My network ended up with 890 trains that travelled around a ML ring. Since all the primary stations where on the ML the game ended up only having MSH and BBHs. This meant that I have to balance all of the tracks on and off the main loop. The loop was LLL_RRR most of the way around excluding the northern section which was LL_RR and L_R only in some sections.

When I originally built the factory area is was a small 8 platform station with 1 entrance and 1 exit. It evolved into a 16 platform station with 3 entrance and exit lines which are each in turn mixed over the ML in all directions

This image is of the busy LLL_RRR MSH to the factory drop where the main line turns 90 degrees. The factory is serviced by Grain, Livestock and Steel and has a monthly output of around 12,000 crates of goods. With this game I have transported every Cargo type that it is possible to transport. This has resulted in many interesting track combinations and layouts.

I started the game without a network plan (this is never a good idea). I used a B2B style game, where I used a fix TL of 5 tiles, and a fixed loco (RE 4600) from the 2cc set. This train is very good for passengers and goods as it is very fast, and has a high tractate effort, which means it won’t slow while pulling loads up long grades.

My first line linked the forests of Drefingway-on-sea to the sawmill at Fultborough. When first built this link was L_R only. Over time demand from the forests and other trains on the network meant I had to upgrade the line to LLL_RRR most of the way for this link.

I also dedicated 2 large cities on the map which I transported passengers between and I also dropped all of my goods at these 2 cities. Both cities ended up to have more than 200,000 population and where close to very busy junctions within my network.

To handle to traffic I made sure each industry had its own area on the map. This meant that I could dictate cargo direction to the drops in order to balance the network. This can be seen in many locations around the map.
If you want to see my full works please download my saved game file: Blog Game

To run the game you will need openttdcoop GRF pack 7.3, and all other GRFs can be found on bananas. You will also need r18985 or later

Mountain photos by photographer Jef Maion

Check these pictures and get some impressions. The scenery is just awesome.

We had some troubles with a first start on a small (256×256 tiles), crowded map. The AI died after very short time (where both we and the AI were approx. performing equally well). Unfortunately an AI cannot be re-vived after it crashes. Then we decided to go with a passenger only game on a slightly larger map: 512 tiles squared and no industry, only NewGRF in use was LongVehicles which allows decent busses. Starting year was 2000.

After some initial discussion about the map we decided to go for a ICE / S-bahn concept and picked two areas which we wanted to start with. In order to match somewhat the building speed of the AI we assigned the different areas (terminal1, terminal2, s-bahn1, s-bahn2, intercity connection) to different people and then we unpaused the server to start.

And it didn’t look well in the beginning for us coopers. We managed to build the two ICE terminals with one train and barely some basic feeders to them. Money was scarce and the AI was already making good money. Slowly though the feeders grew and the train(s) started to generate considerable revenue. Once the trains ran fully loaded between the ICE terminals, our revenue sky rocketed and after three years we had about twice the income of that of the 2nd best. Soon then we developed a 3rd and 4th metropolitan area with each its own ICE terminal and feeder system, providing good service and thus also taking passengers from the AI competitors.

Company value of the companies. Coop as usual in orange, AdmiralAI in pink

Company revenues

After the 5th year we decided to stop the game as the winner was clear and our motivation to started to drop – probably also due to the hour of the day

It has to be noted though, that the AIs only worked with busses while we generated our income from long distance, high velocity (305 km/h monorail) trains. Therefore our transported distance was on average further while the speed certainly wasn’t slower.
Another thing worth noticing is the user interface to giving orders. If it comes to a time efficient system the mouse only interface started to really slow us down, especially in the 2nd half of the game where we were generating more money than we could spend jointly together. So, if someone has some good ideas and also an idea how to implement it: please! Very much welcome so.

Saves from the games are available here, the final save is this.

Company performances

Our income table after five years of playing

Despite the fact that we won this game – difficulty will be harder on a smaller map as we saw in the first, crashed test game. Also, of course, we profited a lot from good co-ordination, using teamspeak a lot and some advance planning before the game started. One player alone couldn’t have achieved what we did – this was coopetition at its best . And it’s a lot of fun to play against competent opponent AIs who just build sensibly and don’t destroy the landscape. Let’s hope for a future where the AIs might even get stronger and both, the AI (developers) and we, might learn from eachother!

See more screenshots here (by dihedral).

If you now think that it was a great event and it should be repeated: we may do so. Suggestions, critizism and remarks are collected on the corresponding wiki page. Please add your observations and comments there – they may help to improve things the next time

Please feel free to join, open your company or join an existing one (don’t use individual company pw here. Server has maybe pw ‘coop’ or no pw) and extensively test this feature. Besides being a really nice feature for the usual multiplayer games, giving them a completely new dimension, this patch is, if tested successfully, also a nice, big step forward to maybe a next incarnation of the next wwottdgd (World wide OTTD gaming day) with much more than just 10 clients connected – a real co-opetition event .

So far available: r13031IS.diff, linux binary (32bit), OS-X (intel) binary and Win binary

The goal of the game is to get a good public transportation running by interaction of different players. And this is where it gets fun, multiple people try to compete to get a consession or people try to get to a general solution to a problem.

