I have come apon some information via the wiki that has tempted me to try a total restart of my Minecraft swamp village I will be starting a new one this week, and will post screenshots of it's evolution.
Reasoning: I have always been curious of how a village size, boundries and center is actually defined. Supposedly the "well" acts as a center point, and the village spawns around it, but in practice I have seen many NPC villages that are all in a straight line from the well or spread out in only one general direction from it with villagers rarely moving much PAST said well in the unpopulated direction. I have also noted that my man-made villages all tend to have the well as a center point, altho the current swamp villiage does not, and the villagers seemed to all stay to one area or another without really spreading out around the well.
So:
this village will be built with the well centered on the water's edge, half over the shore (non altered shoreline) half will be stilted over water structures half will be dry land structures.
I will have one of each of the following: Library Church Forge/Blacksmith Tavern spaced fore-square around the well, the tavern and library will be over water and the Church and forge will be on dry land. Farms will be divided between wet and dry areas
I want to have enough doors/houses for a minimum of 12 villagers equally placed over land/water. pathways will be gravel for the land side and the raised wood walkways for the water side. inital "spawn" of villagers will be 4 either via eggs or possibly being "stolen" from another village if possible, only after the village buildings are completed.
NO non-NPC buildings will be used in this experiment.
i will post plans/screenshots as the village is built/evolves
I hope the experiment is going well! It makes me curious, and the wiki: talk forums are making it more thought-provoking. -As far as I have experienced, villagers are not bound by the village size. "If it fits, I sit".
My findings are showing a significant diffrence between what is posted and what really seems to happen. the actual villager spawn point seems to dictate their "free range" more than the Village center
-As far as I have experienced, villagers are not bound by the village size. "If it fits, I sit".