Open Source Games: OpenTTD

If you're like me you occasional fantasize about owning your own multi-million dollar transportation company.

OpenTTD is a game that I have started to play several different time but have always been turned off by the outdated graphics and controls. Once I got passed that I found OpenTTD is a really fun and extremely addicting game. It is one of the best simulators I have ever played and is probably the best tycoon style games I've played. It is like the old Railroad Tycoon but on steroids. You're goal is to transport anything you can by road, rail, sea or air and make as much cash as possible in the process.

Gameplay

Most of the game is spent building roads and railroads and buying various vehicles, giving them routes, oh and spending and making loads and loads of money.

Time progresses in this game so depending on what year you start you will have limited technology (buildings and vehicles) until those are developed. Towns will grow in population and complexity and industries will collapse and new ones will replace them.

It takes a lot of time to build a huge transportation network especially if you are playing with competitors. They will get in your way steal market share and all around be a pain in the butt. If you have some time to waste OpenTTD is not a bad way to do it.

Comments

Book Review: Tribes

Tribes by Seth Godin is a quick read on leadership. I read this book because it was listed on "Books every leader needs to read" or some such similarly named list. There are some good bits to glean out of this short book. I'll try to condense them here: Managers are not by nature leaders. Managers allocate resources to accomplish a defined outcome. Leaders change things by setting a vision and building a tribe around that vision. Tribes are everywhere big and small. Mega-tribes, sub-tribes, etc. Leadership is inherent risky. But far less risky than our minds tend to think. This is evidenced by the many failures of several highly successful leaders. (Think Elon Musk and the Tesla Truck presentation ). Find people who are doing exceptionally better than average and amplify their influence on everyone else. Leadership is about challenging the status quo. It is s...

Some Goals for 2021

I have had a lot of time by myself recently. I'm working away from home for a few months and my family hasn't been with me for several weeks of that. I've tried my best to use that time for some productive self reflection, contemplation, navel gazing, etc. The product of that is a list of goals for the year. I wanted to put (some of) these out there publicly for some positive social pressure. Recreation & Relationship To start off, I'd like a little more fun in my life. And I'd like to have that fun with people who I cherish. Have at least one meaningful, memorable one on one experience with each of my children. This time apart from my family has highlighted just how valuable time spent together is. We're pretty good at finding ways to have fun all together at home. We play board games, read books aloud (we read the first four Harry Potter books last year), spend time outdoors, etc. But I have not been very good at spending...

Great Novels: It

I had never read Stephen King before, so reading It last year I didn’t really know what to expect. In fact I have to admit that in school I never understood the kids I saw carrying around tomes from the library with "Stephen King" written on the cover. I didn't much like horror movies and couldn't imaging reading the book version for fun. However, based on the fact King literally wrote the book On Writing, I had high hopes for a great novel. It did not disappoint. The characters feel super real, very alive and relatable. By the end of the book, characters I found really annoying I grew to love and I felt sympathy for the psychopathic school yard bully. (WARNING: Spoilers below this point) What I liked As I mentioned, King’s character development in It is amazing. Even the seemingly tangential characters have personal details and deep backstories. Probably the best example of this I can think of is Stan Uris’s wife Patricia. Most of one cha...

Mr. Polehn writes

Search This Blog