GRAPHIC: Tidier railroads

[soufie77]

This is a modification to the railroads.pcx file (under art/terrain/railroads.pcx) which will tidy up the extensive rail networks that are a feature of most modern empires. Although the graphics changes may seem subtle, the impact on the overall feel of the game as you play is quite significant, and there is much more sense of order in seeing an empire grow through the modern ages.

The pcx file is organised so that the bottom row of 16 tiles (and the rightmost one on the row above) are graphics for railroad tiles which are connected to railroads in all 8 directions. It's these graphics which are almost exclusively responsible for the messy and unnecessary railway looping that you've complained of. What I've done is to replace 12 of those 16 tiles with copies of the remaining 4 - which were chosen on the basis of their geometry and level of simplicity. Less confusing looping of railroads should hopefully mean less chance of sending your mech infantry off into the hills when they're needed vitally on the front line. Furthermore, the game seems to use a map coordinate algorithm to choose which of the 16 map tiles go where, so what I've also done is to figure out an arrangement of these new tiles which will give the most aesthetically pleasing graphics.

Note that rail tiles which are not connected in ALL directions will not be affected, so the changes will not be evident in "undeveloped" rail networks, or in rail tiles at the edge of a network. The graphics for these seem fine to me, and do not need to be modified.

[soufie77]

Before:

[soufie77]

"What's different?" you might ask. The changes may seem minor at first, but the new tesselation puts much more emphasis on horizontals and interleaving diagonals, so that when viewed from a wider perspective there is greater coherency and structure to city-railroad sprawls. Many of the tiles which were replaced had sections where east and west would not meet (see above), and had unnecessary meandering and curling which made the railroads seem more like spaghetti. This has been mostly reduced, and curves have been limited to simpler, less angulated geometric arcs.

This screenshot doesn't do it any justice. The best way for you to assess it is to load up an old saved game (preferably well into the modern era) and see the effects for yourself.

After:

[Jodo Kast]

Looks great!

Looks great! I'll use this instead!

[Purple]

Thanks!

Thanks, soufie. It looks like a good compromise between a rigid linear system and Civ3's loopy original rail system.

[Skanky Burns]

Nice work Soufie

[ancient]

it looks good but i bumps into mountains and hills more..
i want to know why no one like the new railroads, i do..

[soufie77]

I might have an explanation for that.

You see, you're obviously staying up too late playing civ3 that your retina and visual cortex has been hard-encoded with the old pattern of railroads. The brain is a plastic organ which continually restructures and self-modifies to interpret new signals, but in your case any other system of visual interprretation simply doesn't resonate with the neural pathways already established.

The solution?

Brain transplant.

Alternatively, you can just play it for a while until you get used to the new graphics. That's a warning to you internet surfers who spend time around "dubious" websites. The very essence of your brain is moulded by what you see and experience. With the rate technology is developing, they might even find a life-long history of all the websites you've visited on autopsy.

Now, that'll be a shock to your parents.

[Ralf]

Personally, I prefer Firaxis original railroad-patterns, but Im all positive for mods and alternatives regardless.

[Rasputin]

i still peeved that you have to build railroad everywhere!!!

[darkangel]

Works good so far!

[Desert Dog]

Finally good railway network graphics

Hey,
Thanks for the HIGH "Level" humor and the great job on the railroad graphics. Amazing how the end users are better artists then the ones at Firaxis!

Desert Dog

[soufie77]

Clarification for a common question...

By the way those tesselated circles aren't an accident and they're not as ubiquitous as the screenshot above would have you think. They're meant to represent central nodes or chokepoints around which train routes can be organised - a British concept, as you can probably guess from the abundance of circular round-abouts in our roads. I suppose imagination has to take precedence when there is currently no modern equivalent for such a vast system of networks. They can get a bit repetitive to look at when your empire is large so I can remove them if you like.

[lockstep]

Railroads look much better now. Still, why do I have to build them everywhere ...

Anyway, outstanding work!

[Chuckles]

I hate the current railroads. They just bug me because they make no sense. They are not functional. All the stupid looping makes more then is needed for everyone to get around. Trains wouldn't even be able to travel on them. They are just plain stupid and the clutter is annoying.

I have been waiting a long time for a rail mod and I will try this out. Even if it just makes things a bit easier on the eyes it will be a huge improvement.

Thanks.