Industrial stations & extensions

[VS]

So... what do you think is the best colour variant... and what is still missing? I think the white is best, and consider adding one of these huge industrial lighting poles.

[ӔO]

I think the beige/cream looks best


what is missing? maybe a slightly larger 'watch step' black and yellow striping?

[mEGa]

I agree with AEO.

[greenling]

vs
The Photo looks good out!

[VS]

Okay! Any further opinions now?

I am not sure if this is too empty, or empty enough for the purpose...

[ӔO]

I think it looks great. The entrance for the ramp areas should be kept clean.

But, if you wanted to, boxes or pallets opposite the booth might not be bad.

[VS]

Thanks This does look reasonably fitting, maybe... What next? Suggest a tile?

Actually, what kind of tile would need to be "high"? I think staying on the ground without artificial raising would be preferred for most installations. Only things that need connecting with (some types of) rail platforms require same height, sort of...

[ӔO]

For the empty tiles?

Maybe some ISO containers, pallets of boxes, some trailers and fork lift?

Some sort of barrier, like a fence comes to mind, but I'm not sure how well that will work with the various tiles.

[VS]

Yes, containers and crates are what I thought, too. Machinery to manipulate these sounds good, too.

Fences would be really ugly, or... dunno. Player would have to manually place the tiles in correct rotation. That is, if these were based on buildings, like this. They can be ways (like paths in pak96.comic). Of course using rotating buildings means I would have to paint only two 4-rotation tiles (straight & corner).

Still, I'd prefer to make items that an average player will find enjoyable in the basic package, without scratching his head too much what goes where and what combines with what. (Sources will be fully available so that this is an open option for others.)

[gwalch]

Some containers... and maybe a crane ?
For exemple :

This one was built in 1901 !

[Zeno]

I worked in one, but it was much more modern... and I never finished it :(
I think the containers were a bit too big, and there's a lack of light maybe...

[greenling]

Zeno
The Container crane on the Photo looks be nice out!

[mEGa]

@ Zeno,
It's a pity for containers because it looks good !
Your idea is nice because she get a lot of realism.

@Gwalch

Good idea !

[VS]

Go, Zeno, go! We can split the work

[Zeno]

Heh... would you suggest smaller containers? I think the current ones (the ones in the station itself) are too small, I'd have done them a little bigger. Mine could be a bit smaller, that's true... maybe we can get to an arrangement though. Also I could repaint the station too with "new" containers on it. I'll look for the sources when I'm back at home tonight.

I will also look for other stations I may have... I can remember about steel and wood ones probably, but not sure.

Edit: This one I made for container was 2x3 big... probably a "small" version of 1x2 would be nice also. That old crane doesn't match containers, but could use some boxes or pallets instead for pre-1960 aprox.

[VS]

The containers on station are probably these used on cars, too, thus < 1/2 tile. A compromise in size would be nice

[Zeno]

I think they will be very near to 1/2 tile, which keeps being a bit small for me... Let me test it anyway and post some pics (an image is worthier than 1000 words!  ).

[Zeno]

Made some changes. Added more light and containers are now 0.8 times 1/2 tile.
Tilecutter only lets me cut the south direction, doesn't change the mask if I add another direction, so at the moment is single direction version (although I have sources for all 4 views). I'll check versions tomorrow, maybe there's an update out there.

[sdog]

while it looks rather good, building a crane that way wouldn't allow loading trains.

Is it possible to have the superstructure exceed the tile (I'm thinking of oversized planes) in a way to allow a platform tile be built below one side of the crane. The crane would run parallel to the rails. (I assume platform tiles can't be more than one tile wide.)

Some markings, for road vehicles and where containers may or may not be placed would look good on the concrete below the crane.

[Zeno]

Yep, the crane should move along the rails, I know. But there's no way to do that in simutrans other than giving the user a puzzle set of different tiles to build each station :(

[martin]

I think it looks great and surely don't want to spoil the fun but shouldn't it be better to make it look like the in this image?

[VS]

Nothing can be (reliably) on one tile of station and anything else at once. (If that's what you mean.)

Shape of crane... I'm not expert

[martin]

Actually my idea is to rotate the crane and cranetracks 90 degrees so that they come in parallel with the railtracks. The crane can then hover above the railtracks...  IIRC there is also a harbourcrane (pak64?) with part of it hovering above the water.

containers must then be moved through te legs of the crane to the station. Maybe the legs should then be placed al little further apart. 

[Zeno]

Just an idea, but we could include a rail station in the extension, not usable of course, but would give a nice look to it. What do you think?

[ӔO]

Just an idea, but we could include a rail station in the extension, not usable of course, but would give a nice look to it. What do you think?

Sounds like the doorway to a full revamp of the cargo platforms and cargo station extensions.

[Zeno]

Well, got this one in mind, and a couple of simple rail/empty platforms with logs (wood) and planks/pipes (steel) on it, same style than ttd, that are already almost done. I always wanted to start such a project, but also always find the same difficulties: it's rather "easy" for me to create those models and have the renders done, but every time I have to open GIMP/other to finish the stuff (repair seams between platforms, etc) I always end giving up :(

[VS]

Zeno: I am not sure about the tradeoff between "looking right" and "working right". It would be good to show clearly that the track is "off limits" for vehicles in some way (maybe put some wagons there?).

ӔO: Details? Most of the stations so far are definitely good, so I'm curious what improvements would you expect?

[Zeno]

Probably AEO is talking about bumping this thread again.
About the extension, I was thinking exactly that: some wagons stopped in a "terminal" rail, just below the crane. I'll test something probably tomorrow.

[mEGa]

Why do not create 2 stucks for this addons ?
- One of 1 tile across the rail (number 1 in snapshot)
- One of several tiles for plateform storage of containers ? (number 2)

And why not use next part road plateform ? (number 3

I know : it will be difficult to arrange crane with front and back image.

[greenling]

vilvoh
has be make crans they be go over a Road and Track!

[Zeno]

The problem mEGa, is that you need a minimum of 4 icons in the menu bar to build that station, plus a user manual in order let people know how to build the station properly. That's the problem. Creating the station graphics is not a problem itself, just a matter of hours.

[VS]

Zeno said it better than me. BUT. GUYS, GUYS, DO YOU KNOW WHAT!?!

It is possible to create buildings with a hole in the middle, and you can build a station there! The screenshot shows a situation where all the 4 plain tiles are one building, and then a station is built through the empty space in the middle.

I will investigate how this works with front images, and if it is possible to stay with 128 as base tile size even for such "bridged" buildings.

This would mean one can create even truck terminals with the same crane, just build road in the middle instead of track

[Fabio]

Awesome!

Actally it's something I've been wanting to test for ages, but never started...

The middle tiles could be - at ground floor and have an image from the second level up... or so I wanted to try...

[Zeno]

Wow... let's make some tests then!
The only thing I have thought is to ask as extension the use of "macros" for buttons, I mean, a button that could be configured to build certain things in certain positions with some defined order: track+station+extension, that way wouldn't be necessary to change the current internal structure of stations (single tile) and extensions (multi tile).

edit: the problem though will be extending the crane over the "empty" hole in the building; we will need to increase the tile size of the structures, but having to cut the drawing with tilecutter I'm not sure whether that will be doable or not :-/

[Ashley]

Oh, yeah, I knew about this years ago (and was pondering how to cope with it in TileCutter). Never got around to a solution, and as this shows it's not a particularly well used feature (until now?)