Imperial City help me punch it up

gregwr · October 2010

I'm currently working on an Imperial city for a new campaign. The current map is actually of the city center where the most "fun" happens. I started the map in the lower right with the area I have named the "Rat warrens". The most poor section of the city and down river of the main city. I made a mistake while mapping the city wall and that is why the southern walls do not face each other across ther river. When I saw my mistake I decided to keep it that way and added the ditch around the Rat warrens. It represents the ditch started as the foundation where the wall was to go but was moved do to bad stability in the soil there. Just one of those great "mistakes that make ideas", moments that I had to share.
I have two questions for the community. One, is the change in building style for the emperor's castle too jarring. Two I'd like any suggestions for punching up the whole map. I realize I dont have an index up yet but thats because its a WIP.

bearclaw · October 2010

I'd have to say that the change in style is pretty drastic. but other than that, this map looks good. Has a very organic type of flow and the curves in the roads suggest topography changes. Espcially in the area 10, 11, & 12.

JimP · October 2010

Skeletal trees or trees of a brownish color for the poor areas. And the ditch should be brown, not green.

Maybe some sort of overlay to the poor area houses so they don't look like they are in good shape. The scalable hatching under Fill Styles might work. The Rat Warren houses don't look any worse than the brown houses in other areas.

The south walls not meeting does make it somewhat vulnerable. Maybe a small castle or keep on the western shore near the wall providing an anchor for the defense.

gregwr · October 2010

Thanks guys for the comments. Jim I had considered the vulnerability, and was thinking of something like a chain barrier across that section, but wasnt sure how well it would show. Thanks also for the idea to make the warrens more gritty. Thanks Bear for noticing my attempt to make streets that grow from the terrain. The streets process down from the Imperial castle along a slope ending, you guessed it, at the rat warrens. Im going to try adding the suggestions and may post the update tommorow.

gak · October 2010

I tend to come at city maps from a "realist" perspective, and try to make my cities internally consistent (which has the side benefit of stopping players from asking annoying questions, at least some of the time!). So my comments may well not apply to your situation, but I figure it's worth mentioning them just in case!

What era is this? I'm assuming some sort of medieval period, given the walls and castle. Which makes me wonder what all those empty spaces are for - I think you need something to give the viewer an idea of what's going on there.

You can get away with the walls not meeting if you say that the river is fast-flowing, or there is some other physical impediment to an armed crossing - there are historical precedents on your side for that!

I'm worried about the "road" leading from the west to the east. It definitely looks odd - compared to the other streets, it's the width of a cycle path and a bit too straight.

Finally, it's very low population density for an Imperial city. If I compare the number and size of buildings to the trees, I end up wondering how the city works - who's manning all those towers, for example? (Or is it a military city, in which case I would expect to see large barracks somewhere to house all the troops.)

I would try to distinguish the various grey areas, too. At the moment, you have grey being used for stone walls, streets and buildings. To me, that's one element too many.

I like the muted colours - there's nothing jarring and they work well together.

I'm curious to see how this evolves and look forward to the update(s).

gregwr · October 2010

I had written well over 2 paragraphs about my changes etc and lost it all when I accidently closed the page I was on. Dopey me. Gak, you might have missed where I said this was the city center. It actually sprawls for miles around. Thats the reason for the one very straight road. It is the Imperial trade road.Thanks Gak for pointing out the road. What happened with it is that it ended up on the buildings sheet and was given the wrong effects. I did this map in the CA25 style by the way. My intention being to use this as the general lay out then later zoom in and make highly detailed maps of neighbohoods. As you can see I've only done a few changes. I worked for hours trying to get Jims idea to look good when zoomed out, but it was beyond me.

Monsen · October 2010

As a city center, it looks a little sparse in my opinion. What is all the open space between houses, like for example where the number 10 is located? Traditionally, space is at a premium inside cities, and all available space tend to be used for buildings.

gregwr · October 2010

I have crowded up some areas based on comments. My original idea was that the open areas would be courtyards, and workyards. The larger open areas that I kept are the jousting area and the muster areas for soldiers. I know that many walled cities had construction right up to the wall, but I had intentionaly left those areas open as part of the history of the empire. I should mention too that this empire is more like a large kingdom, and the title emporer was taken by the king who brought together the 3 neighboring kingdoms into his.

john · October 2010

Using a different style for the castle is jarring - but I think you could make it work as a stylistic element if all of the most important buildings in the city had this different style (castle, temples, important guild halls, etc.).

If you want to change the wall, you can easily use the Break command and then redraw the last segment. But, as Gak said, there are plenty of ways to explain its current orientation.

Valdore · October 2010

Well, coming from a realistic point of view, castles tend to be place in the most defensible location, which would in reality be that river island, though there are explanations for why this might not be the case, but that's where I would have put it personally

I would also agree with the comments regarding the central road, it looks completely at odds with the other roads in the city, given the rest are flowing. I'm also a little bemused by the sudden grassy areas in what appears to be an arid landscape, but I'm sure you have a reasoning behind it

Hope these help, if not for this city, then maybe for a future one

gregwr · October 2010

I decided I was unsatisfied with the result of my first attempt with the CA25 style, I am going to build the city one section at a time starting with the rat warrens. Here is what I have so far. I'm keeping the ditch that seperates it from the rest of the city. The stream is actually the out flow from the city sewers. Anyone living near it is either very poor or runs a buisness like a tannery that needs access to flush its wastes.

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Imperial City help me punch it up

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