Planning feature

[Nivve]

Simple question really: Is it possible to plan tracks before building them?

I rarely see a feature like this in any city builder or similar game while it’s one of the most obvious additions to such a game. It is way more convenient to plan tracks for multiple routes, goods and otherwise, and only afterwards give the go-ahead to actually build them.

This prevents a lot of faulty construction as most people (at least yours truly) plan one line at a time, or maybe two, and will only see an inconsistency when starting construction of another one. In this way you can already plan a lot of tracks and only actually build the ones when you see they indeed look construction-worthy.

It doesn’t even have to be very complicated, even simple lines in an overlay will do, as long as you can keep track of where you want to build some lines and can see an overview of how it (crudely) will look.

Will this be possible in the game?

[Berry]

I didn’t see this in the video made by Tom.IO (the German).

 

I honestly don’t think it’s all that necesairy though, if you F something up, you can always just delete the F-up and start over. But sure, I’d be nice, I won’t deny that. Especially when you got a lot of tracks and things start to get complicated.

[stmprn35]

I think developers said during the Gambitious campaign that this feature wont be in game, because they fear it would be too much like AutoCAD. I might be wrong, but I thing I read it somewhere in Gambitious forums  because I was also thinking about it as great feature:)

[douglas]

Yes it would be a good feature. But it always depends on the game. For example, in CiM 2 that would be really good because any mistake costs a lot of money. If you don’t have cash flow to finance the mistakes it can mean game over.

[Nivve]

Thanks for the responses, too bad to hear it probably isn’t going to make it. I am not too familiar with AutoCAD, but I assume they mean the UI and easthetics when they mention it.

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It’s not necessary per se, I agree on that, it’s just that after 20 years of management games there are so few examples of even rudimentary planning, while it’s the core function of real-life network management. Comparing different scenarios and estimating the efficiency and effects of a route (as well as easthetics!) is only done with some sort of planning feature.

Currently with OpenTTD I mainly use a (real-life!) notebook to make a rudimentary sketch of my lines and what would be the most efficient route of a new line inside my network (how to connect a new city; through city A or Hub B?). However it gets tedious at times and constructing it multiple times is not really a good solution, hence the planning.

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I will wait for launch to see how the construction really works, maybe they will implement something in this line of thinking in a post-launch patch if it’s not in at launch.

[yid]

I don’t want to plan everything in advance. The game is the simulator, and the simulator will show me if my plans work or not. If the system is complex enough, a small sketch on a scrap piece of paper as my business plan is sufficient. Anything more will be destroyed by dynamic city growth anyway.

After all I think it should stay a game, not a planing tool. Gaming is about decisions but you can do something wrong. If you took the wrong decision, change it, or do it better next time.

About CIM2: just take a $200k credit first and you’ll never run into cash problems. Promised.

 

[Nivve]

Nobody mentioned planning everything in advance…
There is a large difference between planning a whole network and noting some sketches of lines for future reference. It’s a tool; One person may use it to plan everything in advance, but I don’t see how that should be a reason to exclude it from the game.

The fact that it is a dynamic environment only adds to the feature (otherwise in real life nobody would plan as ‘it would change in a few years anyway’), as a planning can show you how your lines will face obstacles. That way you don’t waste an hour building a rail line that was doomed to begin with.
(or you think of a great line/crossing that would not be viable in 1800 but is awesome for a ICE, better jot it down somewhere)
It doesn’t necessarily have to be about advanced planning; Just a basic (even rudimentary is fine) planning would be nice, but even that is currently not in-game.

Not sure about your second reasoning… Some people will want to plunge in the deep in a game and some people want to think before they act*. More of a personal preference of how you play a game than an argument of why planning would be bad when implemented.

* The planning phase of Raven shield comes to mind… a lot of people only ‘played’ the game in observation mode. Still waiting for that remake…

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by Nivve.

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