Welcome to the manual for OpenTTD. The latest release version at the time of writing is 0.3.2.
1 Obtaining OpenTTD.
You can obtain built binaries of OpenTTD for the 4 supported platforms - Win32, Linux,-x86, BeOS 5 and MacOS-X from the projects Sourceforge page, at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openttd . For the non-Win32 builds you will need libSDL.so, libpng.so and zlib.so compiled for your platform. Some builds will include these.
If you use another platform, such as FreeBSD, which has POSIX file i/o and an SDL port, you should be able to build OpenTTD from its source. This is available in the proejcts Subversion repository at svn://svn.openttd.com . The module name is "trunk".
1.1 Building OpenTTD.
Once you have obtained a recent copy of the source, you must build it. Windows build instructions will be provided later.
On UNIX platforms (including OS-X and BeOS), ensure you have a recent GCC (2.9 or above, or 3 and above).You will also need SDL development headers and libraries (libSDL 1.2 or higher). For PNG screenshot support and zlib compressed games, you will need libpng 1.0.12 or higher and zlib 1.2 or higher.
Most UNIX platforms:
Use make or gmake to compile OpenTTD. You can adjust Makefile.config to compile with other options.
BeOS:
On BeOS, run ./configure and then use jam. There are a variaty of options you can pass to your build tool, these are reported by ./configure.
1.2 Installing OpenTTD.
On Windows, insert your "Transport Tycoon Deluxe for Windows 95" disk. You can use a DOS version, but your graphics will be purple. NB: Even if your version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe ran on Windows 95, it may still be the DOS version. Then run the OpenTTD installer.
On UNIX platforms; decompress your OpenTTD archive, or otherwise run the installer. You should be left with an OpenTTD directory on your system. In this directory, make a subdirectory called 'data', and into this place the sample.cat file and all the .grf files from the install CD of 'Transport Tycoon Deluxe for Windows 95".
(Alternatively you can use the TTD GRF files from the DOS version: TRG1.GRF, TRGC.GRF, TRGH.GRF, TRGI.GRF, TRGT.GRF. Those filenames have to be uppercase to be detected correctly. A few minor graphical glitches with the DOS graphics remain. E.g. the autorail button in the rail toolbar doesn't look as nice as with the Windows graphics.)
If you want MIDI music, copy the 'gm' folder from the original game directory/CD to the OpenTTD folder.
1.3 Running OpenTTD.
On Windows, you can use a third-party launcher such as OTTD-Launcher to run OpenTTD directly from Explorer. Otherwise, navigate via the command prompt to the correct location and launch ttd.exe.
On Linux, navigate at the shell to the correct location and run ttd.
On BeOS and Mac OS-X, just double click the ttd binary in the Tracker/Finder. You can also start from the shell.
1.4 Configuring OpenTTD
OpenTTD's launch menu contains three configuration menus - Difficulty Settings, Configure Patches and Game Settings. Most of these menus can be configured from within a running game as well.
Difficulty Settings lets you configure settings that affect the difficulty of playing the game. These include when your (computer-controlled) competitors can start building, how many of them there are, and how intelligent they are. You can also control how much the subsidy mutliplier is for subsidised routes, and how stable/volitile the in-game economy is. You can also set how you want the terrain to be configured in a random game.
Game Settings lets you set regional settings - currency, language, town names, etc. It also lets you select the resolution to run the game at, as well as the screenshot format to use.
Configure Patches lets you select which patches to use in the game. This allows you to set the game play to either original Transport Tycoon Deluxe compatible mode or a mode more like playing under TTD-Patch. Patches include building on slopes, longer bridges, longer trains, pre-signals, and TTD-Patch compatible handling of non-stop orders.
2.1 Gameplay
This section of the manual is written with the assumption that you already know the gameplay basics of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, on either DOS or Windows. As you must have the Windows Transport Tycoon Deluxe CD to play OpenTTD, you should either have a paper manual or the complete manual in PDF format on the disk. This section will only cover the gameplay differences from Transport Tycoon Deluxe.
2.2 Station Construction
In OpenTTD, you can build rail stations up to seven squares long and with up to seven platforms. You can also have stations spreading across far larger distances, allowing a large rail station to be connected to a large airport, for instance.
However, there is an even more noticable difference in rail station construction. You may now add platforms and lenght to a station after it has been built, and you may also add platforms of a different type. Users of TTDPatch will be used to this behaviour. But beyond what TTDPatch has, you can make stations of uneven lenght/width, and even ones with perpendicular tracks. You can also delete single tiles or tracks from a station, by holding down Shift before pressing the station construction button.
2.3 Checkpoint Stations
Checkpoint stations (the small blue item in the rail construction window) are small 1x1 stations. They must be built on top of pre-existing track. They do not accept or produce carge of any kind. They exist solely for use as route points. They become useful when dealing with large networks where trains may attempt to route themselves along undesirable or impossible routes. As an alternative to checkpoint stations, you can also direct trains to visit depots along the way. This has the advantage of also servicing the train and hence the train will rarely to never need to depart from its route to be serviced.
2.4 Freeform Rail Laying.
Along side the other rail laying buttons, you will see a button that looks somewhat like a crossing. This is the freeform rail laying tool., and it allows you to drag rail in any direction to lay it. This has a number of advantages, one of the main ones being that it can seriously speed up the laying of diagonal tracks.
2.5 Vehicle Queuing (with Quantum Effects)
This useful addition to OpenTTD means that road vehicles will queue outside a road station to wait for a space rather than attempt to enter it immediately. As anyone who has operated a large road network with busy stations will know, road vehicles quickly pile up inside stations. This will prevent that. The Quantum Effects are down to a bug in the game that means that mutliple vehicles will often only take up one space in the queue. However, this is almost too useful to fix, and should still be there in later versions. This can be enabled/disabled.
2.6 Building On Slopes
This allows you to build roads, rails, stations and depots on slopes. It also allows the construction of trasmitters and lighthouses on slopes in the scenario editor. There are some minor differences between OpenTTD's and TTD-Patch's handling of building on slopes, the main one being that bridges must still have solid land at their endings.
2.7 Long Bridges
OpenTTD allows you to constuct bridges up to 127 squares - half the size of the current map. This means that the crossing of large estuaries, such at the Bristol Channel in the original "West Country 90210" scenario can be acheived with one bridge instead of many bridges with staging points.
2.8 Long trains
OpenTTD allows trains of around 60 cars length, hence allowing you to use 7 square stations to their capacity and beyond.
2.9 Speed Display
This addition to OpenTTD allows you to see the current speed of any vehicle in their status window. Just open the status window of a vehicle and you can see the speed at that given moment. This allows you to see wheter better bridges, flatter/straighter track or more powerful engines could be used to increase the speed of a vehicle
2.10 More Trains, More Ships, More Everything!
Virtually any settings - train numbers, start date, what vehicles your competitors can use, etc - can be set in OpenTTD. Just use the Configure Patches menu on the main screen.
2.11 Network Play
See multiplayer.txt for more info.
2.12 Rail Recycling.
This button, at the end of the train construction window, lets you 'recycle' track to a new type. It also works on bridges, tunnels, stations and depots.
2.13 Canal Building
This button, at the end of the water construction window, lets you build canals and shiplifts across the landscape. These act just like normal water.