Refinement of permissions for roads: discussion

[jamespetts]

From the online game, I have noticed that some further thought needs to be given to how roads are handled. One issue was that inter-city roads often needed to be amended by players to make way for other networks (the absence of the ability to have a grade crossing on a diagonal is a particular problem). I have provisionally addressed this now by the expedient of having inter-city roads generated ownerless at the beginning of the game rather than built by the public player.

The next issue is the inconsistency of access rights between player vehicles and private cars: currently, player vehicles need to be granted access rights explicitly, whereas private cars do not, and can wonder onto players' roads unhindered except for a private road sign.

Related is the ability for players to over-write un-owned roads in towns with their own roads, which then prevent other players from having access to what was previously a town road. This could be done with inter-city roads, too, if they are unowned. Similarly, (unowned) rivers upgraded to (player owned) canals.

One solution might be to have roads automatically "adopted" by the town council in towns, so that players do not pay the maintenance for them, but so that they can be used (and further modified) by any player. This would not address the position with inter-city roads, however.

It would also be worthwhile making editing city roads more expensive - perhaps making removing them cost as much as removing a small (level 1) building.

Another problem is people deleting so many town roads as to cut off areas, and leave some buildings nowhere near any road at all. One possibility is to check when deleting any road tile in a town whether it is adjoining any buildings, and whether, if it is, there are any other road tiles adjoining that building. If the answer to the first question is yes and the second is no, and the player doing the deleting is not the public service player, the deletion should not be allowed.

Further, it might be worthwhile revising how access works for roads: it might be worthwhile making access for roads open by default subject to a toll, but make it possible to make roads private by use of the private road sign/gate (which can be passed by players with access rights). The same might be done for canals, since canals had more in common with roads in their manner of usage than railways.

I should be very grateful for any feedback on the various matters discussed above.