Terrain changes

I'm making several changes to the map. There are several reasons for this, such as improving the way hills and estuaries are represented, adapting to the new N+M trains, and reviewing the historical population of the towns and cities. I'm a little concerned in case some of this is "churn", rather than progress, but some of the changes are definitely improvements.

To start with, I've fixed the problem I noted in a previous post. Companies now have to pay to build through difficult terrain (and can still only do so from phase 5 onwards). I've changed the map in Northern England so that the only north-south route along the Pennines requires two such payments. To make this work, I've also moved Carlisle one hex south-east, so that only one hex lies between Carlisle and Newcastle.

The introduction of a cost for building through difficult terrain (brown hexsides) has a knock-on effect in Scotland. I had brown hexsides for both the Forth and Tay estuaries, which meant that companies would have to pay twice to build the route from Edinburgh to Dundee This is a route I actually want to encourage. In one attempt to fix this, I've collapsed Fife to a single hexside, moving Perth and Dundee one hex south. This seems to work, although it removes some track building options in the area. I was pleased when a change on another part of the board suggested another solution, so I'll explain that next.

The area around the Bristol Channel has always caused some hassle on this map. I was reasonably happy with the current solution, which has a sea hex between Bristol and Cardiff. It meant the Severn Tunnel got built to the north-west of Bristol, and Newport was rather to the north of its actual location, but I could live with that. Then, when I added a tight curve on the Bristol side of the sea hex, I noticed another option. That hex has always included a shallow curve on the Cardiff side; the addition of the new curve produced a pattern that could be upgraded to a brown tile, to add a straight track between Bristol and Cardiff. So instead of a sea hex, I've made this a green hex, upgradable from phase 5 onwards (at a cost), and the Severn Tunnel can now run in the right place.

This suggested an alternative fix for the Forth and Tay estuaries. Instead of collapsing them to a single hexside, I think I can change the intervening hex to a green hex. As with the Severn Tunnel, this can be upgraded from phase 5 onwards at a cost. With only a single tight curve on the green hex, this upgrade has more options than the Severn equivalent.

I'm pretty satisfied with these changes. Each of them improve the relevant area of the map and fix particular problems.