Double.
I'm thinking about enforcing new rules/modifying other rules so we can make some changes to the city, as well as some new features, and since Diggy is never on when I am, I'll post them here.
Diggy, tell me if you support these or not.
1) Max # of lots per player
Currently, this is 4. After finding 3 players who had at least 5 lots (and dealing with those extras as called for), this comes to me as a big problem. As a solution, the limit should be lowered to 2 lots per player, 3 lots for shop-owning jobs. Basically, this leaves room for an industrial lot and a house, or, if the player wants a shop, an industrial lot, a house, and a shop. This way people wouldn't use 3 lots to make an L-shaped house, etc.
2) City size/concentration of bricks
This is a bit of an issue, and why I prefer to hang out in Wellsk, where the brick concentration is low. Somewhat recently, the city was re-designed to be more compact (and thus easier to travel/explore). Problem being that once this was done, bricks became more concentrated and this makes lag from bricks much more severe. I propose not expansion per se, but spacing each city out more. So, instead of Trenton and Old Trenton being separated by a river, maybe separate them by a lake. This would mean certain builds would be swallowed up, however, so, like last time, we should do this gradually. As lots that are in the way become inactive or break rules and need to be demolished, we take care of them and plug the spot. This way no one's lots would be forcibly taken.
3) Industrial limitations
This is less of a performance issue as it is a quality-control issue. As I've seen in the past and more recently, people take as many industrial lots as they can to remove their taxes. In theory, this issue should solve itself if plan #1 is implemented, but if #1 is not used then this rule will be separate. Being brief: one industrial lot per player. No exceptions.
4) Passport, anyone?
As expected, when you are far enough away from other bricks there is no more brick lag. What does this mean? You can place more bricks, of course. I propose making other cities besides Metropolis, under whichever name is chosen. Of course, brick count would be restrictive unless the current city is trimmed down a tad. Regardless, other (possibly smaller) cities with airports to travel from place to place would be interesting to do, and would allow us to introduce a new, exciting, feature without completely nerfing latency. Main problem I see here would be rule enforcement, and with Swat working on his private project and Skele being inactive we would have to employ another admin to help.
There are some complaints from regulars that the same old city is getting dull, and I can only agree. Even if we shrink down the ideas a bit, implementing them on some level would make things more exciting once again.
