The International Simutrans Forum

PakSets and Customization => Other paksets => Pak48.Excentrique => Topic started by: Spike on November 03, 2009, 03:12:11 PM

Title: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 03, 2009, 03:12:11 PM
You always wanted something special for Simutrans? Bored of the common and mainstream graphic sets?

Then, welcome to pak.Excentrique! It is ... colorful, it is ... unusual and! It's growing :D

I'm working on this since a while, and I have some hope to get it into a playable state. Right now there is a lot missing, and quite many of the graphics are only placeholders. A lot of the graphics details will change, but the colorful appearance is set.

If the swine flu doesn't get me, I'll do my best to get this off the ground :)

Downloads

https://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/ (https://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/)

Sources

http://simutrans.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/simutrans/pak48.Excentrique/ (http://simutrans.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/simutrans/pak48.Excentrique/)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Combuijs on November 03, 2009, 03:19:20 PM
Nice and simple!

What's the tile size? I had in mind to make such a thing for 16x16 tiles, a kind of pak16. But I guess this is 64x64.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: The Hood on November 03, 2009, 03:21:44 PM
pak.Excentrique = pak.Hippy? ;D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 03, 2009, 03:32:58 PM
Quote from: Combuijs on November 03, 2009, 03:19:20 PM
Nice and simple!

What's the tile size? I had in mind to make such a thing for 16x16 tiles, a kind of pak16. But I guess this is 64x64.

It's 48x48. I hope to get along more swiftly in the smaller tile size. If you have ideas, or if you want to join, feel free to contact me :) The set is in it's early steps, and still shapeable.

Overall guideline will be futuristic/exotic.

Quote from: The Hood on November 03, 2009, 03:21:44 PM
pak.Excentrique = pak.Hippy? ;D

One world, one people. Peace!

Well, it was more inspired by my like of colors and color contrasts, but maybe it shares that with the hippy movement :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: vilvoh on November 03, 2009, 03:40:01 PM
Imho, It's pretty small to appreciate the details. Anyway, a new pakset is always welcome.

P.S: That remembers me someday I should start my SpacePak... ;D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 03, 2009, 03:46:12 PM
It's small but a size that I can work with better than the larger sizes. So it should be alright :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Combuijs on November 03, 2009, 04:14:38 PM
QuoteIt's 48x48

Smaller than I expected. I'm afraid I'm not anything near a pixel-artist. I still could get 2304 pixels wrong in your format (in 16x16 only 256  ;) ).

QuoteIf you have ideas, or if you want to join, feel free to contact me

My ideas were to focus on gameplay itself, so:
- Few different houses (basically for each level and type 1, no timeline)
- Few different tourist attractions
- Introduction of villages as non-growing cities by posing them as tourist attractions
- Lots of small end-industries consuming only one product, fed by much bigger production factories (say 4 times bigger)
- Lots of different industry chains
- Provide for every waytype (road, train, ship, airplane, smalltrack, maglev, monorail)
- For each waytype per decade 3 different choices for vehicles: cheap, fast or middle-of-the-road

But of course it's your pak, not mine. I don't know what your ideas are, or what you think about the things mentioned above.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 03, 2009, 05:45:07 PM
Quote from: Combuijs on November 03, 2009, 04:14:38 PM
Smaller than I expected. I'm afraid I'm not anything near a pixel-artist. I still could get 2304 pixels wrong in your format (in 16x16 only 256  ;) ).

Hehe ;D I have the other problem, formats that have too many pixels I feel overwhelmed and lost with.

I've got some ideas, but I think it's too early too present them yet. I'm too impatient, and wanted to show the graphics, but still there is too much just growing ... kind of, I work on something, and new ideas pop up, get tried, some work, some don't. So it's better not to tell much yet, because tomorrow it could be all different already again. In a few weeks when the core is set, also the ideas should stabilize.

Short term plans include a number of city buildings, enough for testing, and two modes of transportation, one based on roads and one based on rails. Also, more landscape elements.

Ideas for industry chains should grow while I'm working on the basics. I have two rough ideas - ideas what industries will mean in this set - and must decide for one before I can shape the chains.

I want to present all the well known Simutrans features in a new manner, so you can expect some surprising twists in this set :)

Enough mystery talk for today. Stay tuned for news!
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 04, 2009, 09:01:37 AM
I'm working towards a first mode of transportation, and made a depot for them: Depot coils for energy cells. Maybe the names will change, energy cells is just a first idea. Feedback and ideas are welcome :)

Next on my list will be stops/stations and a few vehicles, so that one can set up transport lines.

One question I need to answer before I continue: Will icons in 24x24 pixels be alright, or should they be larger? Since this set uses 48x48 pixel tiles, I thought 24x24 icons might fit nicely. What do you think?
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: VS on November 04, 2009, 09:23:24 AM
If you manage to make them readable, why not?
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 04, 2009, 03:57:31 PM
That should be doable. 24x24 is quite big for icons. Handicapped people might still have more difficulty to hit them, since they are smaller than the ones found in the other big pak sets. But they leave more screenspace for the map view ... if someone has good arguments for or against the icon size please speak up, since I don't want to make them twice.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: VS on November 04, 2009, 04:49:16 PM
What screen size and kind is likely to be the majority for intended players? There are many more factors apart from pure pixel numbers - display dpi, distance from viewer, brightness, even technology... In any case, what matters is how easy it is to recognize the icon on player's screen, not yours. (Or it is not the case - decide yourself :) )

Think HD monitors, using multiple screens, and on the other side of spectrum things like ipods or netbooks that achieve insane (for me) dpi. Making the actual controls too small to use = fail. And seeing screenshots from some people I tend to think our current standard size is getting obsolete...
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: DirrrtyDirk on November 04, 2009, 05:33:59 PM
Quote from: VS on November 04, 2009, 04:49:16 PM
Think HD monitors, using multiple screens, and on the other side of spectrum things like ipods or netbooks that achieve insane (for me) dpi. Making the actual controls too small to use = fail. And seeing screenshots from some people I tend to think our current standard size is getting obsolete...

Obsolete... in what way? Is it too big or too small?

As someone who has just recently changed from an old 17" tube monitor to a new modern TFT screen... I think 24x24 might just be too small. And even on smaller (but still high resolution) displays, like netbooks for example, I can imagine that these icons might be very small and hard to hit by mouse... which might might be a more serious disadvantage than the advantage of having more room for the actual map...
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: VS on November 04, 2009, 07:11:23 PM
Obsolete = getting too small. Did you perhaps notice that Vista made 48*48 icons default... which was possible at least since 98? Why change it now...? ;)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: DirrrtyDirk on November 04, 2009, 09:35:31 PM
Quote from: VS on November 04, 2009, 07:11:23 PM
Obsolete = getting too small.

Seems like we agree then. Although I think the current 32x32 are still ok... and a good compromise over all. At least on my screen with 1920x1080 they are still fine for me. But I really wouldn't recommend anything smaller.

Quote from: VS on November 04, 2009, 07:11:23 PM
Did you perhaps notice that Vista made 48*48 icons default... which was possible at least since 98? Why change it now...? ;)

OT: Actually no... I never worked with Vista  - or Windows 7. (I'm happy to keep it that way with the former, but for the latter it is just a matter of time.) But if that is so (and I have no reason to doubt you) it might indeed be connected to the fact that average screen size kept growing bigger and bigger in the past. Checking through PC offers of today, I rarely see anything smaller than 22" (of course not for net- or notebooks).
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 04, 2009, 10:44:33 PM
Quote from: DirrrtyDirk on November 04, 2009, 09:35:31 PM
Although I think the current 32x32 are still ok... and a good compromise over all. At least on my screen with 1920x1080 they are still fine for me. But I really wouldn't recommend anything smaller.

Alright, I'll use 32x32 pixel icons then. That is actually easier, because I can reuse a lot of the already made icons, so I don't say no to that ;)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on November 05, 2009, 12:05:30 AM
Remember to keep some love for the old-school folks. I still use 1024x768 and have no intention of increasing that before it is forced upon me. Higher resolutions on the monitors I have now just make everything too small and hurt my eyes.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 05, 2009, 09:03:46 AM
32x32 pixel icons were in Simutrans since the start and used to work in 640x480 pixel screen resolutions. So I think they are good for the old-school folks, too?
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 05, 2009, 11:15:38 AM
I was working on some new city elements, but I'm not quite pleased with the results:

I want to try some color coding: "residential" type buildings will be orange, "commercial" type buildings will be blue, and "industrial" type buildings will be red. This way it's quite easy to see how the city is structured. Simutrans intersperses commercial and residential buildings, but keeps industry to the city outskirts, or in industrial areas of their own.

I'll try to create some better buildings. But this preview might already give an idea.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: vilvoh on November 05, 2009, 11:27:35 AM
The res buildings seem to be made of jelly.. :D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 05, 2009, 11:30:18 AM
And they taste like apricots ;)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Isaac Eiland-Hall on November 05, 2009, 12:21:02 PM
I am fascinated by this pak.

To be completely honest, it may not fulfil my city-building dreams like currently pak96.comic seems to do best, but I fully support this idea, and I will give it a fair shake when it's playable. I think it's an awesome idea - and what other game has anything at all like this? OTTD, eat yer heart out! hehe
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on November 06, 2009, 02:15:19 AM
Quote from: vilvoh on November 05, 2009, 11:27:35 AM
The res buildings seem to be made of jelly.. :D
They're huge gelatinous cubes. :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: IgorEliezer on November 06, 2009, 03:31:48 AM
This pakset looks so delicious. ;D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: DirrrtyDirk on November 06, 2009, 10:53:00 AM
Quote from: skreyola on November 06, 2009, 02:15:19 AM
They're huge gelatinous cubes. :)

That monster from D&D ?  :D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 06, 2009, 02:51:21 PM
Maybe they eat stray city cars ;D Nah, they are peaceful, I'm sure.

