OPEN TRANSPORT TYCOON

Here are the files you need from the original TTD to install Open TTD

I've become a heretic. I've converted. I'm now playing only OPEN TRANSPORT TYCOON DELUXE (OTTD), a 21st century rewrite (inspired by Josef Drexler's brilliant Patch) of Transport Tycoon Deluxe with the bugs fixed, the limitations removed and the gameplay wonderfully enhanced.

It is largely based on Transport Tycoon Deluxe, of course, but incorporates most of the ideas in Josef Drexler's Patch, to which many clever people have contributed. e.g. canals, Higherbridges, big stations, converting tracks, one-drop train selling, better tree planting, sheds, shared orders, adjustable screen resolution and busstops

So why did I switch?

0. No need to patch. The game is self-sufficient, apart from the necessary original game files.

1. No more vehicle limits: no longer do you get the depressing message "Too many vehicles in game" just when things were getting interesting. This was the main reason I converted. This is something the Patch could not easily achieve since it was a limitation built into the original game. The Patch does allow up to 40,000 vehicles including wagons, which is a great improvement on the original game.

2. Better airports: metropolitan (shown below) and international, with separate arrival and departure strips to avoid the incessant circling of aircraft.

3. Bridges that can actually get off the ground more than one level - now, bridges are actually USEFUL! Also, the ground does not have to be flat under the bridge... woohoo! They are based on the original coding of Oskar Eisemuth.

4. Canals, so your ships can take shortcuts overland. Based on the original coding of Oskar Eisemuth.

5. Configurable patches, similar to Josef's magnificent patches

6. A simple but effective fast-forward button to save you turning into an old man while waiting for things to happen

7. A brilliant and logical feature: at long last you can sort industries by their type, production etc to find where the cash cows are hiding.

8. The ability to level land without destroying the entire environment

9. 'Replace vehicles' - lets the game replace your massive fleet of vehicles for you rather than you painfully having to do it one by one.

10. Adjustable screen resolution.

11. The ability to sort towns by population makes it easy to find the big towns that are worthy of your attention

12. At the bottom of each depot's window are little buttons to let you see which vehicles attend that depot : bliss!

13. Upgrade railway track (e.g. from rail to monorail) by dragging over it. Alas, Josef's automatic "CHT:TRACKS 2" is not part of OTTD (yet?) so you can't convert ALL track to a new type in one fell swoop.

14. A multi-directional track tool. No more switching between track directions - just wiggle the mouse the the track direction lets you paint track up, down, left, right, diagonally. Yes, now you can paint track diagonally rather than piece by piece.

15. Draggable bulldozer. No more boom... boom... boom square by square. Now you demolish with a sweep of the mouse.

16. Big stations - 7 x 7 squares - and you can add length or width to existing stations without having to demolish and rebuild. You can also 'paint' stations, setting the length and width with the mouse rather than pre-setting a width and length.

17. Mammoth, multiheaded trains. Four locos and 22 carriages? No problem!

18. Irregular stations. Is this irregular enough for you?

19. Shared orders - create one set of orders and easily copy it to other vehicles doing the same route. If the orders get changed, all the vehicles sharing those orders get their routes changed instantly.

20. Sell vehicles (or multiple carriages) at once - drag to the "dynamite" icon. All carriages following the selected carriage will be sold off. The entire train will be sold if the first loco is selected. Also notice how OTTD counts the length of the train for you? A nice touch.

21. "Sticky windows" (click the "drawing pin" in the top right-corner as shown above) so windows don't close when you press "Delete".

22. Plant trees en masse. No longer suffer the RSI of massive tree planting to increase your popularity with the local authority. And multiple trees can be planted in one square.

Lots of other niceties such as:

  • pre-signals (which I've never been able to work out.)
  • auto-replacement of old vehicles
  • warnings when vehicles are lost or losing money
  • rock-solid game stability (the game has never crashed on me)
  • small game size (I carry it around on a USB memory key so I can continue a game wherever I go)
  • no need to install through Windows - just copy the files to a folder on any PC
  • mega screenshot - the entire world is saved as a massive screenshot.
  • the AI is still pretty dumb. That's a relief.

So what are you waiting for? Get thee to http://openttd.org and get a spoonful of Open TTD. You won't look back!

You DO need the original graphics and music files from Transport Tycoon for Open TTD to work, but that's usually no problem.

Back to the Freaking Holy Church of Transport Tycoon

Page created: 13 March 2005

Last changed: Monday, March 14, 2022 1:03 PM

Last smoked a cigarette: 22 November 2003