BUILDING LAYOUT IS CRUCIAL.

[Vane]

Grab a pencil/pen and a printer paper and draw a layout of your town/city. Bakery goes here, farm goes there, barn goes there, etc. Remember that how you layout your buildings will determine where your resources will end up. Of course, donkeys can fix such things, but if you still are the "hypercritical" type, I suggest you do it.

[Ddoge]

I have been trying over and over to build an orderly town, with rows of houses surrounded by neatly arranged fields, but i have not yet succeeded. I always end up with a totally random looking town. I'll try this approach of drawing it out first, maybe it will help me stay on track!

[Vane]

Originally posted by Ddoge:

I have been trying over and over to build an orderly town, with rows of houses surrounded by neatly arranged fields, but i have not yet succeeded. I always end up with a totally random looking town. I'll try this approach of drawing it out first, maybe it will help me stay on track!

YOU CAN DO IT! MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

[cstoneburner]

Ddodge, post pics if you get one you're happy with. I'd enjoy seeing it.

Personally my problem is the opposite - building on a grid and issues with distance makes for an unrealistically regular medieval town which is what I'd like to eventually make. Now if this were a Roman setting I'd be right there with you wanting everything neatly aligned.

[Vane]

Originally posted by Ddoge:

I have been trying over and over to build an orderly town, with rows of houses surrounded by neatly arranged fields, but i have not yet succeeded. I always end up with a totally random looking town. I'll try this approach of drawing it out first, maybe it will help me stay on track!

Make sure you keep space for forests to cut trees and collect herbs. I also like to put my well on the road and keep 1 pixel block space from the edge of the fence of a farm to the road.

[Doh!]

Originally posted by cstoneburner:

Ddodge, post pics if you get one you're happy with. I'd enjoy seeing it.

Personally my problem is the opposite - building on a grid and issues with distance makes for an unrealistically regular medieval town which is what I'd like to eventually make. Now if this were a Roman setting I'd be right there with you wanting everything neatly aligned.

Yes, pics would be great!

I tend to tear down and rebuild when I don't like the looks. However, like @cstoneburner, I feel like everything I come up with has a grid look that isn't very realistic. Some of that may be due to me terraforming a lot, but I feel like more of it is due to the way the buildings work today. Specifically, the buildings are all boxy and either have fences or require too much empty space around them (example - why does the port require so much unusuable space in front of it?) This means there's never a cramped or jumbled feel to anything. There's also the lack of decorations to make the place look cluttered and lived in. Naturally, I assume all of this this will change over time.

Originally posted by Tagassius:

BUILDING LAYOUT IS CRUCIAL.

What's up with the all-caps? Ugh :)

[cstoneburner]

Doh! you need come over to the modding group and grab some mods. I've removed space around a bunch of buiildings (alhtough not the port, but I could try it again and see what happens - last time I tried it got cranky and pbox and I have some decorations. He has barrels and benches and I have the table from the house and wee have plants freestanding and in vases to clutter things up a bit. I've also eliminated feneces from all buildings that don't house animals and from pastures. And actualy, if you're willing to chance it I even had a mod that eliminates them from pastures, although it does tend to make it easier on predators.

[Vane]

Originally posted by Doh!:

Originally posted by cstoneburner:

Ddodge, post pics if you get one you're happy with. I'd enjoy seeing it.

Personally my problem is the opposite - building on a grid and issues with distance makes for an unrealistically regular medieval town which is what I'd like to eventually make. Now if this were a Roman setting I'd be right there with you wanting everything neatly aligned.

Yes, pics would be great!

I tend to tear down and rebuild when I don't like the looks. However, like @cstoneburner, I feel like everything I come up with has a grid look that isn't very realistic. Some of that may be due to me terraforming a lot, but I feel like more of it is due to the way the buildings work today. Specifically, the buildings are all boxy and either have fences or require too much empty space around them (example - why does the port require so much unusuable space in front of it?) This means there's never a cramped or jumbled feel to anything. There's also the lack of decorations to make the place look cluttered and lived in. Naturally, I assume all of this this will change over time.

Originally posted by Tagassius:

BUILDING LAYOUT IS CRUCIAL.

What's up with the all-caps? Ugh :)

Sometimes, when the message doesn't get across, I like to CAP them.

[Nakia]

I tend to set building footprints then pause the building. If I change my mind nothing is lost and it is easy to remove. I clean all resources in thee initial start area so that I can see what is possible. The first houses, fishing wharf, lumberjack, kiln, smeltery, blacksmith and maybe the tailor will be fitted in near the start point. Small houses get built and shacks get demolished.

[Doh!]

Originally posted by Nakia:

I tend to set building footprints then pause the building. If I change my mind nothing is lost and it is easy to remove. I clean all resources in thee initial start area so that I can see what is possible. The first houses, fishing wharf, lumberjack, kiln, smeltery, blacksmith and maybe the tailor will be fitted in near the start point. Small houses get built and shacks get demolished.

This is what I used to do in Banished. It worked well for me. However, in FV, I find I need to terraform so much that stamp-and-pause isn't very practical for me.

Originally posted by cstoneburner:

Doh! you need come over to the modding group and grab some mods. I've removed space around a bunch of buiildings (alhtough not the port, but I could try it again and see what happens - last time I tried it got cranky and pbox and I have some decorations. He has barrels and benches and I have the table from the house and wee have plants freestanding and in vases to clutter things up a bit. I've also eliminated feneces from all buildings that don't house animals and from pastures. And actualy, if you're willing to chance it I even had a mod that eliminates them from pastures, although it does tend to make it easier on predators.

Ha! Okay, I'll come over to the dark side :)

I've been lurking in the modding discussion. I just haven't tried it because I still want to finish some testing with the base game. Once I'm happy with that, I'll do mods to take avantage of all the good stuff I've read about. Thanks.

[Vane]

Originally posted by Nakia:

I tend to set building footprints then pause the building. If I change my mind nothing is lost and it is easy to remove. I clean all resources in thee initial start area so that I can see what is possible. The first houses, fishing wharf, lumberjack, kiln, smeltery, blacksmith and maybe the tailor will be fitted in near the start point. Small houses get built and shacks get demolished.

Nakia is a smart girl. She gets this game like I do. :)