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PostPosted: 21 Apr 2012, 06:11 
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Welcome to the French Set development page! Here you will find information and updates about this set, which I am currently drawing and coding.

When complete, the set will include:
* Standard gauge trains used on French railroads, starting from 1840 to the present days;
* Narrow gauge trains used on the most prominent local networks spread around the country;
* Specific railroad tracks, also starting from 1840 and covering standard and narrow gauge, mainly differentiated by power system and axle weight.

The set is being entirely drawn and coded by myself, with realism (not to say rivet counting) as main goal.

One of the main aims of the set is to model real, historical railway companies as much as it's possible in TTD. By this, it is meant that every vehicle in the game will be available in the historical livery (or liveries) of the railway companies it was actually owned by.
There will be a tight interdependence between engines and wagons; each vehicle in the consist will automatically appear in the correct historical livery, matching the engine type and age, as well as the age of the vehicle itself. Even engines' refitting options will vary with the type of wagons attached to them, and will include the historical companies that owned them at the time they were built.
* For standard gauge, the modeled railway companies will be the 8 main independent companies that operated until French railways were nationalized under the SNCF umbrella, as well as SNCF itself;
* For narrow gauge, the modeled companies are the most prominent local railways scattered around the country, with a particular attention of including at least some from each of the country's regions.

This will allow players to build realistic networks, either modeling a single historical company, or creating inter-connecting stations where trains of different companies can service different parts of the map. For those players who don't care about realism, it can still be seen as graphic variety.

Attention will be paid to the details of trains' dynamics.
Passenger wagons will be refittable to different classes, each with its own cost, capacity, and cargo aging; it will be possible to build special trains such as the Orient-Express, the Flèche du Nord and many others, with the correct rolling stock. Modern, UIC-sized standard gauge passenger coaches will be drawn with the length of 10/8, to keep proportions correct.
Freight wagons will support autorefit, when needed, and will change in capacity, running costs, and cargo aging depending on the type of freight they're refitted to.

There will of course be push-pull trains, within the limits of TTD. Most MUs will also drive in reverse, as opposed to flip at the end of the line, whenever possible, as to minimize the unrealistic "flipping" effect TTD trains have when they reach a dead end. Needless to say, any vehicle with visually moving parts will be animated.

The accompanying trackset will feature 10 standard gauge and 6 narrow gauge track types, also from 1840 to the present days.

So far I'm working on the narrow gauge part of the set. I completed the steamers (there's 13 of them), the diesel (there are 4) and the electric locos (3), as well as a handful of EMUs (2 third rail, 2 catenary-powered) and three DMUs. All the unpowered rolling stocks (passenger coaches and freight wagons) has been completed as well. I'm currently working on completing the list of MUs and adding a few features such as push-pull trains. The set is extensively being tested by some playtesters, but I will also post a development version here in the Artists' Guild, hopefully soon (together with a readme file).

One last thing worth mentioning, the French Set is and will always be 100% NML-free :mrgreen: since I'm entirely coding it with Michael Blunck's awesome m4nfo program. Michael was also kind (and patient!) enough as to give me extensive and invaluable help during my first steps as a coder. He helped me set the basic structure of the narrow gauge part of the set and coded the first vehicles for me, until I learnt to walk on my own legs.

Stay tuned for the GRF and a few screenies!


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PostPosted: 21 Apr 2012, 22:37 
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Can't say I've been following this work at TT-forums, (as automata hasn't been my main interests :P ), but reading the intro certainly makes it sound interesting indeed! Looking forward to whatever you may come up with! :)

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PostPosted: 03 Sep 2012, 17:23 
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Hi all :)

I just released a new playtesting version of the French narrow gauge set, and thought I'd post something about it here.

