I'm not sure this is specified. Anyone know of requirements around distances between kingdom towns? I think the distance they are apart might restrict how you can set up your kingdom. If they're too far apart, you won't be able to fit them inside 50 pylons. -snip-
Actually, yes there is a minimal distance but it has to be calculated very carefully. There is also a maximum which is much easier to do. Essentially the plugin creates the town based on "CHUNK" protection from your starter point. It is recommended that all towns place their starter point at the 7,7 7,8 8,7 or 8,8 locations within the chunk. This spot can be viewed with F3. It shows in the Parenthesis ( ) 's beside your X and Z. Those also indicate your current Chunk # marked by C: ###'s.
The plugin for Hero's Township & Tax Protection currently pretends all towns are a capital when determining if you can place a town there or not, for this reason in OS we decided that we would go with a minimal distance assuming each town was a capital of 2 chunk spacing. The reason for this is because we assume the plugin both checks the chunk distance and the maximum distance in a linear line. So it could cross into a single unprotected chunk outside the town when determining distance. I can also tell you that it calculates like a square even though the protection is circular, so your diagonal protection limitations will actually have different values. Go by your N E S W maximum chunk edge, and move it 2 blocks out in the closest directions, this would be North and East, South and East, etc. to the nearest town you are considering. It's really not that hard.
LO pylons ended up about 6 chunks, or 90 to 100 blocks, apart - same as OS it sounds like.
Danda and
Alator can we please have a decision on this so that I can add this specification to the Wiki now?
Actually yours were simpler than that. When OS first made ours, we went with 7-9 chunks as the server render distance settings were changed. Then they were changed back which meant we had to default back to the lower value of 6 chunks distance. This value = 6 chunks x 16 blocks width or length = 60 + 36 = 96 block distance. This is your maximum view distance on Herocraft, and coincidentally the maximum distance the ENTIRE pylon can be viewable from each other. So, the bigger your pylon, the further inward you have to move your center point for each. I can also note that it should be viewable from your town's region edge for other limitations.
Relying on visibility/viewing distances is too variable.
Well, this is exactly how it works right now, and unfortunately for us, the admins do not tell us when they magically get the urge to change the server settings . ini file for everyone's view distance. However, that said, it is a reliable and solid numerical value to go by. Each chunk is exactly 16x256x16 and it does not change. The rule should be written to say something like "at the time of this writing the render distance is 6 chunks." and to just have that be updated should anyone notice their render distances change since we as the player base are not told about it before mistakes can happen.
For planning LO, I used a spreadsheet with each square indicating a chunk. Got the corner coords on all the towns and drew the towns on the spreadsheet. Used moveable symbols to locate pylons such that they were no more than 3-ish squares/chunks away from towns where they went close to towns, and no more than 6 squares/chunks from the next pylon. Read off the coords and fed them to the workers
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I've done this layout for another town since. Did think about setting up a service for coin mapping towns...
Sidesummy and I were trying to plan this using a similar method, and it took us about 8 hours for the original map, since our towns were not formed as I had hoped/planned them in a "box". Instead ours ended up snakey in shape and vertical from north to south. We also used a grid system to mark each chunk, then placed our pylons at the center of the chunks. Be careful to recognize that this is a non-zero system, you must include the 1st chunk as the pylon, and the 6th chunk as the pylon, then when you do a third pylon, the 6th chunk is your 1st, and you must count it like so.
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