OpenTTDFuture

OpenTTD achieved maturity with 1.0 when it became feature-complete with everything being around to be a game which can stand on its own legs, including all graphics, sound and music to offer a joyfull game experience.

However what's now next, where do we want to go? What can we do to make this game continue to stand the test of time and keep it appealing to an audience?

One important factor to keep a game or a community alive in general is to make it easy for people:

  1. Easy to join the community. That means to be helpful. Offer ways to explain the game, possibly hands-on. Offer up2date documentation and information for players.
  2. Easy to use the game. That is easy to obtain. Easy to install. Easy to update.
  3. Enable different play styles easily: Obtaining and exchanging mods. Joining multiplayer servers.
  4. Make it easy to extend the core game: easy code availability, meaningful and timely feedback. Structure core elements such that they are easy to extend.
  5. Make it easy to mod the game: that is well-documented and consistent API

Contents

Joining the community

This means to be accessible in the relevant channels / communication means. That includes website but also social media and chat platforms.

Using the game

Playstyles / Exchange of mods

Ease of development

Ease of modding the game

Simplicity in modding the game is done by a consistent API which allows extension to new features. Currently OpenTTD features a plethora of API:

  1. NewGRF - API for grf files (bin/newgrf)
  2. AI - API for squirrel script files (bin/ai)
  3. GS - API for squirrel game script files (bin/game)
  4. admin port - API for admin scripts (no local storage needed)
  5. script - API for some *very* basic scripting (bin/scripts)

grf v9

  1. ActionB: remove capability of de-activation of other NewGRF
  2. NewStations (Feature 0x04): Change behaviour to be identical to houses / industries and objects
  3. Bridges (Feature 0x06): Allow custom bridge definitions
  4. Secondary related objects for industries, allowing to specify object placement:
  5. Introduce secondary related objects (Secondary Related objects, Calback industries)

further

  1. Generalized stations

other

Links (mostly from frosch):

  1. GRF version 9
Folder: Planetmaker