New to making towns and cities, could use some suggestions for Galentia
Posted by miles854 on 24 February 2018 in English.I am fairly new to OpenGeoFiction, having created an account here last month. I had attempted to start a town off of a highway within 24 hours of joining, but realised I was not all that experienced with making towns and cities in OpenGeoFiction, so I decided to make some tests and try out stuff without saving it to the map for all to see, and started thinking about a smaller town idea I could easily make. Recently I created the town of Galentia as my first town I a fully creating, located off of West Central Expressway I-101 in Commonia, designed to be a stop along the highway/motorway on long routes, where you can get gas, food or even stay the night at a hotel. I built it along the motorway West Central Expressway I-101 seeing that a super long stretch of it was empty, had no gas stations along it, or even any population at all. I built it a little ways from the city of Celemberra so that if this were real life, there’d be cars actually consistantly using the nearby motorway and there’d be many people who’d stop in the town of Galentia. The town of Galentia also has some houses and a small population, although is mainly built as a stop for long routes along the nearby motorway. The town of Galentia is currently only being based on my experiences stopping along the highway in the various parts of the USA (I visit family for Thanksgiving on the east coast each year and drive a few hours from the airport to the beach, I live in Western Colorado and drive a few hours to Denver multiple times a year, occasionaly make other long drives throughout the country and in a lot of the drives final destinations I’ve stayed in hotels that are there) to small towns thats main offerings are services that would be mainly used by people who stop off of the highway.
Anyways, as I am a new user, I was wondering if anyone could make some suggestions for my town so I can make it better. Just remember, I’m new so my town might not be all that great right now, and don’t give me extremely advanced suggestions either.
Discussion
Comment from superleaf1995 on 24 February 2018 at 15:41
Whe CAN’T have real world restaurants, companies, etc Instead use stores like IDEA or Gigante, you can see here: http://wiki.opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/OGF:International_Business_Listing
Comment from austinhuang on 24 February 2018 at 15:50
You can’t us real world names. You can surely invent names yourself, but I don’t recommend you to take names from International Business Listing as some of the businesses don’t welcome Commonian locations. Your highway exit (which is also a roundabout exit) is unrealistically straight: Try drawing some curves. Don’t draw buildings on the street: Draw it some distance away from the street. (Parking can be drawn on street, however.) Overall, small improvements required, and it’s a good start! Welcome to OGF!
Comment from miles854 on 24 February 2018 at 17:26
I changed the areas using real world businesses names to fake versions of there names that came up with, except for quick chicken that’ll a company anyone may use that I got from the International Business Listing. I will be gone a while ago today but will fix the straight highway exits when I am at a computer again later today.
Comment from miles854 on 24 February 2018 at 17:27
*I came up with *that is
Comment from superleaf1995 on 24 February 2018 at 19:02
Also your buildings are oversized
Comment from miles854 on 25 February 2018 at 01:27
I edited the motorway exits that lead to the roundabout in Galentia, so there more curved. Tell me what you guys think of it, and I’ll make any changes if I need to, based on your feedback/thoughts. As for the oversized buildings, there are quite a few in Galentia so I’ll edit there sizes to be more realistic, sometime soon when I have a lot of time to do so
Comment from The_Cute_Chick on 25 February 2018 at 08:33
@miles854,
For a new user, your first settlement looks quite good already! There are a wide variety of restaurants and a few basic public services. You even made the effort to add a description to some buildings and made some buildings smoking-free!
You can improve Galentia by adding houses and apartments for the residents that live in Galentia because currently, the only place to sleep and live is in the hotel and the motel. Make sure you also add parks, clinics and other types of shops to the town, not just restaurants.
Comment from LemonKing on 25 February 2018 at 09:27
Good start!
What strikes me is that there are no natural features anywhere near Galentia. Before expanding too much, you could map a river, a lake, a mountain or a forest in the immediate proximity of the town. This would give the area a more interesting and realistic look.
Don’t imitate the rest of Commonia too much, there is a lot of bad mapping in the free-to-map-areas. In stead, take a look at some reserved territories to get good influences.
Comment from miles854 on 25 February 2018 at 15:51
Galentia has two neighborhoods, and I’d add some houses to them, except that might take a while as the neighborhoods are very big. I may add houses to them when I have a lot of time later on. For now I’ll just keep the areas marked as neighborhoods as the place the houses would be. So there is places to live other then the hotel and motel, there’ just way to many houses I’d need to add and it won’t be a quick job to do. I’ll take your other suggestions into consideration when I edit my town in the near future.
Comment from austinhuang on 25 February 2018 at 15:52
landusetag so you can draw retail and residential lands.Keep up the good work!
Comment from miles854 on 25 February 2018 at 15:59
I’ve edited the size of the bus station and will edit the highway exit when I next get the chance/will be at a computer next.
Comment from miles854 on 25 February 2018 at 16:50
I’ve been trying to make proper highway/motorway exits but have been having trouble in doing so, and so I have not been able to make them. Could someone possibly help me make proper highway/motorway exits?
Comment from LemonKing on 25 February 2018 at 17:48
I edited the motorway connections, tried to make nicer-looking and more realistic curves for the breaking & accelerating lines. I also added bridges.
Comment from miles854 on 25 February 2018 at 17:49
Thanks!
Comment from Interstate_85 on 25 February 2018 at 21:06
I recommend studying how the map is drawn on OpenStreetMap and even comparing it to a satellite map. Also, Where I’m from, the older freeways do in fact have left exits and entrances, even though we drive on the right. osm.org/#map=14/35.2593/-80.8514
Comment from austinhuang on 26 February 2018 at 00:49
@Interstate_85 Yes, some freeways do have left exits and entrances, but it’s not common and should be avoided.
@miles854 There’s also the OSM/OGF Side-by-side Scale Comparison tool you can use.
Comment from Interstate_85 on 26 February 2018 at 02:02
@austinhuang Yes, but if you want the area you are mapping to have an old, even outdated feeling, it is perfectly fine to have older designs present where they haven’t been upgraded yet.
Comment from zhenkang on 26 February 2018 at 10:26
nice town. just that i wish your town could be in some other coubtry than Commonia.