No city mingling!

[Buran]

I have this little idea for OpenTTD, I didn't find a topic with a similar content, so I'll just post it here.

I usually play OpenTTD with the "no. of Towns" on "Very Low", but after about 200 years of passenger ferrying, I still get city's that pass the 60.000 citizens mingling there roads, and essentially building into eachother. It would be great if there would be an option to stop this from happening, as I keep buying small strips of land between city's!

So a city which is spreading could notice that the tile where he was going to build that piece of road, or that house, would touch another city. Then, the city could decide not to build there.

Anybody got any thoughts on this?

[lawton27]

An interesting idea, I personaly don't mind them building together, if I realy need to build more I'll link up roads and use road veicles. But I understand your reasons, mabe each town could have a say 3 tile area around all its outer roads/buildings that other local authoritys won't build in to leave a reasonable gap for building, I'd say make it an optional feature if it's made.

This brings me to another Idea, mabe when towns build their roads past eachother they connect them, it annoys me having to connect to ajacent roads from different citys to build a road link.

[Benny]

Nah, cities grows into eachother in real life. I see no reason to make such a feature.

[Buran]

Nah, cities grows into eachother in real life. I see no reason to make such a feature.

I've done a bit of google-mapping, and I believe that perhaps smaller city's grow into larger ones, say a city of 1000 grows into a city of 100.000, but it almost never happens that two major city's grow into eachother. In the savegame I am currently playing, I have a city of 50.000 and a city of almost 80.000 growing into eachother. I think those count as big city's in OpenTTD, right?

[lawton27]

Hm I'd say aything over 30,000 should count as big, or mabe 20,000 depending on the number of citys.

[Benny]

Look at Sandnes and Stavanger, for example. Two big cities grown together. And also Orstad and Kverneland, even though those are two small towns..

Edit: Kverneland, not Øksnevad...

[lawton27]

With my extencive knoledge of maps, Windermere and Bowness. It's a fair point citys/towns do grow together but for the purposes of those who care for gameplay not realism I think it would be a good optional setting.

[Buran]

I think it would be a good optional setting.

I think that is all it should be... an option, not something that has to be. I sometimes think: "the more options the merrier", because this way, everybody can make there game the way they like it.

[Xander]

Just buy the land around said cities so they can't grow in that direction.

[Benny]

There is this newGRF, "Grassy Knoll", that makes the sign-thingies invisible as well.

[Buran]

Just buy the land around said cities so they can't grow in that direction.

I'm already doing that, that's the whole point, its driving me CRAZY!

There is this newGRF, "Grassy Knoll", that makes the sign-thingies invisible as well.

The signs are not the point... The point is that there are a lot of city's on a 1024 x 1024 map, and buying land around every single one of them is becoming very tiresome.

[Roujin]

What about the advanced settings? "Towns are allowed to build roads: On/Off" and "Town growth speed: None/Slow/Normal/Fast/Very Fast"
Can't you make use of them?

[Buran]

What about the advanced settings? "Towns are allowed to build roads: On/Off" and "Town growth speed: None/Slow/Normal/Fast/Very Fast"
Can't you make use of them?

No, because that would leave me with cities with just 900 inhabitants or around that. The building of the passenger network I am using, took around 200 years. The last city was connected just day's ago, while the first railroad was built 200 years earlier.

[Nite Owl]

If you have your Advanced Settings for Town Growth on anything but 'none' and the Towns Are Allowed To Build Roads setting to 'off' then you have to build the town's roads in order for the town to expand along them. This gives you the maximum amount of control over how your towns will grow in both direction and size. If you do not connect the roads from adjacent towns, creating a buffer zone, then the towns will not merge. Granted if you are playing a game with a very large number of towns this can lead to extreme road building micromanagement, which you may not like, but it is a way to achieve your desired effect without recoding the game.

[Buran]

Nite Owl, that is a nice idea, I'll try it for a bit. Still, I think it would be nice if there would be an option under the "Advanced Settings" to change the behavior of the cities.