Troops vs Passengers

[KevinL]

Why is the troop car the same color as the passenger car? Its hard to tell in scenerios where I have to ship a specific number of troop cars. Can I make a global color change for the whole game myself? Or perhaps this can be changed in the next 1.06 patch?

[WPandP]

My current project involves recoloring cars and adding some to the game. It would certainly be possible to create a unique "Troops" car, but I think the game by default just uses the Passenger car model and skin. Personally, I might go ahead and give this a try; I think Troop cars should be converted boxcars, at least from 1900 to 1950.

Basically, what has to be done is to hex-edit the cargo type file to point to a different car type, in this case making troops.cty refer to a "troopcar" or just "troop" (whatever you want to name it), rather than "pass" (passenger). This will force the game engine to look for all the assets related to "troopcar", and so you then need to copy all the 3DP, DDS, and other files necessary, placing them in UserExtraContent. It sounds simple, but it can get tricky if you're not careful.

I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it might be possible to create a unique car type (i.e. skin) for every load in the game. I don't know if there is a built-in memory limit, though.

[WPandP]

Okay, so now it is done!

-:- AND -:-

You can download it!

Yes, I went and created a Troop Sleeper car as a unique car, so that it could show a different paint scheme from the regular Passenger cars. This way, you can tell which of your trains are pulling soldiers on the main screen! I still haven't figured out a way to add cars, though, to the 2D interface; this is because there is one big image file that includes all of the 2D car sides, and there isn't room for more stuff.

Still, you might just want this for cosmetic reasons:


Go check out the full lineup on my web page (scroll down to the Rolling Stock section), and if you're brave, click on the download link and see it in action. Installing this mod, of course, will change a few files so please BACK UP any files before you over-write them!

http://wpandp.com/RRtycoon.html

I promise more downloadable cars will be coming in the next week or so.

[KevinL]

When you say you cant add cars to the 2D interface, are you talking about the lower right hand corner picture of the train and its cars? That is what I wanted to be green instead of blue so its easier to tell which car is carrying what. If it cant be done, then I understand.

But your change on the 3D screen is awesome! Thank you!