Stockpiles of cargo

Question

I've seen some screenshots on OpenTTD websites of what look like stockyards next to industries/stations. How do I create these?

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Asked by nickf

Answer

Those are NewGRF stations; using, I believe, the "Industrial Stations Renewal".

They can be downloaded and installed from within the game, using the "Check Online Content" button. There are a lot of cool NewGRFs, some containing new station looks, some containing new trains.

Answered by Williham Totland

Check more discussion of this question.

How can I assigning specific depots to trains?

Question

Is there a way to tell a train to which depot it "belongs"?

Because it frequently happens to me, that my trains leave their normal route and head to depots on some other tracks (probably they just happen to be closer than the normal depot at the time when my train decides to need repairs).
Then it often happens that two trains get stuck somehow.

Asked by Peter

Answer

When giving trains orders, you can make it 'go to' a depot just as you might tell it to pass through waypoints and stations. By default 'always go' is selected, which means the train is forced to undergo servicing whenever it reaches that point in the list of orders. By changing the condition on the right, you can make sure that the trains only use the depot when needed.

By doing this you essentially take over responsibility for the train's maintenance - the train will not use any other depot and only use the assigned depot when the order is reached. See: http://wiki.openttd.org/Servicing for more information

Answered by Yi Jiang

Check more discussion of this question.

How fast are those planes really moving?

Question

Even though the listed speed for planes are 951 km/h and the listed speed for maglev trains are 643 km/h, the trains seems to be moving at a much faster speed. In fact, I have a section of track that ran right by the flight path and the train regularly speeds past the planes. Are planes worth the effort since their so high maintenance and are at risk of crashes?

Asked by yx.

Answer

I haven't looked at the code myself, but I believe the km/h speeds have no direct relationship to the squares on the board and how fast the vehicles move -- they are color text. Clearly the differential between a 100 km/h train and 600 km/h is not 6x.

Imho, planes are not worth it -- openttd for me is all about the trains and maybe some road vehicles to move passengers from the inner city to bimodal stations lying a bit further away. But YMMV. I also turn off all maintenance/breakdown options and never use the AI; I'm a pure sandbox player.

Now you made me want to play it again. Here's the link to the site for anyone who is wondering what we're talking about:OpenTTD

Answered by ohmi

Check more discussion of this question.

How to increase icon size in OpenTTD

Question

Is there a way to increase icon size (e.g. the menu icons) in OpenTTD? The default size is much to small for high pixel density screens (e.g. 17" Laptop with 1920x1200).

Asked by EricSchaefer

Answer

You can try using the Big GUI NewGRF, which doubles the size of all GUI components in the game.

First, download the NewGRF package:

Next, activate the NewGRF package by using the 'add' button and apply changes.

Answered by Yi Jiang

Check more discussion of this question.

How is the price for delivering cargo calculated?

Question

I understand that the price you get for transporting cargo goes lower every day, but when does this deduction start? Does it start when the industry delivers the goods to the station or when the train picks it up?

Asked by OMGKurtNilsen

Answer

The amount you get paid is depend on the type of good, the amount of time it spends in transit (not time spent waiting to be delivered*) and the distance delivered. The formula for the penalty, taken from the wiki, is:

• For each day after the Early Delivery time that you deliver the cargo, you are penalized 0.4%.
• For each day after the Late Delivery time that you deliver the cargo, you are penalized an additional 0.4%.
• Maximum penalty is 88%.

The Early Delivery Time, Late Delivery Time and Initial Cargo Payment can be found at the Wiki. Initial Cargo Payment is subjected to inflation.

You can also find a (less detailed, but more easy to understand) graph inside your game by going to Graphs > Cargo Payment Rates. It looks something like this:

As you can see, this matches the Wiki's formula, where certain goods have flat payment rates for certain period of time before the penalty kicks in, and after a certain point the line becomes steeper as the second late penalty kicks in.

---

^{* The amount of good waiting to be delivered at a station affects the station ratings, which in turn affects what fraction of goods the industries served by that station will give to the station to deliver.}

Answered by Yi Jiang

Check more discussion of this question.

Icon Size in OpenTTD

Question

Is there a way to increase icon size (e.g. the menu icons) in OpenTTD? The default size is much to small for high pixel density screens (e.g. 17" Laptop with 1920x1200).

Asked by EricSchaefer

Answer

You can try using the Big GUI NewGRF, which doubles the size of all GUI components in the game.

First, download the NewGRF package:

Next, activate the NewGRF package by using the 'add' button and apply changes.

Answered by Yi Jiang

Check more discussion of this question.

Can towns be founded during a game in OpenTTD?

Question

I just started a small map (64x64), and there is only one town. It's 1890 and I don't know if I'll have to play the entire game with just one town.

Can another town appear during the game? Can I found a new town?

Asked by Nacho

Answer

There is an advanced setting that allows you to found towns during the game. It can be configured during a game and turning it on will allow you to found a new town.

More information can be found at: http://wiki.openttd.org/Advanced_Settings/Economy#Founding_towns_in_game

Once it is turned on, founding a new town is available from the Town List under the 'town' menu. (see comment below)

Answered by Chris Browne

Check more discussion of this question.

