Design Document:Project Overview

Transport Empire is a game about transporting goods and passengers on a player built network of roads, tracks etc.

The game is roughly based on the concept of Transport Tycoon.

Title

Transport Empire

Basic Agreements

The game is placed in a full 3D environment. Internally the game uses such measurement units:

   * Length is measured in metres (m)
   * Time is expressed in seconds (s)
   * Weight is expressed in kilograms (kg)
   * Velocity is expressed in meters/second (m/s)
   * Volume is expressed in cubic metres (m³)
   * Force is expressed in Newtons (N)
   * Currency is expressed in credits (TEC)
   * Position is expressed in tiles (TET)
   * Angle is expressed in radians (rad)
   * Power is expressed in Watts (W) 

The game will provide a conversion of the internally used units into human friendly units, including possibility to define user units. Default displaying units may include:

   * Kilometers (km)
   * Hours/days/weeks (h/d/w)
   * Tonnes (t) (1 tonne = 1000 kg)
   * Tons (t) (1 ton = 2000 lb)
   * Kilometers per hour (km/h, kph)
   * Kilonewtons (kN)
   * British Miles (m)
   * US Miles (m)
   * Knots (Kt)
   * Pounds (lb)
   * Miles per hour (mph)
   * Pound force (lbf)
   * British pound (£)
   * Dollar ($)
   * Euro (€)
   * Degree
   * Kilowatt (kW) 

Currency is expressed in Credits (C) - meaning - that for example 1 British pound = 10000 credits, 1 dollar = 7000 credits

Configuration

The game is configured via a set of spreadsheets. These spreadsheets are tab delimited files. Configuration sheets are placed in folders. The game assumes that files in certain folders are configuration files (of a given type) and will parse them accordingly (this way config files can be added without modifying existing ones).

For example - all files in 'te/vehicles/rail/models' are definition models of models for train vehicles.

Tab files are easy to edit and parse - MS Excel can edit them - also there are other editors - Diable II mod base uses them since Diable II is also configured by a set of spreadsheets

Note by XeryusTC: we will use lua files as agreed on the meeting of 14 june 2006. We will use lua files as they are more flexible as TDF

Folder Structure

Folder structure shows where all files are stored by default - the game will seek certain objects (models, config etc) in predestined folder. The mockup has been cut out

Scale

One tile is a square with size of 16m x 16m (256 sqm). The default mapsize is 1024x1024 tiles - total of 16384m x 16384m (16 square km).

There are around 20-40 cities. The average city has a population of around 3000-5000 people. The biggest cities are ~500 000. The biggest cities take around 64 tile radius (3.29 square kilometers).

Overall - the transports and roads are the same as in TTD, but the world is much bigger - forcing bigger distances. Also bigger space will allow better maps based on the real world. Better slope-to-distance and better scenery. One thing though: 16m tile is only a reference to the sizes of all objects - not a reference of actual distances/speed etc.

Sets, groups, random choise

Sets: each object in the game is grouped in sets. Player chooses certain sets (like: american train set + truck set + africa terrain set) before making a game.

Groups: some objects are identified by groups. For example, buying a Scania Truck will actually open a window with a few types of this truck (like: Scania Hopper Truck, Scania Refrigerated Truck etc).

Random choise: some objects will be built and then the actual object will be selected randomly from a cache of objects (which are available in the given period). Buying a boxcar, for example, will randomly assign a livery to it.