The "original" China Ultimate map as well as its heavy improvement, version 2, were built on the idea of including 170 largest towns in the map's area. In some cases, there were exceptions; some big cities were omitted since they were located too close to other major cities - and in many distant, desolate areas, even a small village can be a major "hub". ;)
But I see now that it was probably a mistake. Railroads don't always just follow the sizes of the towns or cities, but other things - such as natural resources available. I am now going to research China again, using that very useful real world map, and trying to find out why there are railways in China in very many places with no obvious reason. Or: the reason must be a huge mine, industry, military, etc.
Already now I noticed some very, very interesting real-world railways running through some very unlikely and extremely difficult places. One good example is Sichuan (Chengdu etc.). Anyone who has tried to connect it to the rest of the world in China Ultimate 2 knows what I mean. But in reality, there are railways in China , connected to Sichuan, which simply make me wonder: "How did they make THAT happen??!" :)
Some places in China Ultimate 2 are actually quite difficult to reach, especially if the player has trouble with money available. Chengdu is, I think, a fine example. If you have loads of money, you simply build a couple of monstrous tunnels under the mountains - and that's that. In theory, at least. In practice, one may find surprises. The tunnels, for example, may easily become too long - and trains therefore miss their necessary servicing. Not good. If one, on the other hand, decides to choose the hard way over the mountains, it is very likely that one will need engines capable of extreme grades. Fine? Well, not always. Those monster engines may consume insane amounts of fuel and demand equal amounts of servicing - so you may find yourself with these lines running at heavy loss all of the time...
Anyway, I think I shall remove some places from the map - and replace them with new ones, based more on China's real railroad structure. The current map is already fairly accurate - perhaps one could say that China might have built its railways that way, because about all the major cities and towns of importance are already there. But there must be reasons behind why China's railways lead to so many "in the middle of nowhere" destinations - and it just might be fun to simulate all that in China Ultimate 3.0. ;) We'll see.
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