How do you handle a station that is both a source and a destination for a resource?

Question

I have a large station with a forest on one end and a sawmill on the other. Wood is piling up in the station; does any portion of it get consumed directly by the sawmill? What do I need to do to get the rest of it consumed as well (preferably by the same sawmill)?

Asked by fbrereto

Answer

This station is exactly like a passenger station that both generates and accepts passengers:

• the wood that is being generated there needs to be taken to another station that accepts wood.
• the station will accept wood from other sources, but never from itself.

None of the cargo is "absorbed" by the local sawmill - you will need to transport all of it away, and if you want that local sawmill to generate goods you will need to transport wood in from another source.

Answered by DMA57361

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I send money to other companies?

Question

There is an Advanced Setting: 'Allow sending money to other companies.' I have it ON. How do I actually send money?

Answer

This is only possible in multiplayer.

To transfer money to other companies, you need to pen the company list menu and click "Client list" to see which clients are connected and what company they are playing for.

If you click on a particular client, you have will have a list of various options. There is one that says "Give money" - click on that, and then you are able to give up to £20,000,000 to the selected client.

Check more discussion of this question.

Can you combine two existing stations in openTTD?

Question

I recently started a new openTTD game, and forgot to hit ctrl while putting down my first airport near a bus station. I want the passenger service of both to merge together, but I'd rather not write off the airport's cost as a loss.

Is this possible?

Answer

No, you cannot merge two stations after they are built. You can however rebuild one of them and then join them back in with the other station.

Check more discussion of this question.

Can AIs manage elements of my company for me?

Question

I recently found an AI for OpenTTD that sets up feeder bus stops in cities and sends them to an airport. What I'd like to be able do is not compete against this AI, but rather have this AI manage cities for me for which I have an airport built. Is such a thing possible, or do AIs exist strictly as competition?

Answer

At present, AIs are exclusively for competition. This is probably in part because OpenTTD, more so than its progenitors, is a multiplayer game, and giving players access to that kind of automated tools would damage game balance.

There might exist patches that'll let you offload certain aspects onto AIs, but that carries with it its own set of problems (compatibility with trunk saves, for one, and also the fact that quite a few patches appear in one version, remain supported for a few version, and then wither).

Additionally, half the fun of a game like OpenTTD is all the micromanagement. ;)

Side note:

One patch designed to alleviate some micromanagement issues, albeit in a different maner from what you describe, is cargodist, which is well-supported and popular, but the above notes on versions and support still applies.

Check more discussion of this question.

Is it possible to do a mass replacement of aging vehicles?

Question

I have a bunch of vehicles in need of replacement due to old age. I am aware of the vehicle autoreplacement feature, but that seems to only allow for the migration of one vehicle to another (instead of just decomissioning an older vechicle and replacing it with an exact duplicate.)

Is it possible to auto-replace aged vehicles with identical (newer) equivalents?

Answer

Go into Advanced Settings, then Vehicles, then Autorenew. Turn on "Autorenew Vehicle when it gets old", then set the other two options in that menu to the values of your choice.

I believe that vehicles will only autorenew when they pass a depot during their normal routes, but I haven't tested this.

Check more discussion of this question.

What's the difference between One-Way Signal and One-Way Path Signal?

Question

I really wonder what's the difference between one way signal and one way Path signal. I know they're not the same but my trains work with both of them. Also, building one way signal is slightly harder than building the path one.

Answer

One-way signals reserve a signal block between it and the next signal.

One-way path signals reserve an individual path between it and the next signal. This allows 2 trains to be on the same signal block at the same time, so long as they have paths that don't cross.

From the wiki:

The two new signal types behave a bit differently than standard OpenTTD signal types. The Path signals are red by default, and will only show green as soon as a train can reserve a path to the next safe waiting position on its route. Safe waiting positions are - by definition - in front of signals, depots and track ends. The back of a Path signal is not considered a safe waiting position, and therefore paths are reserved through these signals.

Because the front of every signal is defined as a safe waiting position, you would normally not want to place a signal immediately behind a junction, only in front of a junction. This is because it is only safe for a train to wait in front of a junction. It is not safe for a a train to wait at a signal immediately after a junction before the whole train has cleared the junction, as it would be blocking the junction while waiting, as illustrated in the example below. This is a major advantage against standard OpenTTD signals, where you had to place signals before and after junctions, which caused trains to block junctions while waiting.

For straight track and basic merges/splits, I stick to normal one-way signals. I use path signals for forks that have 4 or more tracks, as this is where they start to benefit.

Path signals also can behave similar to entry/exit signals, although entry/exit signals have uses that path can't fully achieve. For instance, entry/exit signals will cause trains to take longer routes if a path is blocked, while path signals may wait. This can be used to construct balancers and other helpful constructs.

Check more discussion of this question.

Can priorities be constructed diagonally?

Question

In OpenTTD, is it possible to create priorities with diagonal tracks?

Here is a straight priority for reference:

I want the other track to have priority.

Answer

I'm not at home at the moment, so can't build a "real" example, but the answer is Yes, you can build a priority junction diagonally.

