or train IDs which stop at that station. You could even add the company logo in front of each train number so one could tell if an AI company is stopping at a station. I can't tell you how many times I wished I could tell which trains were stopping at which stations without having to slog through the train view list. This is especially true when I've connected a couple of new cities and then got distracted on something else and forgot which, if any, trains I had set up to stop at those new cities. Ok, so I'm over 50 and I'm allowed to forget. Back to the train list I go...and squint at the tiny route maps. Anyways, a train list per station would be greatly appreciated.

[Stoker]

I concur with the map/mod package idea. I think of the Blitzkrieg game where you can make maps with special units, objects, and even changed gameplay parameters which can be included with the map in a compressed file (in the BK case it is a .pak file) which can be placed in the games Data folder without worrying about changing the original game.

[nedfumpkin]

Oilcan...I concur about the train list showing up on the station info, but I'm not sure if it could be done. I will put it on the list of things to investigate for possible inclusion. This would be especially helpful when taking over a company and you get all their trains. Generally there will be some duplication of routes, and this would make that task easier.

Stoker....I'm trying to work it out so that the map extras are a bonus, but not necessary. I don't want them to be something that people need installed to play the map, but something that can be installed to make the map more....fun? Examples would be that when I make the TH&B scenario, the appropriate skins will be included so that the locos and rollingstock would have the TH&B paint scheme. I could also add in the paint scheme for some buildings. This way is a player wants to have all things TH&B for that scenario then they can, but the map is still playable with the default.

I'm taking a bit of a break from this for a week or so while I take care of some other real life issues. In the mean time I decided to play a bit of basic RRT3 so that I get a sense of the magic that it was when first released. I want to make sure that it remains in the game because that is what separates thisfrom other games.

Oh how far I've come! I played Germantown on the weekend and got gold with 8 years left. Had I been more agressive I could have achieved it by a little over 15 years in the game. As was, I was cheap trying to take over a company, I only had 50% of stock, and twice the merger was declined so I had delays of 2 years making it year 22. This is the map that comes with the demo, and before I got the game so many years ago, I played this scenario many times before I could beat it.

Now BikerTim has me looking at the Mississipi Valley scenario, and I am going to try that one on expert and see how well I do...next weekend I'll be back to developing.