Oh, sure, I cared. I was just new, and naïve to the fact that others had already built under there.
A mix of above and above ground tracks should be a good thing.
Though as for below ground in-around BP, I'm still not sure it's a good idea even with an x-ray pack; there's likely to be just too many things down there. The subway would turn into and underground roller coaster trying to work around everything.
If the hub station is at Spawn for example, I would make a lone BP-access track go into the town from the station, some degree above ground but nowhere near skyway heights. Maybe it could line up with the current Arena track and go into the current station. No reason to go in the dirt or up in the sky for a simple BP line.
Skyway tracks: my proposition is to build them either beneath/above the deck or with their own extension on the side. Like bbsky said, they won't be good for views either, so I think skyway-level tracks should be saved for the long stretches of distance in between the various projects. In my opinion, the time it would take to build a tunnel, say, from BP up to Elysium's place is not worth it. I would cling it onto the skyway. But, slightly-above-ground tracks (think those of the Arena) would be good for project areas assuming the project owner doesn't mind an elevated track in view.
Tunnels leaving the hub station, to de-clutter the area, could be cool though (and then tracks will emerge elsewhere if it makes sense for them to).
But yeah, this community census thing.
There are so many variables to this and so many people that get to offer input for these variables. First off, I still wish for a poll for the three hitherto discussed hub locations: Spawn; somewhere on top or around the current BP ministation; near Robo and the BP east-side skyway access. Give it a week or so, and then the votes that come in are definitive. (If no one else takes interest in this nor offers up a better form of democracy, I will make my own thread, with my own poll, give it two weeks, and declare the matter settled unless Brad himself vetoes me.
)
I agree that we need to figure out substations too before ground is broken. The only way I can wrap my mind around doing this with everyone and so many locations is to take the first strong color blueprint we have from Kraetos (or Bryson's if you prefer his layout) — or we come up with an updated definitive general layout, since we have talked a little bit more about the main lines — and then we put circles where we think there should be a substation.
Each of us is more or less used to various patches of land around the map. I know the Ravonia area and have ideas with how I want to incorporate it into the lines; 709 and Drew, for example, might have track ideas about the Gherkin-Old Towne area that I don't care about. So, we all need to propose our own various desired substations and then bring them together in a coherenet, single blueprint. (I would also add that we could erase sequences in the lines to denote where we think they should go underground.) Then, we build.
Anyone agree or disagree with this group map-making business, or have a better idea?