Why not a City Builder?

[Jude_Ghenon]

This is for Urban Games developers if they can reach this post.
I really love the graphics and the gameplay of Transport Fever 2 and I wonder why the game studio is not trying to use the legacy of this game to develop a brand new city builder. It would be a grand competitor to Cities Skylines!

[brunoais]

Cities skylines is already much better than what this could be as a city builder, IMO. I don't see how this one could compete.
The internals are NOT designed to expand into a city building and I'm hoping this won't be one.
These are different difficulties to solve

[Tsubame ⭐]

Transport Fever 2 can work as an excellent city builder, it has many advantages over Cities Skylines on that regard - much better building tools, much better transit management tools, no game limits, no stupid "roadside only" building, the game itself is more stable, much easier and quicker to build large sprawling cities, etc. - and I use it over Cities Skylines as my city builder of choice.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2538066706

The thing that it misses the most is zoning and better tools to control city growth to your liking; the Advanced Town Builder mod does a decent job subbing in, but it is obviously not as perfect as proper zoning - including tools to allow specific buildings to be built based on age and/or height.

Other city management tools are optional; I realize that for the developers they are not the focus of the game, and they can be subbed by modded assets. Consider TpF as a pure city builder and landscaper with public transport building tools, and CS as a city manager game; though, to be honest, not a very in-depth one anyway.

[mongolteiko]

Of course you can use this as a city builder.

I did Clapham Junction which included London Waterloo and London Victoria and the surrounds [parks/housing estates etc.].
I did the Tower of London too [using excellent mods] and laid all the buildings/track/viaducts even the catenary masts and register arms etc. myself.

I did have youtube videos of this, but I have pulled all my vids as I don't like youtube/google.

No game cities or industries where used, just a blank map [like cs].
There are many building mods you can use and people magnets to spawn people. Some buildings have built in people spawns.
In sandbox mode you can lay your own industry etc. also more using mods.
You can even lay several 'cities' together to make one super city [game wise].

Performance can take a hit though [as it does in the normal game later on] when you have too many buildings close together in complex areas.

[Tsubame ⭐]

To minimize performance hits, use assets without population whenever you can, and use the Population Factor mod, toned to a factor of 0, or anything under 1, to decrease maximum capacity of buildings.

[mongolteiko]

That mod ["Population Factor"] needs "CommonAPI" mod, which used to work ok a couple of years ago and then crashed my computer after a UG update. So have never used it since, having lost trust in it.

[Jude_Ghenon]

Originally posted by brunoais:

Cities skylines is already much better than what this could be as a city builder, IMO. I don't see how this one could compete.
The internals are NOT designed to expand into a city building and I'm hoping this won't be one.
These are different difficulties to solve

No doubt, I'm a huge fan of CS, I got all the DLCs, but if you take the base game without installing at least 5-6 mods, is not so "good looking". TF2 has a base game better graphics and I prefer it when it comes to road/rail placing. So my point is: they could easily become a CS competitor (more than any other currently online) as they got already a good starting point.

[Paph]

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

That mod ["Population Factor"] needs "CommonAPI" mod, which used to work ok a couple of years ago and then crashed my computer after a UG update. So have never used it since, having lost trust in it.

Population Factor does not need CommonAPI to work. It will work with CommonAPI for access to settings, but without CommonAPI, the settings can still be accessed in the settings.lua file and the mod will still work.

[mongolteiko]

Originally posted by Paph:

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

That mod ["Population Factor"] needs "CommonAPI" mod, which used to work ok a couple of years ago and then crashed my computer after a UG update. So have never used it since, having lost trust in it.

Population Factor does not need CommonAPI to work. It will work with CommonAPI for access to settings, but without CommonAPI, the settings can still be accessed in the settings.lua file and the mod will still work.

Yes I know that. But if you put in the incorrect values, it can mess things up.

[Caesium-137]

Originally posted by Tsubame:

The thing that it misses the most is zoning and better tools to control city growth to your liking; the Advanced Town Builder mod does a decent job subbing in, but it is obviously not as perfect as proper zoning - including tools to allow specific buildings to be built based on age and/or height.

Yes I really hope zoning can be included in Transport Fever 2 in the future!

[Paph]

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

Originally posted by Paph:

Population Factor does not need CommonAPI to work. It will work with CommonAPI for access to settings, but without CommonAPI, the settings can still be accessed in the settings.lua file and the mod will still work.

Yes I know that. But if you put in the incorrect values, it can mess things up.

Well, I've never used CommonAPI so I can't say how different it would be than editing the lua file. Maybe using CommonAPI makes edits fool-proof, I don't know. I do know I've never had a problem editing an lua file so I, personally, don't have a need for CommonAPI, as the Population Factor mod also doesn't need it, as you stated. That would be your preference, which is fine. Nothing meant against you in your preferences. Just trying to clarify the difference between need and prefer. :-)

[General Tso]

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

Originally posted by Paph:

Population Factor does not need CommonAPI to work. It will work with CommonAPI for access to settings, but without CommonAPI, the settings can still be accessed in the settings.lua file and the mod will still work.

Yes I know that. But if you put in the incorrect values, it can mess things up.

Well to be correct then. The mod doesn't need CommonAPI. You need CommonAPI.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

That mod ["Population Factor"] needs "CommonAPI" mod, which used to work ok a couple of years ago and then crashed my computer after a UG update. So have never used it since, having lost trust in it.

No, you do not need that, nor I ever used to change the mod settings, you can change the values yourself in the Settings.lua file.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

Originally posted by Paph:

Population Factor does not need CommonAPI to work. It will work with CommonAPI for access to settings, but without CommonAPI, the settings can still be accessed in the settings.lua file and the mod will still work.

Yes I know that. But if you put in the incorrect values, it can mess things up.

Is just a matter of changing the factor - the mod default is 2 - to a value of your choosing. As per the discussion, it should be under 1.

The worst that can happen, in case you type something wrong, is:

- If you add or remove an extra digit, then you will notice the population rising or dropping very fast. It is just a matter of double checking for typos.
- A syntax error due to a typo elsewhere will simply result in the game CTD or similar, at most. To avoid this, you can always backup the file before modifying it yourself.

The mod itself is pretty safe and can be added or removed at will at anytime, although population will take some time to get back to vanilla values.

[mongolteiko]

Originally posted by Tsubame:

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

That mod ["Population Factor"] needs "CommonAPI" mod, which used to work ok a couple of years ago and then crashed my computer after a UG update. So have never used it since, having lost trust in it.

No, you do not need that, nor I ever used to change the mod settings, you can change the values yourself in the Settings.lua file.

Hey einstein. It has already been mentioned!

[mongolteiko]

Originally posted by General Tso:

Originally posted by mongolteiko:

Yes I know that. But if you put in the incorrect values, it can mess things up.

Well to be correct then. The mod doesn't need CommonAPI. You need CommonAPI.

What do you mean by that? Read the mod description!