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City Planning and Building layouts


Astro_Alphard

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While the first city on DU will be a long way off I have a bit of a paper to present on the topic of building cities and proper city planning. While it's based in real life I believe it will be a useful tool for those looking to build cities and large space stations. 

 

If you have any ideas please feel free to comment. 

 

Designing Cities for Public Transit and the 5 Minute Rule

 

With the advent of ever increasing urban sprawl and soaring birth rates. People are increasingly frustrated by commuting from one place to another. As such it begs the question, where are we going to put the next billion humans? And more importantly how do we do it without giving everyone a massive headache from commuting?

 

By designing our cities in a certain way we can drastically reduce transit times thus reducing stress and anxiety caused by a long commutes. We can design cities to use solely electric vehicles that are optimized to their role allowing for easy maintenance and less parking.

By segregating these types of transportation we can automate a large portion of the system.

 

First a few definitions:

PRT: Personal Rapid Transit

Bus: Bus

LRT: Light Rail transit

ETS: Express Train System

HSR: High Speed Rail, includes systems such as Hyperloop

 

So how do we make the sustainable city of the future?

 

The answer is a three part solution of which we will talk about the first part in this paper.

The first part is reducing commuting times by designing our cities around PRT systems and mass transit rather than around automobiles. This means reintroducing the 5 Minute Rule otherwise known as the “walking distance rule”. Everything a person does should be within walking distance (5 minutes) of the nearest centre (including their place of residence).

 

A centre is defined as place where lots of people meet. This can be the local grocery shop/ strip mall, vast multi acre malls, downtown cores, or industrial shopping centres. Anywhere designed to host commercial enterprise is a centre. Universities and schools are also centres. As are airports, large hospitals, and ETS terminals. Each centre has a level corresponding to the grids it services.

Level 1: Local: strip malls, gas stations, grocery stores, playgrounds. A centre no larger than a 50x50m space.

Level 2: Minor: large grocery stores, outlets, schools etc. A centre no larger than a 300x300m space. Does not include large hospitals or other critical care facilities.

Level 3: Major: Large malls, hospitals, Universities, and parks. A centre no larger than a 1000x1000m space.

Level 4: Hub: City Centres, airports. Any centre larger than 1000x1000m.

 

 

 

City is divided into 3 grids and these grids are defined by speed limits

Level 1 grid: city blocks/housing units. A level 1 grid is known as a walking grid, one unit of a level 1 grid is defined by how far a person can walk (3km/h) for 1minute or a distance of roughly 50m. Bus stops should be positioned at 2 unit intervals on a level 1 grid and residences should be no further than 2 units away.

Level 2 grid: A level 2 grid is known as a residential grid. This grid is the basis of PRT and bus systems and has a speed of 30-40 km/h and a single unit of a level 2 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 30km/h can cover in 1 minute including acceleration and stopping times. Roughly 250m/unit.

Level 3 grid:  A level 3 grid is known as a city grid. This grid is the basis of LRT systems and has a speed of 60km/h and a single unit of a level 3 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 60km/h can cover in 2.5 minutes including acceleration and stopping times (roughly 2.0km). LRT stations should be placed roughly 2.0 km to 3.0km away from each other (or on every point of the grid). LRT should also pass through minor and major centres as well as hubs.

Level 4 grid: A level 4 grid is known as a metropolitan grid. This grid is the basis of Express Train Systems (ETS) and has a speed of 100km/h and a single unit of a level 4 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 100km/h can cover in 5 minutes including acceleration and stopping times (roughly 6.0km). ETS stations should be placed roughly 5km to 7 km away from each other. ETS should also pass through most major centres as well as through all hubs.

Level 5: Intercity: A level 5 grid is known as a intercity grid. This grid is the basis of High Speed Rail (HSR) and has a speed of 300km/h and a single unit of a level 5 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 300km/h can cover in 5 minutes including acceleration and stopping times (roughly 24km). HSR stations should be placed roughly 22 km to 26km away from each other though this can vary heavily based on the locations of various hubs. HSR should also pass through most major centres as well as through all hubs. Level 5 grids are highly variable and can even incorporate aircraft into them where HSR, Hyperloop, or vacuum tubes are too expensive.

