Guild City

[Mouse]

So when are we getting started on it... er... if you want to that is.... and if you have time to be the Master architect that gets to decide the major structural layout and divide it into sections for us

[Mouse flutters eyelashes and makes cute smile and hopes to look more cute than cute itself]

[J.Edward]

So when are we getting started on it... er... if you want to that is.... and if you have time to be the Master architect that gets to decide the major structural layout and divide it into sections for us

[Mouse flutters eyelashes and makes cute smile and hopes to look more cute than cute itself]

Hehe, well, it is going to take a little bit of working through...
We are just about to start up the Yearly Award thing... so all CLs will be working to help that go smoothly.
The CLs are in the midst of trying to work all of that out as we speak.
It's difficult as we are all over the place in terms of timezone - from Scotland and France to east coast US all the way over to west coast US.
We aren't often on here at the same time, which can make things tough to organize sometimes.

For me... Once we have some things worked out with the Awards thing, I am all for starting this awesome city thing up.
Let me know what is needed and how many players we have, hence how many regions [roughly speaking] that we will need for mapping.
I also need to find out a few details from Robbie about what my options are for the community projects space and the thumbnail scraper and such.

I will see if I can get some info on those points and get back to you as soon as I can.

[Wingshaw]

Hope I'm not too late to throw my hat in the ring, here. I was too late to get involved in the Guildworld project, but I like the sound of this one.

And, just as a bit of self-promotion, city-planning is what I do for a living, as well. Not sure if that will come in handy or not, but it can't hurt, right?

THW

[Mouse]

Hope I'm not too late to throw my hat in the ring, here. I was too late to get involved in the Guildworld project, but I like the sound of this one.

And, just as a bit of self-promotion, city-planning is what I do for a living, as well. Not sure if that will come in handy or not, but it can't hurt, right?

THW

Can I ask you a favour THW? [more eyelash fluttering]

Please could you draw up a list of what we will need to have laid down as the basic structure of the city?

[Mouse]

I don't think we've got around to making a list of possible participants yet THW.

This thread started out as a Challenge idea and just kind of took off in a different direction! LOL!

[Mouse]

Thanks John. That's really generous and very kind of you

Are you able to turn my poll into one where the names are visible? Its the quickest way I can think of getting a participant list together.

As for the details of what we will need I'm quite willing to let more experienced people (like THW for one) take over and say what kind of bare basics will have to be laid out common to all the sections. I can see one straight away - the roads, railways, and any other forms of transport that cross the boundaries - the main routes. Another one is the relief, if we are going to have any hills or dips anywhere, and the coast and river(s) - again if we are going to have them.

[Mouse]

Ok.

I don't think the poll is editable. I've tried it, so it looks like I need to edit the first comment I made to start the thread and make a list of names. I'll start with everyone on this thread who has clearly said they want to be part of it in the order in which they joined, and then I'll add to it as we go on.

If anyone else wants to join in please let us know by adding a comment to that effect below, and I will add your name to the list at the top of the thread

[Straf]

I think this is a great idea, now that I get it

Every city needs a council. I suppose that involves electing councillors. Then the councils will have to have meetings to decide important things like the tea and biscuits budget, the criteria for sending out the snow ploughs and gritters and which foreign cities to twin with. Then when they're all busy bickering about all of that we get busy with the actual work. The paperwork will go through a doddle because we aren't short of artistic talent, so I'm sure the various necessary forms will have the correct signatures in the correct places

If this is to be true to life then we should find out what everyone wants and do the exact opposite. TheHoarseWhisperer will no doubt confirm that a major part of city planning is aesthetic and practical juxtaposing. So, for example, where there are beautiful Gothic style townhouses, there needs to be an incongruously ugly and impractical behemoth of plain concrete, of 1960/70s design, slapped right in the middle of it because someone once thought it would be a great idea (see almost every UK city for real world examples).

