[OTTD] Hokkaido 4096x4096

[The_Terminator]

I am in the process of building a scenario based on the Hokkaido region of Japan, and have finally got it to the point where I am ready to share it.

Hokkaido is the second largest island in the Japanese archipelago, and is home to 5.5m people. Famous for ramen, seafood, and winter sports, it is also the northernmost part of Japan, and its rugged mountains and expansive plains spend much of the winter buried in snow. The population of Hokkaido is concentrated in a small number of urban centres, the largest being Sapporo with 1.8m people, leaving the vast majority of the island as a sparsely populated wilderness.

Although Hokkaido has been populated in some form or another for thousands of years, serious development only really began in 1869 with the creation of the Hokkaido Development Commission to coordinate colonisation of the region. This scenario starts 30 years later, in 1900. Many settlements have grown all over the island, in all shapes and sizes - now they need you to build an efficient transport system to connect them!

In terms of industry, Hokkaido has a wealth of raw materials in its remoter regions, but most secondary industries are located close to the main populated areas, so connecting them will be a big job. You may want to start by transporting imports from the ports to their destination, or by shipping food from the many farms to the cities that demand them.

The map is well-balanced to allow for a mix of busy urban lines, longer distance main lines connecting major population centres, and the winding rural lines Hokkaido is famous for. The mountainous terrain should help make for an interesting challenge, too.

I have placed cities by hand as accurately as I could, but with a focus on fun gameplay over realism. In particular, the population distribution is very different, and a lot of towns are larger, relative to each other, than they are in real life, in order to keep things interesting.

Screenshots:

[+] Spoiler

The scenario was built in OpenTTD 1.6.0. Here is the Newgrf list - they should all be easily available online:


This is my first proper scenario, so I hope people have fun with it, and welcome any feedback you can give me!

One issue you might notice with the current version is that there aren't many trees. This is because for some reason the auto-placement of trees insists on only placing trees above the snowline, and hardly ever below, as shown here:

[+] Spoiler

Needless to say, it looks a bit silly. I have no idea why it's doing it though - if anybody's encountered this problem before, I'd welcome any advice you can give me.

Changelog:

v0.4:

• Added several more towns around Nayoro, Asahikawa, and Sapporo which had been missed.

v0.3:

• Added industries.

v0.2:

• Added several more NewGRFs to increase the range of vehicles available early in the scenario, and replaced FIRS with the latest version (2.0.3)
• Made some modifications to the terrain, widening a few valleys etc to make it easier to recreate the Sekishou and Nemuro railway lines, which run through the mountains, connecting Obihiro to Sapporo and Furano. It would still be a fairly major feat of engineering, but should give the player a bit more flexibility in how they connect the major cities.

[Ivir Baggins]

At start there aren't any ships or road vehicles available. For the next version I suggest adding some relevant NewGRFs.

[SwissFan91]

The scenario looks awesome! Great job.

Maybe you could add some of my TARS Objects so people can recreate those sweet Japanese powder ski resorts!

[The_Terminator]

At start there aren't any ships or road vehicles available. For the next version I suggest adding some relevant NewGRFs.

True. I tried to use as few NewGRFs as possible, and avoided adding any non-Japanese ones, so that people can play it without needing to download many, and just add whichever ones they like the most instead... and truth be told, I forgot that none of the default trams are available in 1900. You're right that I should probably include enough NewGRFs for the scenario to be fully playable straight off the bat, so I've added a few more for v0.2, which is now in the first post. I'm pretty sure they're all available through the in-game downloader:

The scenario looks awesome! Great job.

Maybe you could add some of my TARS Objects so people can recreate those sweet Japanese powder ski resorts!

I was seriously tempted - I'm a big fan of them, and they would fit right in with this map. But I want to avoid including any NewGRFs unnecessarily, and it would be a pretty big effort building enough of them for it to be worth doing so.

What I might do at some point, though, is see if I can find a list of all the ropeways etc that exist in real life, and try recreating those in the scenario. That would be pretty cool, though I'd like to try and get industries done first.

[Sylf]

I took a quick peak at this scenario via the FIRS thread.
One thing that I noticed is you had towns named "XXXX Misaki", I think. Those are names of peninsulas, not real towns. So, for example, there's no need to have both Soya Mura and Soya Misaki.

[The_Terminator]

I took a quick peak at this scenario via the FIRS thread.
One thing that I noticed is you had towns named "XXXX Misaki", I think. Those are names of peninsulas, not real towns. So, for example, there's no need to have both Soya Mura and Soya Misaki.

