Modern train stations set v0.9242
Thank you very much for downloading the Modern Train Stations Set (MTSS), made by Red*Star (graphics) and XeryusTC (coding). This document explains how the MTSS came into existence and how you can use it. If you find bugs in the newgrf (or this readme) then please report them to any of the contributors (preference goes to XeryusTC). Suggestions and opinions are of course also always welcome.
The reason for the existence of this readme is that although we tried to implement every part of the MTSS as intuitive-usable as possible, it obviously was a good idea to put some guideline at hand to that parts that are a little bit complicated. That means: Especially the large stations.
The stations
A little foreword: The station creation with OpenTTD and TTDPatch is normally a straightforward process. Anyway, exceptions prove the rule: There are some stations that need a special creation process in order to look "good". "Good" in the artist's eyes. Of course you may completely ignore the following suggestions and try to make your own station layout. You may find some good combinations of features we and the other people have not found. If so, feel also free to let others participate in your new discovery by posting it on the Transport Tycoon forums or wherever you want.
The meaning of the tablecells in the sections named "Suggested layout(s)" are the following:
| no building | |
| tracks | |
| station building | |
| station building with tracks | |
| = | area is horizontally stretchable |
| || | area is vertically stretchable |
| o | area is stretchable in both directions |
Alderville (AV)
This is a two story station where the platforms are on the lower level and the station building is located on the upper level. The bridge is always located two tiles from the north unless the station is one to three tiles long. The forecourt should be built in a way to let the middle of the three tiles match the position of the bridge.
(!) There are some known bugs with this station.
Suggested layout(s)
| || | || | || |
| = | = | |||
| o | || | || | || | o |
| = | = |
Creation example
Step 1: Create or pick an appropriate building site.
Step 2: Well... build :-).
Berlin main station (BMS)
This is the station that started the coding of the set off (while Hannover Messe Laatzen started the whole graphic set off). It is based on "Berlin Hauptbahnhof" (Berlin main station) which was opened in 2006, it can be found in Germany.
From 2002 to 2006 the name of the original station consisted of two titles: "Berlin Hauptbahnhof - Lehrter Bahnhof". We mention this for the case that you stumbled over the phrase "Lehrter Bahnhof" in the MTSS thread of the TT forums, and wondered where it came from.
The station must be built on an partially elevated site which allows 4 platforms to be built on the upper and the two entrance towers next to them (called "Berlin Plaza" in the game) on the lower level. The plazas need to be at least 8 tiles long while the station must be at 4 platforms wide and 6 or more tiles long. When constructed, the station will keep the main hall in the centre as much as possible.
Suggested layout(s)
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| = | = | ||||||||
| = | = | ||||||||
| = | = | ||||||||
| = | = |
Creation example
Step 1: Create an appropriate building site: Possibly you have to remove a complete city quarter.
Step 2: Notice that for the central area the underground has to have a special shape, so in this example you have to remove the marked irregular area.
Step 3: Now you can build the two 1x8 station entry towers. The second one...
Step 4: ...you have to explicitly join to the first one by pressing "CTRL" (at least in OTTD).
Step 5: Create the middle part (which can be also longer than 4x8, but in the example below it has a length of exactly 8 tiles.).
Step 6: Add the tracks.
Finally, if you want, take at the look at the original ;-).
Hannover Messe Laatzen (HML)
This station is based on the Hannover Messe/Laatzen station that was built for the EXPO 2000. As already stated above, this was the first station graphic of the set that Red*Star created - so lo and behold: In a very subtle sense the EXPO 2000 turns out to be one of the reasons this NewGRF exists at all ;). This station is only available in a five platform version of which the top most platform is always a dead platform. This platform purely exists for completing the look of the station. The station will adapt itself when you build extra platforms next to it so you can connect them by skybridges too.
Suggested layout(s)
Creation example
Creation of the main station part is pretty easy. After creating the main hall with the up to 4 skyway segments (size 2x5 to 5x5) you can of course enlarge the station even more by additional platforms.
Note that there are some design inconsistencies that are not solved right now, demonstrated in the following picture.
Jena Paradies (JP)
This station is based on the new Jena paradies ICE station that was completed 2005. It is also a two story station: the platforms are on the upper level and the entrance is located on the lower level along with a taxi stop, a tram stop (not usable in TTD) and some shops. The station must be created with the plaza one level lower than the platforms. The station will look best when the platforms are elevated one level above their surrounding.
