I've been trying to experiment with making buildings on Forge World, but the only good objects I can use are Colliseum Windows and Walls. And Making large scale buildings, and even small scale buildings is not an easy task for me. If anyone could give me some tips on better building making tips or how to make a good City in the Canyon I would appriciate it!
would suggest downloading a few city maps first and seeing how they make them. then try and mix a few different ideas together
What I've seen a lot of is using building blocks (4x4 and 5x5, talls) and if you stack them they seem to look a lot like buildings. Use some of these for unenterable buildings and then build some of your own enterable buildings or plazas and figure out ways to make it look "interesting". Also your incline pieces can be really good at making believable roofs. Hope this helps in some small way.
I recently started working on a city map and it's coming along good. Lemme tell you what I've been doing; maybe it'll help. Start by placing a foundation for your building -- a flat floor of Building Block 5x5 Flats -- try doing a 2x3 floor (of 5x5 blocks, meaning that it'd be 10x15 units). Once that's done, place a Sniper Nest on each corner... So what you have now is a kind of empty trapezoidal prism. Now, place an assortment of Bridges and Platforms (mostly the latter) to flesh out the ceiling and the main entrances. Upside-down Platform, XLs and Platform, XXLs work well, as do Platform, Y Larges. Flesh out the walls (the straight, vertical sides of what was once a trapezoidal prism) next, using thicker building blocks and Decorations. ... Basically, to give your buildings a common aesthetic, start each using the same basic method, before moving on to individual touches and variations. It's worked fairly well for me.
The best buildings I have seen are prefab ones bungie gives you. Although it cuts down on the variety and makes everything look somewhat forerunner, it allows you to make more buildings with the available budget, and all the angles look nicer. A mix of that and custom buildings would probably be best. The prefab buildings also have the benefit of walkways inside and outside so it expands the playable area of the map.
When I was creating my city map I used pictures of buildings for reference. Not so much as a blueprint for what I was building, but I was looking for the basic shapes and silhouettes of the buildings I liked, then tried to replicate those forms in the buildings I was making. When building your structures I'd recommend not completing any one single building at first, but moving from structure to structure after you've completed maybe 50% of it. That way you can spread out your cost to make more buildings, otherwise you will be stuck with a single mega structure. For me that meant that I skimped on the interiors and was limited in the amount of floors I had, but was able to have several usable buildings, instead of one or two %100 complete buildings.
When I was trying this....I thought of COD Maps....and other war games set in urban areas....most often, only a few structures have interiors or stairs, etc....others are just scenery and place holders.... So, for yer skyscrapers, shops, etc, use combinations of blocks, decoration and buildings, inclines, etc.....you can then make use of the vast multitude of blocks and walls to "frame in" structures that are scenery, or just exterior balcony areas....