Remove Players

I recently wanted to change a saved game and make it available to others in a ‘pristine state’. Here is the process I used in a step by step outline with explanations.

Normal Process

I knew I could take a saved game, rename if to saved-game.scn and then be able to load it into the scenario editor. You can go the opposite direction as well by taking a scenario and renaming it to scenario-name.sav

Next step is to move the file to the right folder – so saved games into \save and scenarios into \scenarios. One extra thing I do is duplicate the file instead of just renaming the original so I also keep the original as a backup.

Once I have the file in the scenario readable naming convention with the .scn extension I open it in scenario editor and make changes to it.

Then I save it with the name extension change as described previously and it is then playable in OpenTTD like any other saved game.

Caveat Most Miss

In my current situation, however I also wanted to wipe out any infrastructure for when I played it previously. I was the only player – no AI players or other players – so I thought it would be easy to just remove what I did and save a clean copy.

It turns out you cannot remove any changes made by the players from a saved game from within scenario editor or from within a saved game…

What you have to do is load the saved game in Multiplayer mode. This allows you to go into the console, remove yourself as a participant and then remove Company One and / or any other previous player companies that are in the saved game.

Breaking it Down

Let me break it sown into steps. It really is not that difficult once you know how…

I took it into scenario editor to modify the rivers and add locks. All I had done in the saved game is build one rail line and two stations from a coal mine to a power station and added two trains.

When I went into the scenario editor I wanted to go ahead and remove the train infrastructure but it gave me the message that I could not remove the changes made by player 1. I wanted to save this as a scenario that others could use in pristine form without a player or any player added company information, infrastructure, or vhicles.

I was told I could remove Player 1 using the console command remove_player 1 but received an error stating I was not allowed to remove an active player.

I have done the opposite of most people: I took the saved game renamed it and loaded it into scenario editor, made the terrain changes. I just could not remove player 1 or any changes I made when I played it.

I had to load the game into Multiplayer mode. Because I was currently inside a standard saved game environment (.sav), OpenTTD’s active management commands are fully online, meaning you can successfully eliminate Player 1 and all of their structures. [1]

I was still getting the error until I went about it a bit differently:

Further Explanation

The error occurs because OpenTTD explicitly locks administrative functions like reset_company to multiplayer local server hosts. Because you are loading it directly from the single-player menu, the game treats you as a locked user client rather than a server admin. [1, 2, 3]

You can bypass this restriction entirely by telling OpenTTD to host the save file as a local network game. [1]

The Solution: Trick the Game using “Start Server”

1. Save and close your current session to return to the OpenTTD Main Menu.
2. Click Multiplayer on the main menu.
3. Click Start Server.
4. In the map selection screen, look at the bottom right and click Load Game, then select your modified .sav file.
5. Click Start Server at the bottom right to launch the game.

OpenTTD will not let you delete a company if a live client is still sitting in the manager’s chair. To bypass this, you need to evict yourself to spectator mode so Company 1 is completely empty before you reset it. [1, 2]

Follow these steps in your server session:

1. Evict Yourself to Spectator Mode
2. Open the console (~).
3. Type clients and press Enter. This will show a list of people connected to the game. Look for your name; your client_id is almost always 1.
4. Type move 1 255 and press Enter.
   (Note: This forces Client 1 into company 255, which is OpenTTD’s internal index code for a Spectator. Your main gameplay UI will change, and you will lose the company interface). [1, 2, 3]
5. Force Delete Company 1

Now that Company 1 has zero active clients connected to it, the engine will let you wipe it: [1]

1. In the console, type reset_company 1 and press Enter. [1, 2]
   The company will instantly dissolve, and all the trains, tracks, and stations will disappear. [1]
2. Save and Clean Up
3. Type save pristine_final in the console and press Enter.
4. Close OpenTTD, swap the file extension from .sav to .scn, and your empty map is ready. [1, 2]

Recap of Process

That is the only way I could find to get around my situation where I had gone in and played a game and then decided to make changes to it and reset it…

Using a local multiplayer server to evict yourself and force-reset the company is the only 100% vanilla way** to save a map that has already been tainted by player data.

While it feels like a complicated workaround, it is actually the most reliable method because OpenTTD does not have a “Clear Map Data” button built into the single-player interface.

The only other alternative would have required using a third-party, fan-made external ‘save game editor’ program to strip out the company data bytes manually, but those programs are rarely updated and frequently corrupt modern save files. The multiplayer “trick” is by far the safest option.