Player Town Designs

So, I have read most of this and I have been trying to work out the numbers. I only have Paint and PowerPoint to work with for my layouts. So I am trying to give Portalarium the most information I can with my limited abilities and resources.

I started using this Map of Kingsport (http://i.imgur.com/LmDo7ZW.jpg). HOWEVER, in looking at the info here (1k x 1k; all lots City) I realized that while this is an excellent looking map, the scale is off.... well kind of. More to the point the labeling is off. What the Artist labels as Village Lots are actually City lots when the proper scale is considered. Having figured that out, I determined that the Artist uses a total of 33 "City lots" for player housing. the other NPC buildings are not labeled with lots and it is not clear what size NPC buildings will be (I suspect banks, shops etc will be row how size, but maybe stand alone).

Using the math from many of you here, there has to be a MINIMUM of 35 City lots for a template to be valid (be able to house all of the housing land for a Metro). 34.75 (34 city and 3 village) to be exact.

Metro = 83,400 meters
City lot = 2400 meters (40x60)

So, in looking at the Kingsport map again, you are able to see the minimum amount of plots for this to be considered a "valid" template (according to the info we have so far).

I suspect that in order to give POT owners more variety in layout of their plots, PORTAL will create templates with closer to 50-60 City Plot locations so we can get a little variety.

BONUS Info-

so I mentioned that I am only using Paint and PowerPoint to create my layouts. Here is some info for sizing objects.

**Once you create your topology in Paint (using the Kingsport map with the borders on the sides and grids). Save your Pic. I use .PNG
**Open PowerPoint. Create a blank slide (NO boxes), landscape view. Insert picture and move it to the far side of the slide. I move it to the left myself. This covers just a little more than half of the slide.
**Now you can create Rectangle Objects to place all over the map to show Portal how you want to layout your plots.
** If the sizing is right (border to border of map should be 7.05"-7.07" across.
** using that scale. ALL City plot (rectangles) will need to be .28" x .42" in size. (right click a rectangle, select size and position)
** Create one. Now ctrl-C to copy. Hit ctrl-V 34 more times to create your 35 total copies.
** place them all over the map you created. This is the MINIMUM amount of plots needed to support a Metro.
** PowerPoint makes it really easy to rotate the objects (plots) so they are not all uniform and "square".
** Be sure to add a bunch more to allow other players using this template (if created) some variety in plot placement.
** Never place anything smaller than this rectangle for PLAYER housing
** NPC buildings may be different.... no idea there (at least I have no idea)
** Now you have a map created to SCALE!!! Congrats.
** you can label each plot by selecting it and typing. NOTE- you will likely need to change font size.
**have fun with color changes!
** Oh yeah, in order to support Keep and Castle lots (as any template should do at least a couple of each) bunch up 2 x City (Long sides touching) per Keep, and 4 city (in a square) for a Castle plot.
** Add labels for topology feature, river names etc with PowerPoint text bubbles. Any labels created in paint will likely be too small to read once imported in the the PowerPoint slide. Plus PowerPoint is MUCH more forgiving in moving/resizing objects and text than paint is.

** use other shapes for trees, rocks, draw roads, have fun with it!

SUPER BONUS-

** in doing the above in PowerPoint, you now have almost half a slide to add text boxes, additional example pics of ideas all into ONE SLIDE!
** just go to Save AS and save the document as a .PNG file and upload it to the submission form!
** SO much info for the DEVS all in one picture... all to scale!

Anyway, hope this helps some of you out there that may have been struggling to put ideas to "paper" like I was.

Humbly,
Baron Grayle

Cornerstone - Crossroads Village
Rockslyde Shores - Crossroads Village

 

Here is a template for a coastal concentric hill layout. It includes an inner and outer wall as designed (in black). Yellow colouring on land by the ocean marks beaches. Ocean could be easily considered as river, and if desired the river could be converted to ocean by eliminating all land to the right of the marked river. Pink structures represent the potential NPC buildings. Potential forest and docks are not marked on the map for flexibility, though I did mark a bridge which could be removed.

*note: edited with updated version for additional flexibility as a template*

 

Is it just me, or does this seem like it will be TONS of work for Portalarium employees to implement the number of customized POTs. I mean, I can't even calculate how many hours it'll take to custom make even a few dozen of these POTs let alone all of them. Will this take the rest of the polish time away from the game? A legitimate thought.

Cool designs though, keep it up on the custom layouts.

 

It's not just you. There will be very few customized POTs. Portalarium has said they're only going to put 3 or 4 hours work into each town. So, I would expect one or two a day to be completed.

For the truly custom built towns, Portalarium will charge an extra $15K to hire a temporary builder, so there should be little impact on the rest of the game.

 

I have been waiting all mourning for someone to point this out LOL'rd

 

Just an updated version of Coastal Hill Template:

 

A while back I was working with Jatvardur on some island town layouts. This was before the plan of using city lots and letting town owners split those up as desired.

Some of the row houses are on higher elevations (with big drop-offs behind them into the canals). There are places designated for row, village, town, and city lots. The blue lots are water lots (hence the blue). Each has a LEGO 'bump' to indicate where the front is. There is even some room dedicated to the town square buildings.

The plan was to reuse assets like walls, stairs, and boats/docks from existing locations like Kingsport. This is actually meant to be a man-made island, and is a bit less organic than you would otherwise find. No real greenery here. More of a port-of-trade / warehouse district on-an-island, hey let's trade type feel.

1 LEGO stud is 5m x 5m.

Find more here http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/aevans7106/library/LEGO SotA/LEGO SotA Islands?sort=3&page=1.

Spoiler: Want to see it with houses?

I'm working on another island theme, but using only city lots.

 

thats soooo cool .

 

Obviously I think it's awesome and would be a great template to have. Let's hope the devs love it as much as we do. The version with houses on it looks like a proper town too.

@DarkStarr , @RichardGarriott , @dallas

 

Reminds me of Vesper

 

The island concept is very nice. It is way too flat for my tastes. It looks very industrialized and not natural.

 

Islands of Wonders

(Original template: Themo Lock, modifications Jynx and Net)

 

Very nice, and straightforward. That's one I'd like to see in play and visit