Freeze part of map

[ConrailHeritage]

Good afternoon,

I'm looking for a way to simulate the growth of a map as time goes on, sort of similar to generating new sections of a map every x years. However, previous searches through the forums make it seem that dynamic map size is infeasible, so I'm wondering if, instead of that, if there is a way to completely freeze a section of the map from updating at all? My idea would be to generate, say, a 1024x1024 map, divide it into 128x128 blocks, and progressively unlock the sections as time goes on (in order to simulate map expansion), with a locked section being defined by allowing no updates to industry production/creation, town growth, player interaction etc. I'm curious if there exist any frameworks, tools, or scripts currently out there that could allow for something like this, or if this would be possible to implement via writing my own game scripts, or if there exist any other good way to do this.

Thanks so much

[kamnet]

No such thing, but there are settings and limits you can impose on yourself, or insist on in a multiplayer game. If you use an industry NewGRF set, all of them pretty much have a setting to disable spawning of new industries or closing down of unserviced industries, including "Manual Industries" if you wish to play with just the original OpenTTD industries. Towns also do not grow or shrink until a player sets up a station and either provides good or poor service. You can even slow or disable the growth of trees in the game settings.

All you would need to do is mark out which areas are playable and which ones are not.

[Eddi]

a game script can sort of do this, like, it can stop town growth in the "locked" parts of the map. maybe preventing the player from building there is quite limited, however at least the game script can immediately remove any such construction.

what i'd probably attempt is make a snapshot of the industries and towns with the game script, delete them, and recreate them upon unlocking each section.