Some will say, âWhat we have are villages that we expand into towns.â A definition will sayâŠ
A village is a population typically ranging from âa few hundred to a few thousand.â
So perhaps these arenât even villages, or maybe they are, but they are settlements, for certain.
A settlement can range from âa small number of dwellings grouped togetherâ to the largest of cities.
And in NMS, these are so organized and dominated by our interdimensional presence, that perhaps we could even call these colonies, where the settlers are subject to our foreign affairs, or perhaps cities depending on our personal story/lore and/or personal preferences. HG will likely expand the concept.
I am hoping for expansion into actual cities however, the expansion will likely be for us to accomplish. Especially the hubs who like to build together.
A city is distinguished from other human settlements by its relatively great size, but also by its functions and its special symbolic status, which may be conferred by a central authority.
Through most of history, City has been a legal term, and its exact status depends on the law. In Switzerland, thereâs not really much difference between the organisation of city authority and village authority, and the largest villages are bigger than the smallest cities. In the olden days the main difference was that a city had market rights, i.e. could levy tarifs on goods sold in the city, while a village could not. Nowadays itâs mostly a difference in tax status, with many large villages staunchly refusing to become cities because right now they have the sweeter deal.
In other words, city is a highly contextual term that doesnât have an ounce of meaning outside a defined legal context.
(Also, an equivalent term for âTownâ is missing from the german language entirely⊠Both City and Town are translated with the same word)
I always thought that the terms were loose but that inhabited locations sort of grew.
So a colony is formed & a location is claimed & subsequently a building or 2 becomes the start point.
This grows to become a settlement once things become more permanent & as more join in & the collective of buildings & residents grows.
(If this included something like a trade point (Trading Post/market) early on then this might be deemed a minor settlement.
At some point, once this has been in place for some time, it might be called a village, depending on how complex it gets & how it is managed. To me, this would include clearly defined boundaries, a spectrum of specialist merchants, an infrastructure of roads, power, septic, communications etc. all managed by some sort of chief or council. Iâd also expect it to include a common special interest (ie fishing village) along with a sampling of several different trades (ie merchant, trade port, stables, tavern & maybe a couple of specialist trades like blacksmith or farmer.
This in turn might begin to link up with very close neighbouring settlements creating a small city or town like existence with districts, each somewhat a self-contained village but also integrated into a much larger body of structures & infrastructure. With shared trading & interaction. This is where you would expect to see multiple examples of similar trades (ie 2 blacksmiths).
This is where you might find each district has a generalised speciality such as fishing, blacksmithing, technology, trade specialists.
This town or major village would then need to grow & develop substantially & be trading outside of their boundaries & within to eventually be considered a true city.
So after a long ramble Iâm stuck in the mindset that the term âsettlementâ is appropriate for what we currently see in NMS although it does stray into feeling like a village as it gets more developed.
My mother lives in an area so small, it has a name, it has a Post Office but her zip is from a nearby town and her phone number is from a different, slightly larger (50 more people maybe) townâŠareaâŠI donât even know what itâs called. In fact, viewed from the air, I suspect where she lives looks about like my VyâKeen settlement.
So it would appear that the terms we may assign to settlements, such as village, town, city or whatever else, are entirely subjective and based on our own cultural influences, personal preference and the sci-fi conceptuals of, âWhat-if?â â And with a little more research, I also found thisâŠ
@Mad-Hatter I like what you describe in the entirety of your post. Why? Because it goes to show that a concept of vast sprawling cities is already entirely possible within NMS, if not already there. Now it just needs some actual in-game integration, such as a special screen providing a multi-settlement overview.
And perhaps this concept of âmulti-settlementsâ could be described as âDispersed Settlements,â a scattered and therefore opposite but yet similar take on the usually condensed âCity.â Granted, even without such a special screen, we already have the tools to manually role-play this into existence.
Otherwise, it would be interesting to see these settlements brought closer together, as well.
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