Improved Road Network

[WonOnOne]

The street network generation is bizarre. The only way to make sense of it is it to pretend you live in Kansas City where there is no logic or sense to the road network. Streets end suddenly or lead to dead ends, bizarre turn lanes and merges, no connectivity to arterial streets, etc.

I do appreciate the huge improvement from A19 when roads weren't even painted or had lanes. But there's still room for improvement. I would love to see grid-style street networks like Chicago to make navigation easier.

 

[zztong]

I've noticed that too.

City/Town streets are part of Tiles. Tiles are created by POI Developers. I can't know for sure, but I suspect a creative element crept into the TFP Tiles. Part of that I'm sure comes from trying to fill the gaps between POIs on Tiles. Another part of the issue is TFP usually provides 1 Tile of each type, so when you zoom out and examine a map you can find areas where there's lots of repetition. Combine the creative streets with high repetition and you get some ... I'll say "insane" ... city streets. Cities in-game are far too small to get into making subdivisions with curvy streets bounded by arterial streets. You also start to experience what I call "The Flintstones / Bedrock" effect, where you keep passing the same pond time and time again.

This is why I make more and more Tiles for my modlet. My Tiles tend to favor "straight through" streets, which result in a more grid-like city. This lets the TFP creative streets become less frequent and I think then more special. I also try to use lots and lots of optional Parts so that perhaps folks won't so easily recognize a repeated Tile because more than just the POIs change.

 

[Riamus]

I'll just say that I personally am not a fan of grid layout for streets.  Yes, they are easy to get where you want but they feel very much like you're just driving across the same thing over and over and over again because there is no variety in the streets even if the POI vary.  That being said, the way streets are laid out on tiles can certainly make it a challenge to get across a city.  Some middle ground would certainly help.  When I make maps in Teragon, I have control over road layout to some extent and can make a town that is a perfect grid or entirely non-grid or anywhere in between.  With that in mind, I generally make my towns with about 30% grid.  That, combined with straight tiles, tends to give me a mostly good layout for driving around town without hitting a ton of dead ends while still giving me a variety of road layouts.

Also, just as a reminder, POI fit on certain tiles in certain districts.  From experience, if you have a perfect grid town, certain tier 5 POI (as well as others) will never appear in the towns because they only appear on non-intersection tiles, so you need variety to get all POI.

 

[FramFramson]

I think there's room for the newer system, but most larger towns and cities in the current model are severely lacking in main arterial roads, and the ones they have often end oddly.

Maybe if all the weird little dead ends connected up better it wouldn't be so bad, but ugh.

It would also be nice if some of the highway stretches had painted lines outside of just the POIs, but that's a really minor thing.

 

[Riamus]

Yeah, lines would be nice.  I wonder if they aren't on the roads just because of difficulty with placing them on roads that aren't squared off.  You'd probably need a lot of variations to fit the many different angles a road can be.

As far as roads on tiles, I think the biggest issue is that there are so few different tiles and they used those few to include some interesting features that are fine in small numbers but look and function poorly when you have them all over a town.  I've noticed significant improvement to roads when using custom tiles that help to give more variety and more options that aren't odd designs.

 

[zztong]

I think the biggest issue is that there are so few different tiles and they used those few to include some interesting features that are fine in small numbers but look and function poorly when you have them all over a town.

Yes, unique features on a Tile cut both ways. Unique features are really memorable so while they're appealing, too many and you get the Flintstones/Bedrock effect of passing the same thing again, and again, and again, and again.

 

[Weazelsun]

What I see is more curves and turns. Right now personally for me the grid layout is good if the town/ city is big enough. But, it feels so artificial. 

 

[FramFramson]

What I see is more curves and turns. Right now personally for me the grid layout is good if the town/ city is big enough. But, it feels so artificial. 

Curves and turns are fine, it's the discontinuity that's the problem. When only ONE road goes through a town properly and highways run near towns without connecting to them, it can get very stupid.

 

[Weazelsun]

Yup, yup. I'm still amazed how world generation doesnt make roads that connect every city/ town. Like there have been times I'm looked at a map preview and noticed there are two towns literally a stones throw apart. But, the game decides to not connect them with an asphalt road. 

 

[BFT2020]

Yeah you do see the oddity here and there.  On my current map, I have a trader on the other side of the city next to one of the main roads leading out of the city.  However, his main entrance is on a side road that ends before it connects to the main road so you have to drive around the metal barrier to get onto the main road.

But I just chalk it up to the people who were responsible for designing the roads in the world are the same people that led to the zombie outbreak  

 

[zztong]

However, his main entrance is on a side road that ends before it connects to the main road so you have to drive around the metal barrier to get onto the main road.

I do find it entertaining when two Tiles with terminated roads match up. You get a road leading to a barrier, next to a barrier, next to a road.

That happens because the Tile system only knows the intended shape of the Tile. It might have placed two "corner" Tiles next to each other thinking it wanted to make something interesting but didn't have any way of knowing the Tiles actually look like a "T" but blocked one of the paths from continuing. The Tile designer has no idea what Tiles (if any) will be neighbors or what features those Tiles might have.

 

[avalonnn]

As a builder on a low difficulty level, I sometimes dream of making the road system work better for me.