Who's "they"? The cat's mother? o_O

https://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/i ... 808AAlPQzV

Nope, I believe I mentioned a few of them in my previous posts...

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On community:

In regards to TTDLX, yes it is possible that this faction may be fading away. It's not hard to see why, either. TTDLX only runs on one operating system, and in order to run it you have to have a copy of a game released 20 years ago. And while that operating system is a popular one, it is one that has the most games of all available to it. TTDLX doesn't stand out in any way, and there are currently only two people who are working on it, and they're not even promoting it at this point, it is more maintenance.

OpenTTD, on the other hand, is flourishing. A key to OpenTTD's success is the fact that you have an open source program which can be compiled on nearly any operating system, so long as somebody has the knowledge to make it work. TTDLX doesn't run on MacOS or Linux variants, and it never will because long ago its code was tied to the Microsoft Windows release of TTD. It's been a very impressive hack, and it's key to being attractive to others is the fact that you can keep hacking on it to make this one version of TTD be the very best that it can be.

OpenTTD wasn't intended to be a hack of TTD, though, it was mean to clone it, and then to grow beyond it. This is the strength to OpenTTD, and why OpenTTD continues to grow. Even just a few years ago, nobody imagined OpenTTD to be running on other video game platforms or mobile devices, but what is essentially a 20 year-old game is on them today, and it's even more popular than either the original game or it's "spiritual successor" or even it's hybrid reboot on today's futuristic devices. OpenTTD is only limited by the ability of people to take it and grow it.

If people want to design graphics in the TTD style, they can. If they want to adapt to OpenGFX, they can. If they want to try their hand at 32bpp, they can. Or, they can do whatever they want, because there's nobody there that can or is interested in preventing them from doing so. As long as people take an interest in it, it will grow.

OpenTTD, though, is not going to be the be-all, end-all of this. Chris Sawyer never envisioned what we have today when he started tinkering away at his computer for this little train simulator. He didn't know that his train game was going to spawn a roller coaster game that would eclipse nearly every game on the market and be named "Game of the Year". He didn't know that after his game died, not one but several communities would spawn to create not only TTDLX, or OpenTTD, but Simutrans, TTT, and even Train Fever. He didn't know he'd end up rebooting his franchise not once, but twice. OpenTTD is but one branch off of a trunk of a mighty tree.

One day OpenTTD's development will fade away, probably much like TTDLX is currently experiencing. I predict that before that happens, though, somebody will have forked OpenTTD into a new project, and take it in a direction that is not in-line with what the developers are doing today, and will start tinkering with it and making changes. And while the resulting project will not be OpenTTD, or TTDLX, it will be a part of a growing family which shares a common core of ideas and beliefs.

So, what about this community today, huh?

Like I mentioned, it appears that for now TTDLX is fading away, and again I think that is, in part, simply because TTDLX has nobody promoting it. That's largely in part because there is plenty of promotion for OpenTTD, and OpenTTD has adopted many of the features that originated in TTDLX. It's open source, it's malleable, it's portable. That's where all the appeal is for artists and coders alike.

To those ends, I don't see overall interest in OpenTTD development waining. Yes, we've lost some talented coders and artists over the years. OzTrans and DJ Nekkid come to mind. I've seen so many projects started and abandoned over the years. But more have come, and not only picked up old projects, but started new ones. Some people only work on one thing and are done. Others keep creating. I myself am not very good at creating, but I've found that I'm good at convincing others that they're good at creating, and feed them ideas. I'm sure other people are like me, too.

And while TT-F may currently be the center of the TTD universe at the moment, it's obviously not the only community. TT-F is good, but not perfect, it doesn't serve everybody's needs. That's why we have Simuscape, and dedicated language portals for Germans, Czech & Slovaks, Hungarians, and Russians. It's why there are independent communities on Reddit, Steam, and Desura. Very few of those individuals are active on TT-F. They're all developing their own ideas and projects independent of any other communities, and they are not looking for anybody else's approval or acceptance of their work, either.

More communities will come, and some will go. This is the Internet, this is life. I'm not concerned with the fact that those places will, eventually, run their course and disappear. They will exist for as long as those involved in them wish to exist.

Do you mean like this?

