How to build a city.

[Zaneo]

Jlcresp wrote up an excellent guide for a model city, theses rules could be ad-libbed to form any desired cities, just thought it should be reposted.

"If we do start a project like this I propose the following rules:

1: A standard size room is 8x8 internally - I've found that this is a very reasonable design size. This also means that the footprint of a standard size room is 10x10 inclusive of walls. We could have it so that 2 rooms next to each other share a wall, or that they have a basic footprint of 10x10 each and would have a 2-block wall between them. Personally, I favor sharing a wall. This makes the footprint for 2 standard size rooms next to each other 10x19. The formula to work out the distance to lay a floor is [ (n * 9) + 1 ] where n = number of rooms next to each other in a given direction.

2: Level heights are 3 blocks internally, 4 including the ceiling.

3: For above ground structures, built at sea level, the floor will be at y=63, which is level with the first row of water - To make it simple, its the height that you can get out of water at, where the block is basically underwater except for the very top. You can check the height by typing /getpos in chat. This also means that when you stand on the floor of the new structure y=64.

4: There shall be no "floor/ceiling" layers that are on levels that are not designated as able to hold a floor/ceiling layer - In keeping with rule 3, to work out if you can place a block down as a floor/ceiling, stand where you want to place it and type /getpos in chat. If (y + 1) % 4 = 0 then you can place a block. For those non-mathematically minded people: get the value of y, add 1 to it and if it can be equally divided by 4, you can place a floor/ceiling on that layer. A run on from this is that the absolute highest position that a ceiling can be placed on is y=127 which is 1 level below the world ceiling. The lowest a floor can be place is y=3 which is just high enough to ensure that we can avoid adminium. This also allows for a possible 31 levels of construction.

5: Cobblestone shall only be used at and below y=63 - Basically, cobble can only be used underground.

6: Above-ground buildings shall be made of timber and stone, all windows must be filled with glass, and all above-ground doors shall be timber.

7: The city shall be laid out in a grid like fashion with a town square providing a centrepoint for developments.

8: City block sizes shall be 4x4 standard size rooms - Each block will have a footprint of 37x37 = 1,369 squares.

9: Main highways shall be 8 blocks wide - This allows us a road width of 6 blocks with a border block. We can then use it as a walkway, and a railway.

10: All other roads shall be 4 blocks wide - This allows us a road width of 2 blocks with a border block. These will be used only as a walkway.

11: Between each city block, there shall be a road - For ease of getting around.

12: Main highways shall only be built in 4 directions going directly out of from the town centre North, East, South and West.

13: Structures shall be built redundantly and safely - If any of our plugins fail, the building must still be usable; Don't just rely on elevators to change levels, you must also have a staircase or ladder. Wood stairs would probably be best. Also, the structure should be constructed in a way that does not allow people to fall and get hurt.

14: The town centre shall be 1 standard city block wide and will consist of a garden used as a common meeting place.

15: There shall be a clear distinction between the commercial, residential, industrial and agricultural areas - The four quadrants, as laid out by the main highways, shall be used as commercial, residential and industrial areas. Residential areas will occupy 2 quadrants - situated diagonally opposite each other. Agricultural areas will occur on the outskirts of town - aside from small private farming and/or smaller greenhouses.

16: As the town expands, city blocks take preference over agricultural areas - Farms must move to make way for the city to expand. This reflects real life, but no farm is to be moved without official council support.

17: Structures must be built, within reasonable variation, to a similar height as those around it - This ensures that we don't get a massive skyscraper in the middle of the residential area where everyone else has a 3 story house.

18: Roads shall be named and signed, and house lots shall be numbered - This ensures that it is easy for us to navigate around the area.

19: Road names shall follow a scheme devised by the council and shall reflect a common theme - The theme may be changed for various areas.

20: Roads shall be well lit, and well signed to aid in navigation.

This is just some suggested rules, and if you guys think of any others, or would like to comment this, please do so as this would be a community project.

This list is not comprehensive and more can be added or some subtracted."

