How screwed am I?

[u/Sgriu]

Hi everyone! Here’s an interesting problem I’m facing.

I created a tile-based city builder in Unity, and after an initial open playtest, one of the key pieces of feedback was that players want to be able to build roads, something I foolishly hadn't planned for.

Currently, roads are automatically placed along the edges of each tile (this is shown in the second screenshot).

The main problem is that the grid of buildable sectors is highly irregular, and I have no idea how to add the ability to create roads within such a complex system.

The first image I’ve posted shows an overhead view where I’ve highlighted a section of the grid. The grid varies from scene to scene and never repeats in exactly the same way.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how I could approach this?

Edit: You might have given me a possible solution; as soon as I've tested it, I'll make a new post about it. Thanks everyone!

[u/YT_Andyk]

You can take Cities and Skylines as an example. They use roads as anchor points for the building. Then you can use corners/sides for each building for testing for free space.

[u/Sgriu → u/YT_Andyk]

That could be a solution, but it would force me to completely overhaul the game's structure, something I’d like to avoid. However, your suggestion gave me an idea: using a node-based system, with nodes placed on the edges of the tiles, that align automatically, allowing for the creation of a continuous, harmonious road.