The Best, 'Must Have' OpenTTD Mods!
Dpk’s guide to OpenTTD signals. There are three types of signal in OpenTTD: block signals, pre-signals, and path signals. There are also two visual styles, semaphore and colour-light, but they are functionally equivalent. In the diagram below, block signals are in the yellow rectangle, pre-signals are in the blue rectangle, and path signals are in the pink rectangle.
also
- A user-edited manual and development guide for users and developers of the open source transport simulation game OpenTTD, based on the gameplay of Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Gameplay Manual The manual provides in-depth information on how to play.
- The Beginner's Guide: Installing OpenTTD. OK, it's time to download the game, and install it. Downloading OpenTTD. You can download OpenTTD from the OpenTTD web site. Make sure you download the package for the operating system you are using. For Windows users, the Windows installer package is the one you want. This guide will assume you are using the Windows installer.
- Jan 30, 2021 As one of the rarest resources you can find in Warframe, the Argon Crystal can be quite a pain to farm every now and then. Argon Crystal farming can only be dropped in one place, the Void which requires players to have unlocked the planet or a node on the planet to be able to farm Argon Crystal.
- OpenTTD is one of the most popular business simulation games out there. In this game, you need to create a wonderful transportation business. However, you will start in the beginning at around 1900 or even earlier, and you have to try and find the right way to.
'Why OpenTTD doesn't actually need mods, and for Pete's sake, stop calling them mods!'
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Introduction
One of the most often-made posts that a new player to OpenTTD will make is a request for 'best' or 'must-have' mods. Much digital bits has been spilled time and again explaining several facts that new players are not aware. This is a guide that will spill even more digital bits, but will attempt to be both detailed and easy to read, and hopefully become a cherished guide for future generations of OpenTTD users to reference, and perhaps put an end to this oft-repeated question.
Why OpenTTD doesn't actually need mods
OpenTTD originally started as an open-source clone to the popular PC game Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It was never meant to exist as a pure clone, however, as it also endeavored to fix the various bugs, quirks and other not-quite-liked features of the original game, much like OpenTTD's progenitor project, TTDPatch. OpenTTD, like Transport Tycoon Deluxe
, is popular because its one of the few games in the 'tycoon' genre that successfully balances fun game play and skilled challenge. Because OpenTTD is also an open source software project, it is not difficult for any individual to look at the source code and provide modifications. The official OpenTTD support forums at tt-forums.net hosts an OpenTTD Suggestions forum where players and fans can submit new ideas. Developers do read this forum, and if they see an idea that they believe has merit and will bring an improvement to the game, one or more of them will start work and begin testing. If the idea proves to be sound in both ideology and technical capability, they will eventually add it to the game. Some suggestions may be extremely simple, or extremely complicated. The developers are constantly accepting feedback to improve the game and suggestions for these new ideas, and thus the game is constantly being worked on and improved weekly, if not daily or hourly.
The site also hosts an OpenTTD Development forum, where users who are familiar with the coding side of the game can openly work on projects which they feel improve the game. The developers are also active in this forum, as projects expand and feedback from the developers are requested. If these projects meet the strenuous coding standards of OpenTTD, and are deemed to be an improvement to the game that does not inhibit any previous features, the developers will review the code and possibly implement it. This also plays into the constant improvement of the game.
Because of these constant improvements, OpenTTD is no longer a mere clone to a long-gone game of the 1990s, but is a fun, diverse game in its own right. Players can now choose to compete against themselves or each other to become the most dominant and profitable transport company, they can compete against a variety of computer-controlled opponents, they can also choose to work together to accomplish predefined goals. Or, they can completely ignore all of this and treat the game as their own sandbox to create worlds that reflect any fantasy or reality that they choose.
... and for Pete's sake, stop calling them mods!
It's not unusual for a more senior member of tt-forums to chaff whenever a new player asks about 'mods', as the term doesn't quite apply to OpenTTD as it does in other games. Many see it as as sign that the player is quite new to OpenTTD and is not familiar with the terminology, and doesn't quite understand what they're asking for. In the world of OpenTTD, there are a few different ways that one can change their gaming experience, which I will explain.
