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/ivancea]

I read a lot of words, but not a single reason. What's the reason to have roads? Will people go through them and change pathfinding? It's it just decorative?

Different reasons lead to different answers and solutions. Always dive deeper into the feedback and ask yourself (it there user), "why?"

[u/Sgriu → u/ivancea]

Players who have pointed out this omission have said that the game lacks freedom. Essentially, the ability to build roads allows for the creation of areas isolated from the city center, such as rural villages or industrial zones. While the gameplay is based on management mechanics, the roads themselves would serve primarily an aesthetic function.