Others have tried to re-implement this with a more holistic approach, but it's a pretty big task. I believe that it's worth it, though. To have an arbitrary limit of players and companies in a multiplayer game would be amazing. It can be hilariously chaotic, for one. And more to it I believe that there are gains to be made on the way there that could be beneficial to the current gameplay.
This task is too big for me to handle on my own. Way too big. I'd like help, and I'd like to do it in an organised manner. In the first step I'd like help brainstorming what needs to be changed to make this work on a technical level, and which GUI changes need to be made to make it manageable. I honestly don't even know where to start.
The second step will be to break this down into smaller, independent chunks. Features that can be added one by one.
Third step is to prioritise these. The order I propose is to put those changes that add value to current gameplay first; if we (I really hope to not be alone in this endeavour) don't manage to finish the entire thing I believe we can add value on the way with each step. That way we can have milestones, and no work we do will be in vain. Maybe you don't want to participate all the way but feel strongly about one or more of the milestone features; maybe you can't commit to a project that may take a couple of years or more in total (let's not underestimate).
As we start on each new feature we can break it down further to analyse how it can be solved. Maybe have coding or testing sessions together, if that's desirable.
In this thread I'd like to gauge interest and get the brainstorming started to hopefully figure out is this is even possible.
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Identified Incremental Improvements
- Highlight Graph Line When Hovering Over Key: When you hover over a industry type in the minimap all industries of that type blink on the map. A similar functionality would add value to graph windows. Currently lines in different graphs can overlap and only one would be visible unless disabling the other(s). I suggest that when hovering over a key the corresponding graph line would be drawn on the front most layer and all other lines darkened a little, thereby highlighting the line in question.
- Highlight Graph Key When Hovering Over Line: Similar to the above task but inverted. When hovering over a line the corresponding key (or keys, when lines overlap) will highlight in some manner. Clicking the line should disable all other keys/lines.
But yes, there are improvements to the graphs that add value even today. I'll update my original post with a couple of suggestions for myself or someone else to work on.