[Dr_Obvious]

Well I was planning on commenting on this in the other forum post, but now that it's here ina general topic it seems for fitting to comment on it here.
Ill comment on the specific numbers BELOW.
So get scrollin!!!

Jlcresp wrote up an excellent guide for a model city, theses rules could be ad-libbed to form any desired cities, just thought it should be reposted.

"If we do start a project like this I propose the following rules:

1: A standard size room is 8x8 internally - I've found that this is a very reasonable design size. This also means that the footprint of a standard size room is 10x10 inclusive of walls. We could have it so that 2 rooms next to each other share a wall, or that they have a basic footprint of 10x10 each and would have a 2-block wall between them. Personally, I favor sharing a wall. This makes the footprint for 2 standard size rooms next to each other 10x19. The formula to work out the distance to lay a floor is [ (n * 9) + 1 ] where n = number of rooms next to each other in a given direction.

2: Level heights are 3 blocks internally, 4 including the ceiling.

3: For above ground structures, built at sea level, the floor will be at y=63, which is level with the first row of water - To make it simple, its the height that you can get out of water at, where the block is basically underwater except for the very top. You can check the height by typing /getpos in chat. This also means that when you stand on the floor of the new structure y=64.

4: There shall be no "floor/ceiling" layers that are on levels that are not designated as able to hold a floor/ceiling layer - In keeping with rule 3, to work out if you can place a block down as a floor/ceiling, stand where you want to place it and type /getpos in chat. If (y + 1) % 4 = 0 then you can place a block. For those non-mathematically minded people: get the value of y, add 1 to it and if it can be equally divided by 4, you can place a floor/ceiling on that layer. A run on from this is that the absolute highest position that a ceiling can be placed on is y=127 which is 1 level below the world ceiling. The lowest a floor can be place is y=3 which is just high enough to ensure that we can avoid adminium. This also allows for a possible 31 levels of construction.

5: Cobblestone shall only be used at and below y=63 - Basically, cobble can only be used underground.

6: Above-ground buildings shall be made of timber and stone, all windows must be filled with glass, and all above-ground doors shall be timber.

7: The city shall be laid out in a grid like fashion with a town square providing a centrepoint for developments.

8: City block sizes shall be 4x4 standard size rooms - Each block will have a footprint of 37x37 = 1,369 squares.

9: Main highways shall be 8 blocks wide - This allows us a road width of 6 blocks with a border block. We can then use it as a walkway, and a railway.

10: All other roads shall be 4 blocks wide - This allows us a road width of 2 blocks with a border block. These will be used only as a walkway.

11: Between each city block, there shall be a road - For ease of getting around.

12: Main highways shall only be built in 4 directions going directly out of from the town centre North, East, South and West.

13: Structures shall be built redundantly and safely - If any of our plugins fail, the building must still be usable; Don't just rely on elevators to change levels, you must also have a staircase or ladder. Wood stairs would probably be best. Also, the structure should be constructed in a way that does not allow people to fall and get hurt.

14: The town centre shall be 1 standard city block wide and will consist of a garden used as a common meeting place.

15: There shall be a clear distinction between the commercial, residential, industrial and agricultural areas - The four quadrants, as laid out by the main highways, shall be used as commercial, residential and industrial areas. Residential areas will occupy 2 quadrants - situated diagonally opposite each other. Agricultural areas will occur on the outskirts of town - aside from small private farming and/or smaller greenhouses.

16: As the town expands, city blocks take preference over agricultural areas - Farms must move to make way for the city to expand. This reflects real life, but no farm is to be moved without official council support.

17: Structures must be built, within reasonable variation, to a similar height as those around it - This ensures that we don't get a massive skyscraper in the middle of the residential area where everyone else has a 3 story house.

18: Roads shall be named and signed, and house lots shall be numbered - This ensures that it is easy for us to navigate around the area.

19: Road names shall follow a scheme devised by the council and shall reflect a common theme - The theme may be changed for various areas.

20: Roads shall be well lit, and well signed to aid in navigation.

This is just some suggested rules, and if you guys think of any others, or would like to comment this, please do so as this would be a community project.