 

TL;DR

 

Level

Name

Speed

Grid unit

Centres

Services

1

Walking

3km/h

50m

Residences

PRT

2

Residential

30-50km/h

250m

Level 1/2

PRT, Bus

3

City

50-80km/h

2,000m

Level 2/3

LRT

4

Metropolitan

100km/h

6,000m

Level 3/4

ETS

5

Intercity

300km/h

>24,000m

Level 4

HSR, aircraft

 

 

  • Going from a house to nearest local centre should only take 5 minutes.

  • Going from a house to nearest minor centre should only take 10 minutes

  • Going from a house to nearest Major centre should only take 15 minutes

  • Going from a house to nearest Hub centre should only take 20 minutes

  • Getting across the city from any point to another should take no more than 1 hour

  • Going from a house to another city’s Hub should only take 1 hour.

 

While building taller certainly reduces travel time in some places it may not be possible to do that (due to heavy wind) as such these are general guidelines for city building and planning.

 

The Arkship will most likely be a Hub should DU players ever decide to construct a city in the area around the Arkship. Automated transport (rudimentary) should still be possible most likely confined to rails.

 

 

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This is all cool work, I am impressed! However, I think you are perhaps overestimating the complexity of how cities will operate. Buildings around the Arkship will sprout as their builders see fit; when I go to help build my organizations Arkship building, I am not going to check with my neighbors to see if it works out well with their plans. This is the internet after all, and people are going to build what they want, when they want it. Some will of course put planning in, but overall, you simply cannot coordinate that many people.

 

As for transit... Well people may be living and doing business in these cities, but not to the extent that they'll need buses or trains, at least I don't think so. There won't even be wheels in the initial release. There are hovercrafts and there are spaceships. And for the same reason you don't stop at red lights in GTA, people aren't going to go to a bus stop and wait for the big hovercraft to pick them up and take you to the other side of the planet. They're going to hop in their own hovercraft or spaceship and fly on over there at maximum speed with no regards to anyone else, because why can't they? People can even at least sprint.

 

Main thing is, people won't be commuting. It's not like they'll have daily jobs where they'll start at home, go out for the day, and come back. Generally, people will either sign out wherever they find themselves when they're done playing for the day, or they'll always sign out in their own safe zone. In either case, they are either responsible for their own transit.

 

I'm not trying to put your ideas down! I just personally think it's one of those things that you get grand awesome ideas in your head with all these plans and dreams, only to try and put them into practice and find they don't work out.

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As you said yourself in the OP: that would be RL planning. But this is a game as ATM already pointed out. People will just park their hovercraft/ship in the nearest possible location and will just fly straight to their destination at full speed.

 

And while I can understand people trying to plan a city from the beginning, it just won't happen. To me, DU is not america where you can plan ahead and build straight roads and everything.

It's more like what happend in europe: cities were built somewhere because of certain factors (food, water, ore,...) and were adapted as needed because of the technology at that time (Paris for example; there's a reason why there are huge boulevards which break down into smaller and smaller streets - that's not only because of wealth and showing off their richness in former times)

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As you said yourself in the OP: that would be RL planning. But this is a game as ATM already pointed out. People will just park their hovercraft/ship in the nearest possible location and will just fly straight to their destination at full speed.

 

And while I can understand people trying to plan a city from the beginning, it just won't happen. To me, DU is not america where you can plan ahead and build straight roads and everything.

It's more like what happend in europe: cities were built somewhere because of certain factors (food, water, ore,...) and were adapted as needed because of the technology at that time (Paris for example; there's a reason why there are huge boulevards which break down into smaller and smaller streets - that's not only because of wealth and showing off their richness in former times)

I'm well aware of that, and I actually modelled the design more in terms of european cites (Paris was one of the cities that I looked heavily into). Large Asian cities and European cites were actually the inspiration for the paper (well and that I have to commute 3 hours to get to work 1 way). Essentially it means that the less horizontal distance travelled the better, but that's addressed in Part 2. And while both cities were adapted to the technology of the time one can definitely learn from this in order to plan the cities of the future. 

 

As for the huge boulevards that break down into smaller streets, that was the basis for my tiered grid system only now it's a bit more modernized. 

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This is all cool work, I am impressed! However, I think you are perhaps overestimating the complexity of how cities will operate. Buildings around the Arkship will sprout as their builders see fit; when I go to help build my organizations Arkship building, I am not going to check with my neighbors to see if it works out well with their plans. This is the internet after all, and people are going to build what they want, when they want it. Some will of course put planning in, but overall, you simply cannot coordinate that many people.