Making roads and rails always was a major pain in pak set creation, and it still is. I don't really want to count the hours that I have invested in the new powertrack, and it still needs some touching up for the tile joints. But at the moment I'm quite happy with the intermediate results, so I want to show them.

Powertracks will work a bit like roads, and support two lanes of floating vehicles on them. I tried to match their style with the depot coils. Also, I reworked one sort of city building, the blue blobshop. Now with more shiny! Well, actually I'm not quite sure if the new version is better than the old, but the pak set is still young and I'm experimenting a lot.

I've been quite nervous if the idea of a more exotic graphics set will liked, and I want to say I'm very glad about all the encouraging and positive feedback. Thank you :)

Edit:

Another preview, with improved crossings, and slight overall improvements of the powertracks.

The black cracks at tile borders will soon be fixed, too. Now onwards to stations and vehicles.

Edit 2: Old previews were lost, restored one as attachment.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on November 06, 2009, 08:52:09 PM
Quote from: DirrrtyDirk on November 06, 2009, 10:53:00 AM
That monster from D&D ?  :D
Yeah. :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: DirrrtyDirk on November 06, 2009, 09:00:05 PM
...from the always popular monster group of "Oozes, slimes and jellies"  ;D Well, they look very similar indeed.

I think some of this fantasy (but probably more science fiction) stuff might have inspired Hajo for these things already - and maybe more still to come...

Hmmm... pak.fantasy anyone?  ;)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Fabio on November 06, 2009, 11:15:59 PM
Quote from: DirrrtyDirk on November 06, 2009, 09:00:05 PM
Hmmm... pak.fantasy anyone?  ;)

you mean with elves, dwarves, orcs and the like? sounds interesting :D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on November 06, 2009, 11:33:08 PM
Quote from: fabio on November 06, 2009, 11:15:59 PM
you mean with elves, dwarves, orcs and the like? sounds interesting :D
Dwarves and orcs carry a lot more ore than elves can. ;)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Combuijs on November 06, 2009, 11:36:10 PM
I must admit: transport by dragons could be fascinating  ;D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 13, 2009, 10:51:05 PM
I've been busy with other projects (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=3750.0) but today I had a bit of time for pak.Excentrique again.

Soooo .... castles in the sky? No islands in space ;)

[link lost]

A pity that Simutrans can't show waterfalls off the world ends ... but pak.Excentrique now has a more spacey outside tile :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Ashley on November 13, 2009, 11:37:53 PM
I really like this pakset, it looks wonderfully strange :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 15, 2009, 10:57:34 AM
Seems I did it right, then :) I'm glad to hear that you like it!
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: smu42 on February 27, 2010, 09:28:02 PM
This might become the most beautiful pakset ever! (no exaggeration)

Are you still working on this?

I would suggest colour coding (or combined with patterns) also for different goods. And maybe the vehicles could be lighted when full and dark when they are empty?

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 27, 2010, 10:37:56 PM
Quote from: smu42 on February 27, 2010, 09:28:02 PM
This might become the most beautiful pakset ever! (no exaggeration)

Are you still working on this?

Thanks, makes me happy to hear you like the style :)

In between I've been busy with other things, but lately I feel more inspired to work on this some more. When I worked last on it, I just had made was a template for some vehicles, and want to pick up work right there again.

A long while I felt undecided if vehicles should come in player colors, or not. It turned out that it a noticeable amount of extra work ... meanwhile VS has made a tool though to convert images automagically to use player colors.

Still I think for this first try I want try vehicles with fixed, but strong and distinctive colors, also, if possible, light effects.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on October 28, 2010, 08:51:51 AM
And so it begins ...

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on October 28, 2010, 07:45:03 PM
Hajo it's better stop with drugs. ;D

This pak is really fun, I laugh when the 'pedestrians?' started to appear. But the best I think is the bus, great design.

That's a new and different pakset. Continue this Ecstastrique job.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on October 28, 2010, 09:59:08 PM
I get an error it can't read cityrules.tab when I try to load it. What am I doing wrong?
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: IgorEliezer on October 29, 2010, 12:28:04 AM
Hajo, could you please put a download link in the 1st post of topic?

And since the pak48.Excentrique is now a playable pakset, we could consider the possibility of including it in Pakset gallery of Simutrans.com (http://simutrans.com/paksets.htm). What do you think? :)

EDIT:

Perhaps a bug: I press t and the Simutrans closes. :<
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on October 29, 2010, 08:36:37 AM
Thank you all for the feedback :)

I'm not quite sure why the cityrules.tab could cause a problem. But I see that I've still been using an older Simutrans version, and I should update this for testing and development, I guess. maybe testing with a new version gives more insight in this problem ...

I also got an updated menuconf.tab from Frank. I haven't checked the changes yet, but I assume the old one was incorrect - this file is still quite a mystery to me overall. There is a slight chance that Frank already has fixed the wrong tool call with 't', and if not, I can at least try to find out what is going wrong there.

Download link is now in the first message.

I feel a bit uncertain if this is ready yet for the official pak set page. With one vehicle, it doesn't really qualify as playable, does it? Maybe wait a bit, and see how I get along with development.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on October 29, 2010, 04:31:37 PM
Just in theory, it would need one vehicle for each cargo type to be considered playable, I'd think.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on October 31, 2010, 05:11:58 PM
So far I'd call the release only a preview.

And I've been working on simple stations for the power trails - totally tubular ones.

Actually they are a bit big, but then, they blend in well, so I guess it's alright.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on November 01, 2010, 06:41:35 PM
They are a bit big, but if you think of them as cargo rail guns, hehe... they look cool.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: IgorEliezer on November 01, 2010, 07:22:16 PM
Quote from: Hajo on October 31, 2010, 05:11:58 PMActually they are a bit big, but then, they blend in well, so I guess it's alright.

Think of giant cookies being transported on the tracks. :D

(well, that wasn't funny. -.-')
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Lmallet on November 01, 2010, 07:36:01 PM
Those tubular stations are tubular!

(and for those who didn't experience the 80s, "tubular" was another word for "awesome"!)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 03, 2010, 10:07:50 AM
Thank you all for the feedback :)

I have news, pak.Excentrique v0002 has been released!

Download

=> [link lost]

This might be the first playable version. Is has depots, stations and two types of vehicles. In a small test game I could connect 7 homesteads and make some profit by transporting sprites.

Changes since v0001

- Replaced bulldozer symbol by energy ball.
- Added a few new tree type objects.
- Added a new industrial type city building.
- Included new menuconf.tab with corrections from Frank.
- Partially cleaned up ground and water tiles.
- Partially cleaned up power trail tiles.
- Added new construction site graphics.
- Changed "outside map" graphics.
- Added shark wagon.
- Added tubular car stop.
- Added a new industrial city building.

Known problems

- Shark wagons float besides the track in one diagonal direction.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on November 03, 2010, 05:04:58 PM
Still getting that error about cityrules.tab. Tried copying the config directory from the pak64 directory, but it still doesn't work for me. I'm running 102.2.2 for Linux.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: MoTw on November 03, 2010, 05:08:09 PM
Absolutely fantastic  8) 8) Got to try it... Want to try it... But no time... :( -- I love the name 'Skysparks' as a city name. Are there other names like this in this pak?
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 03, 2010, 08:15:59 PM
@skreyola:

I'm really clueless what could be the problem about the cityrules.tab file. Currently I can only test on Windows, and only XP there ... but it works on both of my computers. I just packed the files into the zip and assumed they will work as well for other people. I used Simutrans 102.2.2 for development, too, so that should not be a problem.

The cityrules.tab from pak64 should work, I think. Maybe it builds a bit different cities, but that would not be a real problem. I do not understand though why it causes a problem either. Upper/lowercase in filename, user/access rights ... if those are correct, I'm out of ideas.

Maybe one of the Simutrans veterans could try and see if it works on their system, or even find out what is the problem here? I was away from Simutrans too often and too long in the past years to really know.

@MoTw:

Yes, I tried to make city lists in Englisch and German, with names matching the theme. I was about to ask for help with the English file, though, since I think a native speaker can come up with better names.

Thanks for the encouraging words, that helps to stay motivated :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: DirrrtyDirk on November 03, 2010, 10:49:37 PM
Try the attached version, please.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on November 04, 2010, 11:11:52 AM
Would someone like to help with pak.Ecxentrique? Do we have music fans here?

I could use some help with creating the industries ;D

Without revealing too much I'd need these:

- A drum kit (normal position).
- A guitar (drawn in about the position as a musician would hold it while playing).
- A trumpet (lying, diagonally. Maybe with the horn southwards).

They do not need to be in a particular scale. I guess 3x3 (144x72 pixel) should be good as a size. High contrast, specular, polished light effects. Can have additional inner light effects. Typical aspects of the instruments can be exaggerated much, if someone has an artistic mind and hand for such.

Edit: Instead of the trumpet, some sort of horn or related instrument will do as well, if you want to help and like another instrument better.

