Automation Gameworld Map Recreation [STATUS: GAMEWORLD SAVE: 2016 FINAL; MAP: V10 FINAL]

Automation Gameworld Map in Transport Fever 2

Project overview

I have recreated the complete Automation gameworld as a Transport Fever 2 map (some of you may have seen the odd post on the Discord #gameworld channel over the past months or years).

The gameworld was first built with cities, roads, rivers, mountains, industries etc. as it would be in 1850 (the earliest starting year in vanilla TPF2) and then played until the in-game year 2016 to bring it fully to life.

Gameworld - Final (empty) map download

Here is the most recent Transport Fever 2 scenario (map) file for download (V10):

Unzip the downloaded map scenario file into the Transport Fever 2 ‘scenarios’ folder (under ‘userdata’: Game File Locations [Transport Fever 2 Wiki]), start a “Free Game” and select the map via “Play Map” at the top right.

Gameworld - Heightmap download

Transport Fever 2 allows the export of a heightmap, here it is:

Gameworld - Final savegame download

And here is the final savegame (2016):

Older snapshots

Gameworld in 1981: Automation_Gameworld_1981.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1961: Automation_Gameworld_1961.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1946: Automation_Gameworld_1946.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1925: Automation_Gameworld_1925.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1900: Automation_Gameworld_1900.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1885: Automation_Gameworld_1885.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1880: Automation_Gameworld_1880.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1875: Automation_Gameworld_1875.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1870: Automation_Gameworld_1870.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1865: Automation_Gameworld_1865.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1860: Automation_Gameworld_1860.zip - Google Drive
Gameworld in 1855: Automation_Gameworld_Map_1855.zip - Google Drive
Previous map version (V06): Automation_Gameworld_Scenario_Map_V06.zip - Google Drive

Unzip the downloaded save file into the Transport Fever 2 ‘save’ folder (under ‘userdata’: Game File Locations [Transport Fever 2 Wiki]) and load the save normally in-game.

Necessary mods for the map and savegames

ALL maps and scenarios need at least two Steam mods to run:

Otherwise, lots of trees and all non-sea level rivers will be missing.

The ‘2016’ savegame also needs the following three additional mods:

The ‘1981’ savegame also needs the following additional mod:

The ‘1961_mod’ savegame also needs the following two additional mods:

The ‘1946_mod’ savegame also needs the following two additional mods:

Project videos & screenshots

Videos

Here is a set of videos (car and train rides) that I recorded during development:

Screenshots

If you don’t have Transport Fever 2, below is a slideshow of almost the entire map - screenshots I took while working on the map.

The filename (which you can see by hovering over each image file) should give you a rough idea where on the map the screenshot was taken.

Dalluha & Archana











































Fruinia








































Hetvesia




















Gasmea


















































139_Durbridge_East
140_Greenhall_Farm
141_Pigton
143_Lanwick
144_Shalden
145_Ellisbury_new
146_Enswater
147_Ellisbury_Lannen_Pass
148_Lannen_Pass_East
149_Lannen_Pass_West
150_Lannen_Pass_North
151_Midbury_Lake
152_Norcliffe_Hill
153_Midbury_Pass_West
154_Pass_Top
155_Pass_End_Harford
156_Harford_Lake_Hepping
157_Crafton
158_Highlands_Pass
159_Oakridge_Wairua
160_Ridgeburn_Stream_Eastport
161_Eastport_Pass
162_Cass_Cassmouth_Ashen
163_Warbler_Gulch
164_Beryn_Hill_Trillburn
165_Beryn_Hill_Braeburn
166_Brackburn_Bridge
167_Tallstone_Pass_North
168_Tallstone_Pass_South
169_Tallstone_Ore_Mine
170_Highlands_from_Harford

Vianta



Known map issues

Water textures & city growth

TPF2 has the limitation that all regular water is assumed to be at sea level. To have rivers look like they are flowing down hills and mountains, water textures were painted on the map. Some cities will therefore expand over these ‘rivers’ (= water textures) when growing. I tried to place vanilla fences next to those ‘fake rivers’ to keep cities from doing that, but that may not work all the time.

6 Likes

Poll: How should Archana look like?

One thing to decide before finalising the map is how the Archanan basin should look like. Lore says, it is dry - drier than the other countries (except Dalluha).

In the beta1 version, I kept the default ‘green grass’ for Archana as well, but there are two other viable options to paint over another texture.

Default:

Option 1: Darker grass

Option 2: Brown grass

What do you think looks best?

  • Keep the default, even if it doesn’t look that dry
  • The darker grass is a nice middle ground
  • Go for the driest look - brown grass

0 voters

1 Like

The greenish-brown grass is a great fit for Archana, given that it’s a dry country (though not to the same extent as Dalluha).

I don’t have TF2 but I love projects like this!

3 Likes

For some context, I’ve always seen everything south of Mara as more Iran/Kazakhstan/Ozbekistan/Mongolia than anything European, so take that as you will. I like the darker grass look best.

