Create a new map

To start playing you have to create a new map.

First you have to set the land you are going to play on.

Choose the map's size : length and width are given in tiles (the squares which the map is composed of).

Then choose a map you like in the hundreds of avaible maps. The icon “random map” will choose a map randomly in the avaible maps, the icon “load height map” allows to load a realistic map which you would have downloaded.

Then you have to set the climate of the map. Currently the climates in Simutrans aren't very realistic, they only depend on the elevation of a land so there are consecutive climatic levels.

The set elevations are taken in ascending order, from the level zero to the next lowest elevation, the climate wich the height is the lowest is used, from this height to the next one, the climate of the next elevation is used, etc … For example in this screenshot, from level 0 to 2, the climate is mediterranean, from level 3 to 6 the climate is temperate, from 7 to 8 it's tundra and then it's alpine.

The water level set the sea level on the map.

The mountain height set the max height a mountain can have and the max deepness of the sea.

The map roughness set the roughness of the map, a higher value will give a rougher map.

The summer snowline depends on the tundra climate height set below, the winter snowline can be set.

Ticking the case “no trees” prevents trees from growing on the map (it's possible to plant woods manually while playing).

The last three parameters of the climate window are used to set rivers which appear on the map, the number of rivers is the number of sources placed on the map, it may be wrong if the map doesn't allow some rivers because of insufficiant length.

No. of cities set the number of cities founded on the map, the median citizens per city can be changed to have big or small cities. The intercity road length is the max length which an intercity road can have. The traffic density is the number of cars which appear on the map, a higher value than 5 may cause traffic jams, it's not a problem if you want to mannage the traffic in the game.

The parameter Industry chains set the number of indutry chains set on the map. The electricity output is the percent of industry chains which will be power plants, here 33% of the industry chains will be power plants.

The touristic attractions are special buildings attracting many passengers which will be set rendomly on the map (don't use such an elevated value as in the screenshot !).

The timeline allows to make objects appear or disappear (especially vehicles) during the game, play witheout timeline allows to use all vehicles and buildings in the game. If you're playing with the timeline, set the year you will start in. Some paksets may be uncompatible with all eras (some eras can be empty for example).

Allowing the player change allows to play as other “players”, this setting isn't very important for the game but you'd better let it allowed.

The icon “Settings” allows to set other game settings, if you're a beginner don't modify them. You can for example modify the prices'scales of maintenance or purchasing of buildings, the starting money of a game, and some other settings which are in the file simuconf.tab. Describe all these settings would be too long and useless in this tutorial.

When you have finished, you can click on the icon “start game”, the game will create a map you will play on.