The DB Set

What is the DB set?

Itīs the very first full regional train set for Transport Tycoon (deLuxe) working under TTDPatch. Itīs a set of vehicles for the temperate climate originating from the german DB (Federal Railways) rolling stock and including older vehicles of the german "Reichsbahn" (DRG).

The DB set starts in the year 1920.

What is the DB set XL?

Why a DB set?

Since the 19th century, Germany has always been the country with one of the largest railway systems in the world, both in terms of track length and in terms of number and variety of rolling stock. (For more information on german railways, especially on long-distance trains visit the comprehensive pages of Joost Wilbrink.)

Therefore it seemed to be very attractive to choose the DR and DB railways as a model for a new set of train vehicles for TTDPatch.

OTOH, itīs complexity in number of locomotives (some 200 different types), in coaches (some hundreds of different types) and in liveries cannot be mapped in a one-to-one fashion onto a set of only 37 locomotives and some 50 coaches and wagons.

Thatīs why Iīve been forced to simplify the whole thing, e.g. historically there have been three different red liveries alone (purple red, orient red and traffic red) in the DB age, but due to lack of red colours in ttdīs palette this couldnīt be achieved well, so in this set there are only 2 red liveries.

Same is true for coaches and freight wagons. Thatīs why I made a rather simple scheme of just 5 different coach models for each local and remote traffic which have the same introductory years. Also each of these coaches got an accompanying mail van which is handy for the game but is far from reality.

Nevertheless, the rough scheme has been saved: there are the very early passenger coaches of the 20īs (the "thunder bolts"), the well-known "Silverfish" coaches, the cream-blue fast train coaches and a choice of InterCity coaches.

Additionally, all "train sets" got fitting coaches. Because most of these train sets, like VT-137 or VT-08, have been always pure passenger trains, I didnīt design special mail vans for those. Instead, as a compromise, mail vans on these train sets will look like the normal passenger coaches.

How to install the DB set XL?

Preliminaries

The DB set XL is available in a DOS and in a Windows version ("dbsetxl.grf" resp. "dbsetxlw.grf"). Just copy the appropriate DB set XL grf file into the "newgrf" directory under your TTD main directory and add the entry "newgrf/dbsetxl.grf" resp. "newgrf/dbsetxlw.grf" to your "newgrf.cfg" resp. "newgrfw.cfg" file.

The actual version of the DB Set XL is v0.6, grf-ID is 6D 62 04 01 and itīs of february 9, 2004. Youīll need TTDPatch version 2.0.1 alpha 15 (or higher) to run this version.

This is because since version 0.6 the DB Set includes a set of freight wagons specific to the german railway companies DR and DB which will override the original freight wagons and those which are added by the CargoSet. The novel freight wagon scheme makes heavy use of the new patch feature of "wagon refitting" which is only available since TTDPatch version 2.0.1 alpha 12. In addition, there are many other new features which are available only since TTDPatch 2.0.1 alpha 14.

Because of the need to preserve the 0.5x versions of the DB Set for the benefit of people which are not using the latest alpha versions of TTDPatch (and in need to differentiate between both DB Set versions) a different grf-ID had to be introduced for the XL version.

Therefore, youīll have to issue a "cht: graphics 6D 62 04 01" command to load the new DB Set XL if you want to use savegames which have been saved under the previous DB Set and you have "saveoptionaldata" set to "on" in "ttdpatch.cfg". If you donīt use "saveoptionaldata" a "cht: graphics" would be sufficient.

It would be also a very good idea to remove all those old wagons because they donīt fit well with the new ones, at least because they have different offsets than the new wagons.

Configuring "newgrf[w].cfg"

Grf files of different vehicle sets can only coexist if theyīre for a different climate. This is due to the internal mechanism how a grf file is loaded and activated by TTDPatch. E.g. TempSet and ArcticSet could be both included into "newgrf[w].cfg" but only one of them would be activated, depending on the chosen climate.

Because the DB Set XL, the DB Set v0.5 and the TempSet are all intended for the temperate climate, you could encounter difficulties with this mechanism. Because the DB Set XL is a full set it uses all available vehicle IDs, but e.g. the TempSet does not. Insofar, you would get only the expected behaviour when having the line "newgrf/dbset[w].grf" after the line "newgrf/tempset[w].grf", but not vice versa!

