We need roads.

[Trent]

The twisting paths created by the villagers are charming but they become a nightmare later on when the game decides a small trail through someone's yard should be a main highway.

By the end of the upgrades, we should be able to build 4 or so main roads from one end of the map to the other to be our main traffic arteries. Back the day, settlements would do the same and for the same reason. At some point, winding paths dont cut it.

[Dregora]

I get what they were going for but as you said it just causes annoying parts. All they really had to do was give us a road zoning tool, that's all. It would fix most of the issues and said systems are already in the game + it still allows for free form.

Or just give us an option to remove them by brushing them away.

[Coeal]

villagers always find the shortest rout possible. if they are taking too long, something is in the way or the buildings are too far apart so they take detours to use current roads.
villagers will have zero issues pathing strait through zones you might not want them to, such as fields.

[mansman]

They just need to make all buildings and zones override any existing paths. The worst is the housing areas where someone walked through there 1 time last month and now it won't build as a house plot.

[Boas]

I agree that a road zoning tool would be fantastic. Like a reverse of the forbidden zone tool, which causes villagers to prioritize traveling in that zone. The more I think about it, the more I like this idea for being able to wrangle some control back from the whimsically haphazard way these people decide to lay out their houses and yards.

[Lord of the Exiled Winks]

You guys are vastly overcomplicating and exaggerating the mechanic. I layout my buildings and houses with pathing in mind and routinely use the no-go tool. I have 0 issues with bad b
Pathing, or blocked access. If you see a bad path developing, move your buildings or use the no-go zone tool.

[ash]

Chance of getting a road zoning tool in are almost zero.

Instead you need to use the forbidden zone painting tool to temporarily block a road and force them to find or create another path you are happy with. Then be sure to remove the forbidden zone if you want them to also use the original path.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Roads are easy... Use fences to surround anything and a gate to mark an exit. Then run parallel fences in straight lines so thats the only way to get between districts.

Works really well once set up though does take a bit of pre-planning. I unlock fences right off the bat and start laying them out as guidelines using the ghost images and then commit them for construction only when I have the resorces to do so.

https://imgur.com/a/ixFv4NS

EDIT: Bridge in image currently goes nowhere which is why it doesn't have a path. Still need to build whats on the other end.

[Lateralus]

I think the organic road development and building system is a breath of fresh air compared to other games in this genre that are more ridged.

[ohener]

Originally posted by Coeal:

villagers always find the shortest rout possible. if they are taking too long, something is in the way or the buildings are too far apart so they take detours to use current roads.
villagers will have zero issues pathing strait through zones you might not want them to, such as fields.

They'll try to take the shortest path if there aren't any yet, otherwise they'll try to prioritize existing paths even if it takes them longer. So for instance if you have a straight path but a bush suddenly grows in the middle villagers will start pathing around it, but then even once the bush gets removed they'll keep following the new path and you'll have a weird bend there forever unless you use the forbidden zone brush to force them to go down the middle.

I agree with whoever suggested a remove paths tool, That way if they start doing weird stuff you can force a reset and make them take the shortest path again.

[Ninjafroggie]

how do you get your housing super concentrated like that?

[nate24]

I strongly disagree with having to draw roads - super fun to see them create their own paths.

If you don't like the path they are using, use fences (this is why the description alludes to controlling the path of villagers). In your example, it takes a small little section of fence to encourage them to go around.

[Dregora]

Originally posted by nate24:

I strongly disagree with having to draw roads - super fun to see them create their own paths.

If you don't like the path they are using, use fences (this is why the description alludes to controlling the path of villagers). In your example, it takes a small little section of fence to encourage them to go around.

I think the worst part is that you have to block off everything with fences, which looks hideous. For a game that has an emphasis on creating beautiful things and what not, this is actually terrible.

It's not that nobody can't get around it, but the ways of getting around it look dreadful.

[Star]

Originally posted by Lateralus:

I think the organic road development and building system is a breath of fresh air compared to other games in this genre that are more ridged.

how is your housing so compact?

[jwinter]

Originally posted by ExavierMacbeth:

Roads are easy... Use fences to surround anything and a gate to mark an exit. Then run parallel fences in straight lines so thats the only way to get between districts.

Works really well once set up though does take a bit of pre-planning. I unlock fences right off the bat and start laying them out as guidelines using the ghost images and then commit them for construction only when I have the resorces to do so.

https://imgur.com/a/ixFv4NS

EDIT: Bridge in image currently goes nowhere which is why it doesn't have a path. Still need to build whats on the other end.

Finally a game that lets you make organic looking villages and town and leaves behind limitations of old games that used grid yet modern architecs are used to the grid and force it anyway. Same with Manor Lords where you see people doing "modern" blocks which looks super strange. Embrace the gridless beauty of chaos don't fight it.

[Stant123]

Originally posted by Ninjafroggie:

how do you get your housing super concentrated like that?

Buildings have a minimum build zone. If you use the tools to your advantage by switching to the square tool and reducing the paint size and only drawing in a small rectangle and only expanding the sides by tiny bits until the house (construction plot) pops in, the house will be built in that small rectangle. Once you can visually see the exact size to reach that minimum build size, all you have to do is expand your residential zone by one similar appropriately sized rectangle at a time, and like clockwork a new house will pop in allowing you to control how the houses build so they're all neatly organized, lined up and if you so choose, packed in tightly together. Now with the addition of fencing around the "neighborhood", you get the bonus for being secure inside a walled area, which allows them to upgrade to bigger/better buildings, which because you kept the lot sizes as small as possible by only adding one appropriately sized rectangle of zoning at a time, they all kind of mash together like that.

Now most people just paint an area with broad strokes and let whatever happens to just happen, which is a way of doing it, but doing it the fast and easy way is also very inefficient as the game plops in as big of a lot as it can get (up to a maximum lot size) with the space available and in any orientation it feels like to vary the look. Knowing this, you can take advantage of that and zone in things like triangle or trapezoid shaped lots one at a time, larger than one house, but not big enough to squeeze in two. The houses themselves will still be rectangles, obviously, but their lots will attempt to fill in all of the available space, and you can zigzag fences or decorations between them for artistic appeal. Both of which help for potentially upgrading the house. You can, if so inclined, carefully build a circular pattern of housing out from a central water well with spaces for pathing in 6 or 8 directions from that central well. Fencing would of course have to be used to control the routes everyone takes so they don't just cut through yards, but fortunately hedge fencing is a thing so it can be done in a good looking way.