Meshtastic and meshcore are excellent for assessing the radio aspects in your area: what can be heard and how the terrain etc. works for or against you, how many others are "in the game". reticulum can be used in addition afterwards when you know that the bottleneck is not the lora radio connection or line of sight issues, and allows more options provided others are on board too (the hard bit) but with a seamless internet connection option too. All fun.