Greetings one and all!

May I present to you: My Perfect Minecraft City Plan!

Allow me to explain.

I have been working on the project known as “Imperial City v15.0” (my previous upload) for the last two years, and have become very familiar with its layout and overall design. Which got me thinking; What would be the ideal city layout and size in Minecraft?

Now I ‘re-sized’ the Imperial City slightly to measure 2048 x 2048 blocks (or 1024 blocks in radius from the central origin point), which means that the entire map can be saved as exactly 16 “region files” (a region file is how minecraft saves a world, which is in 32 x 32 chunk sections). I think this is the best size for an impressive city. If I aimed for a map made up of just four region files (512 block radius), I feel like the potential of the city is severly reduced. And if I aimed for a city made up of 36 region files (1536 block radius) I feel like it would never be completed and would just feel like too much space.

I then settled on dividing the city up into 190 city blocks, each measuring 7 x 7 chunks, with one chunk between them for roads. However, on the city blocks that you plan to construct buildings on, I suggest making the buildings 6 x 6 chunks (96 x 96 blocks), leaving half a chunk surrounding the building for footpaths, streetlights, gardens, elaborate entrances and so forth. This just makes it look more realistic. And I have made a dozen examples of what I think a full city-block-sized building should measure, surrounding the center of the map.

I think this is the perfect size for a minecraft city block, because you could build almost anything in this space. Here are some ideas borrowed from the infamous Imperial City and SimCity;

airport
amphitheater
botanical gardens
bus terminal
castle
cathedral
city hall
court house
elementary school
factory
fire station
fountains
garbage dump
hedge maze
high school
hospital
landmark
mansion
marketplace
Mayor’s house
museum
office building
palace
parks
police headquarters
power plant
railway stations
recycling plant
sewage treatment plant
sports stadium
statue
trade port
university
water treatment plant

I decided to make the ground level 16, so that only one vertical “sub-chunk” would need to be loaded as you fly around the city loading in lots of chunks (reducing lag). And also so that you have the maximum height space to build with, while also giving you enough space to build things below ground level if you’d like (eg. basements, subway systems, more river networks, ect.).

I also made a simple and symmetrical city river system that the city appears to be built around. It is the same width as a city block, and half a chunk deep (in case you plan to build underground tunnels or subway systems that go beneath it). I decided to reinforce the riverbanks with mossy stone bricks because that seems like the most realistic material. The bottom of the river is covered in one layer of sand, because I think it looks best. I have also covered the riverbed in sea lanterns, which I think look great at night, but would look a lot better if they could be easily replaced with sea pickles instead. I also created a very simple wooden boardwalk around the edges of the river.

At the Northern edge of the map, I have replaced the land with a ‘harbor’ or ‘cove’, similar to that which was built in Imperial City. You could fill it with ships, boat docks, smaller islands with lighthouses or statues on them. Whatever you like.

I decided to make the one-chunk-wide road network out of brick, because some roads in European cities and towns are made out of brick and it seemed to contrast well with the plain stone of the city blocks, the green grass of the city center and the blue water of the river system. But obviously you can change the roads to whatever material you want. I also made them cross the river in nine locations to indicate that bridges should probably be built there.

I didn’t want to unnecessarily add anything into this map that was superfluous and didn’t serve to get the general layout idea across. So I tried to keep the layout to only one block thick on the surface. This way, creators can most easily replace the blocks I have used, into the blocks they want to use, to achieve their desired city aesthetic/theme (eg. Medieval). However I deviated from this “one-block-thick” guide when it came to five different parts; the beacon pyramid that marks the city-center and origin point, the outline of the buildings around the central city square, the river system, the river boardwalks, and the surrounding city wall.

May I suggest allocating sections of your city into ‘zones’ (like in SimCity). Such as; Industrial, Commercial, Residential, Recreational. Or perhaps into ‘districts’ (like in Imperial City). Such as; Military, ‘Little Venice’, Educational, Cultural, ect.

I realise that for a single player to begin the task of constructing an entire city is a little daunting, so I recommend beginning the project with a group of trusted friends in a Realm or on a server, like they did in Imperial City.

I suggest constructing the most important buildings around the central-park area. You have twelve blocks, so one could be for your City Hall, Mayor’s Mansion, Court House, Police Headquarters, statues, landmarks, ect.

You could surround the city with custom-generated terrain such as; an ocean, mountains, forests, wasteland.

You could reset the biome of the river system to “river” or “ocean” and turn on Mob Spawning so that you get a bunch of sealife playing around.

Customised, Super-flat World Settings:

World Name: New World

Version: 1.12
(I chose not to update the Minecraft version, just in-case you wish to use WorldEdit or MCEdit to build the city.)

Game Mode: Creative

Seed: 1

Generate Structures: OFF

Allow Cheats: ON

Bonus Chest: OFF

World Type: Superflat (customized)

3;minecraft:bedrock,14*minecraft:stone,minecraft:grass;1

3 = version number
1 x layer of bedrock
14 x layers of stone
1 x layer of grass
1 = biome ID (plains)

There are no “naturally generated” structures in this world (ie: villages, mineshafts, strongholds, biome-specific structures, dungeons, decorations, water-lakes, lava-lakes or ocean-monuments). They cause unnecessary lag.

Ground level therefore equals 16 (Y=16)

Water level equals 15 (Y=15)

River Bottom equals 8 (Y=8)

I hope you like my idea for the perfect minecraft city plan.

Enjoy! 😊

-Seb103