The current goods system is brilliant, the number of agents walking around feels just right, and the teleporting is not an issue, the lack of consequences is the issue. I would like at least a proper hard mode which makes the game harder and punishes you for not getting workers to their jobs.
Industry needs connections to receive raw materials and ship goods to outside locations or businesses in the city. For the most tax revenue, you should produce raw materials locally, have industry make them into goods and have local shops sell them. The shared save (Worker bug) has a city that does not even cover the upkeep of the roads with the industry taxes because they do not ship to local commercial areas.
The problem right now is that it's very easy to exploit the fact that residential buildings don't need a connection anywhere. Residential areas which have all roads leading to dead ends is strictly superior to residential areas connected to the rest of the city. It seems kind of silly that accidentally building a one way road which cuts a residential area off from the rest of the city is actually a good thing. It also just doesn't feel "right" that when you're trying to plan your city the trucks are the only important things, the cars are all completely unimportant.
The dev also mentions that you need the industry chain to make the most money. But with the difficulty level of the game you can have zero industry and still be making bundles of cash.
It seems the decision was made to ensure that the city didn't death spiral at all. I understand why they made that decision (especially after watching the streamers play) but now that it is out we need a proper hard mode. After all look at Dwarf fortress, there's a whole game which people adore just for people to watch their city death spiral!
What would be nice would be difficulty settings (proper ones which don't disable achievements!):
- Easy: Current normal mode
- Normal: Current hard mode
- Hard: 50% more costs. In addition to the current goods buffer, industrial and commercial buildings should have a "work buffer". Each time a worker reaches his workplace it should either increase or lower this buffer, if the workers teleports it should lower this buffer. Trucks/service vehicles not returning to their homes (teleporting) fines the player some money.
- Dwarf fortress: The above, but worse!
Also when the game assigns workers, trucks, etc. to a route it should check that the route back is valid. No designing cargo stations, which teleport the trucks home. If there is no valid route then the worker should not be assigned in the first place, ideally when you make a one way ending in a dead end nothing should even spawn there.
The buffers should also be explained in the in game tooltips.
