[OTTD] South West France (v1.1)

[Piccolo]

Hello there,

Here is a scenario for OpenTTD which is a realistic reproduction of the "great South-West" of France, from La Rochelle to Montpellier and from Clermont-Ferrand to Biarritz. This map also includes Andorra and the Spanish side of the Pyrenees mountains.

Main characteristics :

• Title : South West France
• Difficulty : normal
• Size : 512 x 512
• Climate : temperate
• Relief : mixed
• Towns : lots (253)
• Industries : average (97)
• Real world : yes
• OpenTTD Version : 0.7.0
• Used GRFs : none
• Author : Piccolo

Version history :

• v1.1 (2009.05.28) : modified industries' productions and some settings, fixed some bugs.
• v1.0 (2009.05.10) : added a few peaks and fixed some bugs.
• v0.9c (2009.05.08) : added lighthouses, peaks and national boundaries ; fixed some bugs.
• v0.9b (2009.05.05) : map terrestrial edges fixed.
• v0.9a (2009.05.04) : first posted version.

Relief :
The map terrain has been generated from a heightmap I created using this tutorial
The relief of this region is mixed :

• flat from the west (Charente, Limousin, Aquitaine and Midi Toulousain regions) to the south-east (Languedoc-Roussillon region, near Montpellier and Perpignan), following the Bordeaux-Toulouse-Narbonne axis.
• mountainous in the south (Pyrenees mountains) and in the north-east (Massif Central mountains).

Rivers and seas :
17 rivers have been drawn, and also the "Canal du Midi", the canal that links the two seas (Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean). The rivers' estuaries are marked with a sign.

Remarkable places :

• 22 lighthouses have been placed. Even if they all exist, some of them are not used anymore.
• 36 mountain peaks are represented with antennas and signs specifying their name and atlitude.
• National boundaries between France, Spain and Andorra have been drawn using rock tiles.

Towns :
253 towns are represented. The towns' population is approximatively proportional to their real population (100 real inhabitants = 1 inhabitant in OpenTTD).
Main cities are Toulouse, Bordeaux, Pamplona (in Spain), Montpellier, Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand and Perpignan.

Industries :
Most of the 97 industries have been placed according to the French current or past economic reality :

• The 11 Coal Mines are located in the Pyrenees and the Massif Central mountains. Those mines had an intense activity until the middle of the 20th century, but they are now all closed.
• The location of the 5 Power Stations has been chosen according to gameplay issues, not to the reality (only the one near Albi really exists) because the real ones are too far from the coal mines. Nowadays the coal-based power stations are abandoned in France (80% of electricity is provided by nuclear power).
• Half of the 14 Forests are found in the Landes area (from Bordeaux to Dax), which represent in the real world the greatest forest in Europe (12650 km²).
• The 7 Sawmills have been placed according to gameplay issues.
• The 4 Oil Wheels and the unique Oil Refinery, in the south-west of the map, are the only oil exploitation units known in this region. Oil production is very weak in France.
• The 16 Iron Ore Mines are located in the Limousin (around Limoges), the Languedoc (around Montpellier), and in the mountains (Pyrenees and Massif Central). They correspond to real mines (supplying iron or other metals) in the reality.
• Among the 8 Steel Mills, some have been placed after real metal transforming factories, while others have been placed for gameplay issues.
• The 18 Farms correspond to real agricultural zones : cereals (around Toulouse, La Rochelle or Vichy), cattle (in the Massif Central mountains) or wine (around Narbonne). There could be farms everywhere : France is the 2nd world agricultural producer after the United States.
• The 13 Factories have been placed for gameplay issues (according to the position of Farms and Steel Mills).

Useful ressources :

• Google Earth - to import relief data.
• TT-Forums Tutorial - to create the heightmap.
• Géoportail - to locate towns, rivers and some peaks
• Guy Seret and Louis Swysen, Atlas géographique, Erasme, 1988 (book) - to locate industries, boundaries and some peaks.
• Wikipedia (French and Spanish languages) - for information about town populations, industries, lighthouses and peaks.
• Google Maps - to locate lighthouses and peaks.

Download :
This scenario can be downloaded using :

• the .scn file attached to this post ;
• the scenario's page on the OpenTTD Wiki ;
• the Online Content feature included in OpenTTD's GUI.

Previous versions of this scenario were downloaded 120 times on this forum, and about 1600 times on the Online Content service.

P.S. : A French description of this scenario can be found either on TTFF Forums or on my blog.

[Piccolo]

Hi there,

This is my first TTD scenario (see description above).
I think the main interest of this map is the diversity of the relief, with relativelly flat areas and two very mountanous zones (Pyrenees and Massif Central).

Although the map looks not so bad, it is not finalised yet and it can still be improved (see "To be done" in previous post). That is why I'm asking you for feedback. Please tell me for any problem, bug or improvement suggestion, especially :

- Are they too many cities (I think so...) ? May then disturb the good development of the players' transport networks (especially railways) ?
- Are industries well positioned for gameplay ?
- Should I build locks on the rivers so that they can be used by the players' boats ?
- Finally, tell me if there are English mistakes in my description ^_~.

Thanks !

[Piccolo]

Hi, I updated the scenario from version 0.9a to 0.9b.

Changes :

• Map terrestrial edges fixed.

The only change concerns the edges of the map. As I started the scenario with OTTD 0.6.1, all edges were water (even if they were land edges). With OpenTTD 0.7.0 I could fix this and fill terrestrial edges with terrain.

[Piccolo]

Hi, I updated the scenario from version 0.9b to 0.9c.

Changes :

• Added 22 lighthouses, based on real ones.
• Added 32 mountain peaks, based on real ones.
• Added boundaries between France, Spain and Andorra.
• Fixed some bugs (relocated towns, redrawn some mountains, added 3 factories).

Enjoy the game !

[SwissFan91]

It looks like a great scenario. I was wondering which version it was made with, as it will not work on mine

[EDIT] Just found my answer, sorry.

[Piccolo]

It looks like a great scenario.

Thanks ! I hope you will enjoy it.
All your suggestions will be welcome ;)

By the way, I attached to this post 2 screenshots showing the new features of version 0.9c : borders, peaks and lighthouses.

See you.

[Piccolo]

Hi, I updated the scenario from version 0.9c to 1.0.

Very few changes for this version

• Added a few mountain peaks (there are 36 peaks now).
• Fixed some bugs (edited some roads, bridges, mountains).

The scenario has been succesfully tested for several days on a multiplayer server.
That is why this version is a "final" one (even if minor changes may be provided for future upgraded versions 1.xx).

I will soon post this scenario on the OpenTTD wiki and on the OpenTTD content service.

See you.

[SHADOW-XIII]

thanks for the map, cannot play any 1000x1000+ on my PSP and this one is good to have enough fun

[Piccolo]

Hello, here are some news :

The scenario can now be downloaded from the OpenTTD Wiki at : this page.
The scenario can also be downloaded from the download content, available in the game GUI.

See you next time !

[Piccolo]

Hi, I updated the scenario from version 1.0 to 1.1.

Once again, few changes in this version :

• Modified industries'productions, so that they are closer to reality (for instance, mountain farms produce much more cattle than cereals) and more interesting for the gameplay (for instance, mines located in mountains produce more than the ones located in the plains).
• Changed some game settings (less planes and boats, no corruption, etc.)... Feel free to modify them yourself.
• Fixed some bugs (text erros, etc.).

See you.