Named my cities by looking on Google Earth

[Severous]

Hi

I'm using one of the two maps of Germany that comes with pak.German.  There are no cities on the map..its just land..and water.

For my new game I choose to have 7 cities.  A bit disappointed when the cities had familiar names like Appinglock.   So German geography not being my strong suit I went onto Google Earth and zoomed over Germany. After lining up maps on Simutrans and Google Earth zoomed in and found a town name on Google Earth.   Then renamed my Simutrans city .  So now have a bit more realism with German (and Dutch?) named cities in their right places (give or take a hundred miles or so)



As for those coal trains.  They look a bit short.  But they are the best consist I can make.  2x15ton coal wagons=30tons and fits in a length two platform.  The alternative..a prettier looking rake of small 5x5 ton bulk wagons makes 25tons and needs a length three platform. DoR (Taking up Ragoland Challenge fame) would be proud of my analysis.  

Oh yes..I tried 5 of those big coal wagons behind that engine.  It did move. Like a snail. 3kph..even down hill it maxed at 3kph...(also 3kph up hill as I sent it back to the depot.)

I do like the 'no breakdown'. A route like that, my first on this pak, is working years later without holdups. Might straighten it a bit now Ive got some money. Earth works are expensive in pak.germany ..up to 7,500 per earth work action. Like that as it forces detour around obstructions..at least at first whilst money is tight.

[yoshi]

If you play in German language, city names will be German as well.
Or rename citylist_de.txt (under pak.german/text/) to citylist_en.txt, if you want to play in English.

[Spike]

Change language to German just before creating the map, and towns will get German names. After map creation you can switch back to English. Towns will keep their names once created.

Edit: This works with any language ...

[Combuijs]

So now have a bit more realism with German (and Dutch?) named cities in their right places (give or take a hundred miles or so)

Eindhoven and Heerenveen are Dutch places. They are in the right place if you allow for the 100 miles error (which is half the size of the Netherlands  ). I think Maastricht and Zwolle would have been better guesses, but that won't matter too much. Worse however is the fact that the Netherlands are flooded on your map. I think you should have put the water level at least one higher. I don't know which German map you downloaded, but a few of them have a read-me text with them that states which water level you should take.

[Severous]

Thanks for the replies.  I hadn't considered changing to German language before map creation.  I expected the pak.German set to come with German city names to go with the maps. Shows how much I know.

Ooops. So several million Dutch people now have new addresses   Sorry about that.  Unfortunately my save is corrupt after patching so bang goes that game...several million Dutch and German people now in a black hole of the waste bin.  Oh well better luck next time...if there is a next time. 

Re the water level. First new map was a bit too wet. Most of the map was blue and thought polar ice melt had gone a bit too far especially for 1876.   I had left everything on default (4?) assuming, yet again wrongly, that what was supplied would work.  Didn't go looking for any instructions.  I fiddled with the water level. Didn't like the setting either side of the level I used. Felt that looked spot on compared to Google maps. The level of sea for Holland and the size of the main rivers was my main criteria...looked ok.  Ive tried a fresh map with water on level 0..and see what you mean. Unfortunately the Rhine is not nearly so impressive with a lower water table...so if I replay I'm afraid the Dutch people will not appreciate the setting on my map.  I will of course transport them to higher ground in Holland and beyond.

[Matthi205]

I'm not good at german geography either,but seemingly you just mustdo your own citylist. How long would it be?

[Severous]

Hi Matthi

Nah.  No fiddling with files..nearly lost the game already after attempting to patch.  Plus Simutrans working from a city list wouldn't put the cities in the right location on the German/Dutch map (not that I do a perfect job either).

Manually looking up and typing city names directly into the town hall city detail screen works well for me.  That's the easy to use option made available to users..so that's what I will do.