Oil well placement

[enchant 2]

I had a city going that made quite a bit of profit drilling for oil, and I'd like to re-do it and maximize the profits and efficiencies.

 

There's a large pocket of oil available, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to place oil wells on it.  One thing that stinks is that without a road to snap a well to, you can't move it around over the oil field to determine where would be the greatest drilling rate.  You have to put down a road first and hope that you put it in a good place.

 

If I have a field that is, say, 3 times the size of an oil well, it shows that I'll get the greatest return by placing it dead center in the field.  But this is just one well.  Am I better off putting it off to the side a little and placing a second well next to it?  As I slide the well from the outer edge of the oil field, I see the number of barrels increase dramatically with each segment I get closer to the center.  200, 270, 330, 360, and then the increase diminishes with each segment I get closer.  Should I stop and place my first well at 360 and the place additional wells next to it as tightly as I can fit them?

 

I really wish there was an "undo" feature.

 

Thanks for any help.

[SteveManx 24]

I don't know about placement but there is an undo, you just have to do it manually. Play offline mode, save your city locally, make a copy of the save, go back into the game and experiment all you want. After you figure it out put your copy of the save back in place and boom, undo.

 

It may be easier than that if the game doesn't autosave. You could just save, experiment, then reload the save. I haven't tried offline mode yet so I don't know. Either way, one of these will work.

[enchant 2]

That's a good tip about backing up and restoring the save file.  I only play in offline mode, and if I save the game, then try something, then exit without saving, it appears to automatically save upon exit.