 

As for transit... Well people may be living and doing business in these cities, but not to the extent that they'll need buses or trains, at least I don't think so. There won't even be wheels in the initial release. There are hovercrafts and there are spaceships. And for the same reason you don't stop at red lights in GTA, people aren't going to go to a bus stop and weight for the big hovercraft to pick them up and take you to the other side of the planet. They're going to hop in their own hovercraft or spaceship and fly on over there at maximum speed with no regards to anyone else, because why can't they? People can even at least sprint.

 

Main thing is, people won't be commuting. It's not like they'll have daily jobs where they'll start at home, go out for the day, and come back. Generally, people will either sign out wherever they find themselves when they're done playing for the day, or they'll always sign out in their own safe zone. In either case, they are either responsible for their own transit.

 

I'm not trying to put your ideas down! I just personally think it's one of those things that you get grand awesome ideas in your head with all these plans and dreams, only to try and put them into practice and find they don't work out.

 

Yes I understand that people are uncooperative (every group project ever) but I think in time (a few years) we will see cities become a bit more organized mostly due to necessity if nothing else. Especially around the Arkship (because people might build buildings on top of your buildings). I think we'll see a lot of interesting things come out DU and cities. Again these are guidelines based off the real world (and for improving real world city design) so they may need to be modified for DU. 

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I'm well aware of that, and I actually modelled the design more in terms of european cites (Paris was one of the cities that I looked heavily into). Large Asian cities and European cites were actually the inspiration for the paper (well and that I have to commute 3 hours to get to work 1 way). Essentially it means that the less horizontal distance travelled the better, but that's addressed in Part 2. And while both cities were adapted to the technology of the time one can definitely learn from this in order to plan the cities of the future. 

 

As for the huge boulevards that break down into smaller streets, that was the basis for my tiered grid system only now it's a bit more modernized. 

 

Less horizontal distance traveled doesn't mean much in a game where speed limit on ground is 200km/h and you can travel around alioth in 1h45min. So there's no incentive to have everything within 5min walking distance - the arkzone is 20km across so you're pretty much everywhere pretty fast.

And yes you can learn a lot from the design of different cities. My work consists of a lot of such plans for cities and all that good, complicated stuff you need for a city in RL won't be needed for DU - so you're not that bound to certain aspects of it (like parking space, public transport, underground management, sewers, cables, internet, sound barriers, future plans, ...).

 

Yes I understand that people are uncooperative (every group project ever) but I think in time (a few years) we will see cities become a bit more organized mostly due to necessity if nothing else. Especially around the Arkship (because people might build buildings on top of your buildings). I think we'll see a lot of interesting things come out DU and cities. Again these are guidelines based off the real world (and for improving real world city design) so they may need to be modified for DU. 

 

As nearly every org will build a TCU within the arkzone and start their city/base of operations there you won't see anyone else building on top of them - because they simply can't.

 

It'll be interesting how this evolves and I'm sure it'll work out - but I honestly don't expect players to follow some guidelines on this

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Yes I understand that people are uncooperative (every group project ever) but I think in time (a few years) we will see cities become a bit more organized mostly due to necessity if nothing else. Especially around the Arkship (because people might build buildings on top of your buildings). I think we'll see a lot of interesting things come out DU and cities. Again these are guidelines based off the real world (and for improving real world city design) so they may need to be modified for DU.

 

I think an organized city structure is going to work, I think it's more likely to occur on other worlds besides Alioth in any case, or at least on Alioth but not near the Arkship. Every single new player will be starting in the same place; that place is prime real estate. People will want to make their section of that area near spawn be impressive and noticable. The area around the Arkship will be something closer to competition, not a cooperative effort, at least I think.

 

It seems you're focusing more on the Arkship area, but I feel that if what you're trying to put into practice is going to work, which it certainly can to some extent, it's going to work best at some distance from the Arkship. You've put good work and thought into this, that's awesome and I am impressed; consider lots of different contingencies.

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I am not sure how big the cities will really get in DU and I don't like comparing games but its all I can go on from my experience's. One of the first games I played that had player cities in the world and not in a instances was Star Wars Galaxies. The game had major problems but some good points for its time that I will NOT get into! But most of the cities had a simple shuttle to shuttle system that would fly you from one city to the next or to a major starship port in a decent amount of time! The shuttle would be a easy one for going from one city to the next! For inter city travel you could use something like a automated high speed hyper loop for  large cities to cut down on travel time. Small cities or towns a 10 to 15 min walk is not going to kill you.  =)  Here is a interesting question to think about : will player cities have a NO FLY ZONE option to keep people from landing there  space ships in your city or a GRIEFER trying to kamikaze a Large ship into your city? Almost forgot about this one : I like player cities but one of the problems I have seen is the radius = cities too close to each other that look like a cluster F*** on the land scape.  I hope this is helpful some and maybe something to think about? 

