River Roads are a way to connect settlements without covering your planet in obvious blockinations !
Some More Natural Connections
A while back I started to make roads, but because I’m dedicated to keeping Sochi green (and BLUE!) I wanted them to be natural … so I made some ‘River Roads’.
more blabbering from MMM ...
The main gist of this is that roads are a good thing in Boundless, they do all the obvious stuff, but also enable people to connect settlements without the onerous nature of ‘settlement stealing’, being part of a city, or just flat out having actual next door neighbours.
Done right, with good communication with the other settlement owners, roads can just make disparate sites feel like part of a world … even if said sites are hermitudes like mine! 
But they can cover a planet in infrastructure. 
River Roads are an intentionally more “natural” version of that, allowing folks to keep areas that they’d prefer were more natural to stay that way. But still allow linking of settlements, almost literally in the old ways that rivers worked in the real world! 
This way an atlas won’t just be ‘new-Coruscant’ just covered in industry, and instead it can still look natural and untouched.
Anyway … Who Cares?
Well, long story short … A while ago I moved the roads on to their own (perilously non-compact) beacon under my rarely used crafter character. As a result of which, I forgot to fuel them and lost 'em. 
But I will not be put off … and much like we hope for the Ukraine I will rebuild.
Which is why I’m here … I’ve come here to see if folks have any ideas for cool things to do with River Roads.
What can they look like?
Here’s some of my old pics of the first draft of my roads on Sochi … the water is ankle deep, so you can still run(ish) in it.
Thread Purpose
To be a bit clearer … I’m creating the thread to simply be ‘a thing’ for anyone that wants to do River Roads anywhere … but I might like to nick some ideas for my (slow) building efforts.
Ideas?
Well, this is (again) why I’m here … to get more ideas to spur me to do more! Here are a few of my current ones …
Ambience
With mine, I’m already giving them a feint glow (as you can hopefully see above) so that newbies don’t need to have a light to follow them at night.
I do think that all river roads should do something like this, but that’s just me … the point is that it’s never harsh, always just enough.
more ...
This is just done with gleam below the slope chiseled river banks and then precise chiseling the underside of the slope. This means, of course, that the river base must be at least 1 block from bottom of the plot.Slopes not bevels work best, because you can’t bevel grass and suchlike, so melding into the surroundings works better.
Again, I feel like this one is kind of a must because it means that new players (and normal players, I guess) won’t need a light source.
Springs
In an effort to enhance the ‘naturalness’ I’ve got a few ‘springs’ that have erupted from rocky outcroppings, so that any rise or fall of the water level isn’t wholly weird.
These are literally just using any natural rocks that exist and making a water flow from on high. But I think a hot-spring pool (campfires underneath) could be a good use of this theory. Ooh, I like that, I’m doing it.
Grass & Flowers
It sounds ridiculous, but just bare water on soil grass is kind of fine, but not really properly riverlike. Plus, rivers do tend to usually increase the natural life around them.
So … when I can be bothered … I:
- Ensure banks and base are seeded with grass of varying lengths.
- Sprinkle the banks with flowers, rocks, mushrooms, etc.
The ‘reed’ effect of verthingywotsit grass is good here, but it’s also good to use a slightly different colour.
Over To You Lot!
So … got any ideas for me (or you!) … maybe an industrial canal for big cities? Underground rivers? Other liquids interacting? Salmon ladders?