Edit 2: In the German forum, Rainer strongly suggested to make all pak sets open source. Prissi pointed out that he suggests the Artistic License for pak sets. While I must check files and clean up a bit first, I think going open source with pak48.Excentrique will be the best in long term. That means, contributors must agree to have their works released as open source. I'm not quite decided about the license yet, but since Simutrans and pak64 are released under the Artistic License, I think I'll stick with that until people give me good reasons not to.

Edit 3: Current state of the set is, that I'm ready to release sources for all files but most of the "cursor", "symbol" and "smoke" type paks. Those I have borrowed from pak.Hajo, as pak files. The mentioned "long term" above means to build replacements for those files in 48er scale and get rid of the borrowed paks. Maybe I can release the set earlier, with the sources, and a section of the borrowed pak files in binary form. This would allow other people to help replacing these. Please let me know what you think will be the best way to continue with pak48.Excentrique.

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on November 05, 2010, 06:22:24 PM
Quote from: DirrrtyDirk on November 03, 2010, 10:49:37 PM
Try the attached version, please.
I put it in pak48.Excentrique/config/ and tried to run it, and got the same error.

Update: Deleted the pak dir and unzipped it again, and it works. My stupid fault for unzipping the new version over the first release. Running fine. Looks good. :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 24, 2011, 01:42:30 PM
I've been working on a sort of railroad track. I'm not quite convinced of the design, also I'm not quite decided how to name it yet. But I thought it's complete enough to release a preview screenshot.

[link lost]


Edit: I've colored the former version green, and made a stronger sort of rail, too, for heavier and/or higher speed vehicles.


[link lost]

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 24, 2011, 07:40:31 PM
maglev, magical levitation
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on January 24, 2011, 08:57:13 PM
It look like dinosaur bones.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 24, 2011, 09:36:08 PM
It's the dino speedway ;D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Zeno on January 24, 2011, 09:43:14 PM
Yes, very nice boneway!! It looks very... excentrique! :P
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 26, 2011, 10:53:35 AM
At some point I'll need a new station design for the rail type ways, but for the moment I have recycled the stations which I made already for the powertrail:

[link lost]

Recycled stations are green, of course ;D

Edit:

I wonder if "Dynobone Magnatrail" would be a good idea to name it ...
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: skreyola on January 26, 2011, 11:00:08 PM
I like it, except for the switching tiles. I think they look cluttered. They would look better open, like the rest of the track, i.e., without the overlapping stuff in the middle that looks like it would block passage.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 26, 2011, 11:14:23 PM
you could put something different in those switching tiles too, like a disc or sphere or a dinosaur bone Stonehenge. Or completely different, a circular gate at every connection while you keep the rest of the tile empty. Then it would be like flying from one tube into another.

The name sounds good.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 27, 2011, 09:01:44 AM
Yes, the switches have too many elements. I'll see if I can find something simpler that doesn't look so cluttered.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on December 18, 2011, 09:43:02 PM
Finally, FINALLY, I manged to restore the set and put in on Sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.10-for-Simutrans-111.0/ (http://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.1-for-Simutrans-111.0/)

The sources are in the SVN on Sourceforge, if someone is interested.

Edit: I didn't really put a lot of time into testing this, I was just happen when Simutrans started with it. So there might all sorts of mistakes and quirks in there.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on December 19, 2011, 09:59:24 PM
I could work some more on it and tried to remedy some of the quirks:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.11-for-Simutrans-111.0/ (https://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.11-for-Simutrans-111.0/)

Changes in v0.11 since v0.10:

- Tried to unify object naming schemes.
- Improved translation/message text files.
- Changed some toolbar icons.
- Improved "Swift Dynobone Magnatrack" T-shapes and crossings.
- Preliminary big logo.
- More city names.

-> Some objects have been renamed, so delete the old pak48.Excentrique folder before installing this version!
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on December 20, 2011, 02:22:17 AM
Downloading... Let's check how the pak is... Excentrique probably.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on December 21, 2011, 09:48:44 PM
Quote from: An_dz on December 20, 2011, 02:22:17 AM
... Excentrique probably.

Most likely  ;)

I've been working some more on it, mainly trying to polish the existing elements, and adding only very few new.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.12-for-Simutrans-111.0/ (https://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.12-for-Simutrans-111.0/)

Changes in v0.12 since v0.11:

- Some new toolbar icons.
- Some improved tree images.
- One new sort of tree.
- One new, high level industrial town building.
- Slightly adjusted forest rules.
- UFO type "remover" tool.

Edit: uploaded a new version with a fix for the "Lade Game" typo (as it can be seen in the attached screenshot - I feel too lazy to make a new screenshot now).

Edit 2: I thought it might be interesting to show a few new city elements - Powertowers!
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on December 22, 2011, 12:52:55 AM
according to a paper (i read a summary on once), excentricism is greatly increasing life expectancy and quality of life.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on December 24, 2011, 10:45:04 PM
I need to go more excentric  ;)

First of all though, I want to wish everybody a merry Christmas time, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, then I wish you a good time nevertheless  :)

I don't have much presents to give today, but a few screenshots of new city elements for pak48.Excentrique. Please open the attachments carefully, some of the structures are a bit brittle  ;D
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on December 25, 2011, 10:22:28 PM
Stations are not really what I like to create, but they are needed ... so I've tried and made a first version of a station for the dynobone magnatrail. Well as they say "there is room for growth" with this version ;)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: IgorEliezer on December 26, 2011, 12:11:35 AM
YAY! This is just extremely awesome.

Excellent work Hajo.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on December 26, 2011, 09:53:27 PM
Quote from: IgorEliezer on December 26, 2011, 12:11:35 AM
Excellent work Hajo.

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that  ;D

Soon I can start with vehicles, today I finished a first version of depots for the magnatrail. They're kept in mostly the same visual style as the stations, so it's easy to recognize the magnatrail elements on the map.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on December 26, 2011, 10:53:33 PM
The waviness at the very end reminds me together wie the texture very much of a bin "Blechdose". Maybe using a slightly more golden color would remove this association (if not intended).

Anyway, very good to have pak excentrique back and, more important yourself, back to creativity.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on December 26, 2011, 11:05:31 PM
pak.Tincan for the win ;)

Thanks Prissi, it's good that I can be more active again, indeed.

It's been a silly moment, but the tincan structure was chosen by purpose  8) But luckily it's easy to change when I get some better ideas. The depots will benefit from more details in general. Maybe I should replace them with giant slingshots and rubber bands  ;D

For the moment these must do though, I want to work a bit on vehicles next.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 04, 2012, 08:53:00 PM
A first tourist attraction was spotted in the world of pak48.Excentrique - Giant crystal splinter growths!

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 05, 2012, 11:02:30 PM
These crystal structures seem to exist in at least two variations, at least a second one was spotted today!
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 06, 2012, 09:18:11 PM
Some new city elements came into existence, too.

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 07, 2012, 05:54:34 PM
I've uploaded a new release to Sourceforge, v0.13:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.13-for-Simutrans-111.0/ (http://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.13-for-Simutrans-111.0/)

Changes in v0.13 since v0.12:

- Several new city buildings.
- Magnatrack depots and stations.
- Magnatrack vehicles.
- One new landmark in two variants.


Lately the old feeling of frustration about missing feedback hit me badly again. Combined with a feeling of being ignored - no feedback for my announcement that Solarex is now on Sourceforge, no feedback about my Tilemaster project, although I released two plugins just for Simutrans related work, no feedback about my ideas for a street name list for pak48.Excentrique and besides Prissi and Igor there was no one writing something about the new pak48.Excentrique additions that I have presented since I'm back ...

Yesterday evening I felt rather irritated about the number of hits that the threads have (Tilemaster > 200, Excentriue > 500 new hits since I'm back ..) and the number of replies (0 about Tilemaster, 2 for Excentrique, 0 for Solarex, 0 for the street list).

In my head this means people look at my works, but don't find them worth to try or comment ...

The thought makes me sad and frustrated. So I'll take a break from development till I feel better again. Since I didn't want to leave things undone already again, I've spent this day to completed the magnatrack transportation with a few "vehicles" so that it's usable (somewhat), and now will go and think a while about what are better ways to do things.

Sorry for the words if someone feels offended, I don't intend to hurt someone. But I wanted to express my feelings. Also I wants to say thanks to Igor and Prissi give me a share of their attention!

More thank thanks go to Frank for the Christmas card, VS for the holiday greetings last summer and Prissi for his nice new year email! I don't want to repeat the mistake and let you feel ignored as well. Better say thanks late than never. I hope.

Yes, I'm also bad at communication. But I'm still happy if someone thinks about me, and you are not forgotten. Well if I forgot to list your name, it's solely my fault and there are more than the named ones about whom I keep very positive memories. Best of luck to you all, named or not :)
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on January 07, 2012, 07:47:05 PM
I'm frustrated on hearing this Hajo. I kept track on those posts but I didn't know what to post, and I was getting bad seeing no one was posting.

I was going to say you are too fast, and might stop posting or would lose your Ambassador of Slowness title. :)

About the pak:
The magnatrack trains have a very realistic turning effect, you made a great work on those convoys. And those Orange Cherries are my favorite tree.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on January 07, 2012, 09:46:15 PM
I think you are too fast; posting means people need to download stuff, testing it an so on. You need to give a weekend at least before becoming too frustrated. But well, simutrans team leading has teached me patience, tolerance and that is is not clever to hope much for external reward in relation to the wark you put in. More people will complain than praise (although the maturer lthe lesser problem). In that way silence means you did something right. ;)

Imho the key to happyness is not doing stuff because one pleases other people (although this can be a great motivator) but doing stuff because one self feels like it needs doing. Everything else will get stale anyway after a short time. Only the reward from yourself (and people you *really* know and care for) counts.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 07, 2012, 11:29:20 PM
I want to reply to a few points. Not trying to defend my position, but to explain.

