Zed's Ford, Inn and Tavern
So here's my first actual project that I feel is complete enough to post for critique and feedback.
We start with a city located adjacent to a ford allowing travel across the river. The ford is rough and doesn't quite look as good as I would like but I think the over all effect is there.
Second we have the small town's Inn. In the original map it is marked with a purple bounding box to indicate that in the original .fcw it's a link. This inn itself utilizes the point light effects as well as a directional wall shadow outside the inn. The first floor is a tavern with a small kitchen attached.
Above the tavern is the inn proper. It has one common room and three private rooms. All the rooms share a privy which is located at the top of the stairs. Again this has been rendered with the point lights inside and directional shadows outside. I tried to follow the sunlight pattern and have the light shining into the south facing rooms a bit stronger than the north facing windows. The global sun option have the sun coming from the lower right area of the map and thus the north facing windows would be on the shadow side of the building.
This is a rectangular jpg directly from CC3 with no post work from any outside source. I'm particularly proud of the effect I was able to accomplish on each chimney. It's hard to see in these shots but the water troughs and the wash basin in the kitchen have some nice gradient effects on them as well.
That being said... let me know what you guys think. I'm definitely open to constructive criticisms. Even if you don't have anything constructive to say, just letting me know what you don't like about the maps will help me to improve my skill and technique.
Thanks for taking the time to check them out.
We start with a city located adjacent to a ford allowing travel across the river. The ford is rough and doesn't quite look as good as I would like but I think the over all effect is there.
Second we have the small town's Inn. In the original map it is marked with a purple bounding box to indicate that in the original .fcw it's a link. This inn itself utilizes the point light effects as well as a directional wall shadow outside the inn. The first floor is a tavern with a small kitchen attached.
Above the tavern is the inn proper. It has one common room and three private rooms. All the rooms share a privy which is located at the top of the stairs. Again this has been rendered with the point lights inside and directional shadows outside. I tried to follow the sunlight pattern and have the light shining into the south facing rooms a bit stronger than the north facing windows. The global sun option have the sun coming from the lower right area of the map and thus the north facing windows would be on the shadow side of the building.
This is a rectangular jpg directly from CC3 with no post work from any outside source. I'm particularly proud of the effect I was able to accomplish on each chimney. It's hard to see in these shots but the water troughs and the wash basin in the kitchen have some nice gradient effects on them as well.
That being said... let me know what you guys think. I'm definitely open to constructive criticisms. Even if you don't have anything constructive to say, just letting me know what you don't like about the maps will help me to improve my skill and technique.
Thanks for taking the time to check them out.
Comments
Very nicely done, at least from my point of view. I am sure that one of the Master Mappers will have more useful comments.
The ford in the city map is quite nice I think. Allthough the effect bleeds onto the shores a bit as well...
My biggest nitpick with the city map is that the city looks a bit bland. You could add some more colors by adding stuff to some roofs (towers or chimneys), add market stalls or walled gardens, etc.
The building maps are very nice, good use of light effects.
Monsen - Yes I do... I think it hinders my map creating more often than it helps though.
Bearclaw - Thanks. I was actually inspired to post my Tavern after you posted your crypt due its fantastic lighting.
Gandwarf - The effect bleed was intentional but after reading your comments I think I'll work to clean it up and define it a bit more. I agree with the city looking rather bland. The market is something I plan to add in the center of town. Even though the city is quite small, I might introduce some wards to it. Make a few more dense and a less dense. Thanks for your comments.
In regard to the ford...
I'm actually try to accomplish two different effects.
1) I want the water to look shallow so the ford itself is readily apparent.
2) I want the banks of the stream to look muddy due to the constant traffic entering and exiting the water.
While this would be easy to accomplish in Photoshop (or any other image editor), I'm trying to limit all effects and manipulation to CC3 and it's respective add-ons.
I'll keep posting updates as I try new things. Suggestions would be very welcomed.
One change that I need to make is the placement of the dike on the west and south boundaries of the town. I thought it was a good idea but then realized that it would serve to actually trap water in the town rather than keeping it out. So the dike is out for now.