On the other hand, this could be a perfect place to live... A place where every building has beer taps connected straight to the brewery. Sort of like The Big Rock Candy Mountain

[kacey]

I think this is a great idea, now that I get it

Every city needs a council. I suppose that involves electing councillors. Then the councils will have to have meetings to decide important things like the tea and biscuits budget, the criteria for sending out the snow ploughs and gritters and which foreign cities to twin with. Then when they're all busy bickering about all of that we get busy with the actual work. The paperwork will go through a doddle because we aren't short of artistic talent, so I'm sure the various necessary forms will have the correct signatures in the correct places

If this is to be true to life then we should find out what everyone wants and do the exact opposite. TheHoarseWhisperer will no doubt confirm that a major part of city planning is aesthetic and practical juxtaposing. So, for example, where there are beautiful Gothic style townhouses, there needs to be an incongruously ugly and impractical behemoth of plain concrete, of 1960/70s design, slapped right in the middle of it because someone once thought it would be a great idea (see almost every UK city for real world examples).

On the other hand, this could be a perfect place to live... A place where every building has beer taps connected straight to the brewery. Sort of like The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Where I'm from that impractical behemoth of plain concrete would be torn down, and turned into a skate park. Then the city councillors would decide it was where all the bad kids hang out, and put up an equally ugly chain link fence with a really big padlock on the gate.

[Mouse]

This has definitely peaked my interest so I hope I'm understanding things correctly...Someone will map out the main city structure with basic elevation information, main roads, and rivers? and if I understand correctly specific locations like city hall, taverns, and such which Mouse has started a list for will be allocated to different sections by who ever is planning the main layout?...So we will be givin a chunk of city to work on with main roads, and maybe a few key locations which we need to incorporate into our section? and then other buildings, and smaller roads, and alleys, and houses, and such will be up to us?

And if the main level map is top down, but there will be hot links to specific building, and indoor maps can we do these side maps in different perspectives? Sort of like if someone is browsing around the zoomable map they will be able to click on different buildings, and get linked to a different map just detailing those areas, and if they find a hatch in the basement, and they click on that they may be able to view maps of the underground, and sewer system? If I'm understanding it right, it all sounds very complicated for who ever is putting it all together.

Also I think for such a big project the time limit would have to be very long or not at all. I think it would be cool if it was ongoing, continually growing, continually getting more detailed, on all the levels, street view to inside of buildings to underground.

I really like the idea of being able to do separate hot linked maps to the indoor areas.

I also like the idea of it being more organic then square grid like J.Edward suggested.

I've never done a city map before, but always wanted to, so if it's ok, I'm understanding it right, and there isn't a strict time constraint then I'd like to reserve a spot if I could.

I've added you to the list Kacey - welcome aboard

EDIT: I think a time limit would be useful for having all the normal surface stuff done, or we will end up with only part of a city, but the rest of it - the building detail and the underground - I don't see why people can't have all the time they need to do that kind of stuff

I was also wondering...Could we have some say on what type of district or area we get. Like will the city be divided up into different types of areas? If so then I would be particularly interested in doing the learning, and science area, where the people of this guild city do reasearch, and have universities, and such, and maybe do an observatory, and science centre, and learn all sorts of things, maybe a school of astronomy, that type of thing, because I feel like that's what I do here at the forum is observe other people work on there maps, and learn from them, and well, I just think these types of buildings would have more interesting rooftops. Also there might be some good potential for some underground tunnel systems, and chambers where forbidden knowledge has been kept secret by the ancients.

There is a university already on the list, but I don't see why there cant be two. I'll add another one and an observatory too - also the secret chambers

If I've missed anything just shout

So if I'm understanding this right, there are potentially four spacial dimensions, of sorts, to map: The obvious 2Ds of W-E and N-S, the level dimension which shows individual 'floors', and the zoom dimension as in elevation which is a coded feature. So let's say the ground level is 0, we could have a range of -4 to +4 if we wanted. Whatever level you choose as your 4th (spacial) dimension level 0 is always visible, unless the level is less than 0. For anything below ground only the current level is visible, for anything above you can always see the ground. A single bit will sort that out. Using only 8 bits we could have 128 locations, approximately an 11 x 11 grid, with each location given a particular land mask based on a certain resolution and a level using the level bit. The whole location of a map could be encoded in a number from 0 to 255.

I think it was so far into the small hours when you posted this that it just went sailing right over my head at the time, but I think I get it now. What you are saying is that instead of just normal zooming from birdseye to ground level the whole focal range is shifted downwards several notches so that we go from top of tallest building down through the ground to the underground parts of the city. Is that right?

I don't know if that's what Redrobes was describing (because he's so clever I seem to miss most of what he's actually said and need it translated to simpleton for me), but if its possible that would be totally cooooool