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With how things will be going from the start, I imagine as time progresses we will be seeing layers develop... the bottom layer of buildings being the oldest... and on top of those each new generation of buildings is built. Everything will evolve and progress differently with time. But as to the final guess on how development will work... We just have to wait and see upon full release. 

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imo whoever figures out what will be the "Jita" or "Dalaran" of Dual Universe before everyone else is gonna make a lot of spacebucks :T

 

Typically it ends up being the place with the most utility in the game as far as npcs or transportation goes, but we arn't going to have npcs and transportation is going to be player made so your guess is as good as mine :D

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I was wondering how urbanism would emerge in DU. Chaos, imposed by a central authority or a collaborative rule?

 

In any case, all will depend on the the gameplay and the problems that pop up. For instance, in a crowded place, if everybody have a personal ship, the risk of collision is going to rise dramatically. It could be a problem, considering that everybody tend to use a personal vehicle.

 

What kind of answers will emerge?

 

It will depends of the ideas from the communitiy, or from the ruler of the place. Then, a selection will be made one way or another (debate, negociation, vote...). The idea which will be choosen will be the norm.

 

Anyway, I believe it's unproductive to debate about what people will do, because it will depend on the context and the IRL culture of the players involved. So, when we debate about what people are going to do, we are actually speaking about what we want to be done as individuals. This confusion leads to sterile conflicts or a painful tension.

 

So, I invite you to speak about your ideal city, or how you imagine a city could work, rather than what is going to happen. This way will be far more creative and useful for the community and the game.

 

Coming back to Alphard project, well I think it's a good idea to use time to help to choose a place for buildings and shape the architecture. Anyway, the more ideas there are in the air, and the more new ideas will emerge.

 

I'm not sure how my perfect loved city looks, but I would like it with a lot of ways, footbridges and towers. I think I would set building up a way that could optimize the use of sunlight. I would like to make some biodoms or gardens...And areas dedicated to spaceports of course, with the appropriate fly regulation.

 

The city ruler could hire some architects or creators to design public buildings or all-made blueprints for people houses.

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I was wondering how urbanism would emerge in DU. Chaos, imposed by a central authority or a collaborative rule?

 

In any case, all will depend on the the gameplay and the problems that pop up. For instance, in a crowded place, if everybody have a personal ship, the risk of collision is going to rise dramatically. It could be a problem, considering that everybody tend to use a personal vehicle.

 

What kind of answers will emerge?

 

It will depends of the ideas from the communitiy, or from the ruler of the place. Then, a selection will be made one way or another (debate, negociation, vote...). The idea which will be choosen will be the norm.

 

Anyway, I believe it's unproductive to debate about what people will do, because it will depend on the context and the IRL culture of the players involved. So, when we debate about what people are going to do, we are actually speaking about what we want to be done as individuals. This confusion leads to sterile conflicts or a painful tension.

 

So, I invite you to speak about your ideal city, or how you imagine a city could work, rather than what is going to happen. This way will be far more creative and useful for the community and the game.

 

Coming back to Alphard project, well I think it's a good idea to use time to help to choose a place for buildings and shape the architecture. Anyway, the more ideas there are in the air, and the more new ideas will emerge.

 

I'm not sure how my perfect loved city looks, but I would like it with a lot of ways, footbridges and towers. I think I would set building up a way that could optimize the use of sunlight. I would like to make some biodoms or gardens...And areas dedicated to spaceports of course, with the appropriate fly regulation.

 

The city ruler could hire some architects or creators to design public buildings or all-made blueprints for people houses.

 

I would think that the first real cities would be created by Organizations and there will most likely be a large settlement around the Arkship (i was using it as an example by the way) even if it's a cluster of disorganized buildings. Proper cities will most likely be planned and designed later on into the game and would function more like Guild Halls do in other MMOs. Most large organizations will organize some form of city. 

 

A few examples regarding designing around public transit include: 

The Venus Project

Skyscraper Cities

Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, San Francisco (Early)

These are some of the examples I took into consideration when writing this paper.

