One thing that might make the game rather more interesting is for the distribution (that is, initial starting positions and sizes) of cities to be related to the climate. Lower regions could have more, larger cities than higher regions, which would have fewer, smaller cities. The resulting unevenness in the distribution of cities and the clustering of larger settlements in certain parts of the map would make for interesting and realistic transportation challenges.
I think this is sorely needed. I am fed up of big cities clustering on hilltops and having to build railways up and down them...
... I think also settlements should cluster near rivers (as in real life).
great idea! and when (or if) there will be different climates at the same height, this would work perfectly!!!
Hi
I haven't played Simutrans long enough to notice mountain top clustering of cities. If it happens is there something already at work to cause this illogical behaviour? Or does it just seem like mountain clustering?
I favour James idea but not strongly. Having most cities on the flat, near the sea/river, reduces variety in the game play and may mean large empty areas of the map.
Industrial concentrations might equally cause a large city?..or vica verca.
Severous,
it could always be made optional ;-)
I think it could be a local thing rather than a global thing - ie for any 100x100 section of map, the settlements will appear in the lowest 30%. So you still get settlements in hilly areas, they are just, logically, in the more sheltered valleys as you would expect.
AP,
that's an interesting variation. It should, perhaps, be somewhat fractal, however, such that, even on a larger scale, the larger towns tend to appear more on the lower ground. I was not, incidentally, suggesting that towns (or large towns) be confined solely to lower ground, but merely that there be a greater probability of towns spawning on lower ground, and, of those that do spawn on lower ground, a greater probability that they be larger in size than those that spawn on higher ground.
I have an initial version of this working now in Simutrans-Experimental. It should be available with the next release (5.2). See the attached screenshot for a demonstration of how it works in practice. Note that it uses height above sea-level, rather than climate, as its basis for distribution.
City places are random, so it's just some kind of odd luck if one is created on a mountain.
This looks very nice! Good work :)
Gerw,
thank you! Now we just need smoother large maps to get that effect on a much larger scale...
Actually I personally do not like this very much as I like the cahllenge to connect twons in the montains without changing terrain too much. But again, everyone has its own favours.
Hmm, perhaps I should make it optional...
that would be more realeastic
is it avilable yet
is 5.2 realeased yet or not
Look for yourself: http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?board=53.0