this look alright for a desert town?

[The_Enigma]

Does this look ok for a town in the north afircian desert?

[Vixen]

Looks too...neat? Looks more like an army camp with everything laid out with precision.

[The_Enigma]

any ideas how to make it more unneat? more building scattered round like the ones in the bottomish left corner?

[Moon]

Yes, that, plus don't make them all stand in a row like that. Rotate some, leave a few gaps. Add some other terrain, rough ground, a fence, and even the occasional palm trees (even out in the deep desert, settlement usually have a water source, and people like plants )

Martin

[The_Enigma]

right o.

[The_Enigma]

ok guys, made some improvements, this better? too much? too little?

should be noted i added some bushes around the area of the trenches on the right of the 2nd picture after i took the pictures.

[Hans]

ME and north African cities don't have straight roads!

Take a look at Small Battles Mandelbaum’s Gate AIW for a what a suburb of Jerusalum looked like.

You can also look at Small Battles Jaffa AIW for an Arab city.

[dieseltaylor]

I disagree with Hans as the site is not a city but simply a halt on the line and a road junction. Linear development is therefore likely.

The open water though is highly unlikely as it would be to precious to have evaporating away. I assume it is spring fed and would be inside a building or sub-ground

If it is meant to be a town at an oasis then the building development would pre-date the railroad and the road and would be irregular. However there would be date palms etc around the pool to feed the natives : )

Nice map though .... but you did ask

[The_Enigma]

right guys, incorpating all ideas ive came up with this?

What you think - better? worse?

[Philippe]

In much of that part of the world small towns and villages tend to be somewhat circular for protection, even if unwalled. I think the reason that the town doesn't look organic is that the designer started by focusing on elements that would have been added to an existing whole and planned the town around them, rather than the other way around.

In the begining there was no road and no railway station, just a few small buildings clumped in an irregular circle near the water. The circle expanded irregularly with another irregular circle of buildings or two, and may have included a masjid. The local trade routes were probably diverted to the town to take advantage of the open source of nearly undrinkable brackish water. This track was eventually converted into a paved road: it either runs near the town with a dirt track leading to it, or snakes in and then out of the town along an irregular course. Then some colonialist oppressor decided to build a railroad that skirted the edge of the town. The reason it got a railway station was that the town was already a watering hole and a junction: you don't build a railway station in the middle of the desert unless you're Cinecitta.

The town plan in the first picture is the kind of thing I would expect to see in a western industrial suburb. Real places have small crooked lanes to confuse attacking foreigners. Towns and cities that are built all at once have boringly regular grid plans: places that evolve over time are a comfortable mess.

Just ask yourself this. If you were a destitute foreigner without electricity or running water, would you want to live there?

[Bonxa]

And I'd drop the paved roads and substitute them with dirt roads. Some of the dirt roads should go too. People did not have cars at this time and didn't need big fat roads.

I concur with what Philippe said above. The train station might have some houses "around" it though since it probably spurred on the development of the settlement.

[Paco QNS]

For what is worth:

Benghazi from the air, 1964 (J Cooper)

[Soddball]

It's certainly coming on, but I have a point to raise about what looks like the wooden fence you've put in.

You're in the desert. One of the things the desert is notable for is its shortage of trees. Those trees that are around are unlikely to be used for fences when more important needs such as roofs or firewood have to be met. You might consider using stone walls instead.

One possibility you might look at is placing a set of parallel stone walls as a road substitute. The walls create an outline for a road.

The station could be changed so that instead of three large heavy buildings you have a single heavy building right next to the railway line, flanked by pavement. At the moment you're portraying a station 180ft long by 60ft wide - a building that's much too large for a tiny town like that.

'Depression' has two 's'.

I might seem critical, but I'm just trying to offer some hints. It's a good effort and you should keep at it.

[The_Enigma]

soddball, its ok i wanted critical, i wanted to make a town in the desert which looked right o thkz for the spell check too

Paco QNS , that shot of Benghazi was great thkz for that link

So again incorporating everything which has been said so far.

You all think this better/worse?

[Hans]

Originally posted by dieseltaylor:

I disagree with Hans as the site is not a city but simply a halt on the line and a road junction. Linear development is therefore likely.

The open water though is highly unlikely as it would be to precious to have evaporating away. I assume it is spring fed and would be inside a building or sub-ground

If it is meant to be a town at an oasis then the building development would pre-date the railroad and the road and would be irregular. However there would be date palms etc around the pool to feed the natives : )

Nice map though .... but you did ask

I would agree with the caveat, whether its a local habitation or a colonialist construction.

[Brent Pollock]

Looks good but I didn't mind the first one - looked like it was built on the remains of an old Roman Legion camp.

[Soddball]

Looks much better. If you want, you can email it to me and I'll have a closer look.

[GreenAsJade]

It's improving all the time.

It stands out as strange how there is that row of

big buildings all in a line.

Also, now that the roads are curvy it looks odd how the two ends that come to a fence around 5 buildings just end like that.

[dieseltaylor]

Way too much long walls. Keeping goats out of the veg patch and some animals in. Other than that walls are unnecessary and would interfere with the natives wandering about. Having said that you could place small blocks of wall at distances to delineate trackways - they could be stones extracted from fertile ground and put in heaps for later buildings a natural thing to do.

Still a great and evolving map.

[Hans]

Wall most building public and private in Arab countries have walls around them. Raiding and armed banditry in many of these countries didn't stop until the 1930's

[dieseltaylor]

Defendable walls certainly - minimal high outside windows and central courtyard for the wealthy. Smaller houses cut out the courtyard.

I still tend to the belief that the town has grown because of the railway stopping to take on water or as a junction ...

Long walls protecting nothing are the no-no I think.

Why expend the labour to build them.

[Hans]

Yep unless they are a reuse of old Greek or Roman ruins (a common use) I'd say the walls should go around the buildings.