Train Stations for FE

[+quack74 329]

Im going to create some Train Stations as ground targets for FE. I barrowed some train .LOD's and .bmp's from the SFP1 terrain download section a while back. I finally tried placing them. The train will be stationary because the terrain isnt set up for tracks. I'll just make sections of track to be about as long as an airfield. I'm going to place acouple rows of tracks with engines and cars. There will be Train stations, water towers and some misc ground objects like troops, trucks, AAA, and tents. I'll place a couple for each side. Not too close to the front though. I'll have to do some painting on the .bmp skins to clean up the trains a bit. They are hard objects. If you hit them your plane will breakup. Also they explode and smoke when destroyed. I'm going to add this to my Caporetto campaign on the Vogesen map first and see how it works out. Would make for a good ground attack mission or bombrun.

 

 

 

[Wrench 9,426]

Looks like the 'siding' is too close to the track, covering it up. These are a NIGHTMATE to place! Believe me, I know!! The facings of some of the objects (the train station, fer instance) is 90 degs from what you'd think it is.

 

You'll find an 'older looking' depot buliding in a lot of my WW2 terrain mods (af20depot_bldg, from Polak's Object Library 1). IIRC, in the WW2 Tunisia, North Africa terrain mods, you'll find complete rail yard layouts. It's a simple copy/paste, once you locate the target area. Or, they can be used (when placed at a town's outskirts) as the "center point", and you just add the other target items around them. Lots of work? Yup; the worth the look.

 

Also, the region where they tracks run MUST be flat, or they disappear into the ground (treat train stations like airfields)

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+quack74 329]

Hey Wrench. I know what you mean by all the spacing and degree of the Engine. And the tracks do go up and down when following the terrain. Looks messy. Thats why I only will make about three track lengths. I did a repaint of the "TrackSides" by adding tracks and rails to the top. Looks much better. Either way it will make for a good ground objects to attack. Will be hard to find a nice flat spot to put it all that doesnt have trees sticking up through the tracks:blink: Before I post any of it I would ask permission from the developers ofcourse. But I cant remember what downloads I pulled the objects from. I think they're from a few different terrains??? There is a curved track that I couldnt get to appear. Still some figuring out to do. Would be nice for the Cambrai and Verdun terrains too to have some trains to shoot at or bomb. Thanks for the heads up about the other objects too.

[+quack74 329]

Here is a train depot. It's still at an airfield just so it's easy for me to work with. But I cant really add more because the frame rates take a hit the more I add. But it looks pretty good for a target. Now finding places to plant this thing is another task. Trying not to have trees sticking through the tracks or buildings should be fun.

 

[Wrench 9,426]

You're preaching to the choir, brother!!

 

It looks GREAT! Might have to kick down and buy FE2 (have the original,but don't have it installed on this new machine, but might as well move up, eh?)

 

You CAN flatten each train station as a seperate target area. It reqiues the WoV/WoE/WoI terrain editor, the FE texturelist.ini (don't know if it's around -- mayhap one of you FE terrain gurus has it) You just create a 'new' city list, that ONLY has the region "effected" --this is a trick TK told me over at the 3W forums when we were adding new airfields for the SF2I Suez expansion--. Then, you just open THAT citylist.ini in the TE, and 'flatten airfield'

 

The list would look something like this (this is from the upcoming Indo-Pak mod for SF2):

 

 

[City001]

Name=Ahmedabad

TextureType=4

Randomness=0

PositionX=753.000000

PositionY=284.000000

Width=12.000000

Height=12.000000

HasAirfield=TRUE

 

 

x/y are the center points of the 'city'. The Width/Height is in KM (this one is RATHER large, as I had to flatten the whole city too keep the river-crossing bridges from hovering over the terrain). For a train station, 2 seems about right.

You just change the name of the city to whatever you want ( - "DuLac Train Station" or whatever you name it)

The flatcars and tankcars are apporx 9.5 meters in lenght, so space about 11 between. Can't remember the engine's lentght.

