Questions tagged [cities]
For questions about cities, their systems and evolution.
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How much steel could be recovered from cities a few hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse? [duplicate]
Roughly 120 years after a nuclear apocalypse, an external group that didn't experience the apocalypse (the why of it isn't going to be explained here) came to the land that did, to pull apart their ...
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How heavy does a "city" for two thousand people need to be?
This question is inspired by Mortal Engines, but I imagine something more feasible. The original question I wanted to ask was "How to keep a city in the air?", but I figured out there is ...
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How would sensible waste disposal be accomplished for terrestrial creatures in a primitive society? [closed]
Necessary context: Various real animals like birds, foxes and snakes plus fictitious ones like qilins/kirins, gryphons and gloomstalkers (raven-like birds with some minor serpent features) possessing ...
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How much time would it take to build a small medieval city/village/town with a wall surrounding it? [closed]
What I'm asking is how many months would it take for around 50,000 people to build an urban medieval settlement that is circular and surrounded by a wall made of brick/stone to protect against magic ...
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How to keep a city floating beneath the surface of an exoplanet's ocean in place?
How would I be able to explain a city that is underwater, floating in place and such. Without it constantly moving. Basically, how can I explain how it stays in place and doesn't get pushed all across ...
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Fluvial systems: Are they necessary for human survival in domed cities on waterless planets
A world with a natural water cycle has rivers which generate a lot of transportation and ecological benefits. But gravity and sunlight drive those engines. An artificial domed community doesn’t have ...
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On a planet with Arrakis-style sandstorms, could a single windbreak protect much of a city?
Planet has wind that flies at an indistinct speed - fast enough to fling razor sharp debris around though that's what I have built. I will tweak it as necessary but they are considered life ...
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What would a city look like that adapted to sporadic tsunami-like flash floods?
In a near future where super-cell storms drop massive amounts of water (300 l/m²) in the blink of an eye, cities - built upon the cities of old - have adapted to these tsunami-like flash floods. But ...
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What are good reasons to create a city/nation in which a government wouldn't let you leave [closed]
I am building a city that the main character will be prohibited to leave from and yet their intentions of entering the city are to save the world form an extra-planer threat. So they have to go in. ...
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What are the concerns with residents building lean-to's up against city fortifications? [closed]
In historical illustrations of cities with defensive walls, I have noticed that it is very rare for a non-defensive structure to be built directly adjacent to the inside face of the wall. A building ...
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Florida during climate change: what does it look like?
Edited again!
My character lives in a future where some folks have moved under the sea, and sea levels have risen. There are scenes where she comes up to the dry land, and I need to describe the city ...
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Could a subterranean river or aquifer generate enough continuous momentum to power a waterwheel for the purpose of producing electricity?
The imagined scenario is of a small city built inside of a chasm that draws most of its water from an aquifer or underground river. The place and time in which the scenario takes place is Earth and ...
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How does proximity to a large city affect the growth of nearby towns?
Imagine a town that is on the road between two large cities. However, it is within one day's worth of travel of one of those cities. How would this affect the overall growth of the town? I can imagine ...
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How would a city be structured if the inhabitants did not have houses? [closed]
Some sapient species, unlike humans, do not see the need to erect housing or beds to sleep in. They still have access to the art of construction for other purposes such as storerooms, forts, and ...
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What problems would a truly gigantic fantasy city encounter?
Supposing a world that falls somewhere between low and high magic, what would stop a city of truly epic size from existing?
The city is a city-state that has existed for millennia.
It is pretty much ...
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Urban Planning on a Tidally Locked World
I'm in the early stages of a project involving a habitable tidally locked world, this one a fairly Earth-like (large ocean) around a K-class orange dwarf. And using this study for reference, where the ...
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Weapon damage assessment, or What hell have I unleashed?
In Weaponizing the return-energy channel of a one-way portal, I describe the function of a hermes portal, which are magical devices that, when activated by some command, create a connection to a ...
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City planning underwater
In my world, there is a race of fish people and merfolk. For a brief description: They are a mix of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Luca. For pictures and extra description: What conditions ...
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Would foot weapons be viable in a street fight? [closed]
There are several weapons that are used to enhance a person's punches. These include brass knuckles, caestus, boxing tape, etc. These weapons are often used in disorganized conflict like bar brawls ...
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How to build a giant city in a harsh environment?
In my world, there is a magic civilization. They are on a far away continent, but it is harsh and snowy. In the current time, they have now giant cities, the main ones being a mix of both steam and ...
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How could a nomadic society establish a stable civilization?
In my world, there is an entire nomad-based society. While they have some influence based on gypsies, they are mainly based on Mongolian Horsemen. At some point in my fictional history (ca. 12th-13th ...
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How early can the point of departure for 2022 to resemble the great cities of Annibale Siconolfi?
Some time ago, I came across the artwork of the Italian artist Annibale Sicionolfi, and I am quite drawn to them, especially on how ecology and architecture are tied together. Art gallery in this link....
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How can intelligent insects defend themselves from the cold?
The world is an icy wasteland, populated only with dark fungi burrowing through the irradiated earth. The last plant life in this desert is cultivated in great cities of ants and honeybees. A few ...
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What city/town layout would best be suited for combating isolation/atomization?
I have a small modern nation that has many ideals rooted in the idea of community. Notions of civic duty, caring for neighbors, mandatory community service, mandatory voting etc. are the moral bedrock ...
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How to protect cities from vampirism
A certain part of the continent is currently dealing with a plague of undeath. It takes many forms, with corpses rising from their graves, strange creatures roaming in the night, seemingly driven by ...
