Is TLG now definitely phasing out baseplates?

[BeO]

Baseplates lost their appeal when the space crater plate was discontinued

But on a more serious note, new roads would be great. The simplicity of combining road base plates can't be denied, but the versatility separate roads could bring to the table makes up for that in my opinion.

For those who use their modular buildings in a city setting, why don't you try building the houses on any of the modular plates that you usually see in community builds? Sure it takes a bunch of pieces you might not have to build these 'standardized' plates, but in the long run it is absolutely worth it since it makes it easier to combine, and rearrange, the modules when following those guidelines. IMO. And it will be easier to participate with your builds at an exhibition, in case you'd like to try that sometime  

 

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

On 10/16/2020 at 12:59 PM, MAB said:

I agree that scarcity creates demand - but the question is will they be scarce. If everyone holds on to theirs then yes. But if many people decide to dump the old because the new is better then they will not be scarce.

I am sure there will be some people that dump the old road plates in favor of the new ones, however I feel there will be more people like me who will find it to costly to switch over to a new road plate. Mind you my city is using 114 straight road plates alone. 

On 10/16/2020 at 1:26 PM, Inspecter said:

All I saw where just photos of normal Road plates, some in packaging, others with tiled sidewalks. Didn't see any with embedded Tram Tracks but I did see someone's 3D render of what they would look like, didn't see any multi-laned roads that didn't require cutting them up or tiling up the sidewalks. Not that I doubt you but I really didn't see any of the things I asked. I really want to see what they look like if they do exist. Even did some searching on google didn't find what I asked for either. Just normal road plates, MILs system stuff, bootleg roadplates, Lego road parterns printed on paper, roadplates with tiles on the studded parts, plain baseplates with tiles for the roads. and that's pretty much it. I did see a bridge using roadplates though so there's that.

 

Are you looking for a 4 lane highway type of thing? I have seen people have 2 straight road plates next to each and have the middle section house trees, lights, etc.. It was a boulevard type of set up. Personally, I thought it took up to much space for what you get, especially when you don't have a lot of run for your city.  

On 10/16/2020 at 4:09 PM, Aanchir said:

I'm super confused by this reply. Yes, MILS would allow you to fix a lot of the problems I mentioned. That's because MILS was created by AFOLs to compensate for the implicit limitations of traditional road layouts. The new road system does essentially the same thing, but without being so heavily parts-intensive or geared towards highly advanced builders.

And if you've already been "floating" your road baseplates over studs like this so you can line them up with MILS bases, then you should be able to do the same thing just as easily (if not moreso) with the new road elements. After all, that's what I'd already been suggesting to people who were worried about the new road system being incompatible with existing road baseplates or modular buildings.

I'm just… not seeing the issue. The new road system is compatible with older baseplates in all the same ways that MILS is, but it's a lot more cost-effective and kid-friendly since the default road height is just two plates tall rather than six.

Of course you can line them up, but if your city is all the other road plates, why would you? My city uses 114 of the straight road plates in it. The cost to replace them would be quite high, I am sure the same can be said for people with large cities also.

[Aanchir]

1 hour ago, The Jersey Brick Guy said:

I am sure there will be some people that dump the old road plates in favor of the new ones, however I feel there will be more people like me who will find it to costly to switch over to a new road plate. Mind you my city is using 114 straight road plates alone. 

Dang, that's a lot of road plates! I was so intrigued that I went ahead and checked out your progress pics on your city on Instagram to get a sense of just how big your layout is to need that many. I dunno if I've ever seen a city that big made by a solo builder… mind you, I don't tend to look up pictures of people's tabletowns online usually, so most of the town layouts I've seen are at conventions, so the size of those layouts might be limited by how much a builder is able to transport from their home to the exhibit hall.

That said, how many people who have that many are really going to have a city that size and still be interested in expanding it further? Because if you've already got as many roads in your cty as it room for, it won't really impact you much whether LEGO replaces their current road system or not…

1 hour ago, The Jersey Brick Guy said:

Are you looking for a 4 lane highway type of thing? I have seen people have 2 straight road plates next to each and have the middle section house trees, lights, etc.. It was a boulevard type of set up. Personally, I thought it took up to much space for what you get, especially when you don't have a lot of run for your city.  

Yeah, that's also the sort of thing I've been mentioning when I bring up multi-lane roadways. Because the actual road markings in the new system are in the form of decorated tiles that you can rearrange to your heart's content, it wouldn't be hard at all to make those just by using multiple road segments side-by-side, or even with a median of any width you like in between.

1 hour ago, The Jersey Brick Guy said:

Of course you can line them up, but if your city is all the other road plates, why would you? My city uses 114 of the straight road plates in it. The cost to replace them would be quite high, I am sure the same can be said for people with large cities also. 