All of this is done based on the Dutch railnetowrk, roads and governments so it is mostly for Dutch players, although the only prerequisite for taking part in this roleplay is that you are able to speak Dutch. So I invite all of the Dutch people reading this to come and join NOVS.nl

I might also note that a bit of general knowledge about trains/busses/trucks etc might be useful although I have done perfectly without knowing a thing on certain areas.

Before introduction of shared facilities (thanks to TrueBrain again) this would only be possible if done within same company, however now situation is slightly changed.
I propose using 5 companies, one being Global company that creates port facilities on tips of all 4 continents close to middle and facilitates cargo echange with huge ships (thanks to thgergo’s mod). The global company will only own stations and ships on that level and ships will have relatively small voyages (<100 tiles hopefully). Both sides that do the processing and colelction of cargo will get their share of the income, due to patch features. Other companies, each of 4 taking one sector will fit in for party processing one and collecting other raw materials. Separation of companies adds some competative element as well as letting us to see graphs and proportions of cargoes (hopefully that will ease up future management). Based on the map layout i suggest this:

As far as i can see this balanced in terms of flow and each continent is producing secondary that can be either delviered somewhere as well. Depending how well the game goes “somewhere” can be foreign town, global HQ city or at worst case some local delivery. Two primary cargo types – grain and wood – can be processed at 2 continents so one acts as primary consumer and another as secondary, exact proportions are to be defined in game by throughput and efficiency of involved sides. Another activity, if desired, can come out of later pax/mail/valuables transportation between continets.

To make it more intreresting for participants we can have some fixed arrangement with players being signed for specific company and working exclusively in designated area while collaborating with other parties in terms of goals. The global side is going to be there only for show and as money distributer (some money will be made on ships, if more needed – it can built airports and start airtraffic between 5 high population cities in different parts of the map).

At this point of time i am aiming it more for a Member Zone game. Perhaps, some pier stretching will be desired to limit ship travel time even further (YAPF and NPF will not be available to ships, but still they somewhat affect performance) but aside of that it can be a nice eye candy-ish game since landscape is friendly and quite a few town are scatared along the coasts. Aside of that it is pretty much shaped up as an idea and i am finishing the map as well.

The only turnoff for people was that they had some problems with that it wasn’t as easy as it used to be, failing to like a good challance from time to time. This aren’t a kind of game to be played several times in a row, but one here and then forces you to think outsite the box about how to build diffent things, but it have to be on a relatively flat map if possible to make it that tiny bit easier with fewer lakes than the game we had. they are a pain to bypass unless you ‘cheat’ with canals at waterline paired with liberal use of dynamite, though it could debated weather it is some kind of terraforming or not.

It’s a new game type we want to try with our community. Goals are – realistic functionality and eyecandy looks. Where possible – based on historical/geographical data and very minor landscaping (aside of breaking long bridges). The end result should not look exactly as current europe railway map, but it should feel close to that, being combined cargo and pax game.

Major rules:

• Deliver to closest. No, your wheat from Warsaw is not needed in Portugal, they can get it from Spain!
• No visible walking of primaries, put stations somewhere close
• Longer trains, suggested train length 11 or more tiles (2 engines 20 cars)
• Steam/Diesel only for primaries, Electro locos for secondaries and pax, wagon speedlimits
• Preferably one kind of cargo per primary station
• Use of trucks for collecting goods from few local primaries into railway transfer terminals
• Restrictions on amount of trains per source station – worry less about industry/cargo ratings. Total capacity of all trains – around five times monthly cargo output (i.e 2 industries produce 100 and 400 cargo units per month, station handling these insudtries, with train capacity of 600 units, should have no more than 5 trains
• Towns/Cities have one station per 10k of population, preferably in current suburbs, trams for shuttles

Few notes on network style: due to geographical and landscape limitations we might start with few relatively large but not very connected cargo networks. Deliver-to-closest means no map wide drops but several regional (country?) drops. Wagon speed limits implies that trains will be moving at different speeds and some precautions need to be taken for splitting fast and slow moving traffic. Here is the suggestion that keeps layout simple, but coping with speed segregation (like it is done in real life): I recommend using 2 lane Mainlines with unhubbed express lane. This greatly simplifies SLH design and lets trains pick faster moving lane, although it still will be affected by same set of issue but in less limiting form.

Since there will be regional visual separation of cargonetwork we donâ??t have to make them all alike, in some places simple L_R might do just fine and in other LL_RR might be used. However keep it as less bulky as possible.

Also this X-ML concept should only apply to cargo network, later in game wi will get to point of having to deal with large quantity of passengers and most likely will move into cross-country fast passengers lanes, similar to TGV. These will be based on separate network and have most likely be maglev, emulating realworld solution for same problem.

Close destination, expensive trains, wagon speedlimits, station train quantity regulation and other perks are bound to make this game challenging and in most cases company situation will be strugling. Which means we should closely observe efficiency of existing network and expand gradually, pick most lucrative and least expensive solutions. Some unprofitable lanes/solution might have to be modified, optimized and perhaps even abandoned or removed.

Be prepared for having to watch your train income closely just to be able to survive…

As you may imagine, local authorities were not amused about Kasimasi Transports’ proposal. Both sides agreed on a clause about noise barriers, afforestation and environmental efforts carried out by the train company. As you may see on this aerial photo, Menway-on-sea received both a highly efficient commuter system and a link to the nationwide high-speed-train network.