This butchering of your original image should demonstrate how:

Basically, you must ensure the track crossing the junction and prioritised line cannot be accessed by any train, then the signal placement is effectively the same.

Check more discussion of this question.

Where do bus passengers want to go in OpenTTD

Question

I have just started a new game and built four bus stations in a city (2000 pop.). Now one has over 300 passengers waiting and the others have nearly nothing.

Is there any way for me to determine where they want to go?

Answer

They'll go anywhere. Passengers in OpenTTD are treated just like any other types of goods - sent them to the next block, or 3000 miles away (preferably through something faster than a bus) and they'd happily pay you for the trip. Supply and acceptance of passengers are separate, and do not affect each other.

The problem you're having is probably because the stations are overlapping each other too much - meaning they are competing with each other for passenger. You're also building some of them out of the town, which means that though they accept and supply passenger, in reality, the amount is minuscule.

What you would really want to do at this stage of the game is to build one or two station in the center of that town, then transport the passenges picked up there to another town (preferably of similar population, or two smaller towns), so that you are covering enough distance to get a good sum of money out of each trip.

Check more discussion of this question.

OpenTTD: Can AIs manage elements of my company for me?

Question

I recently found an AI for OpenTTD that sets up feeder bus stops in cities and sends them to an airport. What I'd like to be able do is not compete against this AI, but rather have this AI manage cities for me for which I have an airport built. Is such a thing possible, or do AIs exist strictly as competition?

Answer

At present, AIs are exclusively for competition. This is probably in part because OpenTTD, more so than its progenitors, is a multiplayer game, and giving players access to that kind of automated tools would damage game balance.

There might exist patches that'll let you offload certain aspects onto AIs, but that carries with it its own set of problems (compatibility with trunk saves, for one, and also the fact that quite a few patches appear in one version, remain supported for a few version, and then wither).

Additionally, half the fun of a game like OpenTTD is all the micromanagement. ;)

Side note:

One patch designed to alleviate some micromanagement issues, albeit in a different maner from what you describe, is cargodist, which is well-supported and popular, but the above notes on versions and support still applies.

Check more discussion of this question.

Can multiple trains use a bridge or tunnel at the same time?

Question

Is there a setting to permit multiple trains in a tunnel or across a bridge at one time? I can't seem to find anything related to it, yet I would imagine with more complicated layouts this kind of setting would become essential.

If it is not possible, what are some tips/tricks to maximize crowded traffic through longer tunnels or bridges?

Answer

There are two relatively simple tricks you can use here:

1. Split the bridge/tunnel in twain, by digging a hole in the middle of the mountain or building a small island in the middle of the bay; big enough to place signals on.

2. Double (or triple) up on the bridge/tunnel in both directions.

For best results, combine both approaches, but do watch the money meter: both of these things can be pretty expensive.

Check more discussion of this question.

How do you handle a station that is both a source and a destination for a resource?

Question

I have a large station with a forest on one end and a sawmill on the other. Wood is piling up in the station; does any portion of it get consumed directly by the sawmill? What do I need to do to get the rest of it consumed as well (preferably by the same sawmill)?

Answer

This station is exactly like a passenger station that both generates and accepts passengers:

• the wood that is being generated there needs to be taken to another station that accepts wood.
• the station will accept wood from other sources, but never from itself.

None of the cargo is "absorbed" by the local sawmill - you will need to transport all of it away, and if you want that local sawmill to generate goods you will need to transport wood in from another source.

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I configure a station exclusively for drop-off or loading in Open TTD?

Question

I have an industry whose station is getting pretty overloaded. What I'd like to do is create a second station in the vicinity of the industry and use the stations exclusively for unloading of raw materials and loading of goods, respectively. Can it be done?

Answer

You can't manually control what stations collect what goods, it's not a function the game provides, but stations simply react to vehicles and will attempt to get any type of good that a vehicle tries to take, once a station starts to collect a good it will do so forever (until it is fully destroyed).

So, if you create two stations a ways apart, and then tell vehicles to only load at one, and only unload at the other:

Then it should work like you want:

See how Grutburg gathers passengers, and Grutburg Central doesn't?

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I avoid the warning about my station being too spread out and build a bigger station?

Question

Adjacent to one of my cities is one of the larger airports. Adjacent to that I'd like to place as large a train station as possible. However when I attempt to place a 7x7 station I get an error message telling me the station is too spread out. How do I avoid such an error?

(I also have bus and truck depots on the periphery of the airport as well.)

Answer

Assuming you don't want to break the station in to separate stations and use a load of feeder links, you will need to tweak the advanced option that limits your maximum station spread.

This advanced setting (specifically Stations→Max station spread) can be adjusted to values between 4 and 64, with a default of 12, and determines the maximum size square that can be allowed to bound each station (whether compound or not).

The recommendation is to only increase this if you are using the YAPF pathfinder, but this is the default so if you've never tweaked that setting there's no need to worry.

For more information, you can see the wiki entries for the setting and station spread.

If you need a station larger than 64 by 64, well then I think you're stuck (and possibly doing it wrong).

Check more discussion of this question.