Don't forget the af64traincars; they're generic boxcars. Approx 90m long.

 

wrench

kevin stein

 

edit: forgot to mention, if you're going the TE route, you'll need the TFD, HFD, and the main inis -data, **.ini, from whatever terrain you're working on in the TE, along with all the tiles; tgas must be covnertd to bmp.

W

Edited September 24, 2010 by Wrench
forgot something important!!

[+quack74 329]

Interesting stuff. I never really thought of messing with a TE. I just added my train station right into the Terrains _Targets.ini as a new [TargetAreaxxx] - Name=Train Station. But the TE would be the way to go to get the train station in a good location. Thanks again Wrench:drinks:

[+quack74 329]

Maybe Jan Tuma could place the tracks all along one of his terrain upgrads to make real rail lines with moving trains? (I only wrote this Jan cause I saw you were reading it) I know it's not that easy

[+quack74 329]

Well they blow up real nice! But it's almost impossible for me to place them in a good spot thats not full of trees and buildings. I've no idea how to use the terrain editor:blink:

 

I'll keep trying though.

 

[+Gepard 10,241]

If working with TE to flatten the places where you want to lay the tracks you should not use to big numbers for width and height. 2km x 2km should be enough.

So i made it when i created the trainstations for DRV terrain or BoB terrain.

[+Jan Tuma 2]

Hi quack74 !

 

Have you got interest in the specific tilles with railway tracks and areas for railway station?

 

 

 

Jan :-)

[+quack74 329]

Hey Jan. Well I didnt know you had some FrTrain tiles laying around. I dont really know where I want to put the Stations just yet because of the populated tiles that I already have ( that you created). I'm only working with Gepards Vogesen terrain for now. I'm also using your visual upgrade for it as well. I dont think I have any of those FRTRAIN tiles in the Vogesen folder. Actually I know I dont. Since I dont know how to use the TE I cant really see where I'm placing the Tracks and Train Stations. I created a complete target area in the Vogesen_TARGETS .ini cald "Train Station A". this way I just need coordinates to place the whole "Train Station A" object. I would prefer to place the Train Stations in or around the larger cities. Laying tracks to connect the stations would be ideal. But the terrain is so up and down and has a lot of objects in the way, It would be almost impossible for me to do it. Those Tiles you have look great! Perfect for a rail system. What terrain are they made for?

[+Jan Tuma 2]

What terrain are they made for?

 

 

Hi!

I plan them as universal tiles for all terrains like upgrade the Tilest in folder ...Terrain\seasonal_tiles\... and aditional *.TOD files for individual terrain folders.

 

Jan

 

 

[+quack74 329]

Could you connect all the major cities with tracks with these new tiles ? Could you possibly try it out with the Vogesen terrain. I would like to use it for my new Campaign if possible. Would be an awsome addition! . I think we're on to something great here:yikes:

[+Jan Tuma 2]

Some inspiration:

 

Trainengine in SF2-Vietnam excellent expansion 2.0 by eburger68:

 

 

 

 

 

Jan

 

 

 

[+quack74 329]

Awsome! Can you lay the tracks on your new FRTRAIN tiles? And connect them to cities? That Train is much nicer too. Does it move??

Edited September 26, 2010 by quack74

[Wrench 9,426]

Old Diego's full train object. We're using it in Korea as well Indo-Pak

 

It CAN be made to move...cause I did it. But it's a MagLev! The roadwheels sit about 1 meter off the gound. Another unfortunate side effect, is that multiple units appear in well, in SF they call it Armed_Recon - don't remember what it's called in FE. Kinda funny to see 6 or 8 trains moving in formation across the landscape. But, as they're MagLev or Anti-Grav propelled.......guess it dont matter! There may be an edit to the data ini, like the Tanker, to limit it to ONE item formation size. However, it will follow the truck routes stated in the terrains Movement.ini; if one were to create routes that follow the tracks, you'd also find trucks on them as well, randomly generated

 

JanTuma: love those rail tiles!!