One of the latest features of this set is the way it handles push-pull. It's done in three ways:

1. The "usual" way with the driving trailer. There are two rackrail engines (a steamer and a diesel) which support a driving trailer and, provided the consist is only made of bogie-mounted passenger coaches (other than the engine and the driving trailer), will travel with the engine pushing the consist upon reaching the end of the line. This also applies to one of the largest diesels, which will support the driving trailer if built from 2005 on, and will be able to do push-pull even if coaches of different liveries are present in the consist;
2. Another way, without the driving trailer. Those engines which don't support a driving trailer will still exhibit push-pull like behavior. In certain cases, determined by OTTD's limitations, a consist reaching the end of the line will do its return trip with the engine attached to the other side of the consist, driving in reverse (meaning that, if previously driving with the cab in the back, it will now drive with the cab in the front) while the rest of the consist will not flip like it normally does in TTD, but it will drive backwards, with the engine attached to the other end. OTTD limitations only allow this to happen (1) in certain consists only made of 2-axle passengers coaches or mail vans, or (2) in certain consists only made of bogie-mounted passenger coaches.
3. Lastly, most railcars or MUs are now bidirectional, meaning that they will now simply switch the lights and drive "in reverse" when they reach the end of line, as opposed to OTTD's default behavior. The set also includes a new "railcar trailer", which can be attached to diesel railcars and, when attached to a Billard A80D railbus, can work as a driving trailer too.

The attached screenshot visually shows the way these methods work.

Attachment:
File comment: Top: engine being attached to the other end of a consist with 2-axle passenger coaches and a mail van; Bottom: push-pull being performed by a BB600cv-driven train
pushpullexamples.png
pushpullexamples.png [ 7.32 KiB | Viewed 7691 times ]


So far, what's included is:
* 13 steamers (introduced from 1881 to 1948)
* 6 diesel engines (introduced from 1936 to 1973)
* 3 electric engines (introduced from 1903 to 1933)
* 5 diesel railcars (introduced from 1903 to 1939)
* 5 electric railcars (introduced from 1901 to 1953)
* Two types of passenger wagons; mail vans and mixed coaches for passengers and mail; specific driving trailers for trains and multiple units; and freight wagons carrying any kind of freight, frm the original industries as well as FIRS and ECS.
All of the vehicles come in the liveries of the historical companies that used them.

All has been programmed using MB's m4nfo language. The more I use it, the more I love it. It's incredible to see what it can achieve in terms of train building.

Since the general idea here seems to be that it's pointless to post one's works in more than one website, I will adhere to this policy :mrgreen: and will point you to the thread on TT-Forums for most of the screenshots and the following discussion. You will also find the Readme.PDF file you can download that explains how the set works and presents all the vehicles there.

Of course, new playtesters are always welcome. To apply, just send me a PM (either here or on tt-forums), and I will send you the GRF files of the trains and the railtypes.

Thanks for the attention, and hope you might be interested! :)


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PostPosted: 28 Jun 2013, 18:53 
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Hello Snail,

i'm glad to see some (old) progress on the French set, i promise i'll finish my stations so you can include them in it.
i'm still standed in west africa so i've got plenty of time (but slightly less than before since i got married).

keep up the news!


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PostPosted: 28 Jun 2013, 20:44 
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Great to see you again Lt_Gable... :)

Unfortunately Snail hasn't made any progress to this since last year, I'm afraid... :(

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PostPosted: 28 Jun 2013, 21:58 
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well, this mister has just got the right nickname! but i'm sure he's busy and keeping it low for a while, it's a very ambitious set so it might take a long time to make it right, having tested the beta, it's quite gorgeous.


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PostPosted: 28 Jun 2013, 22:04 
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Absolutely... the overall activity in the TTDLX-community is rather low at the moment to be honest... Some injections are surely needed... :P

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PostPosted: 29 Jun 2013, 22:40 
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Yes, I've been busy with a couple of non-TTD-related things, such as buying a new apartment...
The last additions to my own development version date about 2 months back. But with only 5 trains left, I hope the narrow gauge part of the set will be released before year end :p


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PostPosted: 30 Jun 2013, 02:08 
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We also hope so! ;-)


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