Asking for ideas, feedback and support in general

Hi,

(Too long; didn't read at the bottom)

I've been eager to make an OpenBVE thing and actually release it publicly for many years but for various reasons I either couldn't or didn't have the energy to. Well.. I still want to, but I found the source of my problems: lack of feedback and support. This time I want to make something great that people can enjoy (well, when did I not want that?). Life has been hard for me and I've been feeling down but I'm seeking professional (and friends') help and one of the recommended activities is working on something I enjoy.

I have always enjoyed the railways from Japan, but I understand not everyone here does too, since they can seem the same samey but there are some types of lines that I feel are worth sharing, the Nagaragawa, Sanriku, Akita railways, long-distance local JR lines that are (literally) overshadowed by bullet trains or shinkansen, small and tourist-y services, as well as railways not recreated yet, like Nishitetsu. I also like British railways but I'm too much of a noob and they don't interest me as much (and my burning passion for trains has dwindled a bit as I aged, sorry).

So... Don't get your hopes down or up... I'm plenty aware promises have a strong stench in the OpenBVE lands and I'll put it clearly: I don't think I have enough confidence to make a promise (and fall flat on my face! lol) but sharing progress and "blogging" about it and seeing your comments will probably keep development going. That's why I ask the following, I think it'll help me stay positive as well as help the community with another development.


TL;DR: I've been having life problems and I want to stay positive but working with OpenBVE cheers me up. Would you like to see a japanese style scenario for OpenBVE, made by a westerner that's willing to listen to what other westerners think of it? And if so, would you like to see progress reports?

Cheers and thanks in advance,
Glory

You wouldn't be the only one who has found that creating routes and trains is satisfying and can be beneficial as a form of therapy. I know others who have experienced this.
I can't answer for followers of the Japanese scene, as I'm personally not one of them. Wouldn't you agree that most train enthusiasts tend to put their own location first on their list? Speaking for myself, I began making routes because I live in Ireland and I wanted an Irish route but nobody had made a proper one before. Other than Ireland, I have knowledge of Western Region British railways. If you have the knowledge of a country's railways, and good access to lots of suitable picture material for textures, then it is possible to make a decent route scenario in another country. Only you know if you have the resources and knowledge to complete it well.
It may be worth doing a survey to see how many Japanese scene fans are following this forum. I honestly don't have any idea of the numbers.
That aside, I believe you should make anything you want to make, regardless. You're doing it for your own satisfaction and spending a LOT of your own time for which you won't receive a penny. I accepted that situation, and said to myself,"If anyone else likes what I've made and wants to run it, then well and good. If they don't want it, then that's their hard luck, not mine!!"
As it happened, one or two did seem to like it. But do it for yourself, anyway.
As for "promises", you've seen the big headlines, followed weeks, months or even years later by a black hole. Zilch! Rien! Nada! Certainly, post pics of what you make, and don't hesitate to get advice or technical help from the members. You can do what the Irish do, say it will be finished on Tuesday. Just DON'T say WHICH Tuesday

Wow I haven’t heard of any new Japanese addons being developed for BVE in a while. Even though most use pretty much the basic Uchibo Line objects there are some real good ones like the Hanwa Line, Senseki Line and who can forget the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line. I’ve thought of doing things like renovating old routes but, being all the way in England makes things a bit difficult for me. 

It would be really interesting to see what sort of idea you have in mind for a new Japanese route being built. Even if it doesn’t get released or even finished I’m sure it will look really good!

I'm sure Japanese routes like that will be accepted positively, well, at least by the Westerners for sure. I feel you about the long main lines thing (load the good old 583, take a seat on a top bed, turn AI on and watch the night scenery through a tiny window as you go on, say, Tokaido Main Line. Neither exist for Openbve, though I'm making slow progress on 583 when I'm in mood for building this kind of trains ), especially with long night routes and when you have trains with nice and quite cosy external models.
I can also agree that there's something therapeutic or just satisfying in the process of creation BVE stuff. Though sometimes some things take more time and much more loud swearing than usual  It's almost equally hard to start and stop working on a model. I think the ease of working with b3d/csv formats (you don't need to compile or convert anything, or even do any extra moves to put stuff in game, and everything is literally editable with a notepad that doesn't need 5 minutes to start and doesn't crash every 15) contributes to that heavily.
Maybe that's why promises don't work. For me, making content (mostly trains at the moment) is a creative process, meaning I can do only what I have mood for. That's why some stuff gets attention once a month or a year. And that's why it's better to surprise people with something completed rather than tease with something that will probably never see a download link. Such things don't go in vain tho, as you gain experience building them.

At all,
I know that making (O)BVE content isn't monetarily rewarding or something quick to do... I've been in the loop since 2005-ish, when I was 7.
I had a "tutor" of sorts, João Carlos Gonçalves of Bve Brasil (defunct since 2012), with his example routes but most of my experience comes from me messing around. It's really fun and I don't doubt it. But thanks for the support already! 

At graymac..
Your reasoning that railfans tend to group around their local railways is sound but sometimes some of them end up enjoying railways from other places either because the foreign one has some attribute they like or because the dosmetic one(s) are either boring, dying, unsafe or dangerous, hard to fanboy around or they don't exist.
In my case, you'd need to get a license to even take a picture of the subway cab or small railways everywhere here are steam locos and tracks deliberatedly left with little maintenance to rattle for tourists and they're turbo expensive (R$ 60.00 for 1 way 1 stop (full length) ticket).
Or... the train dude might want to try something new for a reason or another and get a japanese scenario. Y'know.
Also.. The closest person in Japan that I know is a friend of a friend of mine that's very regularly busy with work and applying for another job. And lives in central Tokyo. I don't have access to anything to make original assets but that's why I got to learn image and audio editing, learn to read, write and speak japanese (albeit a little) to get permission to reuse stuff, like "train sound" ASMR videos.

SP1900 wrote:It would be really interesting to see what sort of idea you have in mind for a new Japanese route being built.

Well.. if anyone knows Odakyufan's "OdakyufanAts reference" Chashinai Railway, I want to do something like that but sane! Tram line with just ATS-Sn (Simple AWS + automatic stop at red sigs) connected in the same network to an urban 4-track line with ATS-P (modern TPWS) and multiple services and even an intercity subway with ATC, TASC and planned ATO! [slams fists on desk] I cannot fathom the logic behind that but I digress!

My idea would be a small to medium size operator with two or possibly three suburban, intercity? lines, without much development around it, somewhat like the Chashinai, and Ishinden lines and the real life Kōbe Electric Rwy (Shintetsu) (not to be confused with Kōbe Rapid Transit Rwy, Kōbe Kōsoku) or even Nishitetsu. There will literally be nothing exciting about it but hey. Maybe someone wants to play it.

I want to make a railbus line too, but I want to have my go at gear emulation through the safety plugin, but we should always start small, like a mere exercise in building a route and configuring OdakyufanAts.