Probably for a lot of the reasons I've mentioned before, and also for a lot of the same reasons builders have for using MILS bases. Not to mention the likelihood that they'll be more widely available in the long run.

After all, the new road system is going to be showing up in several of next year's City sets, and probably in even more sets in the years to come. So if those road segments end up showing up in sets you end up buying for other reasons, you might as well put them to use — even if only in the parts of your layout like bridges, hills, or construction sites where full-size road baseplates might be less convenient.

[MAB]

The new Chinese garden set comes on baseplates (yes, plural), so the answer is a definite no. They have not phased out baseplates.

 

[Vilhelm22]

On 11/6/2020 at 2:17 PM, MAB said:

The new Chinese garden set comes on baseplates (yes, plural), so the answer is a definite no. They have not phased out baseplates.

 

Though that set will have been in planning for at least two years judging by the detail, and had to fit with the modulars as it uses that system.  Without baseplates that couldn't possibly work.

[MAB]

14 hours ago, Vilhelm22 said:

Though that set will have been in planning for at least two years judging by the detail, and had to fit with the modulars as it uses that system.  Without baseplates that couldn't possibly work.

It doesn't have to fit with the modulars. This is a completely different theme. LEGO might choose to make it compatible with modulars, or Ninjago City, or anything else. But t doesn't have to be compatible. If they want to phase out baseplates then they could easily put this on large plates instead with minimal changes. Modulars have to fit with other modulars. So if modulars continue, then either baseplates continue or future ones become incompatible with past ones.

[CopperTablet]

If Aanchir is correct, the new road plates look much, much better than the old road baseplates.  The studded area on 44336px4 is not conducive to Modular streets, because you either have a massive gutter in the streets between the solid white lines and the sidewalk, or you build the Modulars on the studded area.    The issue is that this deviates from the official instructions that come with the modular building, which can be intimidating.  But, the new road plates are better for other reasons too.   They are conducive to the use of ramps and elevated roads, which are commonplace on real highways but nearly nonexistent in Lego.  

Finally, moving away from the 16x32 baseplate to two 16x16 plates (with antistuds) facilitates the design of underground structures.  Baseplates introduce an irregular nonzero height that makes this more of a challenge.

Basically, AFOLs get a ton of verticality to build with without really losing anything.

[jonty14]

Will be interesting to see how curves will be done with this new system.

[Aanchir]

4 hours ago, jonty14 said:

Will be interesting to see how curves will be done with this new system. 

Agreed! Ideally, I'd love if any future curved road plate came in a smaller angle like 22.5°, 30°, or 45° rather than a fixed right angle, since that would allow for more varied layouts, sort of like with curved LEGO train tracks. But on the other hand, those sorts of angles can be trickier to build with.

Frankly, curved road baseplates have always been sort of frustrating to use, from my experience. It's always a challenge to create tiled sidewalks that match the road's inside or outside radius, plus it's tricky to make efficient use of the studded area around the outside of the curve since most buildings have a rectangular footprint. And comments from other AFOLs also tend to give me the impression that the curved road baseplates are considered less useful than the other three shapes.

As such, if LEGO decides to include curves in this new system, it could be an opportunity to find some way of making them more useful or versatile than they have been in the past.

[Inspecter]

I hope for curves as well but what I really want from this new road system is the new road plates it with embedded tram tracks or with slots to put old plastic 12V era rails in.

[ks6349]

I like the new design of road plates, because it is more durable and flexible. Current base plate and road plate are more fragile, and not flexible at all.

Edited November 23, 2020 by ks6349

[MAB]

7 hours ago, Inspecter said:

I hope for curves as well but what I really want from this new road system is the new road plates it with embedded tram tracks or with slots to put old plastic 12V era rails in.

I cannot see them making it compatible with a product that has not been produced for decades. If there is not a current product that has exactly the same spacing, I think you will be out of luck.

[Inspecter]

5 hours ago, MAB said:

I cannot see them making it compatible with a product that has not been produced for decades. If there is not a current product that has exactly the same spacing, I think you will be out of luck.

Well the curves haven't been produces in decades, the straights on the other hand are still made so don't say I'm out of luck, besides they can mold new curves if needed. I would imagine it would be cheaper than molding the new road piece with the tram tracks already molded in.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Inspecter

[CopperTablet]

How would we build a highway on/off-ramp with these?

 

I guess the obvious way is to use 2429/2430 to establish the radius of curvature, a lower layer of round plates like 4032, and a tile layer of 98138.

Edited November 25, 2020 by CopperTablet