In the latter case, the TempSet vehicles would overload those DB set XL vehicles with the same identifiers resulting into an (unwanted) mix of both sets.

To prevent this, especially with additional train sets for the temperate climate to come, a special mechanism has been built into TTDPatch. This mechanism prevents a vehicle set from being loaded if another vehicle set for the same climate has been loaded before.

Because of the way this feature is implemented itīs only possible to skip loading of further sets for the same climate, i.e. always the first set of the same climate will get activated. If there is more than one set for the same climate in your "newgrf[w].cfg" you have to take care of order of entries in "newgrf[w].cfg" yourself.

However, because this mechanism relies on a joint behaviour (mutual exclusive sets have to check against each otherīs grf-ID) itīs only possible to set up such a scheme to include a new set by modifying all those other sets too (only to include the grf-ID of the new set).

Because this procedure isnīt always suitable with regard to the novice user, alpha 14 introduces an additional mechanism for grf-handling which enables deactivation of incompatible grfs.

The DB Set XL uses this feature to cooperate with following sets:

• DB Set v0.5 (both 5.0a and 5.0b, grf-ID 6D 62 04 00)
• TempSet v0.4 (grf-ID 6D 62 02 04)
• CargoSet (both v0.4 and v0.5, grf-ID 6D 62 03 05)

Because the DB Set XL is able to overwrite previously loaded grfs and to reset the list of vehicle IDs which could have been already re-ordered by a previously loaded grf file itīs best to have this order of grf entries in "newgrf.cfg":

...

newgrf/dbset.grf

newgrf/tempset.grf

newgrf/cargoset.grf

newgrf/dbsetxl.grf

...

When deactivating grf files the DB Set XL issues a warning message to give the user a hint for re-arranging his/her newgrf.cfg file.

E.g. if youīre using

...

newgrf/dbset.grf

newgrf/tempset.grf

newgrf/dbsetxl.grf

newgrf/cargoset.grf

...

the warning message "Deactivating CargoSet. Must be loaded before DB Set XL." is given. This is because both the CargoSet and the DB Set XL contain freight wagons, hence those loaded first would be overwritten by the set loaded afterwards. OTOH, because there are no cargo trucks in the different DB Sets youīll still need the CargoSet for availability of trucks.

Therefore, to get the DB Set XL running and to include the trucks of the CargoSet you should have the DB Set XL entry after the CargoSet entry in "newgrf[w].cfg". If you have the CargoSetīs entry after the DB Set XL entry, it would be deactivated to avoid confusion. Of course, this would result in having none of the CargoSetīs trucks available.

OTOH, if you want to use one of the older DB Set versions youīll have to comment out the DB Set XL entry in the "newgrf.cfg" file because it cannot be overwritten by any of the other grfs, neither by the old DB set versions nor by the TempSet.

Supplying parameters to the DB set XL

The DB set XL uses some default settings, e.g. for using new railway gates or usage of random liveries. However, you can pass parameters to control some of its features.

1 - disable railway gates

The new railway gates of the DB set XL replace the original crossings. There are two types of gates:

• rural - these are so called "half-gates" outside city centers including traffic cross signs.
• city - these are full gates in city centers including the usual warning lights.

Depending on the chosen road traffic side, gates will be right- or left-handed, i.e. in the case of half-gates they will be closing on the correct side of the road.

2 - set random livery for tankers

When buying new tankers, their livery will be random but uniform for a consist. You can change this to random liveries for every single tanker of a consist by supplying this parameter.

4 - set random load for stake wagons

In the XL version the stake wagon is able to show eight different steel products. The default sets one of these eight products for the whole consist each time the train is loaded. However, you can change this to a totally random behaviour so that each stake wagon in a consist will show a different product.

Examples

• "newgrf/dbsetxl[w].grf" - enables new railway gates by default, also sets random liveries of the tankers and random load of the stake wagon to default,
• "newgrf/dbsetxl[w].grf 1" - disables railway gates,
• "newgrf/dbsetxl[w].grf 2" - sets random liveries for tankers,
• "newgrf/dbsetxl[w].grf 3" - disables railway gates and sets random liveries for tankers,
• "newnewgrf/dbsetxl[w].grf 6" - sets random liveries for tankers and random load for steel.

