Smr Simple!

Attached is a new map of Central and Western Japan. It is a 15x15 map and includes 3 of the 4 main Japanese islands of Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu. I have rescaled the map in a westerly direction to give more space for game play. It covers the post-war period after 1945 and requires developing an economy based on the import of raw materials from shipping ports, delivery to industries, and export of goods back to the ports. I have reskinned some new cars and industries including rice, shushi, tourists, container cars, export goods, and Yuzu citrus. I have used Rodea's roll sheet steel car (which is cool) and his shipping ports from the West Sumatera map. I have also used cars and industries from Jancsika's Maryland map. Inspired by Slider38's My Old Kentucky Home map, I have added traditional Japanese music to the game. I believe it is a challenging map for experienced players. It is stable on my computer and I have completed all victory objectives at the Mogul level with 3 AIs 10 years early, so it can be accomplished. The map is attached in 5 parts. Download this first part. Unzip it with 7zip and place the Japan2 folder in your empty SMR "UserMaps" folder. Follow instructions for Parts 2-5 in the following posts. Try It and I hope you have Fun. - TMiller

Having travelled from Tokyo to Kyoto by Shinkansen some time ago, I was certainly curious to see how this map would grab me. In summary, there are some great aspects to this map and yet, so far it has not really fired up my imagination.

The splendid stuff: very clear theme music for the towns; reskinned train cars; special buildings; great scene-setting newspaper reports; Mount Fuji ... all indicative of a lot of thought and effort that went into this map.

Plus you found a novel way to neutralize those pesky random events, by plugging in three crazy events and limiting their time frame to before the map even begins (last screenshot)! No events, no event-related crashes!

The less exciting aspects are the quite one-dimensional storyline (Post-war Japan made and exported tons of stuff, it seems!) and the endless procession of non-localized engines that pop up seemingly every other minute. The frustrating effort to get a speed record to register - one of the weakest aspects of SMR.

With a more historical structure to the storyline, it could have been magic!

Karsten, Thank you very much for your review. I got a little tired and impatient after many hours of playing and changing the game, so I may have posted it too soon. I agree with your comment re too many of same old locomotives. I read that Japan railroads switched from steam of largely electric with some diesel locos after WW2, so I just selected all the electrics and a few diesel locomotives from the game inventory and did not include US GP Diesels as never found any evidence that the Japanese used these. I will look through the custom locomotives available from this web site and add those most appropriate. Do you have any suggestions as to those which should be added? Rodea's Veolia loco is nice looking. I may reskin this and add it.

As to the historical story line, I have some interesting historical facts I can add and will work on this. Note that the focus on importing raw materials and exporting of manufactured goods has in fact been the key to Japan having the highest economic growth rate in the world for the later half of the 20th century (i.e. >10% increase in GDP per year for many years; comparible to the recent growth of China). After WW2, Japan's army and navy were abolished. As far as I know, they have spent little on arms manufacturing, so I excluded arms from the game economy, or any discussion of wars from the game scenario.

As to the "frustration" of getting "Speed Records to Register", I had problems with the game early on. However, when I defined the goal specifically as to good, origin, destination, and threshold speed . . .It Works. I noticed that in the "America" map several people complained that they could not get the record speed to register. I looked at the xml file for that game and found it was not specific for all 4 criteria. When I did not specify which cities the speed record had to be set for (in earlier versions) SMR seemed to calculate and average speed for all trains or just the fastest speed of the last train. I really couldn't tell. It just didn't work. It may be that you mean it is frustrating because you may have to eliminate existing rails between the origin and destination city, and lay new rails for the high-speed train. I agreed that this is frustrating, but it is realistic that high-speed lines require straight track or at least high turning radius curves, including the approach and departure from the stations. In an earlier version of the game I had the speed record goal for Tokyo to Nagasaki (diagonally across the whole map), but this was so much work that I changed it to Tokyo to Nagatii. I noticed that your newspaper headline shows the equivalent of 119 mph (192 km/hr) so while it was a record speed it was not high enough to meet the goal. I was able to set speed records of 160 mph between Tokyo and Nagatii on several tries of the game, and the game recognized the record and acknowledged that all goals were met.

