I found 2 standard ways for doig things. Despite most common solutions found on the web, these patterns does not requires road blocks (yeah no road blocks !)

H = house
R = road
S = other building
E = Garden/empty space

1) a spiral, in the middle I just place the biggest entertainment plaza, then I just mare a spiral roard (1,5 spires about) with enough space for homes to grow up to 4 spaces, the only problem with the spiral is that bazar routes are ways too short If I place the bazar in the outer of the spiral

RRRRRRRRR
RHHHHHHHH
RHHHHHHHH
RHHEEEEEEE
RHHEEEEEEE
RHHEESRSSE
RHHEESRRRR <----- entertainment
RHHEESRSSR
RHHEESRSSR
RHHEEEEEER
RHHEEEEEER
RHHHHHHHHR
RHHHHHHHHR
RRRRRRRRRR

here's again the spiral only with roads


Buildings starts from here
<----------
__________SSS
__________SSS <----- Temple
__________SSS
RRRRRRRRR
R ___________
R ___________
R ___________
R ___________
R ______R____
R ______RRRR
R ______R___R
R ______R___R
R __________R
R __________R
R __________R
R __________R
RRRRRRRRRR
HH <-- some outer houses
HH
RRRRRRRRRR ----> road to industries
____________R
____________R
____________R

the spiral is very compact and I used it to beat most of the campaign at very hard difficulty. If you need to give employes to nearby (~20/25 tiles) industries you can just build some outer hohuses, temples goes into the corners so that they take just 1 tile of road and leave space for other buildings. Road blocks are questionable because when there is much citizens walking they start ignoring roadblocks, thanks to spirals you need just 1 roadblock to let communicate bazar with granaries, or better use 2 bazars, like this

B=bazar

RRRRRRR__SSS
_____BB BB_SSS <----- Temple / 2 bazars
_____BB BB_SSS
RRRRRRRRRR
R ___________
R ___________
R ___________
R ___________
R ______R____
R ______R RRR
R ______R___R
R ______R___R
R __________R
R __________R
R __________R
R __________R
RRRRRRRRRR

even if randomly one of the traders of the bazars goes not in the spiral the other goes inside and feed you houses., by the way you can also build houses outside the spiral, in that case there's no need for additional bazars (using multiple bazars is highly suggested, in certain maps if you balance food production correctly you get free farms for exporting goods, but in case of Osiris wrath you need some extra storage to avoid starving and that is achieved with granaries, bazars: 2 granaries and 5 bazars every 3000 citizens is the bare minimum )

.. there are few more patterns I'd like to share but no time right now to explain (they remember a straight line, a zig-zag and a cross anyway, all of the does not requires roadblocks, and that is friendly for people that like to have a city with 40.000 or more people inside)


There's also people that studied the "random walk" algorithm to predict where wanderers units will travel.

Anything else to share?:)

I just started with this game (played Emperor RotMK way back)
so I have nothing to contribute. however, wanted to say thanks for the great tip!

That's an interesting pattern to use and I'll certainly try it out. So far I've used a mixture of my own ideas (which work pretty well) and other peoples as part of the fun of the game is trying out different housing/road/industry construction mixes.

Thank you for posting - it's great to see peoples ideas.

Not a bad idea, but I'd have thought that using a "no roadblock" based housing block would be much harder to control as it would need micro-management to a level where the game would be uninteresting and no longer fun...

It is intended for starting maps wich have no road blocks until mission 4 or 5. Anyway most usefull patterns really not need roadblocks (unless you start linking modules together).

FOUNTAIN PATTERN (the shape remember me a fountain spilling water)

Here's another one (more easy to upgrade housings at maximum level)

_TTT_____________TTT <- temples
_TTT_____________TTT
_TTT_____________TTT
___R RRR.PPPPRR R <- Pavillion
___R____.PRPP.___R
___R____.PRPP.___R
___R____.PRPP___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R___HHRHH___R
___R..__WWRHH__.R
___R..__WWRHH__.R

......A..............B.............C



Basically this one has the advantage that exploit pavillion at its full potential. There's a row of housing in the middle (lane B). and on the top we have the pavillion from wich roads departs.
Lane A and C may be moved in future to allow housing expands up to 4x4 slots. This need a bit of demolition and rebuilding (until you put cheap buildings that does not contains goods that will not be a big issue).

Wanderers units will always visit ALL housings and that's good because respect to other patterns you can place even more services buildings.

Wanderer start from Lane A. he will visit housing between A and B. when he reach pavillion he has 2 choices. He go on lane B (visiting all housings) or he will go on lane C (visiting the housings he missed before).

Same applies if wanderer starts from Lane C, while when he starts from middle lane he will already visit all housings.

Straight line patterns apply more efficiently especially in maps that have grass only near water. I usually place first the Water supply. then I build housingup in straight line as far as I can. (on such maps I can reach very high population regardless the lack of places that allow building of water supply.


Fountain pattern can be easily linked to each other

RRRRR________ RRRRRR
R._R._R________ R__R__R
R._R._R________ R__R__R
R_.R._R________ R__R__R
R_.R._R________ R__R__R
R_.R._RR RRRR RR__R__R
R_.R.____ __________R__R
R_.R.___ ___________R__R
R_.R.__ ____________R__R

the fountains joint is perfect for the festival plaza and eventually for a temples complex:)

cya :D

The first screenshot is probably what they are talking about. The fireman will walk all the way around the block, turn around and walk back, then when he reaches his max walk length, re-evaluates to find the quickest way home, which, in this case, is through the roadblock.

The second screenshot is more subtle. Buildings spawn walkers in the first adjacent road tile PAST 12:00 clockwise, and return in the first tile STARTING at 12:00 clockwise. So in the pic, the fireman starts in the tile to the right of the fire station (3:00) and returns to the tile above it (12:00), again ignoring the roadblock. Of note is that the route homw (past the roadblock in the screenshot) can be really LONG, snaking around the screen beyond the point where its even useful.

You can make some interesting cities using this, but, really, I think its most useful for forcing water carriers to take water to houses way out into the desert, where you have mines, monument work camps and such who need access to labor. This lets you get them to cottage so risks drop. And, really, if you are going to make someone live out in the desert, the least you could do is bring him a glass of water.

I'm a big believer in the single closed loop as in the first screenie. Note there's no direct road access to the pavilions, but the entertainers will walk across the dance stage, as shown in the second screenshot.. If you want to be able to push them to residences, you have to set the houses out in 2x2s, leaving one space between for gardens or shrines or statues.

I've rotated the same block in the third screenshot to show that I also try to leave room for an extra booth, in case I need it. If you keep things at apartment or less you usually don't, but its easy to get enough residences so you won't get perfect entertainment. The fourth screenshot is a closeup of that spot. Just clear the tile with the red dot, put a road there, put in the booth, then either demolish or roadblock the road section you just built (hint: if leaving it as another means of ingress/egress, you should plaza it first, because you get desirability from it even with the roadblock on top of it, but you won't be able to plaza once the roadblock is there)


[EDIT]
Weird. I thought I had zoomed in those closeups. Oh, well, your browser can probably do it.
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