GRAPHICS: Highways/Railroads

Kuratko

Chieftain
Joined
Sep 21, 2001
Messages
36
Location
Olomouc, Czech Republic
Hi everyone,

there have already been a couple of mods that change the railroads appearance so it seems that some of you do not like the originals. While I think that the main problem is that railroads are too strong in the default rules so that everyone is forced to railroad every square in one's territory to stay competitive (and even worse - this is hardcoded) which leads to a really ugly look of the screen, I also tried to make my proposal of making the railroad graphics better looking.

So here it is: I have combined both railroads and highways in the railroads.pcx file. Highways are oriented vertically and horizontally (dark grey with white dotted centerline) and railroads are limited to diagonal directions (light grey with brown edges). To install simply [backup and] rewrite the original railroads.pcx in the \Art\Terrain\ folder.

I am not a graphics guru so there is a lot to improve. Feel free to do so if you like the idea. I also thought about combining this mod with the urban city sprawl someone else already created.

Let me know what you think.

Kuratko.

Edit: See also newer versions below...

Old version deleted after 51 downloads.
 
And here is how it(v2.1) looks in game:
 

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Even though I haven't tried it yet it looks pretty good, I really like the detail on the highway. My suggestion would be able to give the option for us to have either pure highway or pure railroad, rather than a combination, because, personally, I like the highway better.

Thanks!
 
This looks great, at least on your attached image! Not nearly as cluttered and boring as the default railroads. I'll have to try this out on a heavily industrialized map!

But please leave the railroads in -- replacing rails with highways will look just as boring as rails only...

Besides, it would be rather peculiar to see early industrial nations covered with modern highways. Railroads have been the most important part of the infrastructure in many countries, and still is very important in most places.

The urban sprawl-idea have its drawbacks. The mod you're referring to covered the map in skyscrapers too early on, in my opinion. Since there aren't any way to use different graphics for different eras, I'd skip that idea. Or perhaps use lower buildings that can represent both modern suburbs and early 1800:s buildings. The best thing would be if these buldings just showed up in the most heavily railroaded parts of the map. And, please, no wonders in the suburbs...

The combined railroads/highways is a good idea anyway! My only gripe would be that the highways look a bit low-res, but that can be just your image. I'll try it out myself.
 
Khalid: There is already another mod the offers highways only. But I feel that this is still too boring though better than the original as the curling resembles rather higways than railroads.

Desk: I tried to combine both, I do not like railroads only, the railroad net is too dense and I found it interesting to substitute half of the railroads with highways. You can view them also as paved roads of industrial time, if you want, and thay look like that a little as long as the transportation net is not too dense, I hope.
Concerning the urban city sprawl, I also did not like the particular implementation (by BlueO) as it offers too many buildings (and too modern, I agree), wonders are silly and you can hardly find the cities themselves. I work on something less intense.

Kuratko
 
Version 2 incorporates some building to simulate the suburbs/villages. This is probably not enough but I am afraid of making the tiles too full of stuff. I might add some more buildings after some testing.

Let me know what you think, please.
 

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Looks good. I go this over blueO's since it is much less cluttered. I will admit, though, that the superhighways will look odd in 1700, but that will change with time. Keep up the good work.
 
Everything looks great, just the railroads look a little odd, too much black and white I think, maybe you could make it a little bit more gray.
 
Made a version of Kuratko's highways/railroads for myself WITHOUT any buildings. I think this could be much better for people using modified mine/irrigation graphics which also place buildings on the fields.

I hope Kuratko don't mind... :)


There's a newer vesion present some posts below.
This version was removed on 03.08.2002 after 111 downloads !
 
I would recommend making those highways darker, and wider is possible. I have been playing with these graphics for a while, and I still keep on thinking that those highways are railroads, also. Maybe you could use less buildings, so as to reduce clutter a bit more. My thought is that, in the real world, there are some areas were no one has built anything. They are just open, barren fields. Perhaps make some buildings that are just small clusters of houses.
 
Hey man, this looks great! Can I steal your idea and put buildings on all the irrigation tiles? So then they actually look like farms instead of pointless water soaked land!
 
Originally posted by ufftyuwe


it looks terrible (in my opinion)...

It looks much better without buildings.
Download and try it.
At least much better then the spiderweb-like default railroad network.
 
I've made highway lane drawings of a softer white color (kuratko used the brightest white possible) which blends much better.
I think highways look and blend better with this setting than before (and on the pictures above).

I can't attach images so please download and try when interested.

Updated on 29.09.2002
 

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