The Appian Way |
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Housing Block Design
In my opinion, by far the best way to design Housing Blocks is to look at how a variety of players design theirs, select one you find interesting, look at how (and why) it works, then start changing things. Eventually, you will end up with a design all of your own, and you may well find you never use another one! My own Housing Blocks are designed within a specific framework, intended to take best advantage of the way the game works. You can judge for yourselves how well this goal is achieved. The key points I bear in mind when designing a block are:
Intended Housing Level
I always plan my blocks with a specific housing level target, which the block will not exceed. Nowadays I tend to try and build at least small insulae for my Plebeian Blocks, and Luxury Palaces for Patrician Blocks. On occasion, I use a Grand Villa / Large Insulae combination (when there is no second type of wine). Whatever level of housing you eventually decide on, you should then note down a list of all the services, goods, and food types, required to reach that level (see this page). When writing the list of service buildings remember to include Engineer's Post, Prefecture and Doctor's Clinc (regardless of the intended housing level). As a rule of thumb, I tend to avoid building Grand Insulae. Distributing more than one food type is a headache, and only usually worthwhile if you are intending to build Patrician housing (the higher levels of which will require the additional irritation of a third food type).
Many of my housing blocks now include additional service buildings not required for evolution to the target housing level. The reason for these extra service buildings (typically Libraries, Academies, Schools, or Theatres) is to boost my Culture rating. These additional buildings are typically added towards the end of the game, when I have surplus unemployment, and am waiting for my Prosperity or Peace ratings to rise.
Walker Coverage
Once you have decided on your target housing level, you need to consider how you are going to provide houses with the required services. The trite answer is 'with walkers'. Naturally, life is not quite that simple. Walkers have an annoying habit of not doing what you want them to. Walker control is discussed in excruciating detail on this page. If you know how the walkers behave then it is much easier to use that behaviour to your advantage. In designing a housing area, the key types of walkers are:
- Entertainment Walkers
There are actually two types of entertainment walkers. Those generated by the performer schools are 'destination walkers', and will always follow the same path. Any houses along that path will have access to the entertaiment venue in question. The second type are random walkers, which are generated by the venues. They follow no specific path, but may be used to give entertainment coverage to a wider area. A further subtlety is that entertainment points are available for citywide coverage. For precise details on how entertainment points are calculated, you may like to look here. - Education Walkers
Librarians and Teachers are both random walkers. Schoolchildren are a unique type of walker. They travel a short distance (20 tiles), and then disappear. They always follow the same path, so the area a school can service is defined solely by the road network around the school. Occasionally, the behaviour of Schoolchildren defies all logic, so you may occasionally need to fine-tune the placement of your Schools on each map. - Engineers, Prefects, Doctors etc.
These all behave as standard random walkers. - Market Ladies
The behaviour of the much-maligned Market Ladies is sufficient to warrant its very own page.
Of course, the higher your intended housing level, the more of these walkers you will need to accomodate. In order to control the behaviour of a large number of walkers, it is necessary to avoid intersections. I build Housing Blocks in either a continuous loop or a straight line. Either way, there is only one path for walkers to take through the Block.
Roads, Housing, and Water Supply
Having established the basic ideas for your road network, it is now time to lay it out. Decide where you wish to place housing, remembering that it must be within two spaces of a road to start off with (for houses larger than 1x1, one tile of the house must be within two tiles of the road), and within range of a water supply, almost always a fountain. Again remember that fountains must be within range of a reservoir, and that the range of fountains is reduced by one tile in the desert.
Service Buildings and Desirability
Now you are ready to add the service buildings. Try to keep undesirable buildings, like Markets, Prefectures, Gatehouses and Schools, a short distance (two tiles is normally sufficient) away from your housing. This will help you achieve the desirability needed to evolve your housing far enough. It is almost always worthwhile adding Plaza on top of roads, to help with desirability. For highly evolved housing, further beautification is necessary. Just add Gardens, Statues, and bigger Statues. Palaces have enormous desirability requirements, and normally need to be more or less surrounded by Large Statues. It is wise to incorporate such beautification into the design of a Patrician Housing Block.
Food and Goods
In addition to services, your citizens will expect to be supplied with a variety of food and goods by your friendly Market Ladies. The more things you are distributing, the more markets you will need to ensure reliable distribution. If in doubt - add more markets. You should also keep sources of food and goods close to the markets.
The Last Word
The very last thing I have to say on this subject concerns the size of Housing Blocks. Essentially, anything goes, but you must remember that the larger a Block is, the less flexible it is (you won't necessarily be able to fit it where you want it). However, you do not want to build too small a Housing Block, or you will lose the benefits of a large Housing Tiles : Service Building ratio.
This website was created by Mark Snow a.k.a. Caesar Alan. Most of the information presented here was gleaned from a number of other websites. Where possible I have credited my sources. You are free to use any of the information here, provided you acknowledge your source!