Quote from: An_dz on January 07, 2012, 07:47:05 PM
I was going to say you are too fast, and might stop posting or would lose your Ambassador of Slowness title. :)

It's a self chosen message. I think our world is getting too fast and more slowness would be good. I'm a victim of this trend as well ... sorry :(

Quote from: prissi on January 07, 2012, 09:46:15 PM
In that way silence means you did something right. ;)

Yes, but it irritates me.

Quote from: prissi on January 07, 2012, 09:46:15 PM
Imho the key to happyness is not doing stuff because one pleases other people (although this can be a great motivator) but doing stuff because one self feels like it needs doing. Everything else will get stale anyway after a short time. Only the reward from yourself (and people you *really* know and care for) counts.

You know the phrase, "Yes, but ..."

So here my "but" part: Even if I start doing things just for myself, at some point I want to show the results, and well, hope for good feedback. I don't like critiques, but I have learned to see them as helpful too, in a way that they point to aspects which could be better. Good criques even give hints how to do things better. I like those much better - if I know how to something better, I surely will do so next time.

The lack of feedback is a problem for me. It leaves me helpless, aimless, irritated. I have no idea if the stuff that I do is good, irrelevant or uninteresting. At some point I will turn towards other fields then if I find that there happens no communication about something, because I'm usually pleased with little and then start to do something new. pak48.Excentrique has reached this point.  I like the results as they are now. If I had freedom, I'd just make buildings and landmarks, and create a pretty thing to fly over and watch.

Doing transport stuff is serious work for me. I need some external motivation for this part, or I just do it by pushing myself, and then things like today happen, frustration if the effort and work seems to be unrecognized.

Having said this I'll do a break from pak48.Excentrique anyways. Experience shows, in a while my interest will return. But sometimes the breaks are very long, sometimes my projects just died because I lost interest.

So you are right Prissi, it's best to do things that one can enjoy all by oneself. I haven't found that for myself yet, but I was searching and will be searching again. Meanwhile I'll be happy if I can talk with people about my creations. I have enough issues with people and communicating with people already, so I'm usually happy to have an "accident free" conversation and often keep a good distance to everyone, but still I need a bit of talk now and then. (There are days when I am like "people just hurt", and just want to be alone and be left alone ... )

Quote from: prissi on January 07, 2012, 09:46:15 PM
Only the reward from yourself (and people you *really* know and care for) counts.

Frankly said, there are no close people who are interested in my works.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: wlindley on January 08, 2012, 04:44:00 AM
Loving the refreshed pak, it is a fun break from the "seriousness" of my usual pak128.Britain.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 08, 2012, 12:29:36 PM
Quote from: wlindley on January 08, 2012, 04:44:00 AM
Loving the refreshed pak, it is a fun break from the "seriousness" of my usual pak128.Britain.

Thank you, makes me happy to hear :) I'm currently pondering what sort of "force fields" would make good signals for the magnatracks ...
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: wlindley on January 08, 2012, 01:56:06 PM
Perhaps a signal mast, along the lines of a Golden Age of Radio microphone : (US President Warren Harding, NBC Radio Archives)

(http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/Images/coolidgenbc.gif)

...where the outer loop would be the signal mast; the squared elements inside (springs, in the original)  would be lit with red or green, and the inner circle (the actual microphone element in the picture) is where the "train" would be?
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: isidoro on January 08, 2012, 07:43:13 PM
I fully understand you, Hajo.  It also usually happens to me, but I have come to the conclusion that the problem is in myself.  I'll explain:  I see that one of my thread is visited a hundred times and I tend to choose among all possibilities the pessimistic ones: they don't care, they don't like it,...  But, if fact, if you think like that, what would you leave when your thread is not even visited by 9 people instead of hundreds?

I've come to the conclusion that the state of happiness and motivation depends more on oneself than on anything else.  The oil to fill my tank is inside, not outside.

I'll give you another example.  Imagine that your work if followed by hundreds of people and that you get a lot of feedback.  It is, in fact, nothing.  A pessimistic character like ours will tend to think that they are faking, praising for interest, etc.

I finally give you another example:  my quest through the code and final proposal for a possible implementation of a one-way kind of road.  I usually have a time tracker installed on my computer and, out of curiosity, this is the time it took me to do that:

Almost one and a half day of continuous work...  And these times do not include the time reading/answering the posts...  And I arrive to the final proposal and,  da-daaa, no answer, time passes, no answer,...  Oh, here it comes, prissi answers!.  And to tell you the truth, it was, to say it softly, not a very encouraging answer: nothing good, all wrong, problems, more problems and problems again, blah, blah...  ;D   But I learned to enjoy it, what else?

And I don't mean that prissi is wrong and I am right, please don't misunderstand me.  I don't have such a high concept of myself.  Maybe he is right, but I don't care.  Fortunately, some support also came: from Dwachs and you, for instance...

But I guess the same happens to all those marvelous artists when they spend their time designing a new plane, etc. for the game.  Or Isaac managing forum stuff.  Or in other aspects of life, when you have used a full afternoon to run, buy and prepare a nice dinner and, at the end, all are defects, it is salty, too hot, too spicy...  Whatever...  It's really funny for me...

I don't know the early history of this community since I have arrived here mid-way.  But for me you are an authority here.  Like Gandalf or something like that.  I would envy you, had it not be for I prefer the dark side of the force and be Dark-Vader instead, for instance...  8)   The world is filled with good people,  bad people are the really interesting ones...

I usually feel I don't belong to this Cro-magnonian world with groups, ambitions, power, winner vs. looser stuff, etc., that nothing is thought or built thinking of me, and feel more like a lonely Neanthertal, but I have learned to live (and lastly even enjoy) it...  And I believe it is something that has to be learned...

Oops!  Maybe I'm sick...  A normal person is supposed not to feel good in such circumstances...  Hmmm...  I have to see the Doctor to make me behave as I must behave...  Now, I'm worried.   ;)

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 08, 2012, 08:51:08 PM
Quote from: isidoro on January 08, 2012, 07:43:13 PM
I fully understand you, Hajo.  It also usually happens to me, but I have come to the conclusion that the problem is in myself.

Same for me. The problem is, some aspect of ones personality are difficult to change. I don't want to dive too much into the topic, but to say, I'm trying, and I think I make progress, but in very small steps.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: isidoro on January 09, 2012, 12:02:47 AM
Or not.  Not a problem to stay if you feel ok...  ;)

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 09, 2012, 09:49:37 PM
The last release of pak48.Excentrique did contain Magnatracks, which Simutrans treats like rail tracks, but no signals, leaving the tracks mostly useless.

To remedy this I've made a sort of signals called "force gates", which should work much like the signals as they are known from other pak sets.

The positioning on diagonal tracks is not good, but on straight tracks it's a quite nice effect when the force gates open and close :)

Besides the force gates I've attchaed an updated ground.Outside.pak which should contain a proper version number for the pak chooser dialog.

Good luck with the force gates. May the power drop be with you ;)

Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on January 09, 2012, 10:36:41 PM
They are also quite visible. Maybe define signals on left=0 explicitely in your simuconf.tab or else ...
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 09, 2012, 10:49:57 PM
Quote from: prissi on January 09, 2012, 10:36:41 PM
They are also quite visible.

I'd think this is a good thing? The one way signals look a bit odd though, but it should work.

Quote from: prissi on January 09, 2012, 10:36:41 PM
Maybe define signals on left=0 explicitely in your simuconf.tab or else ...

Soo many new settings. Didn't know about this one. Thanks for the hint!
I can't find it in the default simuconf.tab (from the 111.0 download) though ... what's the exact name of the parameter?
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: isidoro on January 09, 2012, 11:54:12 PM
They are nice.  I wonder what you have in mind for power lines...
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on January 10, 2012, 10:11:46 AM
Forgot to add this to simuconf.tab:

# signals on the left side (=1)
signals_on_left = 0


Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: DirrrtyDirk on January 10, 2012, 10:30:14 AM
Quote from: prissi on January 10, 2012, 10:11:46 AM
Forgot to add this to simuconf.tab:

# signals on the left side (=1)
signals_on_left = 0


Not wanting to derail this thread, but...
this sounds interesting... could you also explain what exactly happens when this is set to "1" some time? Thanks!
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 10, 2012, 10:10:20 PM
@hajo, i haven't read the discussion about recognition before, a bit late, but still i should like to point out to you that this thread had already 11155 views.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 10, 2012, 10:33:07 PM
Quote from: prissi on January 10, 2012, 10:11:46 AM
# signals on the left side (=1)
signals_on_left = 0

Thank you. I've now added this to the pak set configuration.

Quote from: sdog on January 10, 2012, 10:10:20 PM
@hajo, i haven't read the discussion about recognition before, a bit late, but still i should like to point out to you that this thread had already 11155 views.

Yes, it's been part of my irritation. There were like 700 new views since I had presented the magnatrack stations and depots, and the more recent additions, and besides Prissi, Igor and An_dz no one commented (and An_dz only said he will try the set, but didn't return to tell if he likes it/dislikes it, has ideas, wants changes or such ... I had been waiting for such feedback when he said he'll try it).

