Does "(Connected)" actually do anything besides fulfilling scripted map requirements?

[BigSilverHotdog]

I mean obviously it is used as a check for scripted map events (i.e. connect city 1 to city 2 within x years and so forth) but is that all it does?

I can't find an answer to this question. Not in the manual, not in the strategy guide, and not on the web, and despite playing this game for decades, literally thousands of hours, and making tons and tons of my own maps, I realized I actually don't know for sure...

[SGreenwell]

Hm, I don't think it has practical gameplay benefits, except for the one you mention - meaning, it's a distinction you need for some optional or scenario objectives. I like to do it when I can, since it means my station will be called "Sacramento" instead of like "Sacramento Junction," but in the later scenarios when money is tight, you don't always have the cash to do it.

[BigSilverHotdog]

I realized I was always absolutely sure I was doing it EVERY SINGLE TIME no matter what kind of map, and I had been doing so always, since the beginning... but I never actually stopped to think -why- I was doing it.

You can rename stations anyway, so that last point doesn't matter.

[mrraleigh98]

Interesting Question.

I agree with the above, but also connected stations also impact city growth. A city in which a station is 'not connected' will not grow as fast as a city with a proper connected station. City growth is dependent on the number of loads/revenue hauled to and from a city relative to the rest of the map, and thus the station must be connected for it to count. A city with a non-connected station would grow as if there was no train service. Of course, this a long-term effect, but it is definitely worth it to 'connect' stations to cities.

[BigSilverHotdog]

I actually knew this already but totally forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.

Servicing industries within map regions also grows those regions (but slower).

Both of these facts can be verified by looking at the included html file "Strategy Guide".

[Mister Sixties]

AFAICT in most scenarios an AI won't try to connect to a city that you are "connected" to. So for example if you've connected Chicago to Milwaukee/Madison and have an eye on St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans but don't have the money to connect them up properly yet, you can stake a claim on those cities by putting small stations where you plan to build medium or large stations later, and then enlarge the station and connect it to your network when you have the money. It costs a bit in construction costs and station maintenance but it could be worth it in the long run.

Connect where you can, but if you can create a megalopolis by building a large station that encompasses two cities (like Houston and Beaumont) it might pay off in passenger/rail revenue.

[BigSilverHotdog]

Very true.

I did a lot of this recently when I finally decided to play the campaigns. Incredibly I had played the game for thousands of hours with scenarios and sandbox customs, sometimes on max difficulty with many computer opponents, and had made dozens if not hundreds of maps... but I had never even started either built-in campaign! I know it sounds incredible, but I did exactly the same thing with the other classic games released by this developer using the same engine and in the same game style, e.g. Tropico 1/2. Thousands of hours, all spent in custom maps and sandboxes.

Well I've now golded the majority of the campaign maps in RRT2 and I can't really say I missed anything by ignoring them for so long. There isn't really much there, and some of them were really, really stupid, annoying, and pointless (all those gimmicky maps like Whistle Stops and Battle of Britain).

But I did have a lot of fun on several of them (Edelweiss, Capetown-Cairo, and China, to name a few), and am going to use the editor to re-tool a bunch for better standalone play.

Ahh Poptop, you are sorely missed. <3

[SGreenwell]

Originally posted by Rainbow Droid:

Very true.

I did a lot of this recently when I finally decided to play the campaigns. Incredibly I had played the game for thousands of hours with scenarios and sandbox customs, sometimes on max difficulty with many computer opponents, and had made dozens if not hundreds of maps... but I had never even started either built-in campaign! I know it sounds incredible, but I did exactly the same thing with the other classic games released by this developer using the same engine and in the same game style, e.g. Tropico 1/2. Thousands of hours, all spent in custom maps and sandboxes.

Well I've now golded the majority of the campaign maps in RRT2 and I can't really say I missed anything by ignoring them for so long. There isn't really much there, and some of them were really, really stupid, annoying, and pointless (all those gimmicky maps like Whistle Stops and Battle of Britain).

But I did have a lot of fun on several of them (Edelweiss, Capetown-Cairo, and China, to name a few), and am going to use the editor to re-tool a bunch for better standalone play.

Ahh Poptop, you are sorely missed. <3

Ha, it's always interesting how different people can love the builder games for entirely different reasons! Like, I -only- really like the campaign stuff - I need goals and things to shoot for, and the individual maps and scenarios don't quite scratch the itch in the same way. I often find some of the 'sandbox' builder games overwhelming for that reason. I like having some guidelines, rules and limitations.

[BigSilverHotdog]

Not capable of making your own fun in a sandbox game? That must really suck. I can't even imagine it. :(

[SGreenwell]

Originally posted by Rainbow Droid:

Not capable of making your own fun in a sandbox game? That must really suck. I can't even imagine it. :(

To be clear, I'll still have fun with stuff like SimCity, where there isn't really a "hard" goal. :) But something like RRT2, the Civilization series, or Rise of Industry, where there is kind of an "end" goal, those always get their hooks so much deeper into me.

[BigSilverHotdog]

What's your "end goal" when you play Civilization?

[SGreenwell]

Originally posted by Rainbow Droid:

What's your "end goal" when you play Civilization?

Typically, going for a certain achievement, or winning the game in a certain way. In the later games, it is usually a culture victory, but in the older ones it was usually getting a space victory. (I'm usually uninterested in the military victories, unless you almost have to because of the difficulty level.)

[BigSilverHotdog]

If you have somehow missed Civ IV mod Rise of Mankind : A New Dawn I highly, highly recommend you have a look at it (latest version is A New Dawn 2, the original stopped updates a good while ago).

