Simutrans

Simutrans

Simutrans pak64
Original author(s) Hansjörg Malthaner (initial, left in Spring 2005)
Developer(s) Markus Pristovsek "Prissi" (current head of development)
Simutrans Development Team
Initial release 6 March 1999
Stable release
120.1.3 / February 3, 2016 (2016-02-03)
Development status Active
Written in C++
Operating system Multi-platform
Platform Cross-platform
Size 10~400 MB
Available in Multilingual
Type Construction and management
License Artistic License
Website simutrans.com

Simutrans is a cross-platform simulation game in which the player strives to run a successful transport system by constructing and managing transportation systems for passengers, mail and goods by land (rail, road, tram, monorail, maglev), air (airplanes) and water (ship) between places. Like OpenTTD, Simutrans is an open source transportation game based on the Transport Tycoon idea.[1]

Development history

Simutrans was originally written by Hansjörg Malthaner in 1997.[2] Around 2004 he retired from development,[3] and an international community of volunteers took over the development.[4] Until 2007 Simutrans was developed internally as closed source game,[5] when the Artistic License was adopted.[5]

Simutrans is ported to Microsoft Windows, Linux, BeOS/Haiku, Mac OS X and AmigaOS 4.x which make use of several graphics libraries such as GDI (Windows only), SDL (all versions) or Allegro (BeOS only). It is portable to any architecture using GCC and one of the aforementioned libraries. Simutrans has also multilingual support.

Currently the stable release of Simutrans is version 120.1.3 as of February 3, 2016. There is a popular branch of the code called experimental, which aims to extend the basic game.[6] Nightly builds for Simutrans and the main PakSets are also released.[7]

Overview and features

Map of a Simutrans game world, showing cities and factories

The main goal in Simutrans is to provide an efficient transport system for passengers, mail and goods to be transported to their desired destinations fast and with minimal transfers and at the same time making the company grow avoiding bankruptcy or administration.

Simutrans has a number of factory chains that are interconnected with other chains, for example, a coal mine produces coal for a coal power plant, and an oil rig produces oil for an oil power plant. The goods produced by these factories may be distributed to smaller factories or shops, such as gasoline to a gas station, coming from a gas storage facility, which retrieves the gas from an oil refinery, and so on.

Supplying a factory with electric power will increase the production and allows for fine-tuning the economy. Passengers and mail are transported between different cities and tourist attractions, and may use several methods of transportation to reach their destinations.

The Simutrans executable can run many different paksets, which is a package containing files called paks. Paks are files with graphic and data files that Simutrans uses to determine the objects in the game, it determines things like their resolution, appearance and behaviors. Gaming experience is therefore very dependent on the PakSet used.

Simutrans currently features 12 AI players, and has an online capability similar to OpenTTD since version 110.0. The terrain in Simutrans is freely-modifiable, and different layers like tunnels and bridges can be stacked, allowing for subways or highways to be possible. It has a day and night cycle, different climates and seasons. Nearly all modes of transportation exist in Simutrans. At least buses/trucks, trains, and ships are always provided. If defined in the PakSet, aircraft, monorails and/or maglevs can also be used.

Customization

Underground mode (pak128)

The Simutrans executable must load a PakSet which contains the game's objects. Over the years several PakSets have been created, an overview is given on the official page.[8]

Simutrans can easily be expanded or modified. Simple modification can be done via editing the personal config file. Since the objects in the game just consist of a simple image and a short description file, it is very easy to create a house or add a train. Thus many contributed objects for all graphic sizes exist. The user can also add height maps and citylists which add city names into the game. Even deep modifications of the game mechanics are possible via the config file, like setting no stockpiling at factories.

Critical reception

GameDaily's Big Download considered Simutrans to be one of the best freeware games, highlighting the logical system of routing passengers and freight to their destinations, decent AI opponents and the support for custom aesthetics or rules-sets. However, the sometimes unreliable vehicle pathfinding was criticized, particularly with respect to alternate routes and switches for train lines. The sound effects were deemed to be unengaging, and new players may be baffled by the range of transportation possibilities.[1]

Another review from Amiga Future came to very similar conclusions (apart from the lack of sound support on Amiga OS). In particular the depth of simulation and the stability were highlighted.[9]

Between 2007 and 2016 Simutrans was downloaded from Sourceforge over five million times.[10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 James Murff (November 21, 2008). "Freeware Friday: Simutrans". Big Download. GameDaily.
  2. ↑ "A short History of Simutrans Development". Archived from the original on October 31, 2010.
  3. ↑ about - History on simutrans.com
  4. ↑ "Simutrans Tikiwiki : Thanks".
  5. 1 2 [http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/?&fq[]=trove:17 "Simutrans's Artistic License, SourceForge"].
  6. ↑ Simutrans Experimental
  7. ↑ "Simutrans Nightly".
  8. ↑ "PakSets".
  9. ↑ "Amiga Future review". Amiga Future (82): 20–21. December 21, 2009.
  10. ↑ Simutrans - stats on sourceforge.net (2016)
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