This list is not comprehensive and more can be added or some subtracted."

1- There should be areas where the house sizes vary. Such as a small house district or a poor district, than a normal district for medium homes and a rich district with big to huge homes (but not too big)

2- I like this idea althoght I think it should be flexible so people can include roofs to their houses or make second floors, etc

3- I can agree and disagree with this. I'm one to build WITH the enviroment. Take SnowVille for example. None to very little area has been flattened out. Buts thats off topic so. Having a big flat area is just boring. So we do need some difference between the buildings in a way.

4- Just look at #3. It shouldn't be all eqal and flat. Some people may disagree with me...but too much organization is bad...

5- I like the idea of rocks, stones, etc being below ground. But what if someones building a castle or something similar, or the material oruse in the area or even town IS rock, cobble, etc. Yes and No on this one...

6- Now I kinda agree with this although there should be some room for other mats and doors, etc.

7- I half agree with this. Take a normal city for example. The city center, or "down town" as we call it (if its big enouth) is normally in a grid like fashion. But normal neiborhoods are not. They go with the terrain and make cul-de-sacs or looping around to connect to a different road. Some residental areas can be grids, but its not likely to happen all the time.

8- I agree with this as a mesurement but, why?

9- The server adminium roads are of 3 blocks wide wih no border. So I'd say max it out at 5 block wide with a border. You dont really need more than that. And the railroad should be something seperate. Maybe underground or elevated rails. Or just a different path for them. We wouldnt want enyone to get run over would we

10- I agree with these just cause its practical and its the width I use in SV.

11- Now I understand the city blocks. And yes its a good idea.

12- Also a good idea. But we will need junctions somewhere along to make more highways through the city as ease of access.

13- Unless this is a jail, where we dont really care about the people, It should be safe...but what if you want to fall off...Other than that ya, plugins fail almost every update to minecraft. I have this storage for ALL my items, and i dont have access to it during updates

14-Yes and no...At the center you need a town hall or something. So it has to be incorperated in a nice way or something.

15 and 16- I agree with this just because I live in Alberta, at the whole city I live in is surounded by farms that have to move as the city expands. But there should be a designated farming zone which will be available to people a little away from the residential zones that wont have to be moved. Also, designated residential areas, commercial areas, and industrial areas should be marked off. But not Using the 4 quadrants. You never want to live away from your work or shopping districts. You need to bring them into each other so that they have eay access to each other without having a long commute

17- I agree with this altoghether. So maybe the one I said above ain't really needed.

18- Roads should be named. But taking a city for example, all roads aren't named. Lots of them are numbered such as 17th ave, or 4th street (streets going North to South, Avenues Going West to East) But thats for the grid like areas. The areas where the roads aren't put into grids, they will be named accordingly.

19- Yes and no. Some areas can be names following an area such as if the area is called Pine Crecent, the roads can be named acrordingly such as Pine Crecent Blv. or Pine Crecent Cir. .

20- Yes, and there should be a lighting pattern Such as it alternates sides every 3m or expand the road by one and put it in the middle. I have a design that incorperates road intersection:

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On that you can either put signs or surround it by torches to make a street light.

Like Jlc said, this is only a suggestion and this is my perspective of how a city should be!
Hope to see all your ideas too!

[jlcresp]

See notes inside quote.

1- There should be areas where the house sizes vary. Such as a small house district or a poor district, than a normal district for medium homes and a rich district with big to huge homes (but not too big) House sizes can and will vary but who on this server would be willing to build themselves a slum house when they could have a mansion? Also the city block allows for 16 standard rooms, so you could have one house per block for a rich area, 4 for a mid-level area and 12-16 for a poorer area.

2- I like this idea althoght I think it should be flexible so people can include roofs to their houses or make second floors, etc This part doesn't explicitly exclude the possibility of players adding a roof to their house. It just ensures that all floor levels are built to a standard. You can have a house that has double the inside space, with 7 internal blocks, 8 including the ceiling.

