What are your preferred settings for a free game?

[Grayhill]

I am mainly curious about your preferred map size, map format, and number of cities and industries. More importantly: why do you choose these?

[philmo]

I have a extra large map which was straining my PC, but since turning graphic settings down a bit on more crucially changing my HDD to an SSD (made a huge difference) it is ok so far.

I tried medium cities and industries but found there was simply too many of the later, so went with low industries. The problem now is there was not enough production plants (like food) to supply the cities - so I had to install the X2 mod. I like tropical but without too many islands so I change the slider. I copied my current seed from a YT video I watched - and its challenging still. Have just got to 1950.

I went with European buildings and vehicles.

[grapplehoeker]

I have no preference yet. I am still experimenting, but I do like the tropical Asian maps!
For achievements, I'm playing an Asian Islands small map 1:3 with the seed, "archipelago"
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1948786616
It's a nice map that can make good early profits in 1850 in either easy or hard mode... I've played it in both modes.

Currently, I'm looking at medium sized maps.

I have already discovered that setting industries to high creates far too many of them and their locations are not optimal at all... for example, one map had 5 coal mines in one close group, but not close enough to hook them up to one terminus, with the steel factory right beside them! That's not good.
So, I'm testing different seeds and preferences/parameters to find one I like.
Also, using islands requires a different perspective for an 1850 start, since you can use Zoroasters to make profitable crude/oil/fuel lines, but Wilhelms are awful for all other commodity types. So too, for Asian trains, which are limited in the quantity of carriages they can pull in 1850. I'm testing European or American trains (which can pull more) on Asian maps.

I have tried the mods to play it as a sandbox and be able to relocate industries/cities at will as well as unlimited funds, but while I can see the benefit of customising the locations of industries, I don't like using free money, otherwise what's the point of working to achieve profitability?

The vanilla game makes it easy to make money, be it easy or hard difficulty mode and the only difference is how much of your time that will take.
So, since there is no real challenge, I'm looking for nice maps with features that still entertain me by allowing me to create aesthetically appealling cities and logistics, but not at the expense of too much of my time ;)

[Nicky]

Huge map that i tinker with manualy in the (map editor i love that feature)

I randomly place the industries then manualy place all teh cities. I usualy place 4-5 big ones, a few medium ones and some vilages. I place the cities in places that make sese; i'm not a fan of the random chosen locations.

I also make sure the factory-like industries are close to a city / town.

I liek my map less cluttered. More room to develop a very good looking rail network.

Oh. I also build a single train depot on the entire map. This forces me to connect everythign in a away that actually makes sense.

[Grayhill]

Originally posted by Nicky:

Huge map that i tinker with manualy in the (map editor i love that feature)

I randomly place the industries then manualy place all teh cities. I usualy place 4-5 big ones, a few medium ones and some vilages. I place the cities in places that make sese; i'm not a fan of the random chosen locations.

I also make sure the factory-like industries are close to a city / town.

I liek my map less cluttered. More room to develop a very good looking rail network.

Oh. I also build a single train depot on the entire map. This forces me to connect everythign in a away that actually makes sense.

I like tweaking the maps in the editor too, but I go a step further and hand place industries too - mainly to make sure I have enough industries to cover all needs.

I don't know about the single train depot. I've heard Col. Failure talk about that. I may have to give it a try. I think I'll also be varying the town size in my next map. Nice tip.