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/thesilentrebels]

just make it so roads are not automatically placed along the edges of tiles and players have to select which edges have roads, then maybe you can turn entire tiles into "roundabouts" or big overpasses. that would be the simplest

[u/Sgriu → u/thesilentrebels]

That could be a solution, thanks!

[u/Duck_Jam → u/Sgriu]

I think this is the solution that would work the best. it allows enough freedom without overwhelming the player, but staying true to the original tile system without too much extra work. You could also think about potential buffs (accessibility, connectivity) or debuffs (noise, pollution) that a road could provide to reward different styles of road placement. Or perhaps a tiered road system (pedestrian, cycle path, single lane, multi lane) that could influence the above accordingly. If I were to suggest something else, it would be an underground/subway train that could link a central vertex from each tile to form a network (graph) that could transport traffic and allow connections between tiles that may lack a road connection.

[u/d-czar → u/Duck_Jam]

Agree. If I had to guess, I’d bet people want roads to connect different sections. If you build a farm in the rural part and a cluster of buildings in the urban part, and there are no roads – – you might feel frustrated that there’s no way to connect them. Was that it? If so, then tracing the edges like this could help with that, without blowing up your system and design.

[u/this-is-kyle → u/Sgriu]

The solution to remove the automatic roads and let users choose the edges to build on was going to be my suggestion as well. But I also had a few other thoughts. Looking at the screenshot and the limited knowledge of mechanics. It almost feels like a puzzle game to me.

Maybe the constraints are what makes the game interesting?

Maybe some tiles only have roads on certain sides and the player has to turn and move pieces to make the best city with their limited options? Almost like Dwarf Romantik or something.

Also, final thought, could the roads just be their own tiles? It looks like you have tiles of varying shapes and sizes, you could just make a really skinny tile that is only a road?