NewGRFs, or New Game Resource Files, are files which users can independently download and instantly configure and use from within the main menu of OpenTTD. These files do not require any significant know-how or effort to set up, and most popular and up-to-date NewGRFs are typically made available through the in-game content downloading system (BaNaNaS). NewGRFs are the preferred way to make individual, unique changes to the OpenTTD experience and do not require the involvement or support of the OpenTTD developers. Anybody willing to put in the work to learn how to create them can freely do so and upload them to the BaNaNaS system, or use any method that they choose to distribute them and are installed manually. NewGRFs can make any number of changes, such as:
- simple 'eyecandy' that improves the visual aspects of the game;
- introduction of new trains, aircraft, ships and road vehicles to complement or replace the default vehicles;
- introduction of new industries to complement or replace the default industries, including entire economic chains;
- new infrastructure such as bridges, houses, roads, rails, and landscape;
- modification of the OpenTTD economy, including the ability to make changes in profitability of delivering products and services, increasing or decreasing the costs of purchasing, maintaining and selling company-owned property.
As mentioned, most NewGRFs are typically distributed via the in-game content downloading system, but not all files are distributed there. Many are distributed exclusively from tt-forums' Graphics Releases forum, and there are some other repositories and sources for NewGRFs as well. The OpenTTD wiki has a NewGRF list which has links to many of these files, as well as the major repositories, which you may wish to browse to learn more.
AIs, or Artificial Intelligence, are computer-controlled competitors which may be used in single player and multiplayer games. Unlike Transport Tycoon Deluxe, AIs are not distributed directly with the game, but are made available in the same methods as NewGRFs, either from the in-game content download system, or distributed in other ways and manually installed. AIs can be as friendly, unfriendly or competitive as its author intends. While they may be aggressive, and may be able to build fast, they do not have access to any controls, or hidden and undocumented features than a human player, so on-the-whole they are fair. As with NewGRFs, you can install more than one AI, but there is no guarantee that they will work together with each other, or with any NewGRF or other modification to the game, and again one should fully learn about what an AI is capable of before installing and activating it in a game.
Game Scripts are scripts that are activated from within OpenTTD and can provide a new way to compete in OpenTTD by providing goals and achievements. This is a fairly new feature for OpenTTD, and the capabilities of this system are only beginning to be tapped. Game scripts can monitor the state of the game while it is running, updating you on how close you are to accomplishing an achievement.
The latest information about AIs is available in the AIs and Game Scripts forum.
Patches, also called 'diffs', are another way that OpenTTD can be modified. Unlike NewGRFs, AIs and Game Scripts, which modify OpenTTD from within the running program, patches are bits of code that replace or modify the OpenTTD source code, and apply changes that affect the entire program. In order to use them, an end-user must apply the code against the OpenTTD source code, and then use a compiler to generate a new binary for their operating system. Patching and compiling the source code can appear to be daunting, even impossible, to an inexperienced individual. However, there are detailed, step-by-step instructions available that can walk you through the patching and compiling process. Patches are significant changes to how the OpenTTD program operates, and is the typical method of introducing new features to the game.
In almost every case, a patch file is not supported by the OpenTTD developers (even if an OpenTTD developer creates a patch of their own), and they cannot provide support if a patch inadvertently breaks the game, and they're never distributed with the game by the OpenTTD developers themselves. The patch authors, however, are free to distribute both the patch code (.diff files) as well as modified versions of OpenTTD themselves, provided that they obey the license that accompanies OpenTTD. Occasionally, a patch proves to be so popular, and is well-coded and significant enough that the developers will elect to adopt it for inclusion in the game. If this occurs, a patch author may choose to stop releasing new versions of the patch, and only provide support to the OpenTTD developers for future versions officially released by the OpenTTD developer team. As OpenTTD is a constantly developing game, it is not uncommon for a patch file no longer work when applied against newer revisions of the game, and it is also not uncommon for a patch developer to stop supporting their patches, or disappear from the community altogether. One should never blindly assume that any patch file will work against a future version of the OpenTTD source code.
Patch Packs are custom-compiled versions of OpenTTD that contain one or more patches in a distributed binary. Such custom versions of OpenTTD are created because an individual likes to play the game with various patches, and wishes to share that with others who cannot compile the patches themselves. Patch packs take specific versions of the various patches and applies them against a specific revision of the OpenTTD source code. Because of this, a patch pack may not actually contain the newest version of either those patches or OpenTTD. Patch packs, therefore, are entirely maintained and supported by the individuals who create them, and both the patch developer and OpenTTD developers may not be available or inclined to provide any support for them.
Whether it is a patch that you apply yourself, or a pre-compiled binary from either a patch author or patch pack, it must be noted that these customized versions of OpenTTD are typically not compatible with either the unmodified OpenTTD binaries nor other patched binaries or patch packs. If you distribute any scenarios or saved games that were created with a modified version of OpenTTD, you should make sure that others are aware of which specific version that you used, preferably with a link from where one can download that version.
More information about patches and patch packs can be found in the OpenTTD Development forum.