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How large a territory would be needed to self sustain (not just food) a village of 500 people? [duplicate]
Updated to add more clarification.
Given the following data, how large a territory would be needed to sustain a village of 500 people that has no outside contact?
Population: 500 humans (approx. 400 ...
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Could a merchant city survive not having an military?
Picture a city set in the renaissance times (circa 1350, for example), a city surrounded by vast rich soil at the lip of a large bay. Given the city's close proximity to larger ally kingdoms (kingdoms ...
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Where in the American West Would a New City Arise? [closed]
It's been 20 years since a global pandemic wiped out over 99% of the world population, and America was not spared. Of the 330 million people in the country (give or take a few million), only about 1.5 ...
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What obvious technologies would this early 20th century analog have? [closed]
I have a city-state, bound to protect the evil, and the souls of the inhabitants are used to power that, and no one who enters the city can leave, so the outside world supplies it with food and ...
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How to Feed a City with a Subarctic Climate?
The city of Civitas Sykofantia sits on the shore of Lake Sykofantia, a high-elevation salt lake the size of Lake Superior in the US. The lake is located on the Great Pagomenos Plateau, a huge ...
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How could I logically place cities and towns on my map?
The setting is a medieval fantasy, think general dnd or LotR. I have already created a map and it’s existed for a while now but I desperately want to know where cities and towns might logically pop up....
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What is the best strategic location for a fortification/city in this region?
Let's say you were the purple nation and wanted to most effectively control both the gap between the mountains and the sea, as well as the lands to the south between the mountains and the river.
Where ...
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Where is the best place to trick a vampire into "crossing open water"?
Vampires in my modern-day urban fantasy setting, to varying degrees, have a weakness to both sunlight and open water. The celestial energies Earth radiates out from its core take on different ...
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How would warfare change if everyone were concentrated into giant cities?
Due to environmental concerns (very cold winters) humans are concentrated into a few large cities all around the world; smaller isolated settlements die out quickly. These cities would form the basis ...
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Skyscrapers in colder climates
Basically the world I am designing gets really cold in the winter (coldest month of the year averages -75C in some inhabited areas). Because of this people dont really like to build small more ...
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Viability of Domed Communities for Defence Against Biological Warfare/Severe Weather Events
I’m currently working on a setting idea, and want to get some feedback on whether or not it is at all sound.
In brief, a corporation had been tasked by the government to establish and test potential ...
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Why would a settlement set up shop INSIDE a supermassive creature's mouth?
In a story idea I have, there is a massive, stationary beast, with teeth the size of houses, a body as large as a continent, and an unfathomably large mouth (don't ask how it sustains itself, nobody ...
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What could cause a city to be buried underground but still remain relatively intact?
I am taking inspiration from games like Dark Souls (Dark Souls 1: Lost Izalith, Dark Souls 2: Shulva - Sanctum City, Dark Souls 3: Profaned Capital) and Elden Ring (Eternal Cities - yes it is ...
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How long would it take to build an underground city?
In my fantasy world, there is a race of ghouls. They are a knit-tit community, and while they built underground cities, including reforming abandoned mines as living places, they eventually kept ...
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How to Supply a City on top of a Vertical Cliff?
In my fantasy series, there’s this city called Pharcos situated on top of nearly vertical 3,500ish foot high sandstone cliffs above the river it uses for water.
This river, called the Clazelis, along ...
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Where are villages usually placed?
Do villages always live next to or near mountains? I live in a country where villages are still around, however the only ones I know off are placed near mountains. My intention is to:
Write a village ...
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Can a civilization develop Urban Centers without Agriculture?
Say I wanted to create a civilization of people who, in accordance with a vow to never harm plants, refuse to practice agriculture or animal husbandry, instead relying hunting and fishing for all of ...
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How would mapmakers deal with moving cities?
Imagine a city on treads; if you've seen or read Mortal Engines, imagine that instead.
beep beep losers here I come
They're constantly moving, and have decent populations. Don't worry about how it ...
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How could a tobacco/nicotine prohibition be efficient?
In The Dictatrix and the Navigator (a live-action feature film I am writing, I want to direct myself, and I would like to play some characters within it) (I want to play both the Dictatrix and the ...
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On the best arch types for underground cities [closed]
I am working on a civilization that often digs into mountains, and I am wondering what form of arch would work best to hold up all the mass from the mountain above the halls. I know many arch types ...
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Is it possible for a facility, building, or an area/city in a nation to be out of the grasp of the government?
I'm trying to make a place that is a part of a nation but not under its government's rule, specifically a mental institution. It has dark secrets within its walls.
I want to write a mystery story ...
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What geometry would an artificial sun take in a domed city?
My alien world has advanced to living in domed cities powered mostly by wind. They need to emulate a diurnal sunlight cycle and get the maximum full-visible-spectrum sunlight to the largest portion of ...
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How would winged mounts affect the architecture and layout of cities? [duplicate]
So, the setting I am building for a story has gryphons, which are used as the primary mounts by the people of the main country. I am trying to figure out the implications of this, and how it would ...
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How many years until cities become either a flatland or forests? [closed]
To be clear, I'm talking about apocalyptic events that cause devastating long-term effects, such as:
An asteroid impact (lets say about 4.5km wide)
A hyper-eruption from a super volcano (lets say it ...
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How would an entire static city that floats on the water be designed? [duplicate]
I'm writing a sci-fi story which includes what I'm naming "buoyant cities". They're cities that can house about 150,000 people, with fully functioning electricity, plumbing, waste management,...
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