Jaerdaph - Thanks. I can't quite get the Inn above to have the same level of warmth. The fireplace symbols have a yellow transparency included with them to give a nice glow but I haven't quite found how to replicate it upstairs.
I've scaled back the size of the trees and increased the number. I'm still going to place more buildings in the northern section of the map but I think the town is much more organic now.
Also like the look of the fiels better. How did you achieve that effect?
I've also added some chimney's and a little more color to the existing buildings and moved the storage silos into a new location.
Joachim - Thank you!
Henrie - I'll post a descripton of my fields in a bit, I'm out of time right now.
Thanks for the input everyone.
Draw your fields where you want them placed. I prefer to use Smooth Poly rather than Polygon for a more chaotic feel but depending on the level agricultural advancement of your map either will work. The edge effects will work better with Smooth Poly however.
I have chosen the bitmap fills from CD3B
Grass Bright 2
Grass Dark 1,2,3
Thatched Roof (it naturally makes a good grain field)
When your fields are placed, make a new sheet "Fields Background" or any name you're comfortable with and then move it UP and place it above your Fields sheet in the hierarchy.
Choose CD3B Earth Brown 3 as a fill style and then create another Smooth Poly around the outside of your existing fields. Try not to be too precise as you want it to be a little messy around the edges varying between 3 and 7 feet. Don't worry about the exact numbers. I only put them here as a reference.
Sheet Effects
Fields Background
Glow
Outside
Color 35
Strength 0
Blur 20
Glow
Inside
Color 40
Strength 0
Blur 40
Fields
Glow
Inside
Color 41
Strength 1
Blur 20
Glow
Outside
Color 132
Strength 0
Blur 15
As an option, you can also add a Transparency to the Fields sheet to allow more of the Earth color to come through. I use transparency effects a lot in my maps but I didn't use them on the fields here.
There you have it. That's how I created the fields for this map.
Also, I wonder where the privy drains to. I tend to use outhouses and earth closets, because sewerage is disgusting, and people like to have it outside, especially if they have no flushing mechanisms.
Other than that? I think they are really cool.
I have no idea what the technology level of this world is, but if it's medieval, privy waste would probably be disposed of in the streets or river. It could also be gathered (maybe to be used on the farms or in tanneries).
As for the outlying buildings... they were designed to look good rather than function well. So here's my quick imaginings on placement...
There are actually three sections that are "out in the woods" so I'll touch on each of them. The section to the NW of town is a new build by a few of the more wealthy inhabitants hoping to create another less crowded section of town.
The section to the SW of the ford is another section of new growth. It's not quite a shanty town but it borders on it. Poor quality of contruction, little planning. Buildings are at odd angles and the 'roads' are only starting to take shape.
The section to the N of town is what I call old city money. Residents with enough money, power, influence to prevent others from building too close to them and have prevented growth of the city northward. Though it's hard to tell from the map, this section is also high in elevation than the town proper. The houses and claimed land in this section are what caused the haphazard growth on the opposite banks of the river. Rather than spend their money on lavish homes with private gardens on the bank of the river (as did the six estate owners that are on the bank) these people have chosen to remain in their family homes and simply purchase the land around them by land deed and use courtesy rather than physical lines of demarcation to maintain their property lines.
"Off Map"
What is not seen in this map is the additional argricultural land that exists. A few tens of acres to the north and a few hundred acres to the east are dedicated farm and ranch land.
In the future my maps will probably not come with instructions or a detailed write up, so I'll need to work on making sure they are self contained and answer the observers questions without commentary.
Thanks for the feedback!
Really like the look of them.
In my opinion the map is looking good.
Maybe the scaling of the houses needs a bit more attention.
The houses in the centre are rather big compared to the rest.
But thats a problem I also have myself.
Its hard to keep everything the right size.
Center houses belong to richer people and/or houses more familly.
Houses outside the walls were build with less order/organisation and were sometimes nothing more then a peasant's hut.
I'm pretty new to CD3 and am making a small, test village. It has a ford and I was wondering how you made your ford? Any tips?
Thanks,
Kyle
land
river
Use a lighter blue for the ford area.