Our tips to build the best town layout in Fabledom

✓ At a glance

• Always survey the map and locate useful resources to set up a plan for expansion.
• Consider your Fablings’ classes when setting up housing and workplaces.
• Don’t ignore desirability – otherwise, you’ll never get new Fablings to move in.

The layout of your town can make or break your kingdom. While the map you choose effectively lays the groundwork for your path to success, poor execution will cost you big time. To turn a profit and expand your territory, you’ll first need to consider the resources at your disposal and the general wellbeing of your Fablings, doing what you can to keep your residents happy and healthy. 

Of course, this is much easier said than done as each citizen class boasts a different set of needs and work qualifications. If ignored, these factors can throw a wrench in even the most precise city plans, so it’s a good idea to cover all bases. Let’s break down the best town layout in Fabledom and other factors to consider in your plans.   

How to get the best town layout 

Most city builds can work with proper planning, but the best layout utilizes a tier system of sorts. Starting out, your town primarily consists of peasants able to work a variety of jobs and travel somewhat lengthy distances. Once you add commoners and nobles to the mix, though, it gets a lot trickier to satisfy the needs of your residents without the proper infrastructure in place. 

With this in mind, you’ll want to keep communities separate while putting the skills of each class to good use. On my own playthrough, I’ve created designated farming areas within working neighbourhoods. This is where the majority of my peasant Fablings are housed and employed, while I’ve expanded to new territories to begin welcoming commoners and nobles. Since these classes consume more food and are better qualified to run hospitals and shops, I’ve placed condominiums close to these structures as well as a bakery and an inn to provide ready access to food and work. 

I’ve seen other Fabledom players organize their realm by rings, each occupied by a different class of citizens. This is an excellent layout to work with, but this kind of build can be tough to achieve unless you’ve paid to expand to all available lots in your realm. In the meantime, it’s a good idea to establish small communities and expand as you go. You can always relocate developed projects to a different area later on. 

Choosing a map that works

Not all realms are created equal in Fabledom. When you choose your map at the start of your playthrough, you should weigh the pros and cons of each realm’s size and qualities to best suit the layout you want. Larger territories hold the most potential for a sprawling cityscape while those on the smaller side can be a challenge to work with as you only have so much space to build necessary structures, house new residents, and reach population milestones. 

Apart from this, land quality plays a major role in your layout’s viability. Creative players may favour mountainous areas that feature waterfalls and striking focal points, but hilly maps aren’t ideal for the average builder. To ensure your realm is free of inclines, you can toggle this quality off when choosing a map. 

Most importantly, though, a good map features dense forests for logging wood and stocking up on coal, and ready access to water without too many rivers dividing the land. You can get by with one large water source or easy access to the ocean to supply your residents with enough fish to eat, but forests are perhaps the most crucial feature as you’ll need wood (and planks) to construct new housing and industrial projects and make enough coal to last each winter. Look for a map with normal to large ocean access and dense forests to meet the needs of your kingdom. 

5 Tips to consider when building your town

Even when you’ve mapped out a town layout that works in theory, several other factors can affect its efficiency in practice. Consider the following to ensure your realm’s success. 

Population and Available Work

It’s tempting to take on new residents at every turn if you have the proper housing, but it’s a good idea to survey the classes of incoming Fablings and what kind of work is readily available in your realm. While peasants are well-equipped to handle farming, entertainment, and resource production, only commoners and higher classes are qualified to work at hospitals and the like – as terrible as it sounds. This affects where certain services can feasibly be placed. 

Distance Between Work and Home

In the same vein, Fablings are generally unwilling to make long commutes to work, and their happiness will plummet if they’re forced to travel long distances. This means you’ll need to consider the route from a resident’s home to their place of work. The higher the class, however, the tougher the task. Commoners get hungry faster than peasants, for example, so they require a shorter commute or else risk starvation. 

Adequate Production of Food and Resources

Leading into the next point, you’ll need to stock up on enough food and resources to keep your population happy and healthy in Fabledom. Since higher classes of Fablings eat more frequently, it’s a good idea to implement a generous number of farms, fishing docks, and bakeries in your layout. Stockpiles and granaries are literal lifesavers in this regard as they’re used to store supplies, so you should build these structures near each farm and production site.  

Housing Necessities

While intuitive, this point bears repeating. Each housing development needs access to water; otherwise, your residents will voice their discontent. To be safe, you should prioritize the construction of wells and sewer drains over finished homes to ensure new Fablings’ needs are met in planning your layout. 

Desirability

Last but certainly not least, the desirability of your realm plays a key role in attracting newcomers and earning valuable rewards. Whether your layout is perfect on paper or a bit haphazard, investing in amenities and decorations helps to increase resident happiness and an area’s overall beauty. Combined, these factors establish and maintain high desirability, especially in locations otherwise brought down by resource production sites.