Mixed Use Zoning/Developments, TOD and building composition
Thu, 08/12/2010 - 11:39
Mixed-use zoning or developments should be included in any modern city-building game, as well as planned developments and TOD.
Mixed-use would include:
Residential/Retail
Retail/Office
Hotel/Retail
Residential/Office
Residential/Hotel
High-Tech Industrial/Office or Retail
Or any combination of the above, and possibly other combinations.
An trip generation matrix could be created so a certain number of trips would be generated for people in the area. This could be dependent on many factors, such as wealth, job status, and whether the person is a citizen, student or tourist. Trips could be generated for job access, leisure, and living necessities. And could take place using any number of transit modes.
Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)
A density bonus, tax increase, or other incentives can be created for areas adjacent to mass transit and commuter rail stations. A pedestrian movement type for citizens should allow a walking distance of 1/4 mile for at least 50% of people in a TOD area, which would diminish exponentially with distance. Pedestrian movement can be given some priority in these areas with narrower street ROW and possibly pedestrian over/under passes. Bike lanes to mass transit stations can be provided to increase the percentage of people in the immediate vicinity that use the public transport.
Building Composition
In order to expedite the creation of the game, buildings can be designed to use generic facades and a number of shapes. When a zone or building develops, a facade can be generated onto a uniquely shaped block. The composition of the blocks would depend on the density and zoning in the area, and may be able to conform to adjacent street rights of way. This way, each randomly generated building would be unique and could conform to a street pattern with an unlimited number of shapes within a dense area, and would save developers the time of having to create thousands of buildings. As the game progresses, the developers and modders could create buildings that would also show up in the game.
The randomly generated buildings can be composed of at least 3 parts depending on density. For instance a medium density building would be generated with a 2 storey bottom part, a 4 storey middle part, and a 1 story top part with cornice. Each one of these parts would get a randomly generated generic facade associated with the level. A single-family house could have a bottom part with door and garage, a 1 storey middle part, and a pitched roof top part.
I don't know if I am explaining this correctly, or if it has already been discussed.
Sat, 08/14/2010 - 12:51
#1
Hi gkitt, and welcome to the forum! Some good ideas in your post... I especially agree with your third point about procedurally generated buildings; I think that's going to be a key feature for a next generation game. It simply isn't practical to individually create the models for the number of distinct buildings needed to make a city look naturally variegated. There's no question it can be done, either: there are already several excellent non-game programs doing exactly this, namely CityEngine and CityScape.
I like your idea about using tax incentives to spur development in certain areas, rather than adjusting them city-wide... could probably be implemented fairly easily if the game determines values on a hierarchical basis.
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 14:46
#2
It sounds really good. This would definately be improved by procedural generation as mentioned.
Sun, 12/26/2010 - 12:18
#3
I support this component as well. There is no reason why a building cannot have several services lined up inside of it. How about a threshold of either density in area or special one-time-use tags that can be placed upon a property such that any zoned lot can be both commercial and residential, et al?
After all, since it is agreed that some sort of procedural building generation is going to be a mandatory part of this project there is nothing stopping the player from either modifying the building when the tag is applied or the building changing its appearance when conditions force the lot to amend the building's rules. This is the fundamental freedom brought by Procedural Building Generation. It permits these kinds of aesthetic and economic changes just by nature of its component based system.
Tue, 12/28/2010 - 04:43
#4
I do not know how a building would provide jobs and population at the same time. In all games, people want to have the shortest commute possible so if the building they live in provide jobs of their wage level, they would commute by elevator (no commute in the game). The easiest way to do this is to have the number of workers seperate from the population count. This was possible in SimCity Societies. I made myself a workplace with a population count and no workers/jobs but made money.
Wed, 12/29/2010 - 00:02
#5
I would probably have mixed-use as a distinct zoning type, as IRL, which would allow any buildings or procedural scripts tagged for that zone type to grow there; Ideally one would be able to change those tags on the fly from within the game.
I hadn't thought about how to handle job calculations when you have residents and jobs in the same building; I don't think it would be a problem though, I imagine the algorithm would make a calculation comparing the relative location of their home and workplace, and return their commute time as zero.