Question: Industry growth and map editing.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Hi James,

Long time no speak. I've been quietly playing Simutrans in the meantime, but not much with Extended for some time.

My kind of play is still the same, start very early, with very small villages, and preferably no industries.

As we discussed before, Simutrans Extended needs at least some industry at the start of the game to generate the density float, starting a game with no industries will mean no industries generate.

But what if I were to start with a game that has an oversize in intended population and industries, then use the public service player to bulldoze all the industries and cut the towns down to the (small) size that I like? The float would still be there and spawn new industries as the population starts to grow again, right?

Kind Regards, DoR

[jamespetts]

If you did that, what would happen is that new industries would quickly spawn to replace the industries that you had bulldozed (within a few game months) so that the industry density would be restored to its former level.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Hi James,

True, except that if I also cut the population down to size (say, 50000 -> 5000), it would take some time before all the industries have respawned. Thanks though for confirming.

Kind Regards, DoR

[jamespetts]

Ah, yes, if you were to reduce population by bulldozing (perhaps just by deleting a few entire towns), then this would indeed delay the process of increase considerably.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Hi James,

I use a barbers' approach as the '-100' button has no effect. But deleting several houses does the trick.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to set up a profitable 'passengers and mail only' network back in the 1750s and how much it takes to induce town growth.

Kind Regards, DoR

[jamespetts]

I should be interested to know what you find, but bear in mind that costs are not currently calibrated so it might be a bit hit and miss.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Hi James,

So far I find that passengers do spawn when routes are available, but very incidentally. Also, it seems the thresholds for inducing town growth (especially for goods delivered), may be on the high side. But it's too early to tell. Also, with my poor maps I can't have a premium good like fish not loading (on closer inspection I found this even though it's on the goods list), so I have to sit back again.

Kind Regards, DoR

[jamespetts]

When you refer the the passengers spawning "incidentally" and fish not loading, do you believe these to be bugs? If so, I should be grateful if you could post a full bug report for each (with a separate new thread for each). Thank you.