You can just go and see the leading players on a server – they usually have removed anything that is not worth having and replaced it with the latest best output buildings and as many of those they can get their hands on. The creativy in the FoE city layout lies mostly with space management – like solving a puzzle type game – if I move these buildings over here and exchange this with that then I can make space for this buidling and have a better FP income, atk stats or whatever it is. Usually the sort of visual creativy is mostly displayed when some players leave the game – then there is nearly no functionality invovled anymore and they can plant 2000 tress or write something with roads etc etc.
but the game is not like that at all – it can be played like that but then the game it self will be a somewhat an annoyance or a compromised play style. I am sure if anybody made a copy of their city with nearly free unlimited space - their cities would look quite different than they do now - it is the part of the whole intent of buying diamonds (not the only one) – that lurking dream of having enough space to do all the stuff and sorround the differnt parts with roads all around etc etc. With some luck a city can somtimes have a pleasent look to the eye and still be effective, but most of the time it is not the case. Some players suffer from various degrees of OCD related issues and their cities are very very strict in their layout – it looks impressive and effective but that is also not the most effective city layout. or if player chooses a road type that is not the best, but because it looks better to players eye. * by Romantic I mean for e.g certain type of buildings that fit togther for their looks etc. Anytime a player goes for the " Romantic*" choice chance are that it is not as effective as it could be and that over time will slow the players progress down. The creativity of FoE city layout is farily limited once a player master all the basic compositions – it is limited because in reality it is about effectiveness at the cost of making a city look nice. It shows several options to get the most out of your city space and many variations about the Sets as well. There is a infamous Guide around, cant find it anymore – think it is on a website or blog now.
Many players have their City hall in a corner - it is okay but not the most effective postion – pushing the City Hall a bit inwards and about 2-4 GBs can be connected behind/around the CH with a very small amount of roads.