Industry/Town Locations
Posted: 12 Feb 2019 14:13
Hello everyone. I've been playing OpenTTD on and off for more years than I can count, but rarely post on these forums, so would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been continuously developing new graphics and tweaks, it really is amazing.
I've been playing with the FIRS industry set recently (really enjoying the added complexity of supply chains), and it's got me thinking about the location of towns vs. industry. It mildly annoys me that there is no relation between where settlements are and where industries are. So, for example, why are there coal mines miles and miles away from any labour force? Given that the history of urbanisation is so closely tied to the history of industrialisation (with the railways playing such a prominent role in both), I sometimes wish the game was capable of mimicking this link a bit more.
This is a realism problem, not a gameplay one. Whether it would make the game more or less fun to have industries and towns closer to each other I don't know, but I often play OpenTTD with the aim of just creating the most pleasingly complex network I can (rather than to make money), and it often frustrates me that no matter how beautiful the new station graphics are etc., the world map still looks and feels somewhat irrational.
Forgive me if this has been a topic of conversation before, but basically I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried experimenting with the random placement of industries vs. towns? And whether anyone else would like to see this option explored? Sometimes I just put the magic bulldozer and unlimited money cheats on so I can reorganise the world in ways that make more sense. It's art, not cheating, I promise!
I've been playing with the FIRS industry set recently (really enjoying the added complexity of supply chains), and it's got me thinking about the location of towns vs. industry. It mildly annoys me that there is no relation between where settlements are and where industries are. So, for example, why are there coal mines miles and miles away from any labour force? Given that the history of urbanisation is so closely tied to the history of industrialisation (with the railways playing such a prominent role in both), I sometimes wish the game was capable of mimicking this link a bit more.
This is a realism problem, not a gameplay one. Whether it would make the game more or less fun to have industries and towns closer to each other I don't know, but I often play OpenTTD with the aim of just creating the most pleasingly complex network I can (rather than to make money), and it often frustrates me that no matter how beautiful the new station graphics are etc., the world map still looks and feels somewhat irrational.
Forgive me if this has been a topic of conversation before, but basically I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried experimenting with the random placement of industries vs. towns? And whether anyone else would like to see this option explored? Sometimes I just put the magic bulldozer and unlimited money cheats on so I can reorganise the world in ways that make more sense. It's art, not cheating, I promise!