OpenGeofiction
I’m looking at my main city, and it appears to me that the hills / national recreation area that I have near my city makes the area I have slated for my downtown pretty dang small. I’m thinking about moving the main downtown area to the east of the Gottlieb river. It seems to me there’d be more traffic over there.
The elementary school I created is potentially too big, so I’m going to reduce it in size, and make it multi floor.
When I laid out the grid system in my city, I used 500 ft as the length and width of an average block. After a while curiosity got the better of me, and I looked up what the size of an average block in the grid-riddled city of Chicago is, and it turns out each side is an average of 660 feet. I’m going to continue to use 500 ft. as the default for my first two communities, but am considering 660 for any future development.
I’m now considering putting some barrier islands along the northern shore of my country, and developing some seaside resort communities there.
Discussion
Comment from Thunderbird on 26 November 2016 at 02:09
In my city, Patriot City, most blocks are 250 by 250 feet. I think Chicago’s Loop area has abnormally large blocks, meant to contain much larger buildings. Many cities have smaller blocks. So don’t feel bad about the size of your city blocks, I think 500 by 500 is reasonable.
Comment from Luciano on 26 November 2016 at 08:15
I wouldn’t worry about block size - make them however you want, since there are so many different real world possibilities to imitate.
I wouldn’t worry about placement of your downtown, either - sometimes downtowns are not in the most optimal or logical place, but rather placed due to history. Portland, Oregon, is a good example - the main downtown is squeezed against the hillside on the west bank of the Williamette, while most of the city is east of the river (with suburbs over the hill to the west, too).
I very much endorse the idea of barrier islands. I actually think the south coast would work well with barrier islands, too. Just remember that you should not create barrier islands by extending your main coastline into the sea, but rather by carving out lagoons and bays in your existing territory - the rules want users to try to stick within the outline boundaries of the countries on the overview map.