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
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!
), but reading the intro certainly makes it sound interesting indeed! Looking forward to whatever you may come up with! 
