PSG #108: back to basics

Today with the release of the new grf pack we also started a new game on our publicserver. The game type chosen for this game is a back to basics style with gradual expansion of the infrastructure.
The town of Mudworth with an ICE station
Mudworth, nicely situated within lush, green woods with a small tram network and a regional ICE terminal. The express trains in 1920s are still steam powered and the 1st class coaches ensure a joyfull and comfortable journey.

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A new server

Maybe you’ve noticed that there is an imbalance between the activity of the PublicServer and the MemberZone. We as members couldn’t help but notice this and deviced a plan to change this, this lead to an all new server called the ProZone. The ProZone will be replacing the MemberZone but it will have a different guideline for allowing people on the server. The main difference is that you don’t have to be a member anymore to play on it but it will mean that you have to be a good enough player to be able to join us. Read the rest of this entry »

Busses, Highways and the common Bus Driver

Today planetmaker and I did a nice test game to prepare for another competition against NoAI opponents. Of course we are interested in a real comparable competition and want, therefore, only build road vehicles. A wise preparation is necessary, otherwise we might get a nasty surprise.
We tested the behavior of road vehicles, intersections and bus stops.

Bus Stop
A Bus Terminal
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#openttdcoop vs. AI

Yesterday evening we had mostly spontaneous hit at testing some of the new AIs which are around for the NoAI branch which is currently very actively developed for OpenTTD. Using r13726-noai loaded with 2x convoy (written by GeekToo) and 1x AdmiralAI (written by Yexo), the team of Ammler, Mucht, Osai, dihedral and myself set out to have a measure on the playing strength of the current AIs. Later Tim joined in on us. Yexo, the creator AdmiralAI, of one of the best AI around (see tournament chart), supervised the AIs and took care of the general setup.
Terminal 2 - one of our starting terminals

Terminal2 and the adjacent town – one end of our initial rail line. We haven’t been alone there since the very beginning.

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Videos and Video Plugin updated

Videos UpdatedI finally updated all the movies and changed the format from flv to mpeg4. The new flash video player supports this format too and its easier to handle for me (encoding etc.) and more popular than flv. Besides I implemented the Simple Flash Video Plugin 1.5 which combines shadowbox and JW FLV MEDIA PLAYER 4.0.

The current setup will allow a much easier and more functional implementation of videos. I hope, I can publish more interesting videos soon. If you experience any issues with the new video plugin report it at the IRC channel or send an email.

You can find all our video posts in the Video Category