07-01-2009, 12:25 PM
Quote:OpenTTD is an open source game engine for the Chris Sawyer game Transport Tycoon Deluxe.
OpenTTD duplicates the original game's features but also has numerous additions, including canals, revised rail station construction, and additional airports. Perhaps the most significant feature compared to the original game is its multiplayer capability. It offers LAN and Internet play via public and worldwide servers for up to eleven players. OpenTTD also includes numerous usability improvements not present in Transport Tycoon Deluxe.
In short: OpenTTD is an awesome remake of the classic '94/'95 Transport Tycoon Deluxe game. It's all about transporting cargo and passengers, building great networks and improving your company. It was great back then, but a little limited (ofcourse nobody realised that on their 486 computers ).
OpenTTD brings a whole bunch of new features:
- bigger maps (up to 64 times in size)
- stable multiplayer mode for up to 255 players in 15 companies or as spectators
- dedicated server mode and an in-game console for administration
- new pathfinding algorithms that makes vehicles go where you want them to
- autorail/-road build tool, improved terraforming
- canals, shiplifts, aqueduct
- larger, non-uniform stations and the ability to join them together
- mammoth and multi-headed trains
- clone, autoreplace and autoupdate vehicles
- possibility to build on slopes and coasts
- advanced/conditional orders, share and copy orders
- longer and higher bridges including new ones, full flexible tracks/roads under bridge
- reworked airport system with many more airports/heliports (i.e. international and metropolitan)
- presignals, semaphores, path based signalling
- support for TTDPatch newgrf features
- drive-through road stops for articulated road vehicles and trams
- multiple trees on one tile
- bribe the town authority
- many configuration settings to tune the game to your liking
- save games with zlib compression for smaller sizes which does not interrupt gameplay
- big support for internationalisation. OpenTTD is already translated into more than 40 languages
- dynamically created town-names in 18 languages and newgrf support
Over the last years OpenTTD has improved a lot. I started playing from 0.5.3, which could be a pain in the ass on multiplayer. From 0.6.0 and onwards (currently at 0.7.1) multiplayer is really stable. Games lasts for hours without ever getting a sync error. Customization is easier than ever, with the ingame content download feature you can download new graphics for about everything; vehicles, stations, scenery, etc.
I know there is or was an LVP server, but I'm curious who else plays this game. We could have some organized multiplayer games with LVP players, all starting at the same time and playing for a few hours. It could be a competition, we could coorperate, or just a mix of everything. Every company can have lots of players in it, so the number of players is not really an issue if there's a good host.
Screens:
The last two screenshots show off new 32bpp graphics with extra zoom levels. All old graphics are 8bpp (256 colors), this means there's a lot more quality and detail possible.
Screenshot credits:
1, 2 and 5: W_t
3: Toch
4: Roujin
6 and 7: maquinista