need build ideas to expand this riverside town + castle

[Torimon]

I build this riverside town + castle and Im running out of ideas what to build because I got so much done already. I would appreciate some fresh eyes and new ideas.
Here is the town layout and a list of builds I got so far:

- My starter house with storage
- Smithy
- Farm / Barns / Orchard
- Tavern
- Central Plaza
- Church with Crypt and Cemetery
- Bakery
- Shops: Clothing, Commodities, Furniture, Building Materials, Flower Shop, Pottery Shop with Pit Kilns, Glasmaker
- Apiary
- Library
- Art Gallery
- Windmill with flower fields
- Harbor with Shipyard
- Bathhouse
- Houses, including a Luxuries Traders Mansion
- Guardtower
- Hunter
- Logging Camp
- Mine
- and of course the Castle with Armory, Baracks, Great Hall, Gardens, Treasurey, Dungeon with hidden escape route through a cave system 

Some screenshots:

[Rainbow Fresh]

Does your harbor or general town have a big, cramped warehouse? Could also try designing some sort of primitive/medieval kind of mechanically powered crane to the harbor for loading and unloading ships.

Herbalist maybe playing into fantasy alchemist living in a wizard tower vibes. Or maybe just some watchtowers sprinkled around the perimeter; like the primary guard tower you have but smaller/simpler and (seeing as I don't think the tower is on the screenshots?) made just from cruder wooden material. Less for defense and more just for watching the horizon for incoming trouble, weather, fires.

Since you are using the rivers mod and have a little upstream rivulet up north, maybe build a dam and terraform the area into a big artificial lake for your town's water supply. Optionally sprinkling water wheels over it (if only for the looks).

You said you have (a) barn(s) but what about a fancy, dedicated stable? Maybe attached to a training parcour for horses or some other form of large horse-themed outdoors area.

 

That'd be some random ideas I have that don't require endless effort just for looks or mods that greatly alter the game beyond this point. All around lovely town you have there already.

[Edwin_Blacktallow]

I had a idea for my fantasy town that I never got round to: was a sewer system that connected into the basments/cellars of buildings. Lots of winding tunnles, could add secret doors behind vines. Maybe an overflow into the river and even a secret hideout down there for a thieves guild.

If you have ever played it, the starting dungeon from Oblivion is my inspiration, could chisel some rats. And if it breaks into a cave system keep it and make it part of it, and it could conect to your crypt and dungeon too!

 

Other building ideas

- Brewery

- Might be too similar to the Libray but could add a university with gardens

- Fletcher with archery range

[Torimon]

4 hours ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

Does your harbor or general town have a big, cramped warehouse? Could also try designing some sort of primitive/medieval kind of mechanically powered crane to the harbor for loading and unloading ships.

Herbalist maybe playing into fantasy alchemist living in a wizard tower vibes. Or maybe just some watchtowers sprinkled around the perimeter; like the primary guard tower you have but smaller/simpler and (seeing as I don't think the tower is on the screenshots?) made just from cruder wooden material. Less for defense and more just for watching the horizon for incoming trouble, weather, fires.

Since you are using the rivers mod and have a little upstream rivulet up north, maybe build a dam and terraform the area into a big artificial lake for your town's water supply. Optionally sprinkling water wheels over it (if only for the looks).

You said you have (a) barn(s) but what about a fancy, dedicated stable? Maybe attached to a training parcour for horses or some other form of large horse-themed outdoors area.

 

That'd be some random ideas I have that don't require endless effort just for looks or mods that greatly alter the game beyond this point. All around lovely town you have there already.

I only have one guard tower on the other side of the river as a checkpoint for people coming from that direction. I would like more of them and a citywall too, but I dont know how big the town is going to grow and I don't want to have to move them. 

But for now a wizard/alchemy tower would be a good idea. I found a lot interesting stuff from Better Ruins I pilfered that could fit that theme.

Water is something I really don't want to terraform with. The Docks and Bridge were so annoying. Its so slow to move in and I always end up with airpockets, making the surface of the water look wrong. Maybe there are some techniques or a mod I dont know about though.

A stable also sounds good, I just don't have any horses and my elk died... RIP Elke. But I will keep that idea in mind for when I get another mount.

1 hour ago, Edwin_Blacktallow said:

I had a idea for my fantasy town that I never got round to: was a sewer system that connected into the basments/cellars of buildings. Lots of winding tunnles, could add secret doors behind vines. Maybe an overflow into the river and even a secret hideout down there for a thieves guild.