I would love to get any other comments you may have, especially regarding locomotives that would be good for this map. I have not been to Japan and riden a Shinkansen as you have, so I can only imagine and look at pictures. I bet it was fun. Thanks again, Karsten. - TMiller
P.S. I ran Uganda again and posted a response on the Main Map Downloading site.

Karsten, Thank you very much for your review. I got a little tired and impatient after many hours of playing and changing the game, so I may have posted it too soon. I agree with your comment re too many of same old locomotives. I read that Japan railroads switched from steam of largely electric with some diesel locos after WW2, so I just selected all the electrics and a few diesel locomotives from the game inventory and did not include US GP Diesels as never found any evidence that the Japanese used these. I will look through the custom locomotives available from this web site and add those most appropriate. Do you have any suggestions as to those which should be added? Rodea's Veolia loco is nice looking. I may reskin this and add it.

As to the historical story line, I have some interesting historical facts I can add and will work on this. Note that the focus on importing raw materials and exporting of manufactured goods has in fact been the key to Japan having the highest economic growth rate in the world for the later half of the 20th century (i.e. >10% increase in GDP per year for many years; comparible to the recent growth of China). After WW2, Japan's army and navy were abolished. As far as I know, they have spent little on arms manufacturing, so I excluded arms from the game economy, or any discussion of wars from the game scenario.

As to the "frustration" of getting "Speed Records to Register", I had problems with the game early on. However, when I defined the goal specifically as to good, origin, destination, and threshold speed . . .It Works. I noticed that in the "America" map several people complained that they could not get the record speed to register. I looked at the xml file for that game and found it was not specific for all 4 criteria. When I did not specify which cities the speed record had to be set for (in earlier versions) SMR seemed to calculate an average speed for all trains or just the fastest speed of the last train. I really couldn't tell. It just didn't work. It may be that you mean it is frustrating because you may have to eliminate existing rails between the origin and destination city, and lay new rails for the high-speed train. I agreed that this is frustrating, but it is realistic that high-speed lines require straight track or at least high turning radius curves, including the approach and departure from the stations. In an earlier version of the game I had the speed record goal for Tokyo to Nagasaki (diagonally across the whole map), but this was so much work that I changed it to Tokyo to Nagatii. I noticed that your newspaper headline shows the equivalent of 119 mph (192 km/hr) so while it was a record speed it was not high enough to meet the goal. I was able to set speed records of 160 mph between Tokyo and Nagatii on several tries of the game, and the game recognized the record and acknowledged that all goals were met.

I would love to get any other comments you may have, especially regarding locomotives that would be good for this map. I have not been to Japan and riden a Shinkansen as you have, so I can only imagine and look at pictures. I bet it was fun. Thanks again, Karsten. - TMiller
P.S. I ran Uganda again and posted a response on the Main Map Downloading site.

Karsten, Thank you very much for your review. I got a little tired and impatient after many hours of playing and changing the game, so I may have posted it too soon. I agree with your comment re too many of same old locomotives. I read that Japan railroads switched from steam of largely electric with some diesel locos after WW2, so I just selected all the electrics and a few diesel locomotives from the game inventory and did not include US GP Diesels as never found any evidence that the Japanese used these. I will look through the custom locomotives available from this web site and add those most appropriate. Do you have any suggestions as to those which should be added? Rodea's Veolia loco is nice looking. I may reskin this and add it.

As to the historical story line, I have some interesting historical facts I can add and will work on this. Note that the focus on importing raw materials and exporting of manufactured goods has in fact been the key to Japan having the highest economic growth rate in the world for the later half of the 20th century (i.e. >10% increase in GDP per year for many years; comparible to the recent growth of China). After WW2, Japan's army and navy were abolished. As far as I know, they have spent little on arms manufacturing, so I excluded arms from the game economy, or any discussion of wars from the game scenario.