Those are actually the correct names, though I see why you might not think so. Because Hokkaido is so sparsely populated, and so many of the towns and cities are incredibly spread out, I had to get a bit creative in deciding what to include as a town in my map. There are a lot of small villages and hamlets which are technically part of a town or city quite some distance away which I included as separate towns in the scenario - the two you mention are two of those, being part of Wakkanai - which is quite a long way away. All the names I used are real names, although it was a bit difficult finding them all, so there may some errors here and there. Generally I got them from local town halls, post offices, and the addresses of local buildings. There are also a handful of cases where I placed towns where there's just a train station in real life, with no real settlement around it, and named it after the station.

In the case of Soya Misaki, it is indeed named after the peninsular it sits on. It's the northernmost point of Japan, so actually a relatively popular tourist destination. I took the name from the local post office, and double checked it by looking at the addresses of nearby places.

As for Soya Mura, it seems to be the name of that district - again, taken from the addresses of local buildings (including the post office). The town hall there is actually Wakkanai City's Soya branch office, and the post office is called Soya Post Office - but the addresses all said Soya Mura, so I went with that.

I did the same thing throughout the map - Hokkaido is mostly very sparsely populated, so if I only included official towns and cities, the majority of the map would be totally empty - and no fun to play.

[Flygon]

I do admit, for more rural stretches of the Hokkaido Island, it is rather annoying having the large gaps between cities. Especially after seeing the towns actually existing in Google Maps (which I use to accurately name Transport stops after geographic location ).

I know you valued Gameplay over Realism, but this might be one of those cases where adding in the smaller towns between large cities might actually enhance Gameplay. Rather than having an NG and SG Shinkansen track pair next to eachother, basically following the same route... why not give the player the chance to use the NG line for shorter distance stoppers?

I'd totally do this myself, but I'm both 70 years into my game, and I know you yourself are still developing this scenario. All in all, I love it!

[The_Terminator]

I do admit, for more rural stretches of the Hokkaido Island, it is rather annoying having the large gaps between cities. Especially after seeing the towns actually existing in Google Maps (which I use to accurately name Transport stops after geographic location ).

I know you valued Gameplay over Realism, but this might be one of those cases where adding in the smaller towns between large cities might actually enhance Gameplay. Rather than having an NG and SG Shinkansen track pair next to eachother, basically following the same route... why not give the player the chance to use the NG line for shorter distance stoppers?

I'd totally do this myself, but I'm both 70 years into my game, and I know you yourself are still developing this scenario. All in all, I love it!

That's pretty much what I was trying to do. But rural Hokkaido really is surprisingly empty. The eastern part, around Kushiro, Nemuro and Shibetsu, especially ought to be relatively densely populated, but there's just nothing but empty farmland for miles. It got to the point where I would have had to start making places up if I wanted more towns (or start calling them things like "Mitomo Farm" or "Nakashibetsu Water Treatment Plant"). That said, if you've found any which I've missed, please do let me know and I'll add them in.

I have now finished adding industries, too, which will hopefully help make the more rural areas a bit more interesting. I have yet to play a freight-focused game, and there is probably a lot of balancing to be done, but as a first pass, I'm quite pleased with it. I've attached it to the first post.

Hokkaido has a wealth of resources just waiting to be unlocked, but efficiently transporting them to the urban centres where most industry is to be found will be no mean feat. You will need to start by focusing on goods imported through the main coastal ports, and on serving the expansive agricultural sector. Most primary industries are very remote, so connecting them will require a significant infrastructure investment - but if you can pull it off, you will be able to make a fortune.

Any feedback would be welcome. In particular, I'm unsure about the number of industries. Too many? Too few? Let me know what you think!

I've also been playing through this scenario myself. It's currently the year 1976, and the Hokkaido railway network has expanded nicely. Here are a few screenshots:

Hokkaido Development Co., 14th Jun 1976.png

Takikawa station, the first to be built in Hokkaido. Takikawa is one of the main hubs on the network, serving a number of different lines, and offering direct connections to most major cities.

(980.17 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Hokkaido Development Co., 11th Jun 1976.png

Sapporo station, serving the capital city of Hokkaido. The Hokusei limited express service for Tomakomai Minato, pulled by 2 powerful EF58 electric locomotives, waits at platform 2.

(991.38 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Hokkaido Network Map.png

A map of the current network. Major stations are indicated in bold.

(218.67 KiB) Not downloaded yet

A number of services are still operated by ageing steam engines, so the current focus is on replacing those with state of the art EMUs. Then a new line heading north would be nice, too.

[Flygon]

I do admit, for more rural stretches of the Hokkaido Island, it is rather annoying having the large gaps between cities. Especially after seeing the towns actually existing in Google Maps (which I use to accurately name Transport stops after geographic location ).

I know you valued Gameplay over Realism, but this might be one of those cases where adding in the smaller towns between large cities might actually enhance Gameplay. Rather than having an NG and SG Shinkansen track pair next to eachother, basically following the same route... why not give the player the chance to use the NG line for shorter distance stoppers?

