The Dominion of the Elders of Sorres

[Andartar]

It looks really great, but a the moment the distribution of villages seems very artificial. In my opinion a little more randomness would do it good. If you look att maps over Europe, the villages aren't evenly distributed over the country side. Just a thought.

[LonewandererD]

Okay, how can i make their placement less artificial? I know that villages would sprout on the main roads and at river crossings but where else would they appear?

-D-

[Jkaen]

The thing I find odd about the map is that none of the villages seem to be on crossroads, they are all on single roads.

From what I undersand road junctions are one of the prime places for a village to form

[LonewandererD]

That's because the villages were placed down first and the roads second, I am correcting that.

-D-

[Torius]

I like the look of your ocean and think this map is coming along nicely!

[tilt]

I had thought of that but the kingdom generator had estimated that I would need 890 villages to support an area this big and this is only 453, I lost space to the ocean. I am looking into removing viallges from the mountain and higher areas, i won't be removing them from the flood plains, that area is prime farming ground and the Dal would want to use it to it's full advantage.

Don't trust generators - trust your guts... maybe some of the food resouces come from over the sea - maybe some of the vilages farm really much.

Okay, how can i make their placement less artificial? I know that villages would sprout on the main roads and at river crossings but where else would they appear?

I would place a lot of villages close to the cities where they have easy access to selling their goods - and as you get further away, the number dwindles...

[Ascension]

I do my town placement through a long ordeal. First I put down my capitals and put roads between those. Then I place my ducal cities and connect the roads. Where roads intersect I put smaller towns for earls and barons and make more roads. Where those roads meet I put villages and hamlets. Once that's all done I try to simplify the road system and redo everything I always have mountain villages, towns where rivers meet, and some coastal cities in bays or deltas. Placing things so that it looks natural depends on the culture of the society really but the natural geography plays some sort of role. Orderly cultures will space things evenly among the nobility so that everyone gets the same amount of space, merchant cultures will accept small spaces if they make a lot of money importing or exporting or manufacturing, native or wild cultures will be haphazard or nomadic, religious cultures always seem to be the strictest..."stay out but not too far out cuz I still want to control you" so everything ends up clustered around a main city. That's the way I do mine so you can adapt however you feel.

[LonewandererD]

Okay, redid my village placement.

I reduced it from 453 villages to 90, which equals to 10 vilages per town and 15 villages per city, that sounds good. I also removed all of the unneccisary roads.

-D-

[tilt]

thats a huge improvement.. very nice indeed... you could place a few extra villages close to the cities as there probably would be a tighter population density those places - but looking really good now

[LonewandererD]

I can't put villages any closer to the cities or towns than they are now. I've put a limit of 3 miles which is the closest that a village can be to a city except in specific circumstances. My current scale is 40 pixels = 1 mile so some of the villages are a little close already.

-D-