3- I can agree and disagree with this. I'm one to build WITH the enviroment. Take SnowVille for example. None to very little area has been flattened out. Buts thats off topic so. Having a big flat area is just boring. So we do need some difference between the buildings in a way. This item doesn't state that everything must be built flat at sea level, it uses sea level as an example. MTNC uses this standard, but most of MNTC is at lest 1-2 levels about the sea-level floor.

4- Just look at #3. It shouldn't be all eqal and flat. Some people may disagree with me...but too much organization is bad... See above. Does MNTC look equal and flat?

5- I like the idea of rocks, stones, etc being below ground. But what if someones building a castle or something similar, or the material oruse in the area or even town IS rock, cobble, etc. Yes and No on this one... Cobblestone/Timber as a building material is an arbitrary standard

6- Now I kinda agree with this although there should be some room for other mats and doors, etc. Same as above; Its an arbitrary standard which can be varied to fit the schema of the city design.

7- I half agree with this. Take a normal city for example. The city center, or "down town" as we call it (if its big enouth) is normally in a grid like fashion. But normal neiborhoods are not. They go with the terrain and make cul-de-sacs or looping around to connect to a different road. Some residental areas can be grids, but its not likely to happen all the time.

8- I agree with this as a mesurement but, why? Again, this is somewhat arbitrary. I think walking any more than 64 blocks would be too far between roads, and any less than 24 would be too close. Some roads in RL go for many KMs before having an intersecting road. I think most city blocks would have no more a walk than about 100-150 meters before an intersecting road.

9- The server adminium roads are of 3 blocks wide wih no border. So I'd say max it out at 5 block wide with a border. You dont really need more than that. And the railroad should be something seperate. Maybe underground or elevated rails. Or just a different path for them. We wouldnt want enyone to get run over would we The reason I have split the main highway and the other roads into different sizes is to visually set them apart. Most freeways are far wider than other city roads, and their size leaves no doubt as to their purpose.

10- I agree with these just cause its practical and its the width I use in SV. Yes, i found this width works very well

11- Now I understand the city blocks. And yes its a good idea. Explained above.

12- Also a good idea. But we will need junctions somewhere along to make more highways through the city as ease of access. Good suggestion, a ring road / bypass would be effective once the city is to a much larger size, however with roads between each block, for minecraft purposes they are redundant as our roads have now weight or traffic density restrictions.

13- Unless this is a jail, where we dont really care about the people, It should be safe...but what if you want to fall off...Other than that ya, plugins fail almost every update to minecraft. I have this storage for ALL my items, and i dont have access to it during updates You can make it so that people can fall off your house, but now that server side health has been introduced, its just gonna be a bit of a pain to lose health by accidentally falling off someones house.

14-Yes and no...At the center you need a town hall or something. So it has to be incorperated in a nice way or something. Again, this is an arbitrary standard. You can put whatever you like in here. Personally, I prefer a garden.

15 and 16- I agree with this just because I live in Alberta, at the whole city I live in is surounded by farms that have to move as the city expands. But there should be a designated farming zone which will be available to people a little away from the residential zones that wont have to be moved. Also, designated residential areas, commercial areas, and industrial areas should be marked off. But not Using the 4 quadrants. You never want to live away from your work or shopping districts. You need to bring them into each other so that they have eay access to each other without having a long commute

17- I agree with this altoghether. So maybe the one I said above ain't really needed.

18- Roads should be named. But taking a city for example, all roads aren't named. Lots of them are numbered such as 17th ave, or 4th street (streets going North to South, Avenues Going West to East) But thats for the grid like areas. The areas where the roads aren't put into grids, they will be named accordingly.

19- Yes and no. Some areas can be names following an area such as if the area is called Pine Crecent, the roads can be named acrordingly such as Pine Crecent Blv. or Pine Crecent Cir. .

20- Yes, and there should be a lighting pattern Such as it alternates sides every 3m or expand the road by one and put it in the middle. I have a design that incorperates road intersection:

I have to go to work now, this post too longer than expected. I'll edit it later tonight. Sorry.

[ummwat]