As to the "frustration" of getting "Speed Records to Register", I had problems with the game early on. However, when I defined the goal specifically as to good, origin, destination, and threshold speed . . .It Works. I noticed that in the "America" map several people complained that they could not get the record speed to register. I looked at the xml file for that game and found it was not specific for all 4 criteria. When I did not specify which cities the speed record had to be set for (in earlier versions) SMR seemed to calculate an average speed for all trains or just the fastest speed of the last train. I really couldn't tell. It just didn't work. It may be that you mean it is frustrating because you may have to eliminate existing rails between the origin and destination city, and lay new rails for the high-speed train. I agreed that this is frustrating, but it is realistic that high-speed lines require straight track or at least high turning radius curves, including the approach and departure from the stations. In an earlier version of the game I had the speed record goal for Tokyo to Nagasaki (diagonally across the whole map), but this was so much work that I changed it to Tokyo to Nagatii. I noticed that your newspaper headline shows the equivalent of 119 mph (192 km/hr) so while it was a record speed it was not high enough to meet the goal. I was able to set speed records of 160 mph between Tokyo and Nagatii on several tries of the game, and the game recognized the record and acknowledged that all goals were met.

I would love to get any other comments you may have, especially regarding locomotives that would be good for this map. I have not been to Japan and riden a Shinkansen as you have, so I can only imagine and look at pictures. I bet it was fun. Thanks again, Karsten. - TMiller
P.S. I ran Uganda again and posted a response on the Main Map Downloading site.

Sorry TMILLER but I have bad news. The server smrsimple is hosted on had issues with the harddrive so our host moved us to a different machine. A side effect of this is that new files are missing.

Would it be possible for you to re-upload japan? If you upload it to http://www.mediafire.com/ then you should not have to split the files.

Warll wrote:Sorry TMILLER but I have bad news. The server smrsimple is hosted on had issues with the harddrive so our host moved us to a different machine. A side effect of this is that new files are missing.

Would it be possible for you to re-upload japan? If you upload it to http://www.mediafire.com/ then you should not have to split the files.

Apologies for taking the thread off-topic but re: your hosting issues is this why many of the pages on the site are still down. I've force refreshed my cache often over the last few days and I still can't see anything other than the forums and wiki

Ok I think I fixed the issues. I had to update a bunch of software all over the place. Took me a good hour, felt longer.

Nice scenario TMILLER.

I enjoyed the new music added. I have done this as well on one of my old maps. The events look great as well. Nice to see someone making new events and music.

I think maybe the Oil Tanker model of mine from way back and some of the new fuel port, have a spec or emsk problem as they show up in game and are not rendered well. It is fine to use it, that is what I made it for is everyone, but there is something not quite correct.

Would like to see more trees and landscaping...but that is just me. This is a great map...thanks for all your hard work.

Oh...as to the speed record stuff. I found that cities too close will not let the engines run at top speed you set in the engines xml list. More distance is required to get up to speed. Too short of track or sharp curves will slow down any engine as well.

I think you have done a great job on history for this map, if you have more throw it in the pot as well. Auran's Trainz has several Japan style engines...I even use a couple on several maps I have for that game. I am still trying to learn the file structure of that game, if I knew it now, I could convert a few of those trains and train cars they use and let you use them on this map. I will email Rodea and see if he has tinkered with Auran's Trainz yet, I know the old Microsoft train game has many engines and they are easier to convert back and forth. I will look into this matter for you maybe we could get you some of those trains and cars for your map.

Geeze...the last time I was in Japan was in 1978. I loved it there. It just gets way too hot and humid for my tastes during the summer though. They also need better sewage as the sewage line was under the sidewalk blocks and open-air type stuff. Not good for going for walks in the hot summer months LoL. But I loved the soda machines along the sidewalks...they sold beer in them and they would just be out by themselves along the sidewalks. I rode trains everywhere all through the island. It was a fantastic place and still is.

Lowell, Thanks for your comments. I am glad you enjoyed the map. I really enjoyed your "Holidays in Ohio" map and have played it many times. If I remember correctly, it had 2 shipping ports on Lake Erie that were key to successfully completing that game. The goods were lots of fun too, with elves, toys, cookies, etc.

Sorry I did not credit you for the oil tanker port, but I did not know you created it. I noticed the rendering issue too, but I didn't know how to fix it.

I did not know about the Auran Trainz game and so I looked at the web site. It looks interesting too. I am working on some changes to the Japan map, and will post a revised map in a few days.

Thanks again for your comments.

No need for any thanks...I made it for everyone to use. Glad to see it still being used. Looking forward to any new upgrades. I sent you a PM.