 

Of course these guidelines are how I imagine an ideal city to function in order to be comfortable to it's inhabitants however it doesn't detail what a city will look exactly like, and the layout is very flexible. 

 

I've decided to continue with my original 3 parts for IRL cities and add another 2 part for DU cities. 

 

Real World:

 

Part 1: City Planning: Transportation Grids and the 5 Minute Rule

Part 2: Building Layouts: The Town in a Box 

Part 3: Power and Resource Management: The Sustainable City. 

 

DU specials:

Part 4: Fortifications, defences, and the Fortress Town

Part 5: Hover cars and Spaceports: The Future City

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Like ATM pointed out above who would use public transit in this game? I'm going to build my own transports ,and ships to move about. If I only have say 2-4 hours to play a night I'm not going to spend half or most of that time waiting for busses in a video game. While city planning will be important it'll be based on the needs within this video game not based on real world.

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Like ATM pointed out above who would use public transit in this game? I'm going to build my own transports ,and ships to move about. If I only have say 2-4 hours to play a night I'm not going to spend half or most of that time waiting for busses in a video game. While city planning will be important it'll be based on the needs within this video game not based on real world.

 

I don't think people would be waiting, but you're right, if people have to wait around for the train to show up for more than like 3 minutes, it probably isn't worth it for most people to use it.

 

I figured that public transportation would be an on-demand sort of thing, like how an elevator works. You hit the button, it comes to you, it takes you where you want to go. In order for public transportation to really make sense in DU I think it will have to be automated by a script so it's on demand and only runs when a player actually needs it. It would have to be an on-rails system, and not need a pilot.

 

Main places I see this type of system being implemented:

-Between a dock and the area the dock is for.

-Between different districts in a city

-Elevators in a building

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It seems unlikely that players themselves will operate any public transportation system such as buses or trains (a Taxi might work, on demand, etc).

 

Either of those could work automated (without a human operator) to make sure there is 24/7 coverage. Both trains and buses can work, with trains or subways covering moderate to larger distances and buses smaller to moderate distances - or even larger ones if more "rural".

 

You'd still have to wait a bit for the next train or bus to arrive.

 

The question is how feasible this will be in smaller areas or settlements / villages if someone could utilize their ship to get to certain areas directly and likely faster. A transportation network will likely make more sense and is worth the effort for larger cities or connecting cities or settlements. It would mind those who simply move on foot or with ground based vehicles (thus making "roads" useful, too). If you have a ship and are not restricted from using it somehow, great.

 

Some people might just not have one ready, in the shop or actually look to traverse a city on foot and then public transportation can come in handy. If the whole city or a large part is underground, then you may likely be forced to use it unless there are large open spaces for you to maneuver a ship around.

 

At the end of the day, my suggestion is: If you plan to build a major city, plan ahead and incorporate public transportation into the design. Or roads. Even if traffic can mostly be air-based and thus direct, it'll feel organic to many players and those without a ship can quickly get around then. In addition, the bigger the place, the more feasible side-jobs might become, such as "taxi drivers".

 

"I wouldn't sit in a car all day and drive people around the city" is likely what some might think or say now.

 

I say: Yeah, you might not, but can we really tell how big some cities might be later on? How much general attraction they might attract?

 

For all we know, there could be major cities later with hundreds of people moving about on average. Business hubs. Maybe some will ban ships or restrict their use somehow, and effectively, forcing people to utilize more ground based traffic.

 

If people need to move about and are willing to pay, taxi driving can be an untapped market and someone might just be willing to earn bucks like that. Alternatively, building public transportation can become beneficial and result in monetary rewards for the creators.

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TBH no harm over planning even if it's to make the infrastructure that is static for the enjoyment of things. Consider it sort like Minecraft you do it because. That being said I assume wheels and such might become a thing down the road. The thing I hope that will happen though is a rail like system how ever big or small it is. I fear one the issues here be more physics based like the wheels and a rail system. Though you could make a rail system next to no physics but it still follow a path finding so more CPU calculation still. 

 

Either way have fun go nuts just remember going overboard is not bad just be realistic knowing a lot of the functions might not be implemented or at least for a while. 

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In a virtual world, the placement of buildings and shops is restricted only by the time it takes to get there, not human fatigue, and even this could be circumvented if the game uses teleporting facilities. Expect cities to spread wherever they want, whenever they want. After all, no player would restrict themselves to a flat in a skyscraper unless they're really pushed for funds and resources. There is no ideal order when it comes to the urban sprawl.