Very good post by the way.

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I agree with Wally, it's a good post! However, I still stand by my position about the way this entire community has maintained the bullying part, something which has forced a lot of people to leave, never to return again. And with them also quite a huge potential of custom work for all the gamers to enjoy and appreciate...

And in a sense, yes I can agree that OpenTTD has grown - and has a lot of potential, but it doesn't make up for the fact that the overall contributions from various artists - that are still present - is almost next to nothing these days...

Unless of course we count the 32bpp which - in my honest opinion - is a complete joke!

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Every community has their bullies. More will come. More will leave. More people will fill their place.

32bpp development is slow, it requires software that needs PCs which are far more powerful than what most people use to play OpenTTD, and it takes much longer to render images. I am sure more will come along eventually. I agree that zBase isn't all that impressive, but it is a start. I like what Bad Brett and L85 have done. YETI, whole not my style, is an impressive visual treat.

By my count, 35 new projects have either started or been released on TT-F in 2014. Trains, boats, RVs, trams, landscapes, industries. That is a rate of 3 projects a month. For a volunteer, non-profit communi that, that is a very strong pace IMO.

YETI? Well that IS a joke! Nice work there, I like it, BUT! YETI is a comical approach, not for a serious player. I do not want to demean it though: it will draw children to our community and our community will benefit from it a lot. So congratulations to its author.

How do I dream the future of OTTD? A full 3D experience. It will come but will take time. And it doesn't need to be a fork but pure trunk.

But instilling ideas Kamnet doesn't suffice. I do it too in tt-forums. As I have long ago posted there what we need is more active development and this needs good organization and development teams. But they don't want to listen.

OpenTTD has a development team, they seem to work well together, they put out a major release once a year and incremental bugfixes as needed.

Most projects don't need a development team. Most of them only have one, maybe two people who collaborate on a project and release it. Again, by my count, in 2014 roughly half of those new projected released or developed are done by people who have never released anything prior. So that's at least 15 people who dipped their toes into the water for the first time.

I don't believe we are lacking developers. Perhaps we are lacking people who are needed to develop certain things that some people feel are more important than others. Still, there are new people who have come and tried and succeeded.

The only thing that's definitely slow is constructing a detailed model. Test renders are actually pretty quick (< 10s/spriteset), rendering only becomes a bit of a wait if you have lots of models to process. And you don't need an ultra-powerful PC, the average laptop will work fine.

Anything with a quad core CPU should be fine. The single cores are definitely an issue, especially if there are other programs competing for a turn at the trough. Progams written since the availability of mult core technology have taken full advantage of the extra capacity and even though they do run on the single cores, the bloat becomes obvious. I just had two months of personal experience when the fan on my quad core lap top failed and I had to use my "old" single core Dell desktop while awaiting a slow boat from China.

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True. However, from my experience those bullies in other communities have been dealt with properly, either with warnings or by receiving a ban! Unlike in the TTDLX-community where bullies have been better treated than the ones getting bullied...



I assume it's fair to say that the vast majority of these projects were started rather than completed and released, right? And with releases I assume it's also fair to say that most of those are 32bpp stuff, right?

Releases are interesting though - as well as started projects! Care to provide a list so I can update the WikiC?

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Twenty projects that contain no 32bpp sprites released NewGRFs. The only 32bpp projects that released NewGRFs were Pikkabird's Pineapple Trains, Planetmaker's landscape, L85's landscape, and YETI.

Kamnet: I spoke about teams not team.

Yes. I don't believe any of these projects need "teams". They're doing just fine with one or two individuals working and making contributions in harmony.

I don't get it. What are teams needed for?

Hockey, Baseball, Football, Soccer, Cricket, Bowling, Steams, Marketing, Sales, Design, and anywhere else that a collaborative effort might be of advantage.

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Ice or field hockey? I'm assuming the answer on the basis that you're Canadian, but you might surprise me.

This calls for a Canadian style reply which is quietly unassuming ... both!
But we also enjoy street hockey, pond hockey, ball hockey and lacrosse.
We have also on rare occasion been known to resolve such contests without resort to fisticuffs, hooliganism or rioting.

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Pond hockey? o_O

Pond Hockey

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