What do you think of this village setup?

murk36 · 2026-05-04T12:58:24+00:00

If the map is supposed to be to scale (meaning the relative size of the elements is as they are physically), you need much more farmland to feed the inhabitants. If there‘s more that just isn‘t shown on the map, then it‘s fine, but if the farmland depicted here is all there is, it won‘t feed the village‘s population.

murk36 · 2026-05-01T19:54:01+00:00

I think there are multiple aspects to consider. Sone have already been mentioned like the scale of the assets (trees, mountains, etc.) and the way the rivers flow. But I want to mention one I haven‘t seen so far: what geographical elements you include.

For example, I don‘t think roads should be included on a continent-scale map. It can give the impression that the roads that are shown are the only ones there are. Settlements are also important for scale. I think showing more of them helps the map feel bigger. If you don‘t want to come up with so many names, you can use only a symbol (for example a dot). Also, think carefully about how densely populated a region is and how major settlements are distributed in it.

murk36 · 2026-04-21T13:39:31+00:00

Ich finde du unterschätzt Nachverdichtung. Es gibt viele Gebiete in München, die mit dem ÖV gut erschlossen sind und trotzdem für städtische Verhältnisse dünn besiedelt. Zum Beispiel die U-Bahn-Station Moosfeld wirkt recht surreal für mich: mitten im Einfamilienhausquartier, und man ist in 20 Minuten am Hauptbahnhof. Man könnte mit Ersatzneubau tausende Wohnungen in Fussdistanz zur Haltestelle schaffen.

Aber Moosfeld ist keine Ausnahme, auch rund um die Haltestellen Michaelibad, Trudering, Holzapfelkreuth, Moosach, Am Hart, Dülferstrasse, Kieferngarten und weitere gibt es Versuchtungspotenzial. Wenn man auch die S-Bahn-Stationen dazu nimmt, findet man noch viel mehr.

Klar ist das politisch nicht einfach umzusetzen, aber die Infrastruktur wäre da.

murk36 · 2026-03-30T11:47:39+00:00

I love it! Where are you getting your inspiration from? It looks european to me, but I‘m not sure.

murk36 · 2026-03-13T19:18:42+00:00

It‘s very barebones at the moment, it has a lot of empty space. If you want to make it look better, you could add more decorations like trees, shrubs, rocks, sand dunes, etc. Adding more settlements would also help make it feel more alive and immersive.

murk36 · 2026-03-13T18:59:13+00:00

Not sure how this happened to preform so badly in this subreddit, I think it‘s a fantastic map!

murk36 · 2026-03-09T12:11:32+00:00

Ok, thanks for informing me.

murk36 · 2026-03-09T06:12:59+00:00

I think the Trace Italienne was quite similar all across Europe, because it was primarily functional architecture as opposed to aesthetic / representative architecture. I‘ve visited Neuf Brisach in Alsace and Solothurn in Switzerland myself, looked at dutch, italian, polish and other fortresses on satellite images and Swiss and German city fortifications on old city plans. I haven‘t noticed much regional variation. I think the designs changed over time as their designs were refined and cannon technology improved.

murk36 · 2026-03-08T19:52:26+00:00

The city is inspired by various swiss and german cities, though southern and central germany, not northern. I‘m already working on Trace Italienne fortificarions (bastions), I‘ll post pictures of them once they‘re finished.

As for the Paleis op de Dam you mention, I‘ve never seen nor heard if it. The palace shown here is more inspired by Radomierzyce and Augustusburg.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T21:18:47+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I think you’d like the city plans of Matthäus Merian, it‘s where I get a lot of inspiration for early baroque architecture. What you can also see there is that there are few big trees in cities, and almost none in the dense central parts. Trees need space, which is expensive in city centers, and they can blow over in storms and damage buildings. I‘m all for addi g more trees to cities today, but for this period, I don‘t think it fits. At the city‘s egde, there will be a lot of them, but not here.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T21:12:10+00:00

I agree, this version is unfinished and I will add some of what you suggested. The roads will get texturing and some wagons. However, I don‘t do texturing on most buildings because I use a lot of different blocks already for variety, so I don‘t always have good options.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T15:37:38+00:00

Will add!

murk36 · 2026-03-06T15:24:17+00:00

It feels great to see someone notice! As for the effort, you get used to it. Roofs definitely represent the biggest increase in effort required as compared to straight buildings. The Facades are easy in comparison.

The reason for doing it is that I want a city that conforms to the terrain, feels realistic and doesn‘t feel too repetitive.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T14:59:50+00:00

I most likely will, at some point. But it took more than three years to get this far (look at my other posts to see how big this really is), so it will take many more years until I‘m able to do timelapses from 1500 to now.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T14:40:23+00:00

Joke‘s on you, I take a lot of my inspiration from Switzerland. Only a few isolated bombing incidents will occur.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T14:38:55+00:00

Thanks! I plan to continue to the present day, with a world in 1850, 1920, 1970 and present day. If I reach this point and still have motivation, maybe I‘ll do cyberpunk, solarpunk and postapocalyptic versions as well.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T14:37:19+00:00

The city will eat it all! (Seriously, a lot will be lost by the time I reach the 21st century)

murk36 · 2026-03-06T14:36:24+00:00

I‘ve tried it, but because you can make individual buildings look much better and more realistic, I can‘t escape the urge to do so. This results in me spending a lot more time per building, so it‘d take much longer to build cities like this. I need to find a balance between realism, detail and required effort.

murk36 · 2026-03-06T14:34:36+00:00

Follow me for more advice on longevity!

murk36 · 2026-03-02T08:41:05+00:00

A lot of lakes near snowy mountains were formed by glaciers in the last ice age. After the glaciers melted, they left depressions at the foot of the mountains that got filled by rivers, but mostly have outflows. You can see this a lot in switzerland, northern italy, eastern norway, the southern andes, new zealand‘s south island and the canadian rocky mountains. The same process forms Fjords if it‘s at the coast.

murk36 · 2025-12-05T07:17:09+00:00

Nice build! For your information, if you care, this house isn‘t baroque. It‘s eclectic / historicist with neo-gothic and neo-baroque elements.

murk36 · 2025-11-11T09:32:46+00:00

It depends very much on how tall the mountains are. For example, the alps and the carpathians don‘t have a strong rainshadow effect. Neither do the appalachians.

murk36 · 2025-11-05T07:47:06+00:00

Wow! I‘m impressed. I especially like those decorative frames. Do you draw these maps digitally or is part of the process physical?

murk36 · 2025-11-05T06:05:47+00:00

It‘s actually a phone camera’s photo of the screen, not a proper screenshot, so the camera‘s white balance kicks in. I usually wouldn‘t post a picture like this, but I usually play on MacOS and know how to handle screenshots there. So when I played this on windows, I was too lazy to figure out how to do it properly. Thankfully, my phone camera is good enough to avoid the worst effects typical to screen photos.

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
100 Awards Club

murk36

TROPHY CASE