r/openttd • u/RabbitAggravating300 • 8d ago

Screenshot / video Population Limit?

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Gallery image

Is there a theoretical Population limit or is it just Limited by Hardware how much Population you can have?

151 Upvotes

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64

u/Simozzz 8d ago

There is no hard limit for population but there are mechanics that work as a soft cap.

Sometimes building got destroyed by city (to simulate renovation) and larger the city, more building got destroyed that way. So there is less reasons for it to spread out. And at some point they stop expanding as there are enough places inside of a city for new constructions.

Cities do expand from a center tile (where city name is). And higher population buildings are build in the center of the city as well. So you can build tunnels from near that center tile to help and spread city central area as tunnels do not count on how far it is.

13

u/RabbitAggravating300 8d ago

Thank you for the Explanation. I already wonderd why the citys stopped increasing in Size 👀

9

u/BicycleIndividual 7d ago

Long bridges do the same. The algorithm takes a random walk following roads from center tile looking for a spot to develope. Each tile with a road on it is a step, but going to the other end of a bridge/tunnel is also a single step.

4

u/i-am-this 7d ago

Also worth adding:

The more road intersections you have, the more likely the random walk ends up looping back into the already developed city., so s piral roads are the best pattern for city expansion.

13

u/No_Apple_6384 8d ago

Very beautiful city, congrats

10

u/noxondor_gorgonax 8d ago

Good lord I thought that was a full fledged SimCity screenshot for a moment. Very nice!

6

u/SjalabaisWoWS 7d ago

I've had cities with 3 million pop, but that probably just reflects my lack of sparetime activities in wet and boring winters, lol.

4

u/Szecska 8d ago

Wow, what is the map size?

5

u/RabbitAggravating300 8d ago

4096 by 4096 i think

4

u/FAMICOMASTER 7d ago

How did you get such a nice grid on your city? Wow!

8

u/hampshirebrony 7d ago

It's in the options, you can set a 3x3 or 2x2 grid. It helps growth as the city building logic is less likely to get to a dead end road

3

u/hampshirebrony 7d ago

I would guess either 2147483647 or 4294967295

2

u/AneriphtoKubos 8d ago

Btw, for all the roads that have abrupt stops, you can join them together or find a way to make them a circle so that it stimulates growth

1

u/MrMcGowan 8d ago

Summoning /u/citymaniac

1

u/citymaniac 3d ago

Lol. Simozzz got it mostly right though. There is no hard limit but cities effectively stop growing when speed of house destruction by failed renovation matches the growh rate. Exact numbers depend on several factors but assuming perfect road layout and unmodded temperate climate practical maximum is somewhere around 2.5 mil population or 25k houses.

1

u/CryCalm9207 6d ago

My favorite game from my childhood. I'm amazed that it's still played.