OpenLoco: An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion | Hacker News Reader

OpenLoco: An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion

github.com

76 pointsdoppp18 comments

I suppose this was submitted due to the new Ahoy video that was released today, as well as submitted to HN [0]?

Other open source implementations of Sawyer's works include OpenTTD and OpenRCT2.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42346463

It's unfortunate that Chris Sawyer doesn't really like openTTD or OpenRCT2 as projects (despite driving sales on GOG and the like)

Interesting, do you know why that is?

I've never seen a direct quote but the rumour was he considered his games finished and as he wanted them to be

From what I've seen, he considers them piracy.

But...you need to buy the game to even play them. Of course you can pirate the games but that has really no bearing on OpenRCT2 itself.

OpenTTD doesn't require assets to be played

Short form, he's one those "my work is perfect the way it is" artists: https://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=971373#p971373

Last time I checked (which might well be 10 years ago or so), I think there was some sort of agreement between the OpenTTD devs and Chris Sawyer that he wouldn't sue them for OpenTTD if they won't ever touch Locomotion (I think there was an early-stage POC of Locomotion that some of the devs did that triggered this)

Has the situation changed? Or are they just bold enough to do it anyway because they think that Chris won't ever sue them anyway (or they would have an easy time of getting that case dismissed)?

Different developers entirely; The main people behind OpenLoco are the same as behind OpenRCT2; There's almost no crossover with OpenTTD.

Also we've never heard of this agreement.

Here is an example of someone mentioning that:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=37...

> Too bad Sawyer (or Atari?) wouldn't let fans modify Locomotion like Transport Tycoon Deluxe

I can't find the original discussion (I don't even remember which forum it was on) but maybe "agreement" was a bit of a misnomer. I think people deliberately wanted to stay clear of Locomotion because they were scared that it would put OpenTTD on the radar or something...

I'm still waiting for "OpenLoco + OpenRTC", where I'll be able to build train line to amusement park, and then build said amusement park.

Why would I play this over OpenTTD? What's different?

this is an open source version of the sequel to TTD.

It is kind of like the difference between Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 vs 2; there are more pieces (you can go diagonal and there are choices of curve radius that impact speed), there are more train types, etc.

At the moment, you wouldn't. Because the game is in a very early stage, with many bugs and rough edges. It's probably around where OpenTTD was 10 years ago.

But if you like to help finding (or even fixing) bugs, then that alone should be reason enough to play OpenLoco right now :)

OpenTTD was very stable already when I started playing it, in 2005 or 2006.

if they can fix the game's pathfinding it might be worth playing over OpenTTD

in the official release it was so bad it was unplayable, even with a small network

The logic is 90% the same. A small network in my games has been playable but the routing is MUCH less lenient than YAPF.

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