Topic: I have written a post about Simutrans. Is it good?

[arroyoc]

Hi all,

I've written an article about Simutrans in my gaming news site Gaming on Haiku. All what I told there is correct? Have I made silly mistakes?

I've been playing Simutrans for a long time but I'm not sure if it's too specific and only current players will understand or is too broad and people might not like the game.

Link: http://gamingonhaiku.cf/2016/07/29/simutrans/

[prissi]

It hink the english could use some final plishing ("lied to you" for instance), and it is quite steep slope at the very end. But as Simutrans description go, this is a better one.

[Ters]

I had to smile a bit when I read "Do you remember OpenTTD?", because I don't. I remember the original Transport Tycoon that was before the "sequel" that OpenTTD is a clone of. I must be getting old.

Since the post is in English, it would have been better to have screenshot of Simutrans in English as well. As for the English itself, it seems to be at its worst right before and right after the Paksets heading. There are a few other things there, which isn't directly language errors, and a bit technical. The first is that Simutrans is not really an engine either, as the code itself is feature complete and pak sets do not alter how the game works. Scripting is slowly adding some customization, but I don't think you can make as drastically different games out of it as is possible with a game engine. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a word for what Simutrans is. The other thing is that pak128 does not mean that buildings are "128 pixels". (Pixels what? Wide! Although strictly speaking, it's one of their diagonals, but that is absurd nitpicking.) It's the tile/grid size that is 128 pixels. As far as the player can see, buildings can be bigger than that. (Although within the code, it is indeed true that buildings in pak128 are 128 pixels wide. Bigger buildings are just an illusion.)

But in general, a good presentation. There is a lot of bad English on the Internet, even from native speakers.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

I like it, but I have a big concern: The example bus with two stops will never be profitable in Simutrans.

[Ters]

I like it, but I have a big concern: The example bus with two stops will never be profitable in Simutrans.

Huh? That really depends on the balancing of the pak set, doesn't it? And sometimes, one might have to start a line at a loss, to stimulate growth that will make it profitable later on. However, if the idea is to use this bus line as the foundation on which to build a transportation empire, then yes, that is probably not going to work in anything but sandbox mode. But I don't see this is a full blown starter guide. It just shows the minimum to get something just running. Of course, I guess an outsider might think of it as a starter guide, as it is quite close. Exactly what you should get running to cash in lots of money depends highly on the pak set, although so does the description of the buttons. In pak64, I probably would not have started with buses at all, or even passengers.

[arroyoc]

Ok, you're clever people, I'm not a native speaker 
However, I think that if I wrote these posts on Spanish nobody would read them...

One mistake is the "lie to sb" one. Are there any more easy-to-fix mistakes or is the problem related to how phrases are in general?

I had to smile a bit when I read "Do you remember OpenTTD?", because I don't. I remember the original Transport Tycoon that was before the "sequel" that OpenTTD is a clone of. I must be getting old.

I said OpenTTD because I had talked about OpenTTD before in the same website. Nothing against old people.

The first is that Simutrans is not really an engine either, as the code itself is feature complete and pak sets do not alter how the game works. Scripting is slowly adding some customization, but I don't think you can make as drastically different games out of it as is possible with a game engine. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a word for what Simutrans is.

I thought is was like an engine because paksets alter economics, and each pakset has different roads with different speeds so they aren't just "resources packs".

Thanks for replying!

[Ters]

I thought is was like an engine because paksets alter economics, and each pakset has different roads with different speeds so they aren't just "resources packs".

Last I checked, engines were pieces of generic game logic that were combined with custom pieces of game logic in order to make a specific game. Pak sets do not contain logic. They do not really alter the economics (simuconf.tab can do that, but that is also user customizable), they just provide prices. However, perhaps the biggest argument against calling Simutrans an engine, is that we don't call pak64 or pak128 games. When talking of Simutrans, we often have to ask people which pak set they are using, because they fail to mention. I don't think people primarily say they have been playing Source when they are playing Half-Life 2. (Nor do Half-Life and Counter Strike player hang out together at the Source-forum. Although for this particular engine, they could be hanging out at the Valve-forum.) But as I said, Simutrans is in a bit of a gray area.

One mistake is the "lie to sb" one. Are there any more easy-to-fix mistakes or is the problem related to how phrases are in general?

Some of the ones I could find quickly:

• "One thing to remind is that in Simutrans everything has a destination place"
• "lines will be void with nowhere inside" makes no sense to me
• "Excellent options for work with lines, industries, high-density traffic" should perhaps be "Excellent tools for working with lines, industries, high-density traffic", but I can't be really sure. Not that I agree that anything is good in Simutrans when traffic density is high.
• "Add stations to the route by doing clicking on the stations.

[An_dz]

Where you say "Enroute" it's "Schedule", this word does not exist in English.

You also mention helicopters, but I don't remember any pakset that offers helicopters.

"Does" is for the third person singular (He, She, It):
"If your lines doesn’t don't connect the original place with the destination, nobody will be on your vehicles, they will be empty."
"savegames doesn’t don't work between paksets.

[Ters]

Where you say "Enroute" it's "Schedule", this word does not exist in English.

Maybe not, but close enough that Wiktionary has a page for it. But even the, it's the wrong word. (I remember this word from Transport Tycoon, but years would pass before I found a definition of the word somewhere. Maybe it was misspelled there, hampering my search efforts.)

[An_dz]

Maybe not, but close enough that Wiktionary has a page for it. But even the, it's the wrong word.

As I said, it does not exist, it's just a common misspell. And even then it's just French and not English.

[Ters]

One can get philosophical on that one. Many words are nothing but common misspellings. (And all words in "real" languages are common mispronunciation.)

[An_dz]

All the languages in the world are just misspellings of their original languages.

Anyway, the big point is that the last person to use En route on daily speech in English has probably died in the 18th century.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Er… I use "en route" commonly. Although that's different than "enroute", I suppose.

[Ters]

Anyway, the big point is that the last person to use En route on daily speech in English has probably died in the 18th century.

I didn't realize Transport Tycoon was that old. Which would make it a science fiction game, I suppose. No wonder it was written in assembly.

[An_dz]

Er… I use "en route" commonly. Although that's different than "enroute", I suppose.

Always thought you say "in route".

I didn't realize Transport Tycoon was that old. Which would make it a science fiction game, I suppose. No wonder it was written in assembly.

Those British always surprise me