I'd totally do this myself, but I'm both 70 years into my game, and I know you yourself are still developing this scenario. All in all, I love it!

That's pretty much what I was trying to do. But rural Hokkaido really is surprisingly empty. The eastern part, around Kushiro, Nemuro and Shibetsu, especially ought to be relatively densely populated, but there's just nothing but empty farmland for miles. It got to the point where I would have had to start making places up if I wanted more towns (or start calling them things like "Mitomo Farm" or "Nakashibetsu Water Treatment Plant"). That said, if you've found any which I've missed, please do let me know and I'll add them in.

There is a few missed. I'll add them in when I've gotten my current game more properly done... this might take a while, given I've got work, Fire Emblem: Fates coming out in Australia, and other IRL stuff interfering.

But I will come around to it! I just don't want to spoil my current game. I've gotten used to picking out 'missing' link towns... if I could do so for the Iceland map, I can do so for Hokkaido!

That, and, y'know, it comes with living in Australia. I'd love an Australian map on the same scale as this Hokkaido map... but PC's lack the RAM yet.

[The_Terminator]

I do admit, for more rural stretches of the Hokkaido Island, it is rather annoying having the large gaps between cities. Especially after seeing the towns actually existing in Google Maps (which I use to accurately name Transport stops after geographic location ).

I know you valued Gameplay over Realism, but this might be one of those cases where adding in the smaller towns between large cities might actually enhance Gameplay. Rather than having an NG and SG Shinkansen track pair next to eachother, basically following the same route... why not give the player the chance to use the NG line for shorter distance stoppers?

I'd totally do this myself, but I'm both 70 years into my game, and I know you yourself are still developing this scenario. All in all, I love it!

That's pretty much what I was trying to do. But rural Hokkaido really is surprisingly empty. The eastern part, around Kushiro, Nemuro and Shibetsu, especially ought to be relatively densely populated, but there's just nothing but empty farmland for miles. It got to the point where I would have had to start making places up if I wanted more towns (or start calling them things like "Mitomo Farm" or "Nakashibetsu Water Treatment Plant"). That said, if you've found any which I've missed, please do let me know and I'll add them in.

There is a few missed. I'll add them in when I've gotten my current game more properly done... this might take a while, given I've got work, Fire Emblem: Fates coming out in Australia, and other IRL stuff interfering.

But I will come around to it! I just don't want to spoil my current game. I've gotten used to picking out 'missing' link towns... if I could do so for the Iceland map, I can do so for Hokkaido!

That, and, y'know, it comes with living in Australia. I'd love an Australian map on the same scale as this Hokkaido map... but PC's lack the RAM yet.

Let me know the rough area, and I'll go back in Google Earth and have another look for them. I'm planning to have a go at doing another part of Japan at some point, but I want to make sure this one's completely finished first.

[Flygon]

Sorry for the delay! It's been busy!

Screenshot of Sapporo, because, derp.

Anyway! Terminator, see this save file for reference. The missing towns with noteworthy populations are listed in signs. This list is by no means exhaustive, and merely represents the lines I paid attention to. the rest of the map has similar situations like this

I just wish I was profitable enough to found them myself without using money cheat.

[Ivir Baggins]

Sorry for the delay! It's been busy!

Screenshot of Sapporo, because, derp.

Anyway! Terminator, see this save file for reference. The missing towns with noteworthy populations are listed in signs. This list is by no means exhaustive, and merely represents the lines I paid attention to. the rest of the map has similar situations like this

I just wish I was profitable enough to found them myself without using money cheat.

I'm not sure there's meant to be that many buses stacked there. Bigger ones would help - but for God's sake don't turn off "Vehicles never expire" because if you do you often get stuck with a set of crappy 2cc trams with undefined strings. Kolkata trams all the way.

[The_Terminator]

Sorry for the delay! It's been busy!

Screenshot of Sapporo, because, derp.

Anyway! Terminator, see this save file for reference. The missing towns with noteworthy populations are listed in signs. This list is by no means exhaustive, and merely represents the lines I paid attention to. the rest of the map has similar situations like this

I just wish I was profitable enough to found them myself without using money cheat.

I've had a look, and you're right, there were a few I'd missed! I have now added those in. Not all the ones you marked are actually towns, though - there were a few which are literally just stations, with no actual settlement nearby - so I left those out. I did however notice a couple of other towns near Asahikawa which I'd missed as well, so I put them in.

Let me know if you spot any more places I missed

[Flygon]

Again, the ones I placed were literally just a tiny amount that I spotted.

I did try to pick the ones that either had SOME sort of settlement or industrial area nearby. I'd honestly consider placing even just a town of 20-30 population there, just to give an excuse for not having such long gaps for NG lines.