Note

Rules are used to ease the cooperative gameplay. Do not think of rules as laws, beeing punished if you don't follow them, but rules as a keypoint to play together.

Please note: individual games may have different rulesets. These rules are a default set, and in different games different rules may be needed.

Rules of our games

Playing in a team is very challenging. Imagine a team of skilled players who stick to their own individual playing style. If we want to set up a comprehensive and efficient transportation network we need to stick to certain rules.

These rules help us to understand what our teammates are doing. Also, it keeps us away from additional work caused by a lack of proper building style. If you want to join us, you are very welcome; but we request you to pay attention to our rules.

Communication

• You should be IRC in case we need to have a discussion for which in game chat is not sufficient.
• We have no choice but to kick and/or ban players who are disruptive to the cooperative style of play, to make sure everyone can enjoy the game.
• Try not to disrupt the whole network. If that's necessary, talk to everyone else; so they know what's going on.
• Two people building in the same place is generally about as many as can be without a large ammount of confusion. So communicate what and where you are doing something.
• If you have a special intention about something, use the ingame signs. Use them to comment out your ideas, like programmers use comments in their code. In fact, playing OTTD is like programming a system. No Sign overkill is needed! If you see obsolete signs, delete them (if you are not sure, keep them).
• Language is english (due to popular demand ;-) )
• We usually name our hubs; the first hub in a game with a sign "Hub 1", and so on. This makes communication about routing simpler.

Game Start

Games always start with coal, because it's the resource with the best distance/profit margins. The route should go a reasonable distance in a straight line. We should all discuss the start in IRC and all work together to find a route that is both profitable and easy to expand. If none can be found a new map will be started. The start should be done by no more than 3 people at a time, to avoid confusion while establishing an initial profitable route. The company color is always orange. Don't question this. It leads to nothing at all ;-)

Construction

• Stick to our construction guides for a proper building style.
• Avoid having a full loan like the plauge. One loan unit is needed in case the total amount of money goes into the red. If this happens too much, the company can go bankrupt. So, it's good to have one loan unit to borrow on so that this doesn't happen.
• Signals every 3rd rail. It may look bad but tests have proven it is the most effective.
• No 90 degree turns; make everything nice and smooth. This works better and acceleration math makes it go faster.
• No 2*45 degree curves, due to too high speed penalties with the new train acceleration.
• Stations are 5 blocks long, and almost always 2 platforms wide. In small games, there is rarely a need of more than 2 platforms - in larger games, like 1024x1024, you should stick to larger stations.
• Avoid building diagonal tracks. You know why.
• Use the "Ro-Ro" style train stations whenever possible.
• On 2+/2+ lines be sure to leave three spaces between the two lanes (LL___RR).
• We (well most of us) drive on the right side of the road, the trains should too ;-).
• Never build industries until the entire map is connected. This is because the max industry limit could be reached accidently, which would prevent the building of a necessary industry such as a factory or oil refinery.

Network Design

• The entire network is connected. Nothing off to the side.
• We build large mainlines (also known as 'Axis' - at least LL___RR or even more depending on the size of the map) and use them as backbones for all of the traffic.
• We build sidelines (LR) that access the mainlines via Hubs.
• Never, ever build dead-end lines (mainlines or sidelines that end at a station). It's a capital sin to do this to a mainline. If you do this at a sideline, it's a lot of work for us to fix it. Dead-end lines lead to uncomprehensive networks, and makes connections to further station via the same sideline unnecessary difficult, slow and/or clumsy.
• Never ever connect a station directly to the mainline. This makes a fast mainline slow. Always connect a station via a sideline.
• Try to minimize the number of sidelines. A sidelinehub is always a possible source of a jam or speed decrease. Just connect stations in a certain area via the same sideline.

Trains

• Trains are engine + 8 cars. This makes it easy to upgrade.
• Shared orders are a must if more than one vehicle shares the same route.