How to make small villages grow?

[Koen]

I've been playing Locomotion for a little while now and have stumbled upon the following problem:

When I create a new scenario starting in e.g. 1990 (to play around with the new airports (http://wiki.locomotiondepot.net/index.php/Releases) or Maglevs (http://www.rens2sea.com/download.php?list.36) there are some small villages on the map. Then when I play the game I find that there is somewhere a weird thing:

-small villages (say till max 1000 inhabitants) don't grow at all. It doesn't matter how much transportation I offer, how much food I deliver or anything else.

-bigger villages (more or less >1000) grow like crazy as soon as I create some kind of transport. From 2.000 inhabitants to 10.000 in a couple of years...

Does anybody have an idea how to make those small villages grow? (I miss the "fund new buildings" that was there in TTD.) I have already a 100% rating by transportating people and planted trees like crazy.

[akochan]

Make a grid of roads around said villages and your station. Build a tram network that loops around those roads. Then it will grow. But... it takes about 5-10 years sometimes (which is too quick really).

[Shifty Powers]

[/b](I miss the "fund new buildings" that was there in TTD.) I have already a 100% rating by transportating people and planted trees like crazy.

That's not anymore in Locomotion, but like the previous reply, just do that and you'll get a larger city, it only takes some time

[Koen]

Maybe I've got to be more patient, but I have built bus and tram lines around the villages and the small ones didn't want to grow. I played for about 10-20 years.
Does someone know what in the program code is written about city growth? I assume there is some kind of "natural growth" (not depending on offered transport) and some "transport stimulated growth", changing as the time progresses. Anybody a clue?

[Severous]

I havnt played a lot but had assumed growth was funded in proportion to the revenues generated by transport in the area. A £1000 delivery spurring construction of similar value.

I further speculate that as inflation occurs construction costs also grow.

Yet what if inflation caused revenues to grow but construction costs were bugged and fixed at 1900 prices ? You would get explosive city growth in scenarios late in the 20th century as soaring revenue funded cheap fixed price development.

Does that happen?...anyone played a lot and seen more explosive growth in the later rather than earlier years ?