I've been addicted to Civ since my very first load of Civ1 in DOS (with EGA!) and RoM : AND 1/2 is the best Civilization experience that currently exists. Yes, including all the CTPs and all other Civ IV mods.

If you loved Alpha Centauri you might also check out Civ IV mod Planetfall. It can't replace AC, but it's good. One fan to another. ;-)

[carandiro]

It does affect few very important things, as long as you are doing growth, rather than just using existing infra. It is important to know how the maps are made as such. You have general areas on the map, with pre-defined probabilities of generating specific raw material production sites and sometimes even industries. You have also cities, which have pre-definied probabilities of generating specific buildings. Cities have specific industries that can grow in their radius, usually other than the things in their surrounding area. Depending on the map, this might be generic stuff OR something highly specific (say, only town A, D and N can ever get meat packing plant).
If you have a CONNECTED station, you are interacting with the things pre-definied for city radius. If the town grows, buildings are picked from the list of possible things the city can have.
If you are simply using pre-existing, city-related buildings (houses & industries generated at map start), but it is NOT connected, you are instead interacting with the area surrounding the city and can only get buildings related with that area.

I will give example from my favourite map, Cascadia:
City of Albany has a chance to get following industries: dairy processor (10%), bakery (3%) and distillery (also 3%). There is also a military base right next to it and one of your mission objectives is to deliver goods (type and quantity) to said base.
Surrounding area, Willamette Valley, has a chance to get following buildings: dairy farm (8%), grain silo (8%), cattle yard (5%), sheep farm (5%), gravel pit (4%), produce orchard (2%) and logging camp (1%).
As you can see, those buildings are completely different, which is why it makes a good example.
So you generate a map and Albany is almost guaranteed to get a dairy processor and most likely a grain silo, dairy farm and a cattle yard nearby.
Example 1
So you build your station in designated spot in Albany (maps have areas where nothing generates, to make it possible to always get a clear path through cities without having to demolish anything). You are now interacting with Albany as a city, since it is CONNECTED. If the city grows, it will gain new houses (it starts with 4-6) and from the list of city industries listed above, a new industry will be rolled out. So you will gain a bakery or distillery, maybe even both (they have lower value as a buildings than a dairy processor, since they are smaller, thus taking up less space, thus making it easier to gain them on city growth).
Example 2
Say you ignore Albany entirely and focus on the military base you have to service to win this map. You build the station close enough to still get it named Albany and it even has all the houses and the dairy processor in the station radius. However, as you will service that station and it will eventually gain growth, you will NOT roll buildings from Albany city radius, BUT instead use the Willamette Valley area to decide what buildings you gain within the radius of the city.

Another important thing to understand is that city radius and station radius are separate from each other. Again, that Albany case. Even if you get it CONNECTED, but the radius of the city (the center of which is always where the name is written) isn't overlapping with the radius of the station, you can get a situation where the city itself grows under your care, BUT the building is generated outside of the station radius. For comparison, if you are instead using a general area rather than city area for your station, the growth will always happen within station radius, as it is fully within the area (and were interesting things can happen if your station is in two separate areas, as you can gain access to resources that normally wouldn't be so close to each other).

Is it all a bit more clearer now?

EDIT
Something that came to my mind as I was commuting back home:
If the station isn't servicing any city (so nothing is "Connected") and thus it is operating on buildings generated in given area instead, once the station grows, the industries that grow in it will NOT BE RANDOM. Instead, they will be only rolled from the buildings that are already in the radius of the station and if they are profitable.
Let's use "Next Stop the 20th Century" map from the campaign. That's the one set in France, where you need to generate profits from industries to win.
Example 1
You have a station having 3 coal mines and 2 iron mines (lucky you). Since you are shipping both like crazy to the Toulouse steel mill, the station is super-profitable. Once growth is achieved, you will roll either a coal mine or iron mine (or maybe both, if you are really lucky), further growing your amount of raw materials for imputs
Example 2
You decide to build a station in Toulouse in this map, but don't Connect it. You still have the steel mill in the radius of your station. Since you are shipping that steel like crazy, too, you are going to achieve growth. However, since you DIDN'T Connect Toulouse, you are not going to roll from Toulouse city industries, but instead from the industries that already were in the radius of your station (so a Steel Mill). However, since Steel Mill is "big value" you can't roll that, as the growth isn't big enough. Instead, you gain randomly picked industry from the general area of that particular region of France

tl;dr
1) Connected DOES affect how the city behaves once expansion is achieved
2) Buildings within station radius affect what new buildings will show up if NOT Connected
3) You should be connecting cities for the "factories" they generate, as on most maps non-city zones aren't generating "factories", only raw material depos.
4) If you are playing the game solely for passenger traffic and mail, all of this is entirely ignorable and Connected only counts for objectives in such situation

[BigSilverHotdog]

You are assuming the player has no problem with going into the map editor to look exactly how the map has been made.

I've never been personally keen on doing that.

I make and modify maps all the time and knowing the exact info for whatever map I'm playing makes the game less enjoyable for me. I like a bit of "learn by doing" even if victory takes more effort. That effort is enjoyable and makes me a better player.

[carandiro]

Originally posted by Rainbow Droid:

You are assuming the player has no problem with going into the map editor to look exactly how the map has been made.

Not really.

My point is more about the fact how massive the difference between "industries in the city area" and "industries in the map zone" are and how proper placement of stations matters a lot. The percentages are given simply to better illustrate it, rather than some sort of harebrained idea people should be digging in map files (since that's basically cheating). And how "connected" isn't exactly the same as "lies within the radius of the city itself".

As far as learning by doing goes, all people need to know is observing the placement of the buildings in the city and know that the middle of the city's name is the middle area of the city itself, but that's just common sense.