Variables to set in ttdpatch.cfg

You need to set following variables in your "ttdpatch.cfg" file:

• newtrains on - mandatory
• electrifiedrailway on - mandatory
• startyear 1921 - a "must" because there are many interesting locomotives (including the steamers) in the early years which youīll miss when starting too late.
• multihead 0 - a "must". This is needed to get the original engine specifications, e.g. using multitraction gives you increased power but wonīt increase speed, as it is in reality.
• semaphores on - a "must". The steaming age needs semaphores!
• enginespersist off - strongly recommended because there are so many engines following one another that you shouldnīt stick to an early "favourite". There are many favourable engines in the set!
• signalsontrafficside on - recommended to get the right types of signals (see below under other Options how to get the original german semaphores).
• gradualloading on - recommended to see loading/unloading of mail/baggage vans.

• mountains 33[xy]
• curves 33[xy]

Specialities with the locos

Articulated locomotives

Some of the original electric locomotives are articulated engines, these are implemented internally as double-headed engines (even if youīll notice it only in curves), therefore you should have the switch "multihead 0" (and not the default value "multihead 35"!) to keep power and speed according to the original specifications of those engines.

There are two of these articulated locomotives, which you shouldnīt separate its parts but keep them together at the front of the train (usually the first part unit looking forward and the second part unit looking backwards, use <ctrl>+click when moving them around inside the depot window):

• BR 194
• BR 195

Dual-headed engines

And these are the "normal" dual-headed engines. When used in train sets there will be one head in front (looking forward) and the other on the rear end of the train (looking backward). Again you should use <ctrl>+click to drag them around inside the depot window:

• VT-137
• VT-08
• VT-11
• ICE-TD
• BR612
• ET-30
• ICE-1

Custom train sets

Since alpha 11 TTDPatch uses a "callback" scheme to enable modifying locomotives and wagons behaviour in a subtle way. E.g. itīs possible now to have different wagons (powered and unpowered) depending on their position in a consist.

E.g. the DB Set XLīs new ICE-3 train set is not "dual-headed" anymore, instead it is composed as follows:

• trailer, motorized, no pantograph, (thatīs TTDīs "engine")
• coach, inactive panto (AC for Germany and Austria),
• coach, motorized, inactive panto (DC for France),
• coach, no panto
• coach, no panto
• coach, motorized, inactive panto (DC for France),
• coach, active panto (AC for Germany and Austria),
• trailer, motorized, no panto

These different coaches and trailers are made available automatically, i.e. you have to buy only the ICE-3 "engine" (the first trailer, although the ICE-3 in the buying menu looks as it was a double-head) and then - constantly buying coaches, either local or long-distance ones with different capacity - these are automatically allocated according to their specific design and data (weight and power) and will even give you the end trailer automatically.

Because the switch "multihead" will be set to "on" when using the DB Set XL (because of the articulated engines) itīll be possible to build a second "head" but doing this would corrupt the power scheme of the train set (and, BTW, will look somewhat ugly).

Also, at the moment itīs not possible to get more units as the eight above. Although two trainsets are linked together all the time in reality, this isnīt yet a feature of the current DB Set XL nor the current TTDPatch version. Nevertheless, this would be possible in future versions.

Other options

In Germany, signals - including semaphores - are on the right side of track (the "arm" pointing outward). To get "german" semaphores (they look different than the british) you have to choose "drive on right side of road" in TTDīs options menu.

The road side to drive on can be changed until the first road vehicle has been bought. In case youīve forgotten to choose the right side to drive on, change the side before buying a road vehicle and save the game. After reload, the side should be corrected.

DB set XL and the AI

The DB set XL is most useful for those of you who like to play without the crappy AI. Because there are no "player colours" on the engines it wouldnīt be that easy to differentiate between all those AI players (OK, we got the fences if youīre unable to tell if itīs an AI track or yours ...)

However, in case you intend to let participate the AI in building up your world, following information may be helpful to you. Due to the unability of the AI to handle the "special" multi-headed (articulated) engines (BR194 and BR195) and steam locomotives with tenders, those engines have been disabled for use with the AI.

Check the vehicles table what engines the AI may use (the AI always uses the engine with the highest rank at a specific date and if itīll be affordable).

DB set XL and "vehicle.dat"

What vehicles make up the DB set XL?

