Explaining Beacons and Settlements post Release 211

[the-moebius]

@james

It does work. It’s a good improvement. But some settlements will need to be patched up because of the resolution change. Once you get used to the plot resolution everything will make much more sense.

Hoped this helped.

if a town is super big doesnt the guild cap gonna give problems?

[Marrs]

I think:

• The roads are no longer wide/high(?) enough to join the settlement parts, so it’s broken into bits.
• A neighbor, Gomboc, is has a 1 plot gap to you. Under the old 2x2 chunk-based system it probably counted as part of your settlement - the gap needs filing.

Edit: just because beacons are guild aligned doesn’t make them part of the settlement. They still have to be physically joined based on all the rules.

I’m new to all this too, so I’m happy to stand corrected LOL

[PsychoIntent]

Not really concerned about Gomboc. More concerned about RiotBee/BeetheBuilder.

The rules are where I’m having trouble.

It’s said that everything needs to be connected. They are.

PsychoIntent owns the main building, called Psycho’s Workshop. Directly connected to that, PsychoBuilder’s road starts, which is called Pandora’s Roadway, iirc. This road connects to another set of plots, called Guildhall, and another set of plots, which I think is called RiotBee’s abode? RiotBee’s abode is actually a set of two different character’s plots, all connected.

So, if the rule is that plots must be touching, then I’m obeying that rule. If there’s more rules, I’m not understanding them.

I’ll try using the beacon debug visual when I get home and hopefully that will allow me to figure this out.

Wish this change would have been explained properly before hand, with images to illustrate the point.

[Ark]

All you need to do is make your roads 3 plots high and they’ll count towards your settlement, because then there will be 9 plots in each plot column+contiguous plot columns. Get it?

[Ark]

Once people move in and beacon up the gaps your problem will be solved, or make your roads 3 blocks tall. Then it’ll pass the road hueristic and count towards the settlement.

[Ark]

The information is here, it’s just split between a few different developers and posts.

[Marrs]

They have to be “connected” by plots that are in the settlement - roads aren’t. To make a plot count they say it has to be surrounded by 8 plots, but I don’t get that bit, I’m afraid. If you have a road 3 plots wide, I guess the middle line will always be surrounded by 8 plots, so will extend the settlement. That plot count can be vertically (and maybe diagonally?)

[Marrs]

Or 3 wide? Or 3 in an L-shape?

Looking from the end:

X
X X

or

XXX

or

X
X
X

Edit: under the old rules, 2 wide or 2 high worked.

[Ark]

It depends on your design. 1w by 3t will pass the test, 2x1 will not as that only adds up to 6, 2x2 will pass as that is 12.

[Marrs]

Any block in a 2x2 will have 11 neighbours

XX
XX

XX
OX

XX
XX

Where X is neighbour and O is the block

[Ark]

Which when you add the plot in question equals 12.

[majorvex]

It’s broken right here

I can see that you went 3 plots up, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. I would suggest trying 3 plots wide. This fixes virtually every broken settlement.

[Marrs]

Yes agreed. I just did some tests 3x1 and 1x3 and L-shape all work as roads.

[PsychoIntent]

Thank you @Marrs, @MajorVex, and @Ark. Each plot requiring 8 connected plots is much more concise than the original post.

By that, I mean either a 2x2x2, 3x3x1, or some variation of those two.

[james]

Updated the OP to reflect the recent change to improve the road evaluation.

@james

ADDITIONAL2:

We’ve just released a patch that makes the road evaluation in the new plot-based system better match the road evaluation in the old chunk-based system.

Some beacons and hence settlement were become fragmented due to this. The update will hopefully make the beacons and hence settlement no longer fragment.

If your settlement is disconnected the only reason will be that beacons are genuinely not touching. This is best solved by added a plot or 2 to make them touch.

If you find other cases please share the locations and we’ll check them out.