In Summary
As you can see, while there are several ways to modify the OpenTTD experience, there is no technical reason why you should need to do so, and you now also know why we do not call them 'mods'. While all of these can provide a wonderful gaming experience, and many people have put in many hours of hard work to make it happen, it is simply not possible for anybody to say what is a 'must have' modification. There are literally thousands of different files available (if not tens of thousands by now) which can vary from very simple to extremely complicated, all of them appealing or not appealing to everybody or nobody, and is completely dependent on one's individual interests and skills.
'But, wait!' you might say, 'You said that this was...
The Best, 'Must Have' OpenTTD Mods
list! I want my money back!'
Okay, okay, I tell you what. I'm not going to make a recommendation of what one MUST have, or what I think is the BEST, but I will give my opinion on what I feel are some of the most popular, outstanding and quality modifications. But, I won't do that in this post, as my opinions on this may change over time. I will update this topic with those lists, and I will link to them at the bottom of this post, and update this post as needed. After all, if you bothered to read all the way through to the end of this, then there should be some sort of reward for your patience.
Thank you for taking the time to read. If you have any comments or suggestions, praises or criticisms, please send those to me personally via PM rather than cluttering up the topic. I appreciate all constructive feedback and may implement that feedback into subsequent updates on this topic. You may also wish to participate in separate discussions about favorite NewGRFs.
Kamnet's Guide to Most Popular NewGRFs
updated November 1, 2013.
The Beginner's Guide: Setting up the Game
So, you've heard about this awesome Transport Tycoon game? You want to get the game and play it for yourself? You're confusedabout patches and different versions and getting the game to run on your PC - or indeed, on your Mac? Read on, for this articleaims to help!
A brief history of Transport Tycoon's development
What? History? I didn't come here for a history lesson! Fear not, this is just a very brief section to help you understand thesomewhat confusing situation where there appear to be two competing open source Transport Tycoon games around!
The original version of Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon was released back in 1994. It went on to become relativelysuccessful, and was followed up by a sequel in 1995, Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Both of these games were only available forDOS. A Windows version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe followed in 1996, although I believe it was not widely (if at all?)available until 1999.
In 1999, a Transport Tycoon enthusiast called Josef Drexler released to the world a small project of his calledTTDPatch. TTDPatch was a collection of small updates to Transport Tycoon Deluxe, which added some nice little features andfixed some of TTD's annoying bugs. In 2001, TTDPatch included a patch that allowed the Windows version of TTD to be played onWindows 2000 and its derivatives (primarily Windows XP and Windows Vista).
Development of TTDPatch pottered on until, in 2004, a new project appeared on the horizon - OpenTTD. OpenTTD wasoriginally written just for fun by a programmer called Ludvig Strigeus, who had previously been responsible for creatingthe LucasArts game interpreter ScummVM, and is more recently famous for the torrent client µTorrent. OpenTTD was a prettyfully-functioning replica of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, and was written in the portable language C, as opposed to the assemblylanguage the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe was written in.
Openttd Guide For Newbies
Still with me? Don't worry about not understanding any of the language stuff, you don't need that to play the game! Anyway,OpenTTD's advantage is that it has now been released for many systems, and has built up quite a considerable base of newand unique features, such as larger game maps, online multiplayer and lots of little features that make playingthe game much more fun. It must be noted too that TTDPatch has its fair share of innovations, such as new gameplaygraphics, the ability to add fully-featured new vehicle sets, new industries and lots more.
Both projects continue their development separately, although many features have now been implemented in both games. Forinstance, OpenTTD has pretty full support for the TTDPatch new graphics format.
Openttd Wiki
So how does this affect me? I just want to play the game!Well, it affects you, because this means you have a choice of which game to play. Both TTDPatch and OpenTTD have various newand exciting features! It should be noted though that TTDPatch requires the original TTD game files to play - OpenTTD,however, does not, as it now features a complete reconstruction of the TTD graphics and sound!
One thing you do need to consider is what system you want to play the game on. TTDPatch only runs on Windows (andDOS, if you still happen to run a DOS machine). It can be persuaded to run on systems such as Linux with Wine, but it'stricky sometimes. OpenTTD, on the other hand, is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, MorphOS,OS/2, and a whole host of other systems - somebody's even ported it to the PlayStation Portable!
This guide currently concentrates only on setting up OpenTTD. OpenTTD is probably the easiest game to set up out ofitself and TTDPatch, and is available on a wider range of platforms. If you would prefer to play TTDPatch, take a look atthe TTDPatch web site. I hope to have a guide for TTDPatch up in the near future.
Openttd Guidelines
Great! So let's get started!