The DB Set Xl is a "full set", i.e. it uses all 35 available original vehicle IDs for train, monorail and maglev engines. In addition there are more than 40 passenger coaches and mail/baggage vans and a full set of freight wagons, mostly generated by special features of TTDPatch like "wagon override" (when adding a passenger or mail carriage to some of the locomotives the graphics of the carriages is changed automatically to fit the train set type) "variational sprites" (the graphics of engines and carriages are changing, mostly when reaching a special date, e.g. to reflect a change in livery) and "wagon refitting".

The DB Set XL also includes freight wagons which are divided in two groups (generations). A first generation of shorter length and smaller capacity wagons is introduced as early as 1920 so thereīll be transporting capacities for all kind of goods. However, more specialized wagons of higher capacities are introduced successively in the later years.

Nearly all of the new freight wagons are refittable to different cargo. Please read how to refit them.

Due to the fact that the AI usage of wagons is "hard-coded" the wagons could not be ordered by date or by cargo in a natural way. Moreover, I had to introduce all different default cargoes because the AI isnīt able to refit their wagons. This too is slightly unusual, it would have been more useful to have one and the same default cargo for some of the wagons, e.g. coal for the low sided wagons, etc.

Refitting freight wagons

The following table summarizes refitting possibilities of freight wagons ordered by year of availability, keep in mind that the AI will use wagons before they will be available to us humans:

Most of the freight wagons are refittable for a different number of cargoes but itīs only possible to refit a whole consist rather than a single wagon. To do this you have to link the wagons you want to refit to a locomotive and then you can use the refitting button in the train window when being inside a depot to get a "refitting list".

Now, this refitting list will contain all the cargoes which the (possibly different) wagons of a consist will be refittable to, i.e. the refitting list will show a combination of the refittable cargoes of all wagons of that consist.

E.g. if you have two types of wagons in a consist and type "a" will be refittable to "coal" and "iron ore" and type "b" will be refittable to "wood" and "goods" then the combined list will read {coal, iron ore, wood, goods}. Now, if you refit the consist to "goods", all wagons of type "b" in that consist will be refitted to "goods", (obviously, not the ones of type "a"). If youīll do a second refit to "iron ore", all wagons of type "a" will be refitted to "iron ore", but not the wagons of type "b".

Although youīll have only single type cargo trains most of the time, itīs possible to carry out more complex refitting actions:

E.g. if you have two types of wagons in a consist and type "a" will be refittable to "goods" and type "b" will be refittable to "wood" and "goods" then the combined list will read {wood, goods}. Now, if you want only wagons of type "a" to be refitted to "goods" but not those of type "b", you have to de-couple those type "b" wagons during refitting. Thatīs called shunting - a long-missed feature in TTD. :o)

Youīll find a graphical carriage allocation scheme on the Patagonia TTD page and thereīs also additional information (including images) about each of the original locomotives on that web page.

What about the DB set XL liveries?

The DB used many different liveries. In the 50īs all diesels were in purple red (RAL 3004) and electrics in "bottle green" (RAL 6007).

In the late 50īs, electrics were painted in "chrome green" (RAL 6020) if their max speed was less than 120 km/h and blue if it was higher (or equal) than 120 km/h. At times there were two different blue colours: "steel blue" (RAL 5011) and later "cobalt blue" (RAL 5013).

In 1974 a new general colour scheme was introduced. Engines and carriages were changed to a "cream/oceanblue" combination (RAL 1001/RAL 5020).

In 1987 the colour scheme was changed again, this time to a full "orient red" (RAL 3031) livery.

After German Reunification, the colour scheme was changed to "traffic red" (RAL 3020) in 1997.

Additionally, there have been always special liveries (as can be seen in this set), e.g. for local traffic, for TEE (Trans Europe Express) train sets, for "InterCity" long-distance trains and various commuter trains ...

There is a special page on DB liveries on Patagonia/ttd.

Depending on launch year and lifetime, the DB set XLīs engines will have different and changing liveries. When an engine is first introduced it will come in the actual livery of this time. If youīre buying an engine at a later date when livery has changed the new bought engine will be in this new livery. Of course your old engines will stay in their old liveries (and thus will be easy detectable as "old" engines ...)

Again, for an overview about possible liveries for all the engines of the set, check the carriage allocation scheme.

