BoardsTown 2.0 - potential layout for discussion

Shiminay

This is an idea I had for layout. A lot more interesting than a plain old grid and can be expanded as much as we like.

I propose that the individual hexagons be plots which gives a bit more freedom to be creative with your home

[EDIT]

Please thank the plan you like best and that'll help us decide what we'll end up doing - it might even be a mash-up of all the suggestions

nimrod86

I like!

+1 vote for site manager!

pablomakaveli

I like the idea of a fountain and green area in the centre. But are the house plots the smaller hexagons surrounding the green area of the larger ones on the edges of the diagram?

It does look like a nice layout though but we'd have consider how to accomodate large community buildings into the layout as well. Maybe larger projects could be built in an area the size of one of the squares on the layout, with no hexagonal plots on the corner of the square that larger projects are built on.

humanji

Hexegons is a great idea for plots.

Just to throw another idea (so we can have a little choice. ), I slapped this together:



The shape doesn't really matter. It's the basic design that would be similar to a castle. In the centre would be some sort of communal keep. This could be for the spawn, shop(s), a train station, or where various statues or user constructs can be built.

Around that is a moat/canal. Then there's a housing section for the admin which would be slightly bigger than the standard users plots (kind of like it's denoting status on the server). This is surrounded by a wall and another moat/canal.

Then there's the standard users plots. And again there's a wall and a moat/canal. If even more users join then subsequent sections can be added to the surrounding area.

This is based on the standard medievel castles that you'd find around europe. You could forgo the walls and keep the canals for a kind of Amsterdam effect.

humanji

As I said, the shape doesn't really matter. The below example is the same basic idea except that instead of each zone surrounding another one, it's done in a linear fashion with the keep at the back and areas building outwards in one direction.



This idea could be cool if the town was being built around a hill/mountain and we weren't going to flatten the land, just build with the contours.

Shiminay

I split Humanji's post cause those are 2 solid ideas and I figure lets have some help from everyone in deciding what's best.

gavmcg92

Here's a crappy little drawing that I did in a rush to show my idea. I decided to take both ideas into account but also trying to keep it as simple as possible for people and their plots.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/5/townv.jpg/

So The central area is going to be the Central Business District. This will be an open area for building the shops, central bank etc (all the main community buildings) This area would be surrounded by a moat and would be accessible from 4 sides using the 4 main bridges. In the center of this area would be the park idea that was proposed by Shiminay. (Fountain, trees and all that green crap :P)

Outside this main area I wanted to keep it quite simple. The X's mark a rough idea of where some plots might be located.

This idea is also quite expandable. You can in some respects just keep adding rings on to the CBD when the server expands.

Rough idea, discuss what areas to keep and what to change

Ps... PAINT FTW!

gavmcg92

<duplicate>

Cossax

gavmcg92 wrote: »

Here's a crappy little drawing that I did in a rush to show my idea. I decided to take both ideas into account but also trying to keep it as simple as possible for people and their plots.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/5/townv.jpg/

So The central area is going to be the Central Business District. This will be an open area for building the shops, central bank etc (all the main community buildings) This area would be surrounded by a moat and would be accessible from 4 sides using the 4 main bridges. In the center of this area would be the park idea that was proposed by Shiminay. (Fountain, trees and all that green crap :P)

Outside this main area I wanted to keep it quite simple. The X's mark a rough idea of where some plots might be located.

This idea is also quite expandable. You can in some respects just keep adding rings on to the CBD when the server expands.

Rough idea, discuss what areas to keep and what to change

Ps... PAINT FTW!

Looks good, filling in the ditches with water is probably the most difficult bit of that.

On the plus side, each expansion increases the available space geometrically.

Xenon560

I do recon a nice park in the middle with water features (more than just a plain fountain) would be the best option.
I'm not too sure about seperate, better plots for admins though.

It also all depends where we decide to build. If we find an awesome spot by the beach, it would be harder to do an outward circle.

Tankran

Im liking the 2nd one humanji put up, as long as there was a big **** off cliff behind the castle

pablomakaveli

I think we should try and build the town around the natural terrain as best we can too and try and avoid flattening large tracts of land if we can.

It's make the place look more interesting.

VinLieger

pablomakaveli wrote: »

I think we should try and build the town around the natural terrain as best we can too and try and avoid flattening large tracts of land if we can.

It's make the place look more interesting.

Exactly we can only go so far with the plans until we all get in and decide where to build it

Fajitas!

Tankran wrote: »

Im liking the 2nd one humanji put up, as long as there was a big **** off cliff behind the castle

Creepers falling from the sky :pac:

BlandKitten

Here's something I thought up of.


