Parliament/Government Build

[RobloxianFreedom]

Background
I’ve recently begun working on a fictional parliament community where players will be able to join/create political parties and debate legislation for made-up scenarios, similar to Model UN clubs for those who are familiar. It’s largely inspired by the government of the commonwealth nations, primarily the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Canada, and Australia. As a result, I have had bits and pieces from all of these nation’s governments incorporated into my build. However, the inspiration for parts has come from other nations and even a fictional government from Star Wars The Clone Wars (the CIS parliament). I’ve also dug through blueprint designs for planned renovations to UK, Canada, and Jamaican parliaments as well as other, non-commonwealth, governments including America’s congressional chambers, my own local government, and some other legislative designs. Hands down, I would like to give credit to the Commons at Westminister Palace because they have inspired the other chambers to an extent that what I may be basing my work off is already based on theirs.

Current Progress
The working/current build. I need to move on to creating the entrance door, the back door (it’s where the Speaker’s office is, and the upper balcony for viewers) and then replicate all using a plugin so that way it’s symmetrical:

The little shields across the top are actually meshes of various animals. I only made about 1-2 of the meshes and the rest are not mine. Many have been copied and such to the point that it’s too hard to credit the original owners. However, I do hope to contact as many of the creators and get permission to use them for the time being once the final version is existent:

Here’s the original version I started maybe a month ago (I took a break to figure out how to do the wall portion):

Here’s a sorta cringe version I started in 2016 and then never finished. It, in the end, is what prompted me to go back and remake it:

Questions For Feedback

1. What do you think of the walls (upper section and lower section)? I have made multiple versions and this was the one I settled with but I’m still iffy about the lower half which is visible on either side of the seating.
2. What do you think of the thinned cushions compared to the thicker ones in my older draft of the build?
3. Any other comments/advice?

(Some) Reference Photos
UK house of commons:

Early drawings of Canada’s new renovations:

UK house of common’s planed renovations:

Star Wars The Clone Wars CIS parliament:

You’ve made it this far, hello! And thank you for your time! This is me after typing all that.

[Cyber_Star00 (CyberStar)]

I’ll throw my two cents worth of thought on this topic:

I’m not really partial to either wall design. They look government-y, which I consider good enough.

When it comes to the chair cushions, though, I actually prefer the thicker cushions compared to the thinned ones. When I first saw the design, I saw each individual bump in the cushioning as an individual Roblox seat… and I cringed as a result. Just imagine the clipping issues that would come from seats like that! That’s just me though; I’m not sure if anyone else gets that impression when they first see it.

Finally, a comment on the overall design of your build: the back seats seem to face the “throne,” so to speak, and then suddenly transition to audience-facing pews. I cannot describe with exactness what this evokes inside me, but let’s just say it throws me off guard. It just seems… off. Since I’m not quite sure how to explain what I’m seeing, I have no suggestions as to how you could improve it… so unless you feel the same way, don’t worry about it.

Overall a nice build! Good work

[RobloxianFreedom]

Thank you for responding!

When it comes to the chair cushions, though, I actually prefer the thicker cushions compared to the thinned ones. When I first saw the design, I saw each individual bump in the cushioning as an individual Roblox seat… and I cringed as a result. Just imagine the clipping issues that would come from seats like that! That’s just me though; I’m not sure if anyone else gets that impression when they first see it.

I actually agree with the wider seats however someone suggested I do a test with .5 studs thick instead of 1 stud thick and I didn’t change it back. I asked some folks which one they liked better and seemed pretty split. I think I might switch it back no sure.

Finally, a comment on the overall design of your build: the back seats seem to face the “throne,” so to speak, and then suddenly transition to audience-facing pews. I cannot describe with exactness what this evokes inside me, but let’s just say it throws me off guard. It just seems… off. Since I’m not quite sure how to explain what I’m seeing, I have no suggestions as to how you could improve it… so unless you feel the same way, don’t worry about it.

The seats that face the speaker’s chair (or throne) are for special roles but that lighter green line shows where non-MPs can go up-to such as the Sergeant at Arms (Serjeant-at-arms in UK spelling) and guest speakers. They are a tad weird I’ll admit but they mimic the IRL ones. I ended up cutting one of the seats out and now there’s only one front-facing seat on either side.

[g8m]

Speaking from some of my experience with Ro-Nations, I’m not exactly sure of the scaling but say, the main floor seems to be a bit of a small fit. This is anticipating the fact that there would be larger scale meetings taking place here.

I like everything else, and the wall designs. I just think the area could be a bit larger

[RobloxianFreedom]

I have purposely designed it to be shall we say… cozy? As the nature of this body is to hold the entire parliament–compared to a committee room, at least–I saw fit to predict the largest possible size of the body. I estimated maybe around 40 (and it hold just over that) people will likely join the community and be active.

It was a great personal debate whether to make the size larger to mimic real word Parliament buildings but I decided not to based on two factors. First and foremost, the size is just smaller than real governments with a maximum cap of 100 players on a server (which I thought itself would be nearly double than what it would ever be). It’s also based largely off the post-WWII British House of Commons which was designed to be snug. It’s believed that Churchill, himself, advocated for this so that way debates would be more personal. That being said, I think they also had limitations on floor-sizes in Westminster.

I do plan to expand it, however, should the community take off so I’m thankful for your comment because it was one of the things I spent a great time thinking about.

I intended to update this post anyway so here’s some pictures from the new division lobbies (side rooms running along the chamber that members enter when a vote needs to be recorded where either lobby is either vote.