For freight wagons, livery has been brown for ages but in 1996 has been changed to traffic red.

Known Bugs

The railway gates are made by simple sprite replacement of the original tiles, i.e. both old and new ones are "flat" tiles which lack height information. Consequently, in some rare circumstances there will be clipping errors, e.g. caused by high buildings on a neighbouring tile, or when a vehicle passes in front of an open gate. These effects cannot be avoided by using flat tiles and therefore are normal.

Due to a bug in the motion model, speeds are calculated wrong for weak-powered engines. To compensate this effect, power for the VT-137 and the VT-95 have been adapted in such a way that these engines are capable to reach their max. speed.

Thereīs a small bug in TTDPatchīs randomized cargo routine which cannot handle the case that a random trigger which is attached to the consist instead of a single vehicle should not be randomized again even if the engine of the consist is replaced. As a consequence, tankers are changing livery when replacing the engine of the consist and having a parameter of 2 supplied to the DB Set XL.

History - Bug fixes

V0.63 (Feb 18th)

• fixed bug with some of the freight wagons being not initialized independantly from the CargoSet,
• fixed inconsistencies with introduction dates of new liveries when performing wagon overrides for the V200, the V160, the BR181, the BR120 and the BR112.

V0.62 (Feb 18th)

• fixed bug in refitting mask of the high-sided wagon/gondola (veh-ID 21) which erroneously allowed refitting for wood,
• fixed graphicīs glitches (missing undercarriages) in horizontal views of that same wagon when refitted to goods.

V0.61 (Feb 11th)

• fixed bug in callback of Rheingold coaches shown as rubber wagons,
• fixed bug with low side open wagon (1930) showing coal when transporting lumber,
• removed warning messages erroneously given when DB Set 0.5 or TempSet were already deactivated by mutual exclusion.

V0.6 (Feb 9th)

• complete re-design: added DR/DB-style freight wagons
• redesigned ICE-1, ICE-3 and ET-30 to use new "callback" features of TTDPatch
• new graphics for ICE-1, ICE-3 and ICE-TD,
• graphical redesign of VT-95,
• graphical redesign of VT-137,
• introduction of dining-cars,
• "short" coach/mail van added,
• modified all vehicles according to the new offset scheme.
• introduced callbacks for "load amount" for all coaches/mail vans.

V0.5 (Nov 15th):

• fixed graphical glitch with the TEE mail wagon when last in a train (backlights version only)
• fixed DMU/EMU refitting according to a bug fix in 2.0.1 alpha 7.

v0.4 (Sept 16th):

• corrected weights for some steam locomotives (this has no influence on game behaviour)
• fixed (again) a bug with the TransRapid carriages which was introduced by the complex behaviour of "unifiedmaglev" when combined with "electrifiedrailway",
• added backlights for all coaches/mail vans and trains sets. Now only the last coach of a train shows red back lights, giving the ultimate railway feeling. This is also implemented for DMUs and EMU engines.

v.0.3 (August 16th):

• IR mail waggon "open doors" sprite fixed when moving,
• made the TransRapid carriages to appear before the engine to ensure thereīll be carriages available when the engine is introduced,
• fixed a bug which prevented the BR38 to stay in green livery after the year 1930,

Copyright Notice

DB Set - © 2003 Michael Blunck - All Rights Reserved.

DB Set XL - © 2004 Michael Blunck - All Rights Reserved.

Permission to use, copy and distribute this software (consisting of the graphics and its implementation code) and its documentation for non-commercial purposes, without fee and without a signed licensing agreement, is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice, this paragraph and the following four paragraphs appear in all copies and distributions. Contact the above Copyright holder for commercial licensing opportunities.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

THE SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION, IF ANY, PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS PROVIDED "AS IS". THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.

ALL COMMERCIAL USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

ALL REDISTRIBUTION OF THIS SOFTWARE TO OTHER PARTIES FOR COMMERCIAL USE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

Acknowledgements

The availability of new vehicles was only made possible by the outstanding work of Josef Drexler and Marcin Grzegorczyk on TTDPatch. In particular Iīd like to express my gratitude to Josef for the fruitful collaboration during further developing the TTDPatch.

Iīd like to thank Georg Ringler for help with the DB coachesī colour scheme and the reliability numbers for the engines.

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