Build towns this good in HollowWorld

[VanGarrett]

Found this on the Minecraft Forums for a video competition. I think it helps highlight the benefits of having a reason for why a settlement is where it is. Sometimes I find it odd that towns just spring up randomly here and there with little indication of what attracted people to the site. Towns are generally set up around a key industry or trade, be it a farming village, sea-side fishing village or a village which has gained wealth from mining minerals or chopping down trees.

I think that for the new map settlers should justify why they are building a village where they are building it. Towns can have more functions as they grow, for example, expanding from village to town could gain the town a marketplace by Kings decree. This was the way it was done in medieval times, townships had to show to the king they had an actual need for a market or annual fair before they were allowed one.

This is an idea that I would hope people will take into account when town planning, to take stock of their surroundings and see what could allow the population to make an income. Be it the plains which stretch into the distance for farming, a deep dark wood of rare and desirable pine to harvest and replant or a river to fish from and establish a bridging point at. Whatever it is if people have a bit of consideration to their surroundings then I think that there could be some absolutely fantastic places to live out there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZfwUwDJdV8&feature=player_embedded

 

[Kruziik]

I agree, the snow biome town I had planned was going to be a port/lumber supply place. However seeing as there's no snow in 1.8 I'm going down the mercenary route instead, so if I can get backers for it I'll make a town based in a suitable stronghold area, possibly a remote cove.

I still fancy the idea of people having boats as house in the harbour, even if it is expensive on towny. it's not like we need to do it all in a month or two!

 

[Footballer83]

I haven't been accepted yet. Though if i am i would love to join you in the stronghold remote cove idea cause that sounds awesome!

 

[Legion]

Well Garrett it may seem like a good idea but then we have to decide what reasons are justifiable and what arent. Does "I like the way the area looks" count?

 

[InfamousPride]

Well Garrett it may seem like a good idea but then we have to decide what reasons are justifiable and what arent. Does "I like the way the area looks" count?

Agreed

 

[Kruziik]

Legion I think that's part of the reason why the Kings and Queens in their wisdom *grovels* haven't restricted Towny for 1.8 the way that I had suggested a few times. I admit - it'd be daft to require royal consent for all towns.

I do think that towns should be allowed to pop up wherever they want, but hopefully most will have a purpose or theme

 

[Stevey]

My plan is to do server projects like these, where I get everyone to pool together and build projects such as these. Think of areas to RP in, areas (towns, temples, cities) to get quests in, etc.

 

[VanGarrett]

There won't always be a good reason to start a town in a certain location. "Because it looks good" isn't good enough. What if you left the area that looks good alone so others can enjoy it? Perhaps suggestions like this will stop people from building in silly locations and perhaps drive down the number of rogue towns out there which will fail.

A settlement which has a reason for being there will have a much greater chance of survival than one that doesn't. Don't look at this negatively, after all this is a role play server and things have to be kept realistic. Besides, its only a suggestion, you can still build on that site which "looks good" and not bother looking for a source of town survival.

Or you could build on a site because it "looks good" after finding a source of sustenance for your town which will allow you to build there. Say you can't grow food because of rocky, or desert terrain, then you could mine some minerals or discover another source of wealth so you can trade with another settlement for that all important loaf of bread.

It will help instigate supply and demand, and hopefully encourage people to travel to other towns and explore.

 

[VanGarrett]

My plan is to do server projects like these, where I get everyone to pool together and build projects such as these. Think of areas to RP in, areas (towns, temples, cities) to get quests in, etc.

That sounds AWESOME! you could get someone to film it too, Fr3aKed is fond of that sort of thing, would be brilliant for server publicity

 

[Kruziik]

Send them to my town, I need fresh meat for the mines..

 

[Kaies]

Send them to my town, I need fresh meat for the mines..

I need fresh meat for my pies.

 

[Legion]

Garrett the thing is, right now the towns that do pop up already are the towns that have enough people and will to survive. The current system of requiring 50000 to start a town is good enough to make sure that the towns that are created survive.
All pre 1.8 towns havnt needed your so called sources of "Sustenance"

The number of rogue towns is relatively small. Also, why isnt it "looks good" good enough? I agree that to make a successful town having purpose helps. But does the purpose HAVE to be related to geography? If i want to set up a town for my order, then do i NEED to have a geographical reason, even though i already have purpose?

Garrett, yes towns do need purpose, but it doesnt need to be nor shoult it be limited to the physical features of the map.

Also, although there are regional resources, the statistical differences are very minor. You can find diamonds about the same anywhere, so all towns could say that they want diamonds. Also farming works exactly the same everywhere. Tilled soil with water and light in plains is no different from tilled soil with water and light in desert. Ergo, since there will be no increased wealth productivity (It will be unnaffected) it wont "help" instigate supply and demand, especcialy seeing as it already exists.

