Any mapping advice?

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GardenData61371
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Any mapping advice?

#1 Post by GardenData61371 » 26 Sep 2022 11:50

I'm making my 1st ever map mod for ETS2 and would like some advice on how to make the map look and feel realistic.

Especially cities. From playing Cities Skylines I learned designing city layout is my biggest weakness.
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Aziz
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Re: Any mapping advice?

#2 Post by Aziz » 26 Sep 2022 13:21

Are you going for American or European layout?
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In short, European roads tend to go with, or around terrain and obstacles. And use to grow outwards, naturally. American (and some other modern cities) go through it, creating a grid. With highways going above everything, rather than around.
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GardenData61371
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Re: Any mapping advice?

#3 Post by GardenData61371 » 26 Sep 2022 13:32

Quote removed - Don't quote images/code boxes - Rule 2.3

I'm creating a European style cities.
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Axel Slingerland
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Re: Any mapping advice?

#4 Post by Axel Slingerland » 27 Sep 2022 05:48

Aziz wrote: 26 Sep 2022 13:21 In short, European roads tend to go with, or around terrain and obstacles. And use to grow outwards, naturally. American (and some other modern cities) go through it, creating a grid. With highways going above everything, rather than around.
Not necessarily everywhere... Have you ever been to Flagstaff, Arizona?

[ external image ]

The city is split down the middle by a mountain (or very large hill if you prefer), with the mostly "city stuff" on the west side and mostly "residential neighborhoods" on the east side. I say "mostly" because there some of both on both sides. You'll notice in this image that there are just two ways across the hill, I-40 on the south and East Forest Avenue on the north.

Then of course, the vast majority of highways in the US (not all of course), specially Interstates in the west, tend to follow rivers through canyons as that was the way the first travelers in the west went, which means they do not typically go "above everything, rather than around"... Jus' so ya know.
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Aziz
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Re: Any mapping advice?

#5 Post by Aziz » 27 Sep 2022 11:33

Never said everywhere, and Flagstaff is an example of what you can do with limited space. But then find a city around more forgiving terrain and you can have interstates cutting districts in half, going right through the city. They are like rivers, except they're man made, and the rest of the city isn't necessarily built around them.

Aside from that, to be honest, the most European American city is Boston. Except that absolute monster of an intersection.

Now, I was only talking about city layouts, what happens outside is a different matter, and of course out there following the terrain makes sense.
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Axel Slingerland
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Re: Any mapping advice?

#6 Post by Axel Slingerland » 28 Sep 2022 20:10

Aziz wrote: 27 Sep 2022 11:33Never said everywhere, and Flagstaff is an example of what you can do with limited space.
Flagstaff doesn't have a limited space problem, they have the same problem that the vast majority of US cities have, "the 1% government problem", in other words, the city councils, mayors and city managers whose primary goal is getting and staying rich at the expense of everyone else. Of course, that is a common problem just about anywhere you go. Even the tiny town (oh, excuse me, it's a village) I grew up in had the same problem. In any case, Flagstaff had a two mile wide belt of pine forest around it on all sides 25 years ago when I left there, that they bought many decades ago to make sure they had plenty of room. And as of the last time I was there, a few years back, they still had it.
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