I also have a map from 3D pieces. Please tell me how to pack the map into one zip archive, and put together the data from the App data and the levels folder?

Hmmm, yes, you do have a point here.

Poll results

Alright, poll is closed with 57% to 43% in favour of the brown grass look.

However…

… since the result is close, I think I’ll do both. Things down south will get a more brown-ish (steppe?) look whereas I’ll keep the more northern and colder parts (dark) green-ish (tundra?).

I’ll play around with things this week and hope to have some nice pics to show next weekend, along with the final base map file. (No other feedback received.)

Until then, two more polls about the future progress.

Progress sharing

First, what are your preferences in being kept up to date about the progress? In any case, I’ll post updated save files every couple of decades.

  • This all here is interesting, but occasional posts with pictures suffice for me
  • Occasional narrated ‘state of the world’ videos every few decades would be nice
  • I’d watch (semi-)regular videos explaining detailing the progress across the map
  • How about the following… (please post your ideas below)
0 voters

Use of mods

A second thing is the use of mods. The base game has a fair number of vehicles, divided into European, US and Asian (Russia & later China) models. What I’ll do in any case is place vehicles that fit to each region (West Gasmea - US; Hetvesia, Fruinia, East Gasmea - EU; Archana, Dalluha - Asia).

Of course, there is also a large steam workshop with all sorts of other vehicles… but you have to manually subscribe to all mods that a map uses in order to be able to load the map without crashing.

Further, there are further mods not part of the steam workshop that you have to manually download and install from external pages such as https://www.transportfever.net/ or https://modwerkstatt.com/

So, what’s your preference?

  • Keep it as vanilla as possible so that others can just download and look at the map without too much hassle
  • Limit mods to the most iconic vehicles missing from the base game for each region
  • Plenty of mods are fine, but limit to Steam mods for the ease of install
  • Steam mods and others - no limits!
0 voters

Polls are open for another week until 12/11/2023 - so cast your votes and comment here. :slight_smile:

As I understand it, the map is divided into several regions and has a unique transport. Without this transport, the map will not look more complete. As for me, I wouldn’t want to download more than 14 mods separately, from everywhere. The development course is interesting to me.

Are you doing borders/political lines or just geographu? I doubt that the birders would stay so much the same, probable each modern country would be multiple in the past.

There is no ‘border’ or ‘region’ concept in the game, so it’ll be all in your head. :slight_smile:

For simplicity’s sake, cities and roads are based on the modern day map and will be static over the decades. Cities grow automatically based on connections, and modern-style buildings will automatically replace 19th century style buildings over time. Ofc I’ll upgrade the dirt roads to paved ones, highways etc. as new infrastructure elements become available in the game and as appropriate for the time.

The only region-specific thing I’ll do is place vehicles appropriate for the general region of the map (US, EU, Asia), and I think that level of fuzzyness (EU comprises German, Swiss, British etc. vehicles) fits the fuzzyness of the countries’ Earth equivalents well. (The vanilla EU set for locomotives has a slant towards electric from 1930s onwards - as befitting a Swiss-made game - but if there is no opposition to a few mods I’ll keep steam alive a bit longer in East Gasmea with some DR/DB steam engines…)

The game also automatically generates cars for the sims (once cars become available in the 1910s or so). Here, we’ll have all sorts of cars driving around in all areas of the map since, again, the game has no concept of regions or borders. So expect to see Trabbis in Gasmea and pink Caddys in Archana past 1950, and both will drive around without restrictions.

1 Like

is the map for beam? if so, make it set up with dirt/gravel parts for events (rally, gp, f1, etc.), which means that it would have to be in beam mp.

No Beam.NG here - and no driving by yourself (but you can set a route, put a vehicle on it, and enjoy the ride)

1 Like

Alright, haven’t forgotten this!

For the ‘brown grass problem’, how for this ‘mixed texture look’? Good compromise or terrible idea?



Otherwise, based on the poll results I might indeed make more detailed videos on the progress once I start building (probably no live building, but rather in-depth commentaries on all corners on the world).

And since the mods poll is inconclusive, I’ll probably only handpick a few iconic engines for some of the Not-EU regions (Italy/France/Germany) as Steam (ha!) mods and maybe the odd ship since maritime coastal traffic will be quite heavy.

You can still vote on the mods poll, by the way - I won’t need mods until a fair while into building stuff. (Filling the map with the initial horse carriage stuff for and between cities and getting the basic ship traffic going will take plenty of time…)

So, here is the first update video about developing an actual living gameworld, and not just the map. It’s five years in (playing on 1/4x speed), so 1855. Download links to the map (with a few fixes) and the savegame are in the OP.

Second gameworld status video is up (1860):

3 Likes

Third gameworld video is up (and thanks for the shoutout in the MM video @DerBayer):

3 Likes

Fourth gameworld video is up:

2 Likes

Now I have my personal Ellisbury update. The year is 1875:

And a pretty big bonus episode this time:

3 Likes

1880 update. (The title screen shows the big passenger and cargo hub that Wazduk has become.)