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Hello,

I used to post under the alias brijones, and well, I've got sort of like
a new series of ideas on the entire concept. I've recently played
a-train 8 and well, I've had this sort of series of ideas on how to take
this to the next level.

Okay, so, I possed the question to myself, how do we possibly part from
the current grid like feature of the game? It seems like there is
absolutely no way to get around it. So, I came up with a couple of ways
to do this.

Make the grid smaller, what if say the standard piece of train track
took up a space approximately 10x10? It would allow for the illusion of
non-grid conformity. But how do we add our train tracks? This is where I
came up with the next idea, I call it "track offset". When we lay the
track down we do so my dragging it along the small grid squares, but,
from each grid selected for the track, the track expands out from that
position as like an offset of that position. Shrink the grid size and
expand the offset to create better realism.

The next concept I give you is zoning. Rather then apply plops on a 1 to
1 basis. We allow the game to automatically generate zones based on a
series of local interactions. The further you get from the city, the
more you hit farm land, which are large zones. But as developing moves
outwards of the city, we get divisions forming in zones, and rules
applied by local council define the rules of what can be placed in a
zone, if it can be divided.

Okay, so, to begin with, we start in the middle, we don't have a map set
in stone with an exact grid. We start with a starting location which
will be known as (0,0). As new squares become available based on current
rules, they are generated on the fly, as in, when you load the map, you
cannot tell what you are getting, you cannot see it. And as you change a
square, it becomes generated.

As we reveal squares by expanding our city, zones are generated
automatically, these are listed as (x1,y1,x2,y2). If we destroy a zone,
we remove it from data, when we create a zone, we add it to data. In a
zone, the computer may purchase a set plop which fits the square and the
requirements of the local area.

For area's which cannot be zoned due to them being too small, we create
public area space which is converted into things like grassland or
pavement based on the surrounding area.

Any thoughts?

Beren Scott

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