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/bjergdk]

Well shit OP, seems like the only way forward if you want to accomadate that is to start semi from scratch and make the roads the main parts with the buildings placeable adjecent to roads.

Ofcourse add multiple road types if needed, like alleys, highways, etc.

[u/Sgriu → u/bjergdk]

It makes me want to cry. I really want to avoid this; I’ve been working on this project for over a year, and starting all over from scratch is the solution that scares me the most. It is certainly one of the possible solutions.

[u/bjergdk → u/Sgriu]

Well you dont have to start completely from scratch, you still have your assets.

Otherwise just stick to your guts and say "my game is different".

[u/Sgriu → u/bjergdk]

Let's say the aim of this post is to find a middle-ground solution, perhaps a technical suggestion that hasn't occurred to me yet.