So in conclusion, the aforementioned reasons for this proposal either are mute points or dont fit in the whole picture. Therefore, a town should be allowed to create itself where ever it desires, assuming it is outside the range of another town or build (200 blocks i think?)

 

[Kruziik]

Not sure if the town range thing will need to change due to the small size of the 1.8 map we're making, no doubt King Lars will be along to put us straight though

Although less towns might be a good thing in the short term.

 

[VanGarrett]

Legion there's no reason for you to put this idea down. It's just an idea, you can go build a town whichever way you like. It's just that I'd actually like to see towns which look realistically located on the map.

Plains: they are fertile and very suitable for growing lots of crops.
Desert: not very hospitable and not able to support large populations, but can be extremely rewarding if worked right (ask slaymachine)
Oceans: With the new large oceans island settlements are now a viable and realistic possibility. Settlements could be set up to profit from the new shipping transport system and become regional transport hubs on the coasts.

That's the sort of thing I'm talking about to make the experience of role playing etcetera a lot more fun and appealing.

You can just burrow down to level 12 or whatever, get a heap of diamonds and make enough of a fortune to build a large stone city which has no correlation with its surroundings, sure, but it won't fit well in my opinion. If you do it instead where it will fit fine, like a mountain valley it would work well. But because it is in a hostile mountain valley you will have little crop capacity so your town mayor will be forced to trade the minerals you mine with the nearest settlement which can supply a plentiful supply of food, wood and other goods which your town has of greivous short supply.

No town should be capable of supplying everything. A desert town will have limited access to water, thus meaning it will be more realistic to use it for the population to drink rather than irrigate crops. So the nearby town of "plainsborough" which has a large capacity for food production due to a fertile plain, and a river to source fish from.

Those sorts of things will give players activities to busy themselves with as well as ensuring an immersive role playing experience. After all we are trying to depict the lives of people from centuries ago.

 

[SanchezNI]

When considering a town, consider your GCSE human geography courses. Would settlers settle in a particular spot? Some areas will be fortunate to have everything, others not so much. That being said, we do not intend to restrict where people wish to build, outside of the existing regulation. If they were to have justification for every single thing that gets done on this server, the admin staff won't have time to actually enhance the server. Ultimately, if players are happy with a spot they should be allowed to build.

Of course, we trust that builds on the new map will not be silly since Towny will be on from the get-go. So, naturally, it only really makes sense to scout a good location for any potential settlements that have more to it than "hey isn't this place awesome".

It makes sense - a town near a mountain will have more rock available to it. I've noticed in 1.8 there's a lot more areas were there are sparse trees, so theres a consideration too.

Whilst I agree with what Van Garrett is getting at in principle, I don't think we oughta be too controlling. There are many towns developed in history that relied on trade for certain required commodities.

I think it'll really just happen naturally anyway. People choose areas for towns for completely different reasons and not always just restricted to available resources or geographical outlook.

In short, you're both right.

And for the record, it's "moot", not "mute"

 

[Legion]

Im sorry van i misunderstood you i believe.
Yes, if a town WANTS to do that then thats awesome! If they want to settle based on geography and limit themselves in mc to what is possible in real life for the sake of rp then amazing! I thought that you wanted to FORCE towns to do this. Sanchez is right, good principle, but we have to let people to decide to do it on their own. Because on the whole, people resent controll. And if something really is a good idea, then most people will do it without being told to. This is why we should leave it to the towns to decide, and it is within their best interest to do it. I just dont want to be FORCED to do it.

Lol sanchez my pc has autocorrect, and i originally put moote by accident and it switched it.
Van so would i. I really aprreciate it when someone can make environment fit with society. As you said, ask slay, ive seen amarillo, and i honestly believe it is the best town in hollowworld. It has a very gerudo desert/arbiters grounds fell to it which complements the desert it is in.

In real life your right no town can supply everything. But MC isnt real life, and so we can easily. Now for the ssake of rp it can be better in situations to limit yourself to possibility, but also if we made everything limited to real life possibilities, then we would spend literal days walking the map, take hours and hours and hours to mine a single block of cobble, and not be able to simply slap together sticks to make pickaxes.

So again yes a very good principle, so lets let people do it because they want to, rather than we said so.

 

[Itzzaboy]

I like this idea a lot and it would be great if it was encouraged more, but also agree with legion that it shouldn't be forced, just encouraged.

It would helpRPp and i think trade should be hugely encouraged also, it makes people more dependent on others, the economy would grow and people would have other reasons to farm resources other than just "i need moar dymonds for ma pikaxe!"

 

[DrRayne]

This video was amazing, and so true. This is how great cities come to be: with time and the contributing of all its people. You cant have one man build a city and expect everyone to want to live there, it must look like the people who reside there.

Thanks for sharing this Van