Related: Update DB Set XL (v0.6)

I´ve uploaded version 0.6 of the DB Set (XL) which includes a complete set
of new freight wagons and improves a lot of other things.

First of all:

The new version isn´t compatible to the old one, insofar as I had to change
the grf-ID (it´s 6D 62 00 01 now). This was necessary because version 0.5 of
the DB Set is still needed by people which don´t use the newest alphas.
OTOH, because the XL version makes heavy use of newest patch features it´s
not working under versions before alpha 15.

Due to the fact that the XL version includes own freight wagons and thus
doesn´t uses the CargoSet´s wagons you´d have to take care when using both
the XL version and the CargoSet: The DB Set XL still needs the CargoSet for
the trucks therefore it´s best placed behind it in newgrf[w].cfg. Again,
check the documentation when in trouble during installation.

New features:

- The new freight wagons have been made to fit graphically into the roster
of german DR and DB companies. They´re all in the usual brownish livery
until 1996 when livery changes to red. Nearly all of the wagons make use of
the new "wagon refitting" mechanism of TTDPatch. You should really take a
look into the "DBXL_readme" file to get used to the procedure.

The manual is also available online:

http://www.patagonia.de.vu/ttd/dbxl_readme.html

To profit from refitting possibilities, refitting cost for the wagons is
small except when refitting would need a noteworthy technical complexity,
e.g. when changing crude oil tankers to liquid goods tankers.

I´ve added also some smaller freight wagons for the early years. These are
"short" wagons with reduced capacity (15 tons). You could find ample
information about all the wagons in the aforementioned readme file:

http://www.patagonia.de.vu/ttd/dbxl_readme.html#freight

In addition there are some modern high-capacity waggons for the later
years, including self-discharging hoppers, sliding-wall and tarpaulin
wagons.

There are also many other smaller changes and add-ons:

- all wagons got wheels and buffers,
- more steel products,
- more machinery goods,
- new oil tankers
- new containers,
- wagons usable to transport paper in case you´re using
"moreindustriesperclimate",


Apart from the freight wagons there are a bunch of other improvements:

- I´ve added a short coach and a short mail/luggage van with decreased
capacities (30 passengers, 18 bags of mail) to the set which will be the
first available in 1920/21 before (in 1925) coaches of normal length will
begin to appear.

- there are also some dining-cars included now which can be used with
specified locomotives, namely the BR05, the BR103 and the ICE-1. These will
show up in sufficiently long consists, i.e. you´ll need at least 8 coaches
or mail vans to get a dining-car which will be moved then to the fifth
position in the consist.

I´ve also included some of the latest patch features, namely the "callback"
feature which allows patch functions to change their behaviour according to
specified graphics of a vehicle. So far, Josef included callbacks for
powered wagon behaviour and loading amount. Both are used by the DB Set XL:

- a complete re-design of all ICE train sets which now use the newest patch
technology contributed by Josef, both have very realistic pantographs now
and the ICE-1 got that famous "Bord-Restaurant" car,

- modified the ET-30 train set to use also callbacks for realistic
pantograph usage and to get sparks only at the rear engine,

- modified all coaches and mail vans to use a callback on loading amount.
This is a very handy feature because we can now differentiate much better
between diverse services (local, regional, long-distance) in different time
periods. E.g. the BR612 train set which is especially useful for commuter
networks instantly loads/unloads, but - on the contrary, the very first
pre-war mail van loads only 3 bags per tick. However, this feature has to be
refined, especially when callbacks for capacities will be available. Again,
the loading amount numbers are referenced in the DB Set XL documentation (in
the coaches table).

- last, but not least, I´ve done a radical change to the overall look of the
game: I changed the offsets which are used to position vehicles on rails.
The original positioning always looked ugly to me (especially because those
boxy goods vans didn´t even had wheels) but I wasn´t able to modify this
using the original wagons. Now, it got realized, you may check out whether
you like it or not.


*Important:*

Although versions 0.5 and 0.6 of the DB Set are "incompatible" insofar as
they´re using different grf-IDs, you can still use older savegames. Check
the patch manual how to use the "cht: graphics .." to make available older
savegames with the new set, especially if you´re using "saveoptionaldata".
In addition, you´ll have to sell and buy anew parts of your rolling stock.
Luckily, many of the freight wagons have retained their previous vehicle IDs
(although, their capacities could have been changed). Nevertheless, some IDs
had to be changed, mostly with regard to problems with the AI which should
be able to use the new wagons too, but is unable to refit them.

When converting older savegames there will be still some of the original
freight waggons left because they´ve been part of TTD, not ThePatch nor the
current CargoSet. I strongly recommend to get rid of all those "old" models
in your savegames because they don´t fit together well with the new ones,
mainly because there would be rather ugly graphic offsets between old and
new wagons.

BTW, it´s still possible to use the DB Set v0.5 (and other sets, e.g. the
TropicSet) with the CargoSet under the new patch versions. However, the
freight wagons of the CargoSet and the DB Set XL are incompatible now.
However, I´ll do a re-design of the CargoSet if there´s need to include some
of the new wagons or features.

You may download the new set from

www.patagonia.de.vu/ttd/download.html  or from
www.ttdpatch.net

Michael

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