Suggested layout(s)
| = | = | ||||
| = | = | ||||
| = | = |
Creation example
Step 1: Pick and/or create an appropriate building site.
Step 2: Build the upper part of the station.
Step 3: Now you can choose the location for the 1x2 forecourt.
Racoon City (RC)
This station rivals Berlin Hauptbahnhof in complexity even though at first glance it looks quite simple. The station has got more similarities with Berlin Hauptbahnhof: the procedure of construction is almost the same. The station is built by making the platforms of the station first, these should be exactly 8 tiles long as it will look very odd otherwise. You must use at least two platforms but you can build more if you want to. When the platforms are constructed, a forecourt should be added to the front and the rear of the station to make it look complete - the roof would end in the middle of nowhere without them. The station adapts itself to skybridges on the centre most two tiles when you build anything else next to it.
For the interested: No zombies have been harmed when drawing this station! :P
(Maybe zoOmbies, but you only see them when you zoom in at 10000%. Yes, right there... in the flower box. Behind the umbrella-shaped flower.)
(!) There are some known bugs with this station.
Suggested layout(s)
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Creation example
Just two examples, since this station isn't ready now.
You see, the middle part can have two different layouts for an odd number of tracks.
Other graphics
The platforms
For some reasons I've also added some station-independent sprites for special use. Firstly, there are the platforms:
There are generally two types of platforms, on the picture above you can see the "white" platform theme (the track-side walls are white), I've also drawn the "German" theme (the pavement looks like the one of many of todays German platforms). Both themes can be combined with the superstructural parts you see on the picture: Benches, two kinds of lamps, etc.. You can then use these platforms to extend the MTSS stations.
There is also a skybridge planned to connect Zimmlocks modern airport to some of the stations. However, we currently do not know if there are TT-internal technical reasons that forbid including still more tile types (because of limited station id count etc.).
The station forecourts and plazas
The plazas were originally just a set of two or three sprites statically attached to the Hannover Messe Laatzen station. As it often turns out in the process of creating art, their count suddenly grew to an amount of a dozen, then two dozens, and... well, at the end the plaza collection was born. You can use the plazas for the beautification of your stations by simultaneously extending them, for connecting two stations, you can add them to your city to aerate its look, or whatever comes into your mind.
The park tiles
Above you can see a screenshot with some of the so-called "park tiles" in use. They were, like the plaza tiles, a side effect of the station creation process.
Here is an old (!) overview of all theoretically*) available plaza and park sprites, maybe I will update the list some time:
*) Which means: Already drawn, but not necessarily coded.
Reporting bugs
As the development of the set has been on and off there are quite a few bugs to be expected. These bugs can be reported on the #openttdcoop Development Zone, on the MTSS project page to be exact. Go to the "Issues" tab to check if the bug has been reported already, if it is not then you can report it by using the "New Issue" tab.Other things
A comment to all creators of graphics: you may also use some of these plazas for your own projects, if you want! We would be thankful to be informed (for the one reason that we want to see if and where the graphics are used), but it's not needed. The only condition that has to be met: Credit us in your project readme/description. (As we also would do when using graphics from another artist that he/she allows others to use.)
Acknowledgement
By Red*Star
First of all many thanks to XeryusTC for his job with coding some really complex station layouts. No: For coding all of my really complex station layouts :P. Next I have to thank everyone who contributed to this project by giving criticism, to all of those who always encouraged me to go on with the drawing by just saying how great they look ;-), and finally also to the development crews of OpenTTD and the TTDPatch: Thank you for creating such a great game experience!
By XeryusTC
Many thanks and kudo's go to Red*Star for creating such awesome graphics. I can only apologise for the long time it took for me to start coding the set and the actual release. Sometimes something else just takes more interest and time and the truly awesome things get put on a low burner. I also have to thank everyone who still took a interest into the set even though there was not much going on. Finally my thanks go out to Patchman, Dalestan and the dev teams of both TTDPatch and OpenTTD for making all of this available (TTDPatch and newgrfs in general; nforenum and the games respectively). I'd also like to thank the people at #openttdcoop, especially planetmaker and Ammler, for setting up and maintaining the #openttdcoop Development Zone, a place where loads of newgrf stuff happens "behind the scenes" so to say.
