Realistic structure for Cities and the Badlands

[SyberSmoke]

Every time I see the badlands I have to scratch my head. The entire zone looks like something up-heaved the area then plopped a city in the middle. This bugs, I say this because there is no context and no reasoning. It misses that little bit of information that ties it all together...and so I suggest the following. 1. The badlands get smoothed a little, I am guessing it represents debris, but to go from one biome to the badlands is just odd feeling. 2. The Badlands is turned into a more Industrial Area feel. Large collapsed industrial buildings, warehouses, and sprawling factories. A place where you expect radiation, toxic waste, and all sorts of bad things. 3. The "City" is converted into a biome and called "Downtown". It is the center of the urban landscape. This is where you have the bigger buildings, skyscrapers, and parking structures. Just...mostly ruined. 4. A new Biome: "The Suburbs". The suburbs and Badlands encircle down town and act as a patchwork quilt to the cities center. After all cites form from the center outwards. The Suburbs have ruined houses, collapsed strip-malls, infested malls, and more. 5. For cities biome division would need to change a little. The rivers is nifty but for a city it does not work all the time. In this case I would suggest using Freeways, Highways, and Expressways. These are natural divisions in any city and could act later as thoroughfares for cars. This could even be a way to decorate the city with one side nearly empty with the other packed with cars trying to flee the city. The thought is simple, structure things more how a city would develop. This way the city would be less jarring and players are more able to understand it. Finally the entire thing could be scaled so you can have a sprawling metropolis of the shambling dead. Or a quaint village with the undead leisurely wandering the buildings. These places should be the most infested places possible...but also have the greatest rewards for the brave and heavily armed.