700 views to 3 comments were an irritation relation to me, and my conclusion was that people watch, but then turn away uninterested. At least my impression was that my works are so bad that they do not trigger any comments.

I still feel a bit irritated about the number of views in relation to number pak set downloads, and also comments, but well it will stay a mystery of the internet and all the statistics there.
Title: Re: pak.Excentrique
Post by: wlindley on January 10, 2012, 10:55:33 PM
It has long been said, in marketing and customer support, that if one thousand customers have a problem with or are upset about a product, that only one will correspond with the manufacturer; if ten thousand are pleased with the product, only one will write a letter of praise.  So 3 replies to 700 downloads is quite above the average!
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 10, 2012, 10:57:20 PM
Ok, didn't know that. I guess must get used to the new times first. Simutrans is much bigger project now with a much less familiar group of fans.

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 11, 2012, 03:38:44 AM
to be honest, i haven't looked into the pak myself for more than a year. in fact i haven't started simutrans since i looked at the submissions for the last pak contest in autumn. i didn't want to comment on it without looking at it first hand. (btw, i liked the tin can depots on the screenshots)

there is another reason you shan't get as much feedback as in other paks. it is very much different, and excentric. quite a lot of the comments are criticism on the proportion, realism etc. here people would have to comment on aesthetics alone, that is something most try to avoid. especially the bunch of us nerds you find here, we lack the language to do so politely.
(if you also want some feedback on less liked aspects, read on else skip graciously, as it is likely not relevant:
I'm not so fond of the colour palette, as it always reminds me of a colour photo negative. i'd have hoped for a bit more excenticism there.)


By the way, it's pretty cool, you -- contrary to your announcement -- stayed here for the discussion, instead of retreating. Afterall, you still got the option if we get too much of a pain.


ps.: before i never had enough contact to you, to properly thank you for making simutrans, and making it open source. there is only one game i spent so much time with in two decades of hardcore gaming. you certainly beat valve (half-life+mods) and microprose (transport tycoon, ufo).
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on January 11, 2012, 03:24:47 PM
Quote from: Hajo on January 10, 2012, 10:33:07 PM
An_dz only said he will try the set, but didn't return to tell if he likes it/dislikes it, has ideas, wants changes or such ... I had been waiting for such feedback when he said he'll try it
So I forgot my review... :D

I tried the pak sometimes, and I've found those 'bad' points:
-The forests make the city disappear, I found myself lost sometimes looking for a city. This is probably because there are few citybuildings and trees options.
-The lack of road-magnatrack crosses is a pain.
-The stop/station symbol is not intuitive. I always forget what button is it.
-The magnatrack vehicle is too slow. It don't look like a magnatrack.
-The sharkwaggon stay out of the road in Up-down diagonal streets.

I just couldn't test much the magnatrack because my generated maps never had big cities.
And it's not an easy pak, you need some planning to make a profitable company.

Hope this helps you Hajo.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 11, 2012, 09:41:10 PM
Quote from: sdog on January 11, 2012, 03:38:44 AM
quite a lot of the comments are criticism on the proportion, realism etc. here people would have to comment on aesthetics alone, that is something most try to avoid.

(if you also want some feedback on less liked aspects, read on else skip graciously, as it is likely not relevant:
I'm not so fond of the colour palette, as it always reminds me of a colour photo negative. i'd have hoped for a bit more excenticism there.)

Hehe :)  I'm trying to get more into an artistic direction, but most of my education was about technical stuff, so I guess you're right there, there could be more excenticism.

The "photo negative" impression most like stems from the fact that I chose dark grounds with bright objects, which is more or less opposite to the other existing paks.

Quote from: sdog on January 11, 2012, 03:38:44 AM
By the way, it's pretty cool, you -- contrary to your announcement -- stayed here for the discussion, instead of retreating. Afterall, you still got the option if we get too much of a pain.

Now and then I'll need breaks, but currently I seem to have a fairly good phase.

Quote from: sdog on January 11, 2012, 03:38:44 AM
ps.: before i never had enough contact to you, to properly thank you for making simutrans, and making it open source.

Thanks  :D
A good share of that goes to Prissi, though, who so tireless and persistently works on Simutrans. Without him, Simutrans wouldn't be where it is today.

Quote from: An_dz on January 11, 2012, 03:24:47 PM
So I forgot my review... :D

...

Hope this helps you Hajo.

Yes it does, thanks! The lack of crossings, bridges and tunnels really makes it difficult at the moment. This should be solved sooner or later, though. About the forests and cities, at the moment I have no idea how to help that, but I'll keep it in mind that it can cause troubles.

Really big cities I had now and then, but they have their very own visual problems  ??? The Dolphincar and the Sharkwaggon both need to be redone, I'm working on a new vehicle template.

Meanwhile I have been trying to do something about the industries ... I once had asked for help ( http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=3702.50 (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=3702.50) ) since I didn't feel able to do the music instruments, but now I thought I'm just going to borrow images that I had made for another project a while ago, and which roughly fit the theme. So here are the first two previews of the new industry chain which will be about producing music :)

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: isidoro on January 11, 2012, 11:30:31 PM
I definitively like the idea of producing unmaterial stuff: music, but also poems, prime numbers, programs...  really excentrique!

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on January 12, 2012, 03:00:30 AM
I had some ideas for the pak, very excentrique by the way:
Big spiders and beatles rided by the spark citizens as trucks, can add a big box over them to look like the storage place.
Some dragons as airplanes will also look cool.
And as atractions or monuments, the Blue Screen of Death, a big computer with the BSOD.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: IgorEliezer on January 12, 2012, 03:11:22 AM
And don't forget an outdoor that says "Die Brücke ist nicht frei!"

/me runs
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 12, 2012, 09:00:45 PM
Quote from: isidoro on January 11, 2012, 11:30:31 PM
I definitively like the idea of producing unmaterial stuff: music, but also poems, prime numbers, programs...  really excentrique!

Thank you :)

Quote from: An_dz on January 12, 2012, 03:00:30 AM
Big spiders and beatles rided by the spark citizens as trucks, can add a big box over them to look like the storage place.
Some dragons as airplanes will also look cool.

Animals with legs look odd when moving without animation. But I could offer snails ;)

Quote from: IgorEliezer on January 12, 2012, 03:11:22 AM
And don't forget an outdoor that says "Die Brücke ist nicht frei!"
/me runs

There were two big trees, a rope bridge in between. An on the bridge a big gorilla, with a sign "Die Brücke ist nicht frei!"  ;D

Now I must practise to draw gorillas  ;)


Todays news:

Level crossings for magnatracks and powertrails!

And some trumpet cars for transporting fanfars. These might need some more work, though.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 13, 2012, 06:33:29 AM
ah, i misunderstood you before, i thought the cars would transport the sounds made at the factory, similar to the muenhhausen story where a sound is frozen in a post-horn.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 13, 2012, 09:40:50 PM
Quote from: sdog on January 13, 2012, 06:33:29 AM
ah, i misunderstood you before, i thought the cars would transport the sounds made at the factory, similar to the muenhhausen story where a sound is frozen in a post-horn.

I meant to produce and transport the sounds. It's just my lack of words to express it precisely. "Fanfar" seems to be the name of an instrument as well as some trumpets sounding together in a certain way. I meant the sound.

I've tried to improve the fanfaporters, and attached a new screenshot.

The beatnuts to transport beats might be a bit more clear. Heavy beats, so beatnuts must be sturdy, and they can't carry many beats.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Yona-TYT on January 17, 2012, 02:38:39 AM
going "Hajo" if you can! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on January 17, 2012, 12:30:02 PM
Somehow my post was not saved. Here is a youtube video on pak48.excentrique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GkZvkLyja4
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 17, 2012, 09:57:32 PM
Quote from: prissi on January 17, 2012, 12:30:02 PM
Somehow my post was not saved.

It was, but in the v0.13+ update thread. It's cool though that smu42 took the time to make and publish this video :)

Thanks, smu42, if you read this!

I've tried to work some more on the music theme, and made a small beat factory. The graphics sure can be improved, but for the moment they should do the job. So now one can transport beats and fanfars. Well, not quite enough to make music, but a bit better than before  ;)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: wlindley on January 18, 2012, 12:50:05 AM
Would you entertain a Makefile, instead of a bunch of MS-DOS Batch files which don't work on Linux (or OSX for that matter)?  I would like to keep updated through the svn repository.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: wlindley on January 18, 2012, 12:52:41 PM
How about a Bubbles factory... and Bubbles + Notes carried to a Welk factory makes Champagne Music... which you can carry to a Dance Hall in the city.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 18, 2012, 09:28:32 PM
Version 0.14 is out!


http://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.14-for-Simutrans-111.0/
Most of the work since v0.13 went into the music industry chain and a first try to adjust the costs. The costs will need further adjustments, but it seems to be possible to make some income with these settings already.


Changes in v0.14 since v0.13:

- Tried to adjust costs.
- A first few factories for the music industry chain.
- Some vehicles for music transport.
- Force gates for magnatracks.
- Level crossings for magnatracks.
- Added some new translations.
- Fixed visibility issue for magnatrack depots.


Known problems and missing features:

- No bridges.
- No tunnels.
- No ships.
- No aircrafts.
- No rivers.
- High level cities are very densely packed.
- Music industry chain is incomplete.
- Only English and German texts, and both incomplete.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 18, 2012, 09:29:42 PM
Quote from: wlindley on January 18, 2012, 12:50:05 AM
Would you entertain a Makefile, instead of a bunch of MS-DOS Batch files which don't work on Linux (or OSX for that matter)?  I would like to keep updated through the svn repository.

