Minecraft Forums

Alright guys, I need to make an enormous circle for a city, how would I go about doing that? And what do you think a good radius/diameter would be for such a large circle?

Well, I'm sure these will help.

This one is even circles...


This one is odd circles...

Thank you guys, do you have a recommended size I use for a decent sized city?

The 52 block one works well. Just double check your count before building upwards and I wouldn't recommend trying to do that one in the sky as there is NO room for error.

This sight works well for making circles and domes. It gives you a layer by layer break down.

http://neil.fraser.name/news/2006/11/17/

Or if you would like you can download this Java program that you can use to make 3D models before you spend all of your time doing it in the game. It has a few templates for other structures.

http://minecraftstructureplanner.com/

Depends on your city size. I like big so Id probably go with a 150 diameter circle for the outer wall. Maybe 100 if Im not feeling up to the 150.

You just have to remember you wont have as much space in a circle as a square. A circle with a 100 diameter will lose about 2150 blocks of space compared to a 100x100 square.

nice templates. If you lose those, load up Paint on your computer. Zoom in, and tell it to show a grid. Then, use the circle tool to make a circle. You'll be able to see the pixels and know what size it is. From there, you've got the same as those templates.

As for how big, DarkMagic is right that you'll lose space in a circle, compared to a square. Assuming you're building rectangular buildings inside, you'll have some "useless" space between them and the wall.

You can do some guesstimate, based on the size of the average building footprint that you plan to make, to see how many buildings will fit in the circle. That would tell you how big to make it.

Let's say you're going to allocate 10x10 for the average building, and that you want 25 buildings. Arrange them into a squarish shape (50x50 in this case). From the center. calculate the longest distance (center to corner, use pythagoras theorem). That number is where the city wall has to be LARGER than, so the building fits inside.

Wow, you guys have all been extremely helpful and thank you so much!

I decided to make the radius 75 because 100 was a tad too big, but I went through a mountain! Haha.
Looks like I'll have to clear out the half of the mountain that's in my borders


One last thing, what materials do you think I should use for the buildings? I like stone , but I don't want to make an all stone/cobblestone city. Anything you guys reccomend?

In real life, roads and buildings tend to be built from local materials, and reflect that. Thus, in the desert, I make buildings out of sand and sandstone.

In the woods or plains, I may make a shack or cabin out of wood or dirt.

In a city, tend to use cobblestone, but will throw in other materials to mix it up, reflecting influence by other cultures/regions.

So, build a cobble stone building, one of wood panel, one of wood blocks, one of sandstone.

Then build other buildings that mix materials (in consistent, symettrical ways, not just random splattering of materials)

also consider, what are you going to make the wall out of?

Might I recommend:
Dirt.

Level out that mountain and the land inside the circle, as well as digging a ditch 2x2 deep in front of where the wall will be. This will then given you more materials for wall. Use that dirt to make the initial wall that is 3 blocks tall. Light it up with a torch every 12 blocks.

Later, after your city inside the walls has grown, build onto the wall to make it taller thicker. OR, like actual cities, make a new wall 20+ blocks larger in radius around the old wall, and make a new part of the city. A lot of old cities we developed this way, in concentric circles.

With this, you could do a smaller starting circle, big enough to fit 10 buildings, and then make a new circle later, when the inner one has filled up.

If possible I would go with mossy cobble at the base of the wall or near water if you have a moat. I would also consider towers in the "corners" if you want. Just throwing out ideas.