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+quack74 329]

Hmmm. I've created some truck routes as well. Some extra ones for the Vogesen terrain for FE2. When creating the route dont you need to specify the object type? Isnt there a perameter for "Train"? Wouldnt that make only trains to appear on that route? Also the tracks are nice and straight (most of the time). One should be able to get the "Route" to be right on for most of the trains' journey. Maybe:dntknw:

 

Here is one I made. Not too specific as far as coordinates go but it can be made to be pretty spot on.

If the "TRUCK" can be renamed "TRAIN" then we're in business

 

[Route005]

RouteType=TRUCK

StartArea=Vorratslager Giromagny

EndArea=Observation Balloon 12F

RoutePosition[001]=134609.000,62857.000

RoutePosition[002]=134364.000,61201.000

RoutePosition[003]=133084.000,60017.000

RoutePosition[004]=131070.000,59250.000

RoutePosition[005]=129995.000,58362.000

RoutePosition[006]=124095.000,71280.000

RoutePosition[007]=123125.000,70265.000

RoutePosition[008]=128598.000,57738.000

RoutePosition[009]=127375.000,57244.000

RoutePosition[010]=126639.000,56365.000

RoutePosition[011]=125732.000,55746.000

RoutePosition[012]=124222.000,54689.000

RoutePosition[013]=123110.000,54084.000

 

Actually whomever wants to try and lay the tracks would know the coordinates of the tracks he or she is laying. Why not keep tabs on those X,Y coordinates and create a "Route" to place in a specific terrains' TERRAIN_MOVEMENT.INI?

Edited September 26, 2010 by quack74

[+quack74 329]

What is the Trains' object name in the Tarrains'_TYPES.INI? everything has a name like TRUCK, ARTILLARY, TRANSPORT, MISC, etc. etc. Is there a TYPE called TRAIN in any of the TW sims????

 

 

[Wrench 9,426]

TRANSPORT, just like trucks, in a data ini.

 

This is from the KAW types ini: (which noone outside the Team has seen)

 

[TargetType***]

Name=Train

FullName=Train

TargetType=WAREHOUSE

ModelName=full_train.LOD

ActiveYear=0

DamagePoint=75

ArmorValue=0

ArmorType=0

TargetValue=250

UseGroundObject=FALSE

RepairRate=0.150

StartDetectChance=50

StartIdentifiedChance=0

IncreaseDetectChanceKey=0

MaxVisibleDist=8000.0

DamagedModel=

DestroyedModel=full_trainX.LOD

DestroyedEffect=LargeExplosionEffect

SecondaryEffect=MediumOilFireEffect

SecondaryChance=100

Effect=SmokeStackEffect

EffectOffset=0.0,5.00,6.0

 

for the static model, of course. assigning the role of "WAREHOUSE" gaurentees it's availiblity for STRIKE mission

 

If Diego says YES, I'll zip up the GroundObject Folder for the Train, and shoot it to you to experiment with (it's a permission item). Mind you, it will be sitting above ground. Had a screenie of it, but can't find it. Mine is also has a repainted locomotive bmp,to remove the commie red star

 

As to creating truck routes (or shipping or ground attack for that matter), I find using the freecamera view, and starting off from the start point, and traveling that way, jotting down the coordinates on paper, and ending up where you want, makes the best routes. In Korea, I've got actually truck traveling down the roads.

 

Easiest way to "get to the starting point", is a mission that you can edit. Look in SF Knowledge base; I wrote a turorial on how to do that. Something like "Targeting Made Easy" or words to that effect. Prolly in the Terrain Editor thread.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[Spad13 0]

A note of encouragement from a non-modder here who appreciates all your efforts. I was thinking the other day how trains would make a great target, after watching the original "Dawn Patrol" on Youtube (at the end a lone flier makes a bold attack on a German railyard).

 

Good luck! Looking forward to one day strafing a few trains in FE.