If you supply me one, I'll happily commit it to the SVN :)

Quote from: wlindley on January 18, 2012, 12:52:41 PM
How about a Bubbles factory... and Bubbles + Notes carried to a Welk factory makes Champagne Music... which you can carry to a Dance Hall in the city.

Bubbles are a good idea!
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 18, 2012, 10:04:57 PM
i'm flushing out ideas of my mind. (sorry i produce such much, much faster than i realize anything.)

another use for bubbles,
they have to be carried to a "Think Tank" or Philosoper's garden, or ivory tower, where they are used to pack ideas.

The idea bubbles are then transported to idea nodes (equivalent to power plants) all other factories increase production when connected to a working idea node.

Some buildings consume ideas directly, for example Wikipedia Masonry shops. (image a house under construction built from bubbles like bricks.)

A giant discriminator. It takes ideas and has an output of very very few good ideas. those can be used in advanced production chains, eg. a symphony framework shop (also requiring crystal rods, for the frameworks)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on January 18, 2012, 10:10:30 PM
I think the Makefile from pak64 could be easily adapted fast.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: IgorEliezer on January 19, 2012, 02:42:25 AM
Hi Hajo, I heard about the new release of pak48.Excentrique.

My congratulations, dude.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: neroden on January 19, 2012, 06:57:43 PM
Translation note: I believe the English word for "fanfar" is "fanfare" (with an 'e').
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 19, 2012, 09:09:20 PM
Quote from: sdog on January 18, 2012, 10:04:57 PM
The idea bubbles are then transported to idea nodes (equivalent to power plants) all other factories increase production when connected to a working idea node.

A very interesting bubble of ideas you have there :) I'll take a note so I won't forget, till I actually get to work on a second industry chain.

Quote from: prissi on January 18, 2012, 10:10:30 PM
I think the Makefile from pak64 could be easily adapted fast.

Good. I'll take a look someday soon.

Quote from: IgorEliezer on January 19, 2012, 02:42:25 AM
My congratulations, dude.

Thanks, Igor!

Quote from: neroden on January 19, 2012, 06:57:43 PM
Translation note: I believe the English word for "fanfar" is "fanfare" (with an 'e').

Thank you for pointing this out, I'll fix that in the translation files.

For today I have only one update, but maybe an important one: Magnatrack bridges! Should make building transport networks much easier. The artwork is not final, it seemed more important to have a bridge at all.

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Fabio on January 20, 2012, 07:18:52 AM
Hajo, the artwork for the bridge, as you said, doesn't match the pakset style, IMHO. The beam shouldn't be larger than "base" of the magnatrack and possibly of the same color. I would even consider a bridge made of 2 separate beams, one supporting the left track, another the right one, but not larger than the spikes themselves...
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 20, 2012, 09:42:56 PM
Quote from: fabio on January 20, 2012, 07:18:52 AM
I would even consider a bridge made of 2 separate beams, one supporting the left track, another the right one ...

Two beams sounded good to me, and now I'm proud to present: The Twin Laser Magnabridge!

Well, it's not so great as it sounds but maybe more in style with the rest of the pak.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 20, 2012, 10:10:32 PM
Yes!
that suits your pak style much better now. You could give the large surfaces on the ramps perhaps some organic or crystaline looking structure too.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Fabio on January 20, 2012, 10:50:46 PM
I agree with sdog. the bridge itself is perfect now, but the ramps are still out of style. A crystal structure would be much better, or a kind of crystal portal (like stargate as a structure) generating the laser beams...
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 21, 2012, 05:36:54 PM
Prissi asked for new pak set releases to have them ready when a new Simutrans version is made. So I did not work on the bridges any further, but tried to consolidate the changes that I had pending and publish a new release:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.15-for-Simutrans-111.0/

I'll take care of the bridges once I have time again.

Release notes

pak48.Excentrique is work in progress. There are two working modes of transportation and enough game elements to have cities, some industries and forests in the game.

The main focus of this pak set is to provide a new and very different scenery which might be refreshing for old Simutrans players and interesting to new players as well. It's also meant to be an easy set to play, but so far balancing prices and costs is ongoing work and nowhere near final.

Release 0.15 has only very few new features, but was made to have a release ready to be bundled with the forthcoming Simutrans version which Prissi has announced.


Changes in v0.15 since v0.14

- Slightly improved tree graphics.
- Additional ground textures.
- Minor fixes for the ground tile layout.
- Magnatrack bridges.
- Good "fanfars" was renamed to "fanfares".


Known problems and missing features

- No powertrail bridges.
- No tunnels.
- No ships.
- No aircrafts.
- No rivers.
- High level cities are very densely packed.
- Music industry chain is incomplete.
- Only English and German texts available, and both incomplete.

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: MoTw on January 22, 2012, 06:03:28 PM
Hi,


even if I haven't tried pak.excentrique for a long time, I followed the development with excitement. It's a very interesting style I have to say (once again ;-) )


I had to laugh when I read about the prime number factory thing some pages before :D The bridges look good by the way.


CU
Moritz aka MoTW
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 22, 2012, 10:17:54 PM
Quote from: MoTw on January 22, 2012, 06:03:28 PM
The bridges look good by the way.

Thanks!

At the moment I feel very down and uninspired though, so maybe I'll need a break to recharge. I have ideas, but no will to actually work on something  :-[

Edit: Each time when I think about the name "Beatnut" which I gave the beat transporters, I also must think of this amazing drummer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E)

Maybe it can give you a smile to watch :)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 22, 2012, 10:36:30 PM
"beatnut" is a good name indeed

working in intervals seems to be a good concept, and you just released a new version, good moment to rest. (i hope you won't dissappear from the forum in your break, your input often brings a new dimension to discussions.)

(just had the idea of a "portmanteau" factory)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 22, 2012, 10:41:14 PM
Quote from: sdog on January 22, 2012, 10:36:30 PM
i hope you won't dissappear from the forum in your break, your input often brings a new dimension to discussions.
Thanks :) I'll try to stay here.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 23, 2012, 09:42:40 PM
Today I have a few minor updates (see also the v0.15+ updates thread):

- A new engine for magnatracks.
- Some new commercial city buildings (the blue ringcones).
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 24, 2012, 09:30:45 PM
I felt uninspired, but bridges for the powertrails were needed, also I felt a need for a second variant of powertrail. So I made the "powertrail nobridge" and the "powertrail speedlane" which reuse much of the original powertrail graphics.

Not shown in the screenshot are new icons for the road tools menu.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 26, 2012, 05:27:57 PM
Quote from: wlindley on January 10, 2012, 10:55:33 PM
It has long been said, in marketing and customer support, that if one thousand customers have a problem with or are upset about a product, that only one will correspond with the manufacturer; if ten thousand are pleased with the product, only one will write a letter of praise.  So 3 replies to 700 downloads is quite above the average!

This message didn't want to give me peace. Are you customers or are we a community?
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 26, 2012, 07:26:50 PM
community!
The behaviour is roughly the same though. The difference is perhaps less on the consuming side but on the producers side and the more active forum members.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 26, 2012, 11:21:45 PM
I was told today that I expect too much from people (not someone from the Simutrans community but related to my experiences here). So well, I'll go and wait till the unhappiness passes ... I don't think that I can really change my expectation for comments or so, though ... if I invested hours, heartblood and sometimes sweat in brainworking, developing and creating, I'd think that someone of the dozens of community members might find a minute or two to comment on it  :-[
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: isidoro on January 27, 2012, 12:07:33 AM
I would say that you expect that too quick...

Slower, slower...  The slower a snail lives, the quicker the world seems to it...

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 27, 2012, 01:09:27 AM
C'mon. The forum stats say that today were at peak 94 people online at the same time. I haven't counted the page views. And not one of all these visitors manages to produce a single sentence of comment about a screenshot or two over the time of two days? It's not like they need to do much - watch the attachment and post an idea about it.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on January 27, 2012, 05:34:44 AM
i had nothing relevant to say, i thought the bridges suit the powertrails quite well. i often start to write posts, and leave the unfinished when i re-consider and doubt if i am spaming a thread.

I considered posting it on the google plus site, but didn't do so as i saw your screenshots a day too late.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: isidoro on January 27, 2012, 12:10:22 PM
Quote from: sdog on January 27, 2012, 05:34:44 AM
[...]
i often start to write posts, and leave the unfinished when i re-consider and doubt if i am spaming a thread.
[...]

The same happens to me...  This forum is different from others in that posts are usually relevant, discussion is usually kept to topic, people are well-behaved, etc.  and, today, that's not common...


@Hajo: sometimes we tend to think that, if moving in a university environment, for instance, all people have the same background, interests or capabilities.  And they usually don't.  Not good or bad, but don't.