Sorry for the size, but I did it one pixel = one block, so I guess zoom in to see it properly.

This is what it would look like after a long time (400 plots right there), just to show how it would expand.
Centre area for community stuff, with moat and walls around it and some bridges to let you access it.
Circular houses? I dunno, could change easily.

hare05

Imperial City Schematic

The Elder Scrolls' Imperial City but with surrounding housing districts as per Humanji's post?

It has a lot of what we need already built in! Arena, garden, church / temple / monuments district, market district that can be extended with secondary markets in Talos Plaza / Arboretum districts.

I also propose the central district be devoted to Admin's / Mod's plots, with a central tower called AdminCastle.

(I've always wanted to call a place AdminCastle :pac:)

Spawn can be outside the city near a sewer entrance, with metro running in the sewers

pablomakaveli

Something like the layout of the Imperial City in Oblivion might be worth considering too. We could have the green area in the centre or maybe a large town hall and different districts expanding out in a circle.

EDIT: Pic is in hares post

hare05

pablomakaveli wrote: »

Something like the layout of the Imperial City in Oblivion might be worth considering too. We could have the green area in the centre or maybe a large town hall and different districts expanding out in a circle.

In b4 u

pablomakaveli

hare05 wrote: »

In b4 u

What can i say, great minds think alike.:pac:

BlandKitten

pablomakaveli wrote: »

What can i say, great minds think alike.:pac:

And idiots rarely differ.

hare05

BlandKitten wrote: »

And idiots rarely differ.

And what's more identical than finishing quotes for each other?

AirBiscuit

How about having a river and settling along it? Makes the place look nicer than a symmetrical pattern of buildings.
Either that or build with the land as it lies.

gavmcg92

Xenon560 wrote: »

I'm not too sure about seperate, better plots for admins though.

Who said that? The central area in mine is for the Bank and Shops... not for Admin. Admin have the same plot size as any other person.

hare05

gavmcg92 wrote: »

Who said that? The central area in mine is for the Bank and Shops... not for Admin. Admin have the same plot size as any other person.

I'm just imagining Cherry lording it over us from his castle for the first day or so. Then we'll all have castles

BlandKitten

AdminCastle shall become a reality, at the expense of all else ¬.¬

hare05

BlandKitten wrote: »

AdminCastle shall become a reality, at the expense of all else ¬.¬

MUHAHAHA (Ignore the terrible music)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHHfEpfrAU8

gavmcg92

Ok I love the picture that was put up by hare...

However people need to be really careful about plots that are not situated at a 90 deg angle. If you remember that this game is all about blocks... so buildings are very difficult to build on a plot that is at an angle.

Circular towns look great but you need to be very careful when thinking about plot layout.

Besides that... I would like for us to have made a decision on a town shape before we start getting you guys on to the map. Obviously there is going to be a lot of us on the server on the first night and I am sure that you guys are going to want to get started on building your house or helping with the town build. The best thing for us in that case is to have a town idea voted on.

What I am going to do is, when I get home from work tomorrow, to start up a poll with the main ideas posted here as choices. We can then vote on which idea we will "roughly follow". As you all know... ideas develop when they are in the making. However it is easier for everyone to get involved when they know what they are doing.

hare05

gavmcg92 wrote: »

people need to be really careful about plots that are not situated at a 90 deg angle. If you remember that this game is all about blocks... so buildings are very difficult to build on a plot that is at an angle.

Circular towns look great but you need to be very careful when thinking about plot layout.

Circular towns are easy. There's no need to curve the buildings, just place each plot at a staggered interval equivalent to the curve it would have taken. Or just build the town as a square, but shift the walls in / make the fringe or corner districts larger to allow for a door into the centre.

Or we can build Ebonheart

Teg Veece

A lot of cool ideas have been posted but these need a good bit of planning in terms of layout, a central keep/green area and how it's going to fit in to the terrain.

I can't see the kind of planning happening in the first few days when people are looking to set up a quick shelter and start gathering resources.

I think the initial settlement should be more like an outpost that's focuses on function rather that form.
It should have a life expectancy of about 1 week. During this time, people scout out a location for the first town and then a decision is made on the layout. Next, before a block is laid, the foundations should be drawn out with torches etc.

So to summarise, the first settlement should be a temporary outpost instead of a town.

hare05

Teg Veece wrote: »

A lot of cool ideas have been posted but these need a good bit of planning in terms of layout, a central keep/green area and how it's going to fit in to the terrain.

I can't see the kind of planning happening in the first few days when people are looking to set up a quick shelter and start gathering resources.