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In a virtual world, the placement of buildings and shops is restricted only by the time it takes to get there, not human fatigue, and even this could be circumvented if the game uses teleporting facilities. Expect cities to spread wherever they want, whenever they want. After all, no player would restrict themselves to a flat in a skyscraper unless they're really pushed for funds and resources. There is no ideal order when it comes to the urban sprawl.

If you make a shop in the middle of nowhere, your business probably isn't going to do very well. Processing plants / factories / warehouses might be things that you'd build away from a trade hub; But people will group together to trade.

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If you make a shop in the middle of nowhere, your business probably isn't going to do very well. Processing plants / factories / warehouses might be things that you'd build away from a trade hub; But people will group together to trade.

Now trade, I understand that. Resources need transporting; less transport costs less. Trade will inevitably spring up around dedicated spaceports, much like real harbours. Just don't expect any order to residential zones - remember, everybody wants that three-storey mansion, and in a sandbox game, everybody can have it.

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Perhaps as your main residency, people want the big and fancy buildings.

 

But there's also room for (pun intended) the flats, apartments, etc in larger cities and skyscrapers.

 

We can theorize that - assuming DU will be a notable success and that the game play mechanics or social interactions will encourage the following - many players might visit different cities and regions over time - like in reality. I assume not all social interactions or discussions and (trade) negotiations will be done via the internet or platforms such as this forum, discord, etc. Out of the game, I mean.

 

For practical reasons, people might meet in various places and be far from their original "home". And what would come in handy? A home away from home, a place to store goods and go back to. Dub it whatever you want, you can also dig a hole somewhere and call it safe house.

 

Solutions: "Hotels" or rentable / buyable flats, apartments, houses that other people provide in urbanized and claimed environments with the necessary usage rights so that it can work as intended. Win/win, kind of. If I fly across half the galaxy and need to stay in some other place for some prolonged time, having some place to go to that I "own" and can store items or meet up with others would be nice - and I surely can't build a fancy mansion somewhere for a week-trip or so.

 

If I ever get involved in city construction, I'll build an apartment block or skyscraper or encourage the construction of a few, set up to provide living / storage space to others. Might just make a few bucks in the long run, even if not many might use it. In a big city and trade hub, it might just come in handy for you as provider and those who come from far away and need to stay for a while, or simply want to have some house in that city if they ever come back later.

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It seems unlikely that players themselves will operate any public transportation system such as buses or trains (a Taxi might work, on demand, etc).

 

Either of those could work automated (without a human operator) to make sure there is 24/7 coverage. Both trains and buses can work, with trains or subways covering moderate to larger distances and buses smaller to moderate distances - or even larger ones if more "rural".

 

You'd still have to wait a bit for the next train or bus to arrive.

 

The question is how feasible this will be in smaller areas or settlements / villages if someone could utilize their ship to get to certain areas directly and likely faster. A transportation network will likely make more sense and is worth the effort for larger cities or connecting cities or settlements. It would mind those who simply move on foot or with ground based vehicles (thus making "roads" useful, too). If you have a ship and are not restricted from using it somehow, great.

 

Some people might just not have one ready, in the shop or actually look to traverse a city on foot and then public transportation can come in handy. If the whole city or a large part is underground, then you may likely be forced to use it unless there are large open spaces for you to maneuver a ship around.

 

At the end of the day, my suggestion is: If you plan to build a major city, plan ahead and incorporate public transportation into the design. Or roads. Even if traffic can mostly be air-based and thus direct, it'll feel organic to many players and those without a ship can quickly get around then. In addition, the bigger the place, the more feasible side-jobs might become, such as "taxi drivers".

 

"I wouldn't sit in a car all day and drive people around the city" is likely what some might think or say now.

 

I say: Yeah, you might not, but can we really tell how big some cities might be later on? How much general attraction they might attract?

 

For all we know, there could be major cities later with hundreds of people moving about on average. Business hubs. Maybe some will ban ships or restrict their use somehow, and effectively, forcing people to utilize more ground based traffic.

 

If people need to move about and are willing to pay, taxi driving can be an untapped market and someone might just be willing to earn bucks like that. Alternatively, building public transportation can become beneficial and result in monetary rewards for the creators.

That's what this guide is about, how to structure a transit system in a big city, especially when planning it. 

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