Some people are creative, some aren't.  And being an artist is something that it is not to be planned, scheduled, etc.  Art and creation must break the chains of logic, time, etc.  Producing cars and oil painting is just the opposite, though with modern art perhaps we should reconsider.   :D


Edit:  Hajo, you are a Devotee, if you want quick feedback, why don't you open surveys?  But, in that case, be prepared if you don't like the results...   ;)

 
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 27, 2012, 01:14:13 PM
Quote from: isidoro on January 27, 2012, 12:10:22 PM
Some people are creative, some aren't.  And being an artist is something that it is not to be planned, scheduled, etc.  Art and creation must break the chains of logic, time, etc.  Producing cars and oil painting is just the opposite, though with modern art perhaps we should reconsider.   :D

Edit:  Hajo, you are a Devotee, if you want quick feedback, why don't you open surveys?  But, in that case, be prepared if you don't like the results...   ;)

I believe that I'm somwhere in the middle, having some technical and some artistic skills by nature. And I believe that training can help to improve a small talent to average, and an average to good. I'll never reach the level of a naturally born artist or designer, but I want to believe that I can become a fair graphics designer by training. Creativity can also be helped by training and behaviour - I sure lack creativity in some areas, but I have it in others. I'm now about mid-life (I hope the second half will be as long ...) and some years of pondering make me believe that artistic work in my free time will be better for me than technical work.

Polls - I'm not interested in "60 people like this, 321 don't like". I'm looking for discussion, talk. Usually new ideas spawn from talk, and it's more free from than polls. So I don't think I'll become happier if I make a poll for every vehicle, name/word and screenshot that I publish.

Edit:

I have some news -  I changed all the files, so that the set now starts in year one. At first I had intended to let it start in year 3500, but then it seemed that will mean our future. So I decided for year one, which hopefully will support the idea that this pak set neither plays in human future nor past.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: railworker on January 27, 2012, 08:28:28 PM
Quote from: Hajo on January 26, 2012, 11:21:45 PM
I was told today that I expect too much from people (not someone from the Simutrans community but related to my experiences here). So well, I'll go and wait till the unhappiness passes ... I don't think that I can really change my expectation for comments or so, though ... if I invested hours, heartblood and sometimes sweat in brainworking, developing and creating, I'd think that someone of the dozens of community members might find a minute or two to comment on it  :-[
Hajo, I think a lack of feedback doesn't mean your project isn't liked. I believe in some cases people are just too lazy or don't want to spend the time to post 'looks cool' or something like that. I bet there are people who try out, find it cool but just don't say so for whatever reason.
But, you also have to consider, there are a lot of different paks, some big ones, and many small ones. People probably tend to read and post about just one or two paks only.

Now, I got to say something about pak48.Excentrique itself, too: When I tried the pak a few days ago I noticed that on a magnatrack-powertrail crossing, the magnatrain can only drive 30 km/h while it can drive over 60 km/h on free tracks. This is a bit annoying to me if I don't want to build a couple magnatrack bridges to build magnatracks in a city.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 27, 2012, 09:51:40 PM
I guess so. Attention is a scarce resource these days, and everyone is struggling to get some.

Quote from: railworker on January 27, 2012, 08:28:28 PM
Now, I got to say something about pak48.Excentrique itself, too: When I tried the pak a few days ago I noticed that on a magnatrack-powertrail crossing, the magnatrain can only drive 30 km/h while it can drive over 60 km/h on free tracks. This is a bit annoying to me if I don't want to build a couple magnatrack bridges to build magnatracks in a city.

When I wrote the dat file it appeared sensible to me that on the crossing vehicles must slow down and drive carefully, but in my test game I have a few level crossing which disturb me too. I feel torn between what I considered "right" in the beginning, and what I want myself in my game. I guess I'll allow more than 30 km/h though, that was most likely too much of slowdown. At the moment I'm pondering if I should generally go for high speed vehicles and infrastructure in this pak. Undecided yet.

Thanks for the feedback, it's good to know what you think about the crossings and that it matches my own experiences from test games. This way I get a better feeling what needs to be changed :)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Fabio on January 27, 2012, 11:09:02 PM
I read all the news here, but I rarely write, because I couldn't play or try the pakset. Actually I don't play at all, my Simutrans time (actually more than usual) goes all painting.

Back on topic, the idea of year 1 is simply great.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: railworker on January 28, 2012, 10:20:24 AM
Quote from: Hajo on January 27, 2012, 09:51:40 PM
When I wrote the dat file it appeared sensible to me that on the crossing vehicles must slow down and drive carefully, but in my test game I have a few level crossing which disturb me too. I feel torn between what I considered "right" in the beginning, and what I want myself in my game. I guess I'll allow more than 30 km/h though, that was most likely too much of slowdown. At the moment I'm pondering if I should generally go for high speed vehicles and infrastructure in this pak. Undecided yet.

Thanks for the feedback, it's good to know what you think about the crossings and that it matches my own experiences from test games. This way I get a better feeling what needs to be changed :)
I would suggest the following: When a magnatrain is nearing to the crossing, add some warning signs to the crossing on the powertrail side. Maybe flashing red lights running back and forth across the powertrail, parallel to the magnatrack?

EDIT: a scetch made using paint. Imagine the ret dots moving back and forth...

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26436589/Simutrans/crossing1.png)

Additionally, the powertrail looks at if it would glow. You can make the powertrail look switched off at the crossing i.e. it might not glow there. That would make it 'physically impossible' for a powertrail vehicle to enter the crossing. Of course, switching off the powertrail and the red lights should only be in effect when a magnatrain is coming.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 28, 2012, 05:30:51 PM
I think there can be animated crossings now, but I don't know how many animation steps they can have. So moving dots might be impossible, but I'll take a look into it.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: railworker on January 28, 2012, 07:00:01 PM
well two steps is might be enough already. A chain of glowing dots, every 2nd lights up:
First image: 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th,...
Second image: 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th,...
You could alternate the images every 0.5 seconds or so.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Fabio on January 28, 2012, 07:23:33 PM
I guess there are only open and closed images, nut happy to be wrong.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: railworker on January 28, 2012, 08:39:30 PM
Well in that case, make one with 'open' and one with 'closed' (red lights on and powertrail glowing off).

Anyway, I got a problem here:

save, simutrans 111.0, pak48.excentrique_newest (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26436589/Simutrans/exc1.sve)
I try to transport rythms and fanfars to two different 'city musicants'. All fine with the fanfars but the rythms transport only works for one of the musicants, the other one doesn't work and I have no darn clue why. I verified that both musicants accept fanfars and rythms. It is probably a dumb error but I fail to see it. Please help.

EDIT:
OOHHH NOOO I think 'no routing over overcrowded stations' hit me. In the beginning I wasn't fast enough to transport all the fanfars so the station was overcrowded and no rythms were sent via that station. I think it works now.

EDIT2:
new save (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26436589/Simutrans/exc1.1.sve)
I notice two things: first, the alignment of the magnatrack signals at diagonal tracks needs to be improved, and I see the day isn't displayed, it only says season, month and time.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 28, 2012, 11:14:07 PM
I'm curious to try your savegame, but it's too late now, I need some sleep. Next evening there should be some time, though. Thank you for trying the set and reporting your findings :)

Meanwhile I had made a new set of window bar icons. I feel uncertain if they go well with the buttons. I like the icons, though, so maybe I'll change the buttons to fit better.

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 29, 2012, 10:39:30 PM
@railworker: You've been quite busy there with the long-distance transport. (I wonder a bit if Simutrans is player very differently these days than from my memories ... but that is a topic for another thread).

I'm afraid I can't help the signals on the diagonals though. Current Simutrans only allows 4 signal positions in the input graphics, and I've chosen them to look somewhat good for straight tracks - and even there trains stop under the forcegates and not in front of them. There are limits in many elements. But maybe a moment of geniality will strike ...

Attached is a preview of my latest try at making a skin for pak48.Excentrique.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Dwachs on January 30, 2012, 06:31:25 AM
Imho the color of the window buttons and scrollbars is too strong when compared to the light brown regular buttns.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 30, 2012, 10:53:16 AM
Maybe it's time for a poll? I made some more skin variants. Same style, different colors/shades:

http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=9123.0
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: railworker on January 30, 2012, 08:15:34 PM
Quote from: Hajo on January 29, 2012, 10:39:30 PM
@railworker: You've been quite busy there with the long-distance transport. (I wonder a bit if Simutrans is player very differently these days than from my memories ... but that is a topic for another thread).

I'm afraid I can't help the signals on the diagonals though. Current Simutrans only allows 4 signal positions in the input graphics, and I've chosen them to look somewhat good for straight tracks - and even there trains stop under the forcegates and not in front of them. There are limits in many elements. But maybe a moment of geniality will strike ...
Sure I do long-distance transport if offered. If you are curious, here (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26436589/Simutrans/exc1.4.sve) is a save after some advance and improvement of the connection. Before I had too many trains going. It seems just-in-time is off so that I am able to totally overfill the far-distance 'musikus' but at some point the demand for either rhythms or fanfars goes to zero and the trains queue at the station used as hub. I believe the balance needs to be improved, either the 'musikus' should be able to process more rythms and fanfars or the fanfarstars and rythm factories should have in general less productivity. I wanted to build another "musikus" using the "öffentliche Hand" (not sure what's the translation in english) but I found no option for that.

About the signals positions: yes the way it is now it looks good for straight tracks, if you optimized for diagonal tracks it would look weird for straight tracks and vice versa. I personally can live with how it is now.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on January 31, 2012, 09:41:25 PM
The balance sure needs some work. I have not yet found out how current Simutrans versions determine how many source factories will be built for a consumer or how many consumers will be built for a source factory. Once I know that, I can adjust things better.

I think here in the forum the öffentliche Hand ist called "public player". And since this feature didn't exist when I left development I totally did not think about checking if such a switch works with pak48.Excentrique. Much for me to learn and add ...

Added I have a new sort of commercial city building and a new magnatrack engine, the "Renaht Darter". Now I need to work on the faster tracks, too, those still have a crossing problem.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 01, 2012, 08:56:30 PM
I've made two more magnatrack engines. It's the "Renaht Triple Darter", an improved version of the "Renaht Darter", and the strongest and fastest magnatrack engine built so far, the "Renaht Eggson".