I think the initial settlement should be more like an outpost that's focuses on function rather that form.
It should have a life expectancy of about 1 week. During this time, people scout out a location for the first town and then a decision in made on the layout. Next, before a block is laid, the foundations should be drawn out with torches etc.

So to summarise, the first settlement should be a temporary outpost instead of a town.

I propose wood and dirt shacks only with a ban on the use of stone for the first week. Because stone looks permanent :rolleyes:

Good idea Teg

Also, another proposal. There will be no community mine under the main town, instead, leave the area below for use in Metro and subterranean building projects. A community mine can be made a bit further away.

Chemistry Ftw

Hi guys, is Boardstown on a free to play server?

gavmcg92

Chemistry Ftw wrote: »

Hi guys, is Boardstown on a free to play server?

In some respects yes. You will need to be whitelisted first.

gavmcg92

hare05 wrote: »

I propose wood and dirt shacks only with a ban on the use of stone for the first week. Because stone looks permanent :rolleyes:

That's a bit too far but yes the original town will be a one week one. Then the admins can start to evict people from their homes and work as slave laborers creating the new town. Anyone who fails to comply will be sent to jail! :P

cherryghost

humanji wrote: »

As I said, the shape doesn't really matter. The below example is the same basic idea except that instead of each zone surrounding another one, it's done in a linear fashion with the keep at the back and areas building outwards in one direction.



This idea could be cool if the town was being built around a hill/mountain and we weren't going to flatten the land, just build with the contours.

This would be fantastic on hilly slope. Very medieval.

cherryghost

So just to expand on Humanji's idea

The black area is a castle/keep on a sloped hill overlooking the city.

The red area is a business district, compromising of a central bank, shopping district, central park, and train station

Between the red and green area could be a man-made canal and some bridges.

The green area is a residential zone. There would be east and west tunnels underneath to cater for trainline expansion.

The way this works, we could have infinite residential expansion, so new users would never be left out

Ponster

I also like the idea of there being a river or canal.

humanji

Probably not essential to discuss now, but I had a brain fart and thought I'd post it before I forgot. Pretty much any idea we come up with is going to have some sort of central building. My idea was to have it big and empty, and as events happen, we build monuments to represent them. For example, the creation of the first town would have some sort of sculpture with a plaque with the date and a brief description. The building would be empty for the most part, but over time would fill up.

Also, (and this would take a bit more work), you could have a rough scale map of the land on one floor of the building (with a viewing point built above it). As settlements are created, they could be added with signposts.

Just something for people to ponder.

gavmcg92

humanji wrote: »

My idea was to have it big and empty, and as events happen, we build monuments to represent them. For example, the creation of the first town would have some sort of sculpture with a plaque with the date and a brief description. The building would be empty for the most part, but over time would fill up:)

Love it!

BlandKitten

With the area we picked out, I put humanji's idea over it for planning and so you can kinda tell how it'll turn out.

nimrod86

THERE'S MY SHACK!!! ITS A BUSINESS?

cherryghost

Nice but tbh I think we have to go a lot bigger :P

BlandKitten

cherryghost wrote: »

Nice but tbh I think we have to go a lot bigger :P

Well the residential area just keeps going, so I didn't think to show tons of screens of behind where I was.
What about the castle and business area?

cherryghost

Well the business area defo needs to be bigger, right out to where you have the residental area highlighted and maybe beyond. If we're doing the louvre for the bank I don't think it'll fit there, along with shopping district etc

BlandKitten

I don't think the business area needs to be that big, but yeah it can easily be made bigger.
And since when is the bank going to become the Louvre?

cherryghost

We had a chat about it, but I mean it'll be something similar in size to it. Shopping district will be big enough too.

gavmcg92

cherryghost wrote: »

We had a chat about it, but I mean it'll be something similar in size to it. Shopping district will be big enough too.

Louvre ftw! :P

Yea I agree with cherry.
CBD to the end of the mountain at least and then residential on flat land.

BlandKitten

Alright, slight update.


Made the CBD a lot bigger.

gavmcg92

Thats better!

Bigger is always better!

pablomakaveli

We'd be able ot fit a ot of the stuff in that sized are so it should work. We could maybe create a dock area to the right by the big ocean as well.

cherryghost

OK, my take on this


So black is the castle, it'll be bigger

The red U-shaped building is the bank with the train station opposite it, and then steps leading down to a shopping 'strip' along the canal. Either side is parks or something else, whatever really.

Then the canal with bridges obviously

Then not so much a grid shaped expansion... I drew it like a grid but meh, I'm fine with whatever way.

Drawings aren't to scale :P

Crow92

I'm after leveling and landscaping the castle area, what do people think of this sort of layout roughly for the castle area?