Which road layout do you use and why?

[charityalbumman]

Hi all,

I currently use 3x3 grid for road layout, mainly so the town area is predictable and I tend to building railway stations by 7 tiles in length. However I'm contemplating on changing to 2x2.

What do you use and why?

How does the original and the improve build roads?

[Chrill]

I turn off road construction for cities and just manually expand those I wish to have grow. This also prevents roads crossing my train tracks.

[charityalbumman]

That is exactly why I am wanting to discuss this . Town growth / expansion mainly. That and see what everyone else does.

The issue with extending the towns yourself is that you have to pay for the road maintenance. Something I want to avoid completely in my games.

I turn OFF the "towns are allowed to build railway crossings" in the settings to avoid my road vehicles being run over by trains. In this case; I tend to build my railway in a way so I can place a bridge over my railways instead, keeping to the 3x3 grid layout.

[acs121]

I turn off road construction for cities and just manually expand those I wish to have grow. This also prevents roads crossing my train tracks.

This is what i also do. It prevents towns from building roads and houses where i may input a train station in the future.

[Wolf01]

Random, because yes.

I like to handle different situations in the same game, so random is the right choice for me.

[marioxcc]

I use “improved”. I do not know how it differs from “original”, but from its name I deduce that it is probably better in some unspecified way. I do not like the grids (2×2 and 3×3) because the town's road layout will by definition fail to adapt to obstacles, including my infrastructure, terrain features and other towns.

[Eddi]

I always use "improved", because i don't like the monotonousness of grids.

the difference between "original" and "improved" is the minimum distance between parallel roads. original checks whether parallel roads would be next to each other, and then allows/disallows construction of that road in the automatic town expansion algorithm. this results in (usually) 1x1, 1x2 and 2x2 blocks. if ever a 3x2 or 3x3 block forms, it may cut through with another road in the middle

"improved" increases the range of this parallel check by one tile, so you don't get any 1x1 blocks in towns, but instead 2x2, 2x3, 3x3 and occasionally 3x4 and really rarely 4x4. anything larger may again be cut by a new road in the middle. overall this results in much more space for houses.

[charityalbumman]

Thank you for the information there Eddi

[MT3269]

I use standard single tile width roadways and I use stations of 14 tiles length. Depending on the production rate, I have stations of about 12 platforms if there is production that exceeds 125 or so tonnes, with 15 being the maximum I'll tolerate for any industry. I haven't seen production rates remain at 250+ tons, so I use the aforementioned.

I guess I prefer rail transport over any other (even Maglev/Monorail), but I use planes to build up income in the early years. I have been so tempted to use cheats due to those satellite poles being a nuisance, but I am yet to finish a game with the magic bulldozer enabled.

I tend to rip up roads by the 1950s, but I don't mind seeing relics etc. I will have to remember to use the lifted track function instead of the current method of dismantling defunct rail lines. I use a linear construction method with tunnels if necessary, and I have no hesitance in bulldozing town buildings if they are getting in the way. Where I decide to place track is only dependent on the satellite tower positions, and where I feel like putting it. Nothing else. A junction can be built in the middle of a lake if necessary.

For mainlines I use dual track, with signals placed at 15 tile intervals or more frequent depending on how busy it is. Given I tend to have 900+ trains on the map by about 2000-2010 (starting in 1936), it tends to get clogged after a while, even with 3 tracks in each direction.

Regarding stations, I am thinking of increasing the length to 21 or 28, but I'm not sure if this is necessary or income friendly to be honest. Way too many of my trains spend time in gridlock/queues so it doesn't seem to matter much about the quantity transported after 1990!

In short, this game is way too addictive!

[Tsylatac]

Improved, with towns not allowed to build roads. I keep the generated roads as much as possible, and expand based on those and the terrain.. eventually getting to more of a 3x3 grid farther out, in larger cities (at least if it's relatively flat), but keeping the "old town" interesting.

I like my bonsai towns.

[CazadorSirenas]

I always use 3x3 because that way I can easily consider where to put my stations, since I'll know how the town will develop.
That however has one detail that irks me a bit... the middle square always ends empty So I fill them with trees. Just a bit of greenery in the big city, you know. And kinda feels like courtyards, which is not that bad after all.

[Eddi]

last time i checked, there was code to put houses in the center square of a 3x3 grid (also works with better roads)

[ccomley]

I turn off road construction for cities and just manually expand those I wish to have grow. This also prevents roads crossing my train tracks.

Ah - I allow towns to grow but I turn of permission for them to build level crossings. They don't seem to build bridges or tunnels over tracks automatically so that puts TAHT part of any town spreading under my control.

[acs121]

JGR's Patchpack provides an option for towns to build bridges over rails.

[MagicBuzz]

Improved.

I like cities building roads everywhere, bridges onver my rails and other railroad crossing. This adds some challenge when I need to grow my network.

PS : If you want to reserve place for futur station, you can always buy the land...

[charityalbumman]

JGR's Patchpack provides an option for towns to build bridges over rails.

How does one install this patch?

I much prefer having bridges over railways compared to road crossings. Especially when one has road vehicles.

[acs121]

Go on the topic JGR's Patch Pack, then somewhere in the first post you will have an attached file for the current version (0.26.2). Lauch the openttd.exe file in the folder, load your savegame and enable the parameter for towns to build bridges over rails.

[yodasws]

Yeah, I switch to 3×3 grid, but everything is too uniform. So I've switched to Random to give the towns some flavor.