Note

Rules are used to ease the cooperative gameplay. Do not think of rules as laws, being punished if you don't follow them, but rules as a cornerstone 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 - look at our Gametype-pages for further information.

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 on IRC or Discord 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 amount of confusion. So communicate what and where you are doing something.
• For the same reason in order to make communication easier: choose the same (or at least a recognisably similar) ingame name as your IRC nick.
• 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 always name our hubs and add the name of the builder on the sign to ease bugtracking and communication. Look at our naming conventions.

Game Start

Most games start with money makers using airplanes, unless the map contributor states otherwise. Please refer to the Game Start with Airplanes guide for more details.

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 unless a plan says something different. In case of doubt, ask others ingame.
• No 90 degree turns! Trains can't take them due to our patch-settings.
• No 2*45 degree curves, due to too high speed penalties. It should and can be avoided in 99.9% of all situations. Only at some less-frequented, bad-located stations, 2*45s are acceptable. This holds true also for "chaos style".
• Stations are all equally long - depending on game type and strategy. Usually the smallest stations have 2 platforms but on larger games, like 1024x1024, you should stick to even larger stations - because of the long train running times there some queuings can occur.
• On 2+/2+ lines (Mainlines) be sure to leave some spaces in between the two lanes (the more the better, depending on space restrictions).
• We (well most of us) drive on the right side of the road, the trains should too ;-).
• Unless stated otherwise we keep terraforming as low as possible. Moving a few tiles for a station or a curve is OK, but carving out a valley to lay your Sideline is a no-no. Also see Terraforming.

Network Design

• Often, we build large mainlines (at least LLRR or even more depending on traffic) and use them as backbones for all of the traffic. Everything is connected to those mainlines by the standard line hierarchy. On the other hand, this can vary basing on a specific plan. Be sure to search for a sign like "  !Network plan! " to gain further information. They may mention one of the proven concepts in order to avoid writing down everything anew.
• We build sidelines (LR, sometimes LLRR) that access the mainlines via Sideline Hubs.
• Never ever connect a station directly to the mainline. This makes a fast mainline slow. Always connect a station via a sideline.

Trains

• At the very beginning of a map we try to agree on a train length. A certain trainlength and speed needs a certain curve radius, therefore we try to avoid different lengths or train speeds.
• Shared orders are a must if more than one vehicle shares the same route. Ctrl+click while cloning trains. Exception: never ctrl+clone trains from trainyard

Public Server

• The Public Server is a special case. Rules must be observed even more stringently than elsewhere.
• The password for the Public Server is available only from IRC. You can query the password easily via an IRC command at any time.
• NEVER join the server twice. Ask others to join as well. It's a coop server - and you can hardly call playing by yourself co-operation.
• If you plan to be AFK for some reasons, please leave or join spectactors.