Often one can read about players getting tired and bored of their games, and so they're starting new ones all the time to keep the interest on top. But why? My current map, as an example, have been in use since 2006. That is soon to be 6 years - although it should be noted that in between there has been the usual "real life committment", but still. Almost 6 years. Have I gone bored with it? Nope! Do I want to create a new map? Nope, (unless OTTD implements what's still missing compared with TTDP, then I'd love to create a huge map...
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
I think that many players only see the transportation part of the game, and misses out on all the rest TTDLX gameplay offers when it comes down to it. Pulling out a railroad track here and there, connecting industries with other industries or towns to transport goods or passengers, a bus route, a truck route, possibly an airport, play around for awhile, and then the boredom hits in... Time to start a new map! Such waste of time...
![Tongue 2 :tongue:](./images/smilies/tongue2.gif)
Like everyone else I build up railroads and roads in order to transport goods and passengers from point A to point B, but this is a work that is never completed - just as city planning. Take a close look at Olympia from the beginning and its current state, (although initially named Vasa);
Downtown Olympia in 2006:
![Image](https://www.tt-forums.net/files/sactest140_875.png)
Downtown Olympia later on;
![Image](https://www.tt-forums.net/files/sactest312_636.png)
Downtown Olympia in 2011;
Not much is the same. In fact, nothing is the same. And by that I'm not referring to graphics, but the way the city has evolved during the years. Someone wrote in a post that my roads and railroads in Olympia are almost lost within, and it's true. But it's important to realize it wasn't planned. It's a result of years of re-sculpting the city, making use of every single tile to its best capability. And while moving a road or a bridge, changing the height levels both here and there, eventually everything turns into a complex and complicated infrastructure - just as in real life. And even I have problems at times figuring out where roads and railroads are going in Olympia, which is why I have to use the transparency options quite often...
![Tongue 2 :tongue:](./images/smilies/tongue2.gif)
So, in between making sure transportation of goods and passengers runs as smooth as it can, I turn my focus to my cities. And it's not as easy to bring out the bulldozers and start re-modelling a part of the town. I need to plan carefully. And the reason spells local infrastructure, local transports. In Olympia, as an example, I have about 50 bus routes travelling NOT randomly but very well planned. Whiel I can use waypoints to control road vehicles on highways, I need to use busstops in cities. And each busstop isn't planned simply because it just fit in a spot. No, each busstop is put in its specific place by a reason. Partially to make sure passengers are attracted and want to use public services, and partially because my busstops also creates the foundation of each single route. There isn't a bus, (local bus, trunk bus, airport shuttle), that travels on a street by accident. It's directed there through the placement of a busstop, and each busstop also determines what a single bus will do at the next corner. Go straight, turn right or left!
And this is the reason I have to plan every step I take with the bulldozers. If a re-sculpting planned interfere with one or more bus routes, I need to make sure alternative roads can be used, and then I'm ready to go. And all this planning simply to develop cities in between making sure goods and passengers are transported as intended, is what makes this game soo much more interesting. In my opinion the city building part of TTDLX is very much underrated and very much a missing part amongst most players, thus most likely one of the reasons most players gets bored with their games/maps after awhile and need to start a new one...
Any opinions?