[RiverPlasmaHero]

Hey all,
I have been planning on creating a new town, and while I have a very clear mental picture of what I want it to look like, I feel woefully unprepared for actually starting the town up. Would those of you who were/are mayors please share any advice or tips on the whole setup process of a town and actually running a town for me and any other new mayors who want or need advice? Any information at all, including what you wish you had done/didn't do, anything that you have tried that worked or didn't work, and anything to help with the daunting task of actually opening the town would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!
-River

[Mrs Diss]

I've not got much experience as a mayor, but i did have a small town on sur 2 which i managed together with Leetzi11a: MicroMesa

It was not one of the huge towns, but with some 20 residents i do think we were quite succesful.

Things which i've seen worked: offer something to your players. it can be infrastructure (farms and such), a concept (tiny homes on MicroMesa), a unique location...
make your residents invest something: Havana citizens had to contribute a significant build, in Akkara and Hydropolis one had to pay for plots: the idea is that if people have invested something they'll also care
get yourself on the map: push to get connected to the SRN/NTN (you might have to do lots of the work yourself), make a signature build (or several), once you're ready connect with other cities through embassy exchanges
get help: you might want to get a second player who shares your vision to help with stuff
make it a community: the large towns on sur2 all had discords, on sur3 Deliverance also has a discord, it keeps everybody connected

of course this is just what i've seen, ymmv, personality probably matters too, personal dedication also.. hope this helps ^^

[_edo]

Hey RiverPlasmaHero,

Mrs Diss already made some very good suggestions. I'd like to emphasise concept. I was a mayor of Havana. With Havana we wanted to be some kind of alternative to the spawn city in sur2. It's was a little rebellious. We called it Havana because it referred to pirates and Communism. The pirates connotation showed its rebelliousness. The Communism connotation referred to how we wanted to do/build everything together: everything is shared (all farms), everybody builds for the public good (every citizen had to build a public project, not just private houses), we didn't work with separate plots that a citizen would buy/own but everyone could build everywhere or we had a few large claims where trusted Citizens could build together. Also, on our discord server builders would usually first post designs of their buildings that they had build in creative mode, before they build it in the sur2 world. There was often a lot of discussion/planning about the design of a new build before it was actually build on sur2. That also improved the feeling of doing it all together. We actually also had a separate creative world, run by Brianetta (former DC admin), where we build most of those designs.
'Havana' also referred to a warm climate and that fitted the recent 1.12 update well, with parrots and colourful concrete and terracotta. We also used a lot of sandstone to emphasise that warm climate.

So yeah, think about what the purpose is of your town to the larger DC community. What does it have to offer that can't be found anywhere else? What makes it unique?
And, what rules do you set up? Rules can create order, structure and coherence to a town. But rules can off course also be limiting. Be conscious about what aspects of your town you regulate with rules and what aspects you don't regulate. There has to be a balance. Adding more rules isn't always the solution to a problem.

What was also an important building guideline in Havana was that we wanted everyone to build close together; wall against wall; no gardens around your buildings. That was to make it a dense city. That guideline had a lot of influence on how Havana turned out too.

Also, we had an elaborate forum page with info about Havana:
https://dogcraft.net/forum.php?page=%2Ftopic%2C428
That might also give you some ideas on how to set up a new town.
I'm sure Akarra and some other towns also have such forum pages.

One more tip: don't plan everything out in advance. Start with only the city centre and let it grow over time. Design the city centre so that it can facilitate/anticipate a larger city, but don't predetermine how the city will finally look when fully complete. That's how we did it with Havana and I was very happy with that approach. I often see players with grandiose plans and they build large street patterns etc, but in the end many of those parts will never be filled in. Examples: sur2 spawn, Ren's elven city on Hermitcraft, Hydropolis on sur2. You'll never know what the future will bring. "Real cities grow".

As a final addition, a nice screenshot of the final days of Havana:

view large

To every (future) mayor: Good luck!

... and now I'll stop rambling.

[darparniox]

Hey River o/

I'd mostly say that the two above me have covered things really well. I'd mostly emphasis having a unique offering/brand for your town, and creating a smallish barrier to entry (such as price or submitting a design) so that players are invested in the place and don't leave you hanging.

The point I'd like to add is that communication is really key to building a cohesive town. Communication of big concepts using what you've done in-game as an example, all the way to down to small and regular interactions like making the people contributing feel valued. I was also a mayor in Havana, and I really felt using Discord as the main means of communication for day-to-day progress between members was very useful. We did use a (comparatively) very bureaucratic system and accumulated a lot of members, but even given that I think that being able to have everyone in one place where they can see and talk to others, the ability to send pictures and files, and a chat that can be referred back to really is what made the execution of the city concept successful.

In any case, good luck

[RiverPlasmaHero]

Wow, thank you all.
You have given me a lot to think about.
Please keep the advice and tips coming, I have a feeling I will need it.

[gamerluuk]

Don't make your city on fliating platforms above an ocean.

It doesn't work.