OpenGeofiction
I am the owner of Oketia (Formerly Dejaland) and would like some feedback on my city Marvin. It is the capital of my country and is modelled off of Canberra, Australia’s capital. However, unlike Canberra this will be my country’s most populous city. I have been to Canberra in real life so I have an image in my head of what I want to build. I want to plan my city out with the government area to be structured like the area around Parliament House (Canberra) but more inland have a structure similar to Melbourne like a Metropolis style city. Population in mind for this project is 5 Million People. I understand this is an ambitious project!
I need your feedback
- What did I do well (I personally think I have really detailed the government area but you have a thought about this)
- What I can improve on
Hopefully I can make a super-realistic city and I understand that good mapping comes with practise. Happy Mapping!
Discussion
Comment from Megacity2005Creator on 18 March 2019 at 04:15
As mapping in your neighboring territory, I feel that I should give some feedback:
What you did good: keeping each lane of your divided highway apart (which I failed to do,) keeping a good yet creative reference to Canberra, already having the fundamental parts of your capital, not having any freeways… yet
My suggestions:
Click on a building and press S to square the corners of the area.
Your “eye” seems to be too close to your esplanade. Maybe make it a semicircle?
Several features such as your Old Orchard and Old City Parklands look like a good thing to be further in the outskirts of your city, especially if you are planning to give it a population of 5 million.
Have fun mapping in Oketia! Megacity2005Creator
Comment from varnel_maiser on 18 March 2019 at 09:27
Okay, so let me begin with a comparison of Marvin to Canberra, then Melbourne. If my conclusion is correct, at the coast, the structure is less 4-sided in a way, and follows a creative pattern similar to Canberra. Then as you move inland, that structure switches to one similar to Melbourne, which is distinctly a grid city.
That’s not a bad idea at at all (I actually like that idea)!
The good:
As Megacity2005Creator said, you did a good job separating your divided lane highways, that’s something I not only failed to do, but simply neglected to do when I started 😅.
It seems like you actually have a plan for the outside already, as opposed to doing it as it grows, or “winging it”. That’s definitely a good idea, I suggest that you continue to plan in advance like that.
You didn’t start with the motorways, though that might not be totally unrealistic to do with a planned city.
You actually go into detail with sidewalks, paths, and bike trails. That’s something I didn’t do, and it’s good for you that you’re doing it. Just make sure to keep it realistic.
Now for my critiques:
First is scale. The eye and government house inside are much too small, and the buildings outside are much too large. To get a sense of what I mean, look at the scale link. It gives you a good sense of the size of Marvin compared to the OSM scale equivalent (since they’re not the same): Scale Helper(sizewise of Canberra to Marvin) https://wiki.opengeofiction.net/util/map_scale.html?map=C/15/-26.85076/145.92032&map2=OSM/x/-35.30949/-210.87584&pxpt=0.277&scale=15387
I like the natural features in there, but I think that they’re also a bit too large for a heavy urban area, especially one of 5 million people.
Here’s something I say to… everyone: Smooth the curves. Of course, when just beginning to build it, it’s understandable that you don’t completely smooth the curves, it’s good to get in the habit of doing so. Trust me, it will make your city much better.
The coastline: Make it more complex; do something with it. Just a straight line is 1) not a realistic coastline (for the most part) and 2) Not interesting at all. Look at Melbourne and other coastal places in the real world and see how you can make your coastline better.
You should also make your city centre more urban and dense, as that’s simply how cities will naturally form.
As Megacity2005Creator also said, square your buildings, and if you want to go into even more detail, make them interesting. Take a look in my former country’s capital city (though I’m not very proud of it): https://opengeofiction.net/#map=18/-17.51250/21.87667 or a collaborative city my friends and I have been working on (looks much nicer than mine lol): https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/22.2292/83.8008
Marvin is already a great start for a city, since you have a plan for it. There are a few quirky here and there, so I’ve only pointed out a few. I wish you good luck and study so you can make your city more detailed!
Thanks,
Zekiel
Comment from Infrarrojo on 18 March 2019 at 21:16
Hi! I have some comments to make, and I’m going to try to make some independent points that haven’t been made before.
First of all, I find the Central Circle and The Esplanade’s overlap to be a bit unrealistic. Honestly, given the capital building’s location I think that the roads here are unnecessary, and you should probably delete Central Circle and The Eye as well as make Highlands Way stop at the unnamed road it currently crosses over. Then try deleting medieval terrace and replace the grid east of Old Orchard with parking. This way, you have a cleaner, clearer capital area which you can attach to the neighboring green space. The library, town hall, government house as well as any further museums you build will have a nice home. In my in-progress city Ezelvenbyen you can see how my major government buildings for the area as well as some palaces all in one park area: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=17/62.69402/53.81071
If you still want the central radial capital hill present in Canberra you will need to go further inland, quite a ways to the north east. The benefit of this is that the radial design will also be easier to incorporate.
Secondly, your roads are too close to your buildings. I personally have a lot of problems with this myself.
Most importantly to start making your city look “real” you should start connecting the roads a little more. For example, second and first street should stretch to high street and beyond. In between the park space, highlands way, fourth street and high street is the perfect place to start your grid. Make sure not to make it a boring grid, Melbourne especially has a continuously broken and changing grid that is marked by all sorts of alleyways that break it up as well as different types of lengths between connecting roads etc. You should check real-world Melbourne out OSM as a reference (although I assume you have been), though make sure not to copy it: osm.org/#map=15/-37.8184/144.9597.
Also note how the main downtown is never directly on the coast, it is always on a river and often quite inland. Suburbs make up the directly coastal area as that is urban sprawl will spread to afterwards, and it is not very useful for ports. I personally am not an expert on this and there are many other more useful resources that you can personally find on why cities are built this way. Note that real world Melbourne is not built directly on the sea, but along the Yarra River farther inland, and even then the Yarra river directly flows into the large Port Philip Bay that also hosts other major suburbs of the city. I personally have never gone to Australia but I am certain that there are some Australian mappers out there that will help you with your country.
I’m not the best mapper, but this is a great way to learn and get feedback and commend you for taking it. I hope you find something from my message can be used to better your city and will be happy if that happens. :)
Best Wishes, Infrarrojo