If you have ever played it, the starting dungeon from Oblivion is my inspiration, could chisel some rats. And if it breaks into a cave system keep it and make it part of it, and it could conect to your crypt and dungeon too!

 

Other building ideas

- Brewery

- Might be too similar to the Libray but could add a university with gardens

- Fletcher with archery range

I kinda started something like a tunnel system. Mostly out of necessity, connecting my storage basement to the bakery and the tavern (where I brew stuff too) for easy access to ingedients. But I could totally add some water from the main plaza water supply and connect everything. I played with the idea in my head to add a bandit camp nearby, but an underground thieves guild is fun too. Elder Scrolls has a lot of inspiration for that. Its going to be a lot of counting blocks so I dig in the right direction.

Here is a pic of the Escape Tunnel btw. Mostly because Im proud of the chiseled hanging bridge.

[Edwin_Blacktallow]

8 hours ago, Katha Ramer said:

I only have one guard tower on the other side of the river as a checkpoint for people coming from that direction. I would like more of them and a citywall too, but I dont know how big the town is going to grow and I don't want to have to move them. 

But for now a wizard/alchemy tower would be a good idea. I found a lot interesting stuff from Better Ruins I pilfered that could fit that theme.

Water is something I really don't want to terraform with. The Docks and Bridge were so annoying. Its so slow to move in and I always end up with airpockets, making the surface of the water look wrong. Maybe there are some techniques or a mod I dont know about though.

A stable also sounds good, I just don't have any horses and my elk died... RIP Elke. But I will keep that idea in mind for when I get another mount.

I kinda started something like a tunnel system. Mostly out of necessity, connecting my storage basement to the bakery and the tavern (where I brew stuff too) for easy access to ingedients. But I could totally add some water from the main plaza water supply and connect everything. I played with the idea in my head to add a bandit camp nearby, but an underground thieves guild is fun too. Elder Scrolls has a lot of inspiration for that. Its going to be a lot of counting blocks so I dig in the right direction.

Here is a pic of the Escape Tunnel btw. Mostly because Im proud of the chiseled hanging bridge.

The bridge looks great and love the ambiance with the candles.

 

A thought for the sewers, you could use the charcoal symbol markings as a sort of thieves marking like in Skyrim. (Think you can use other materials too, maybe chalk?)

[LadyWYT]

20 hours ago, Katha Ramer said:

Tavern

You have one tavern, yes. But what about the seedy tavern where the more questionable crowd hangs out?

I would also note that while you could build a sewer system, as others have suggested, you could also build a waste dump somewhere outside the city limits instead. Sewer systems perhaps weren't unheard of in the medieval period, but if I recall correctly, waste disposal was, in many cases, relegated to "nightsoil collecters" who would come collect waste after-hours and deposit it outside of town. You could also build a public latrine or two as a "pickup point" for such collectors.

[BlackMoonHowling]

It’s small but I like adding a smokehouse for smoking meats/fish and a dedicated tannery

[Torimon]

Just wanted to quickly show off what your ideas lead to:

While digging some latrines in rich peoples houses I breached into an old stone quarry I used to get rocks for the castle and it was the perfect place lore wise to establish a thiefs guild. The monster spawn is insane down there, even with everything lit up. At least I have the pet cat mod that makes lower level drifters passive lol. You can still see the checkerboard digging pattern in the walls.

I constructed a wizards tower that houses my advanced jonas parts stuff like the rickety translocator and a lot of decorative items from Better Ruins. The walls are aged slate ashlar and the roof is made from purpleheart, very spooky. And it glows at night.

[Zahariax]

I really like your town, it looks like it had a natural progression like a real one. Since you want to build a realistic town i suggest to build a market area with all sorts of different stalls(it's more easy now since they added all sorts of clutters and decorating options), and a commercial hub with a warehouse and a little stall for the travelling animals to rest. It would be a place where the merchants can come and trade. Since you are near a river i would suggest to also create a commercial port with stalls that sell fish, cattails, clay, exotic goods ecc... , but i saw that you hate building in water so the decision is up to you XD, but i would give your town a really nice touch.

Keep building like you have done and good luck for the development of your town  !!!

[Zahariax]

For the thief guild i suggest that you build a stone canal with a few traversable little pathways. I attach to you a reference: