I have played neither of the originals or the open source ones but I really liked Factorio and building traffic in city-building games (even though I feel they're too limited). Which one should I spend some time on, OpenLoco or OpenTTD?
OpenTTD. Been playing off and on since 2004 and still improving! It's a fantastic playground to try coding a bot, drawing graphics, scenario design, or just building the transport network of your dreams (or nightmares). OpenRCT2 is a close second.
The thing I don't get about OpenTTD: the passengers don't seem to care where you're taking them? In what way is it fun to build networks to solve the problem of "take passengers wherever, they don't care"?
I have enjoyed Simutrans, where passengers have desired destinations and use your service if you can take them there. They can change between different transports too. This often creates choke points. For me, that makes the game interesting.
This is cool, I've played Locomotion a lot and OpenTTD never did it for me. I find myself sticking to these old games even though there seems to be attempts to release new games in these genres, maybe its the limited nature of computing power at time of release that makes these games the right amount of complexity, as there was only so much a game could offer.
Same. Games like Sim City or Theme Park were limited by the hardware to the point where they couldn't overwhelm you with features and details and complex simulations. They felt more like puzzle games than genuine simulators, which made them better videogames in my opinion.
That said, for what it's worth, OpenTTD and games like it are quite good, if you can figure out the font scaling and UI. Oh, also some enjoy Simutrans, albeit it's a bit different: https://www.simutrans.com/en/
I'm not a big fan of all this 3D stuff; for a lot of games of this kind I much prefer 2D.
I feel the UI of the original Transport Tycoon aged fairly well, although I agree it's not perfect. On a related note: I played Settlers 2 for the first time in >20 years a few months back, and I was amazed how well the UI worked for a 1996 game.
Locomotion had more of a RollerCoaster Tycoon feel to it if I recall. It was also more scenario driven (much like RCT) than Transport Tycoon was, which was essentially a sandbox. I also recall the engine being far more sophisticated, with more physics going into say curve taking and acceleration.
Personally, it was not my cup of tea in 2004 and I always stuck to the original (which I think was/is the popular opinion of the game) and I in particular dislike the complexity of RCT and Locomotion's construction UI compared to TT. But I do think Locomotion has some charm and perhaps is best viewed not as a sequel, but a different take on what TT could have been.
Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, is on sale for 60% off ($2.59 CAD) right now on Steam. It's a good time to grab the assets you'll need if you want to play OpenLoco.
It's curious that despite trains and rail networks being a perennial nerdy favorite, the simulation game selection feels somewhat limited.
For example is there any that simulate real-world signaling systems, such as ETCS or it's national peers? Or are the different systems truly so generic that you can just substitute them with generic signaling mechanisms?
Recently I've been playing Factorio and the trains are fun challenge there, but the tools to build/design/analyze rail networks feel very limited (at least in vanilla base game). So now I kinda have bit of an itch for better rail game but haven't found one yet. And from the looks of it I don't think Locomotion is it either
In the 90s, I played a computer game whose name I haven't been able to remember. You built railroad tracks and trains would pass through your town(?). I'm pretty sure it was played from a top-down view and the terrain was gray, but honestly the main thing I remember is how, on holidays like Halloween, all the assets automatically changed to suit.
Most of the screenshots I'm seeing are grassy, but I did see one with snow. Maybe that was the gray terrain I'm remembering? Guess I'll have to try it to find out :) Thank you!
I can answer this - The reason is pretty simple actually, and the other reply is correct: Right now, the way it works is that the original game executable is modified to run the code from OpenLoco - Replacing Main(). OpenLoco runs anything that's been reimplemented, but anything that isn't calls back to the original binary, which means to avoid unneccessary complexity, it should all be the same - 32 bits.
OpenRCT2, from mostly the same developers, (Disclosure, I am associated with them), did the same thing until the game was fully reimplemented, and then it very quickly gained 64 bit support.
Since we're nostalging about old train software, I'll mention JB BAHN https://jbss.de/hpg_eng.htm It's more simulator than game but I had a lot of fun with it as a kid
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[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 82.7 ms ] threadI have enjoyed Simutrans, where passengers have desired destinations and use your service if you can take them there. They can change between different transports too. This often creates choke points. For me, that makes the game interesting.
Mashinky: https://store.steampowered.com/app/598960/Mashinky/ (a pretty nice indie game)
Transport Fever: https://store.steampowered.com/app/446800/Transport_Fever/ (runs well, affordable, lots of content)
Transport Fever 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1066780/Transport_Fever_2... (hands down the best UI/UX in any game like this)
Workers & Resources: https://store.steampowered.com/app/784150/Workers__Resources... (a whole city builder, with resource management)
That said, for what it's worth, OpenTTD and games like it are quite good, if you can figure out the font scaling and UI. Oh, also some enjoy Simutrans, albeit it's a bit different: https://www.simutrans.com/en/
I feel the UI of the original Transport Tycoon aged fairly well, although I agree it's not perfect. On a related note: I played Settlers 2 for the first time in >20 years a few months back, and I was amazed how well the UI worked for a 1996 game.
Personally, it was not my cup of tea in 2004 and I always stuck to the original (which I think was/is the popular opinion of the game) and I in particular dislike the complexity of RCT and Locomotion's construction UI compared to TT. But I do think Locomotion has some charm and perhaps is best viewed not as a sequel, but a different take on what TT could have been.
For example is there any that simulate real-world signaling systems, such as ETCS or it's national peers? Or are the different systems truly so generic that you can just substitute them with generic signaling mechanisms?
Recently I've been playing Factorio and the trains are fun challenge there, but the tools to build/design/analyze rail networks feel very limited (at least in vanilla base game). So now I kinda have bit of an itch for better rail game but haven't found one yet. And from the looks of it I don't think Locomotion is it either
https://wiki.openttd.org/en/Manual/Signals
https://ts2.github.io/
I don't suppose this is familiar to anyone :)
https://github.com/OpenLoco/OpenLoco/blob/master/src/Interop...
OpenRCT2, from mostly the same developers, (Disclosure, I am associated with them), did the same thing until the game was fully reimplemented, and then it very quickly gained 64 bit support.