Settlement planning

[issssk]

I've tried to come up with ways to better map out a settlement at the beginning instead of just building everywhere and having chaos later.
As probably pretty much everyone, I'm currently using paths along the east-south-west-north grid to get an idea of what is going where. The main problem with that approach is that you can't measure - you can't see how many 3x3 houses (after unlocking them later) will fit along a line that way.
So I thought of using fields for that, the main idea being that a 3x3 field should roughly be the same size as a 3x3 house.
This still leaves the problem that I can't see at the beginning of the game if the biggest houses will be placeable where I want them (due to the uneven terrain), or will be placeable, but on stilts only (I hate that, it looks ridiculous to have a stone-wall-house placed on a fragile timber frame). I'm currently trying to come up with an idea for that.
Does anyone has a better approach?

Also, did anyone find a way to put a campfire area with benches and chairs without all the undergrowth around it? I usually make a central village square with the path tool, but have to destroy it in every place where the fire and the benches go and then I can't fully remove the shrubbery later.

[radtazman]

go to settings, graphics. you can lower the foliage settings. this won't clear it all, but it does lower the density of ground coverage. this is what I do, along with using the path tool.

[lozza_dearnley]

I find a 12x9 grid fits pretty much everything, and is the equivalent of 4 mid-size houses back to back and side to side. Most of my "blocks" are surrounded by a stone wall and my roads are an orchard width wide, which is about 3 paths (you put the paths in last).

Within each block I have buildings on each side with a path in between, ie I have a storage "block" with a resource storage, food storage, apiary, and barn, in a 12x9 square, with a small path in the centre, I have a cooking "block" with 6 kitchens, etc. My production villagers get one house per block with a chicken coop and their building. I did make my tavern blocks longer though, so I could fit in an orchard row for aesthetics, plus the tavern keeper's house.

But I started in one corner block and worked my way out, north first then east, then filling in the centre by rows - you want to be careful about starting at two points and then working your way towards each other as even a slight rotation or space error can mean your blocks no longer fit properly. If you're pushing out into open space then you can expand a little bit without it being noticeable.

You could also place the foundations for each building and then build or upgrade them later. No way to tell whether the building is placeable without actually building it, or at least hovering the blueprint there.

[Recksters]

Excel. ;-)