OpenTTD saved games: 200806

Saved games for 20806 (~r13374 of OpenTTD). Saved games for 200806 from GY2023 onward

The 200806 game is a random 1024x512 temperate map. I have been playing multiplayer OpenTTD with the #openttdcoop people for a few weeks and I want to use some of the techniques I learned from them. (I should point out that I do NOT use all of what they consider best practices, and my games differ significantly from #openttdcoop style.)

This map started in 1970 (the zip file includes the save game from the start). I built a coal moneymaker which ran until 1974 and then continued to net about half a million every year. The company's bank balance remained at 4 million or so while building the main network.

Where I refer to game years, there may be a corresponding save file in the zip file (download link at top of page). This page is updated as I play the game.

Between 1974 and 1978 I built the mainline (ML). In this case it's a simple east-west 2-lane ML which drops at an "everything" station in the west. The "everything station" is the Main Drop. It has about 18 usable platforms, which is probably overkill. From there, 2 ML branches split back eastward along the north and south parts of the map, coming together to for the ML. That's where the 1978 savegame stands, as I type this.

I intend to build a steel mill in the center of the map. That station, and other stations, will straddle the ML on either side. Trains will run between these feeder stations and the main drop. Iron ore trains from ore mines will drop directly at the steel mill, using their own secondary MLs in the north and south halves of the map. The drop portion of the steel mill station will be terminus, facing east and west. All other stations on the ML will be ROROs (roll-on, roll-off). (I built the steel mill's ore drop as a RORO, just like the feeders.)

The other ML stations, the "feeders", will have receiving platforms on the outsides. The ML runs through the platform-free center and ML trains easily roll in and out of either half of the feeder, on their own side of the ML. This way the ML only crosses at the entrance to the main drop. Trains from primary industries, mines and so forth, will drop at their own dedicated platforms on the sides away from the ML (i.e. north and south of the feeder station).

I will build 2 feeders, one half-way between the main drop and the steel mill, and the other half-way between the steel mill and the east edge. There will be a goods drop at the east end of the ML, from where local trains can drop to a couple of random towns nearby; it will be a reverse feeder.

20080607: I just realised I need a goods pickup near the main drop. So the entrance for that will split off at ML well short of the main drop entrance, and the exit will join the ML after the main drop exit.

20080607, game year 1982: I have built 3 feeder stations. Their catchment areas are separated by canals. The station order from west to east is: main drop, steel pickup, ore drop, feeders 1 2 3, and goods drop. A goods pickup has been placed next to the main drop. Next, I will start primary service to the feeders, followed by feeder service along the ML, and lastly goods service. Factories will be built where needed.

20080613, game year 2012: I've had enough of connecting the feeder 1 catchment area. I've made several errors here, the biggest being the lack of one or two clear sidelines. Instead it's a hodge-podge of pseudo-sidelines and primary station lines, all interfering with each other. I think that the 2-lane mainline will also be insufficient once all the feeders have service.

At least the money-maker coal mines are now connected to the feeder. I was waiting for power stations near the main drop to die out so I could build my power station in a convenient spot. They didn't, so I built a coal drop short of the main drop, near a power station there.

I should have used priorities on the feeder-to-mainline connections but I didn't bother -- after all, they're all equal priority trains, right? Sure, but trains stopping on the ML cause the whole ML to back up. On the other hand, a busy or congested ML will deny access for the incoming line completely if a prio is used. That's why I didn't use prios.

20080621, by game year 2023 I have service from all feeders. I've realised I made the catchment area for feeder 1 too big. Also, the north side of that area is experiencing severe congestion. I may have to re-lay those lines.

20080622. I played 3 game years on a version of OTTD used by the coop people to test the YAPP patch (r13501M). That screwed up the saved game, I can't load it on a newer release (r13597) because the saved game contains data for the reserved track signals. So, I'm throwing away 3 game years of work (not that much, but tedious to re-do) and going back in time to GY2023. I've been on a time travel theme all weekend anyway: reading Poul Anderson's Annals of the Time Patrol, watching "A Sound of Thunder" and (weakly qualifying) "Triangle", and watching Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home.

20080623. Here are a couple of screenshots from game year 2028, showing two of the feeder stations:

By GY2040, I've had enough. Time for a new game (and it's a new month in real time!).