Now it's a choice of five engines, which should be good enough for the beginning, and I think I'll work on other things next.

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Fabio on February 01, 2012, 11:41:16 PM
Cool engines!!!

I finally managed to download the pakset and give it a quick try, it's really an art of its kind!
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: sdog on February 02, 2012, 12:46:28 AM
eggson! good for both big endian and little endian operation.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 02, 2012, 10:31:50 AM
Thanks for the feedback, gave me a smile and makes me feel happy :)
I'll try to keep up the work.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: railworker on February 04, 2012, 08:29:56 PM
Very cool new engines. :) I have downloaded them but only tested the triple darter so far, though. Now the next I would wish is a magnatrack passenger car for high speed trains over 200km/h.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 04, 2012, 11:22:21 PM
Thanks for the feedback!

Yes, still much to be done. I hope that next week I can work some more on the set again.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 09, 2012, 08:46:39 PM
Version 0.16 is out!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/simutrans/files/pak48.Excentrique/v0.16-for-Simutrans-111.1/

Release notes

Introduction

pak48.Excentrique is work in progress. There are two working modes of transportation and enough game elements to have cities, some industries and forests in the game.

The main focus of this pak set is to provide a new and very different scenery which might be refreshing for old Simutrans players and interesting to new players as well. It's also meant to be an easy set to play, but so far balancing prices and costs is ongoing work and nowhere near final.


Changes in v0.16 since v0.15

- Some private vehicles added.
- Some new city buildings added.
- New magnatrack engines added.
- Powertrail speedlane and powertrail nobridge added.
- Better map legend colors for industries.
- Additions and bugfixes for the translations.
- Minor changes to skin and icons (works best with Simutrans Iron Bite)

Known problems and missing features

- No tunnels.
- No ships.
- No aircrafts.
- No rivers.
- High level cities are very densely packed.
- Music industry chain is incomplete.
- Only English and German texts available, and both incomplete.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on February 16, 2012, 12:10:40 AM
The effect of loosing sight of the city reduced, I was right, more city buildings helped.
And the Light Crystal Splinter Plant needs no_ground. The ground gets messed when hovering the cursor.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 20, 2012, 02:25:47 PM
Thanks for the feedback, An_dz. I was distracted with some other disturbencies, and maybe will be for a while, but once I am back to pak developemnet I'll take care fo the problems.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 21, 2012, 10:05:35 PM
After a lengthy discussion with Prissi today, it seems to be the best if I stop all programming activities around Simutrans for a while.

While this does not mean that I need to stop pak48.Excentrique, it still makes me want to take a break here too. I had intended to use some new features that I had put in Simutrans Iron Bite with pak48.Excentrique, and I do not know if I want to make this pak without those additions. Maybe later, once the dust of today's discussion has settled. Graphics work should be something that is better for me than coding and which I can actually sustain for a longer time.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on February 29, 2012, 09:13:28 PM
I felt inspired to work on some more decorative elements:

- Active/inactive geyser (not animated)
- Spots of various colors and densities
- A spire
- Two rocks
- So called flowers, also cleverly disguised as pixels
- A sort of pond
- A mushroom patch
Title: split: pak48.Excentrique, v0.16+
Post by: Fabio on March 01, 2012, 01:57:51 PM
Quote from: Hans on February 29, 2012, 09:15:46 PM
- Active/inactive geyser (not animated)
Being an excentrique pakset, the geyser could be seasonal: active in summer and inactive in winter or the other way around.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: wlindley on March 01, 2012, 03:01:49 PM
Hmm... perhaps the geyser's seasons are reversed in the different climate types?
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on March 02, 2012, 01:01:35 PM
pak48.Excentrique has no seasons yet ... I'm still feeling uncertain if I want to use the feature, and if I want to, what for. The only real idea is to do color changes, so that it looks a bit different every while.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on March 02, 2012, 11:17:56 PM
I've made a test with trees. Most likely I'll use the seasons for funky color changes. And maybe I'll make the cities go grayscale during winter ... must see if that'd be an interesting effect.

At the moment I can present a little preview of colorful treescapes  8)

Tree pak download -> http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=9397.msg88620#msg88620 (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=9397.msg88620#msg88620)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: An_dz on March 03, 2012, 02:15:47 AM
Beautiful. Loved the lime and purple trees.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Knightly on March 03, 2012, 03:18:36 AM
I love these colourful trees very much ;)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: MoTw on March 04, 2012, 09:15:04 AM
Those trees make me happy  :) They look very cool!

Moritz
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on March 13, 2012, 09:44:05 PM
- New music industry: Pipe organ
- New "melody" transporter (might need some graphical updates, but it works)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: MoTw on March 15, 2012, 03:38:59 PM
Nice :) I'd love to have this organ animated so it would be played by 'ghost hands' :D
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Spike on March 15, 2012, 09:42:10 PM
I think I could even do that :D
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Lanaos on May 11, 2014, 02:21:27 PM
Hello Spike!
I registered today to tell you that I really enjoy playing around with excentrique. It certainly does something for simutrans to have neat paks.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on January 24, 2022, 09:15:09 PM
New real flying saucer with ray to remove objects!
Will be part of the next release.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Yona-TYT on January 24, 2022, 09:19:44 PM
Quote from: _Hajo_ on January 24, 2022, 09:15:09 PM
New real flying saucer with ray to remove objects!
Will be part of the next release.
Can you make animations with that? It would be great to see that destroyer ray in action.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on January 24, 2022, 09:30:06 PM
I am not sure if Simutrans can play an animation sequence for a tool? As far as I see, there is only one image defined per tool. So likely, no.

I'd like an animated beam there too, but honestly, that will be quite a challenge to make. First more weather industries.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on February 04, 2022, 08:18:40 PM
New tourist attraction: Floating islands!

Must see if I can give them some shadow ...
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Roboron on February 04, 2022, 11:08:19 PM
Tourists will be able to appreciate those weird floating trees!  :-X
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Leartin on February 06, 2022, 01:54:02 PM
Would be funny if there was a climate that looks like that and has a tourist attraction that's just a hole in the same shape. Or perhaps even in another pakset that looks similar enough.

Animated cursors are an interesting idea. Even a simple bobbing of a placement arrow could make the game look much nicer. An animation that's shown when the mouse is clicked could also be nice (or even just an alternate 'clicked' image - eg the saucer only shoots the ray while the mouse is pressed)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on February 06, 2022, 09:08:22 PM
I think the floating island needs some more work. At least I want to add shadows for the trees and rocks on top. Also see if I can add a shadow below. I really miss a good tile cutting tool, TileCutter doesn't work properly on my computer.

It seems I cut my latest creation again, which is something I don't look forward to. I think it would look better on a round base, not the square one. But let me present, The Mandelbrot Mountain!

Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Andarix on February 06, 2022, 09:15:43 PM
Quote from: _Hajo_ on February 06, 2022, 09:08:22 PM
I think the floating island needs some more work. At least I want to add shadows for the trees and rocks on top. Also see if I can add a shadow below. I really miss a good tile cutting tool, TileCutter doesn't work properly on my computer.
...

the best tool (https://simutrans-germany.com/wiki/wiki/de_GraphicsCutting) for me
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on February 06, 2022, 10:25:29 PM
Thanks. There was a bit on the page that helped - while the Linux version of TileCutter fails for me, if I run the TileCutter 0.6.1 Windows version, I get usable cuttings. That is a great time saver.

So, here comes the Mandel Mountain with a round base!
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on February 07, 2022, 07:55:07 PM
One more fractal. Next will be to improve the desert isle.

But today, the Julia Ridge!

I've attached the paks in case someone wants to check them out in game. The Mandel Mountain only spawns high up in the mountains. Julia Ridge is temperate climate
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on February 09, 2022, 07:21:55 PM
The improved desert isle.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on February 09, 2022, 11:46:06 PM
It looks almost like an upside-down mountain.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Yona-TYT on February 27, 2022, 07:31:22 PM
Sliced graphics.
(https://github.com/Yona-TYT/imgs/raw/main/Captura%20de%20pantalla%20de%202022-02-27%2015-25-53.png)
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on March 02, 2022, 03:22:11 PM
Looks like a remnant from my tests with TileCutter. In wich version did you find it? It's not been meant to be published, sorry for the mistake.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Yona-TYT on March 02, 2022, 08:05:26 PM
v0.9
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Andarix on January 16, 2024, 06:27:57 PM
The question arises as to what should happen to the Sourceforge repository now that there is also a GitHub repository.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: _Hajo_ on January 16, 2024, 07:47:45 PM
I'm not sure if this is still true, but in the past it was just not possible to delete repositories on Sourceforge. I have left Sourceforge and do my work now on Github. Consider the Sourceforge one abandoned.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Andarix on January 16, 2024, 08:08:34 PM
Then the Sourceforge repo should be emptied and a reference to GitHub should be set. Just like it was done with Pak128.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: prissi on January 17, 2024, 02:07:24 AM
I did that, sorry for not doing this earlier.
Title: Re: pak48.Excentrique
Post by: Andarix on January 24, 2024, 02:23:46 PM
Quote from: _Hajo_ on March 02, 2022, 03:22:11 PMLooks like a remnant from my tests with TileCutter. In wich version did you find it? It's not been meant to be published, sorry for the mistake.

0.19 RC3