So new players helped with the September Update - did they say anything about town layout?

Discussion in 'Clockwork Empires General' started by Mike A, Oct 11, 2016.

  1. Mike A

    Mike A Member

    My biggest gripe with this game has been the lack of focus on a proper town layout. It's always been a math game - place everything as close to possible so minimize walking distance. It makes for an efficient game but it makes the game terribly ugly! I know one large bunkhouse doesn't work anymore but will we ever reach a point where we can make a small settlement, and build paved roads, and space things out without being a total fool?
     
  2. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    I'm not sure I understand the question - what exactly is the problem you're referring to? The lack of roads, or...?
     
  3. Alavaria

    Alavaria Member

    It will presumably be faster to walk a short distance via roads than to walk a long distance via roads...
     
  4. Mike A

    Mike A Member

    The lack of town building. The game discourages building a wide settlement, trying to place buildings in interesting and fun locations as you roleplay the building and expansion of a little settlement. If I wanted a row of homes, and a kitchen with a backyard to fields, or two kitchens, or a row of government buildings on the far side of town, or whatever - it's all a terrible idea compared to everything sharing a wall, bundled up, tightly focused.

    That's not how towns are in real life. But this game puts no stock in things like that, in a town feel.
     
  5. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    Hmm. Just because the buildings currently optimize you having everything bundled together?
     
  6. Alavaria

    Alavaria Member

    More to do with logistics I guess... the Colonist-Powered-Hauler and all...
     
  7. kabill

    kabill Member

    Yeah, I'd agree, logistics is key. This is most noticeable when you're forced not to build things close together - i.e. in the context of mining - where it is a major hassle getting ore to where it needs to go and massively slows down production chains.
     
  8. Noratoxin

    Noratoxin Member

    I don't understand what you mean. No town would ever build its houses far apart. The game simulates how an actual dynamic settlement, unlike a planned suburbia, would grow to a point. That already makes you think about town layout. The kitchen near a pub and the pub near bunkhouses and those near a church. Isn't that town layout? If not, there wouldn't be any reason to allow things to be placed randomly in artistically chosen places, ignoring terrain and reason. Terrain and movement are a part of the gameplay, at least for me. Should they not be so? Should they be ignorable?

    But I do agree with you on this, towns don't have much of a 'towny' feeling. With the addition of lanterns though, things have gotten better. I do wish that there were actual required open spaces in town: town squares or airship landing spots, maybe even streets, though I doubt colonists will ever be unable to move through each other. It's not a change I see anyone besides me liking.
     
  9. Kaldo

    Kaldo Member

    I think OP means how everyone eventually moves toward the optimal design, being huge stockpiles in the middle and as-small-as-possible buildings around it, fit as closely as possible.

    Personally most my cities end up being big circles with important workshops close to stockpiles in middle, and less important ones out in wider area, and all buildings are as close as possible to each other, sometimes with a 1 block gap.

    I once tried designing it so it "looks nice" instead, but I was kinda frustrated because it made the colonists spend too much time on walking, stockpiles were too far and "civilized" area was probably much bigger for them. It was also much much more difficult to defend since you can't really build defensive walls, civilians aggro on everything and military can't reach them in time to save them, or they "leak" one by one and get killed instead of being able to just rally them all to the center of the village and have them wait for the threat there.

    Some decentralization of industry would be good (starting with specialized stockpiles), but if the devs decide to go that way, we also need decentralized military - it's extremely hard to control and use them properly atm, and they are too stupid on their own to make their patrol routes, anticipate threats or repel attackers without incurring dozens of casualties (both in colonists and in goods) in the process.

    edit: And I've had such issues with <50 colonists, I dread to think what happens to bigger 100+ colonies...
     
  10. Alavaria

    Alavaria Member

    The really important thing is for, uh...
    Farm, Kitchen, Stockpile and Pub close together.
    Carpentry -> near a stockpile

    For everything else you can be free-r with it, really. But when building out means having to flatten/clear even more area you just naturally stay close together.

    Even with walls, a larger area requires a larger wall, pretty annoying, all told.

    You just stop caring. The only really non-replaceable people are your high-skill farming overseer... mostly. And military, but they walk with an armed squad. Science too, until you've finished researching stuff. And in general, your skilled people will be all staying near particular workshops except for your miners...

    Batching makes most workshop skills optional once you've gotten batching available.
    Lower-class are of course all replaceable with one another.
     
  11. OddProphet

    OddProphet Member

    Gaslamp, if your goal was to make us care as little as possible for the labour class a la Tropico, you've nailed it.
     
    Cthulhu_Awaits and dbaumgart like this.
  12. I used to care about the lower-class, when you could still select which one to put in which workcrew. Now they are all additional work-force.