Tips for drawing my first large city map

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post. I started using CC3 about a year ago. So far I've got a very basic dungeon map under my belt and my overland world map is a work in progress. I've done one small (village) city map and now I'm attempting the capital city. It's a coastal city and I have a rough sketch based on some tips I picked up from this video >

But other than that, I'm really not sure where/how to start. How would you go about tackling a large capital city (population: 50,000)? Below are some links to my completed village (population: 500) and the rough sketch start for the capital. I'll also attach the .FCW file for the village if you want to give any criticism. I'd greatly appreciate any advice. I still fumble my way around CC3 and would definitely like to get better/faster with it.

Village Map
Large City Sketch

Thanks for your time and help.
Bruno71

Comments

  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited August 2017
    Hi bruno71. Welcome to the ProFantasy Forum!

    The thought of mapping a city can be pretty intimidating at first, but it's much more manageable if you break the task down into steps or phases. Yours is a pretty common question, even from more experienced mappers who've done many other types of maps but want to finally tackle a city map.

    Check out this post I made a while back that lists some really good tutorials and information about planning and making cities with CC3/CD3. Remember, there's no "right way" to map a city, but these links provide a solid foundation and may generate other ideas. For inspiration, you might want to check out this amazing city showcase discussion by Gandwarf. And, of course, you can always just search the forum for other CD3 city examples.

    I hope it helps!

    Be patient. Go easy on yourself as you figure out what works for you. I recommend that you, both, keep the Autosave function on (you can turn off the message prompt while still letting CC3 save in the background) and also manually save often. Cities can be a real challenge but completing a city map feels insanely rewarding. :D

    Also, if it's an option for you, I highly recommend purchasing the Tome of Ultimate Mapping. It contains a trove of helpful information, tips, and tutorials that go beyond the User Manual and Essentials guides for every ProFantasy product, including City Designer.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • Hi Bruno71 and welcome to the Forum

    Starting a larger city can be a bit overwhelming, but if you do it step by step, you should be fine.
    I'd suggest to start with putting the relevant landmarks into place. You don't need to map out all of the terrain, but you should decide on where you want to have elevations, rivers ect.
    Then, a good method to start a large city is to build it up the way it would have been built in reality. Start with the oldest part of the city and then add newer parts. I have done so in this mapping project: http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=7051&page=2
    Many cities evolve around a place that is either easy to defend (hill, island, peninsula ect.). But as cities grow, they may outgrow the location that gives them a defensive advantage. Also, many cities were founded in places that were significant for trading.

    Cheers,

    Hadrian
  • Awesome...thanks for the links! I'll check these things out.
  • JimPJimP 🖼️ 280 images Cartographer
    edited August 2017
    I have used two methods of drawing large cities.

    1) in parts, clearly labelled.

    I'll attach my old Brillar, Dank Forest maps below.

    2) with a large plan showing 'military', 'poor', etc. types of districts. And then I drew several geomorph hexagons for each type.

    Dtillan Orsti
  • ScottAScottA Surveyor
    Some great advice here. Cities have always been a sore spot for me and have always frustrated me. I think I have handle on them now, however. My first few attempts I didn't really understand the CC3+ CD commands, which made the job really hard. Plus I wasn't thinking about the city as a living thing. Where is it located? Why? What sort of population does it have? Industry? How and where has it grown? These are all important considerations to keep in mind. The tutorials suggested here were a great help and inspiration.

    I also recently found a fantastic source book on Medieval cities: A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe by Joesph Browning and Suzi Yee. It is written for an RPG, but there isn't much actual game mechanics in it and is more a treatise on cities of the time, and is an invaluable resource that I highly recommend to anyone mapping fantasy/Medieval cities. The only place I found it readily available was here (Amazon and eBay had copies for exorbitant prices!): http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192370/A-Magical-Medieval-Society-Western-Europe-Third-Edition. I have no ties to the authors or store and am not shilling the product for anyone, I just HIGHLY recommend it.
  • edited August 2017
    Thanks again to everyone for your advice and comments. I've gone over everything I could and jumped into the mapping. I figured I would post some updates on my progress here. This is by no means a tutorial, but just the steps that I took.

    1. I started with a random scribble sketch. Just some random blobs to break it up into areas.
    image

    2. Then I added the water (because it's a coastal city) and the walls. I learned how to make a new drawing tool to add the wall towers and gatehouses.
    image

    3. I added a dirt texture inside the city as well as some beach areas along the coast after learning how to make a new fill style.
    image

    4. Finally I turned my random blobs into the city wards and labeled them.
    image

    Next up will be the main roads.
  • You might change the scale of the bitmap fills so they lose the checkerboard appearance. Or just uncheck the scale to see how it looks without that. Particularly the water and dirt ones.
  • Progress update

    5. I added the main roads. Connecting the gates and important areas. Going through some wards and around others.
    image

    6. Now I'll start adding major landmarks. Here is a closeup of the governors house. In preparing for the next step, how do you start laying out your city blocks? Do you just draw small squares leaving alley ways in between and then fill it with houses? Or do you draw all the side streets and pathways and then use the 'random street' tool?
    image
  • 8 days later
  • Progress Update

    7. I decided to tackle the houses in a district next. First I laid out some roads. Just random lines.
    image


    8. Then I added some major buildings. These were individual symbols from the catalog.
    image


    9. Then I used the Random Street tool to lay in some houses. I needed to go through it street by street and erase some of the conflicts. Next I may fill in some of the more open spaces with more buildings or fields or something.
    image
  • pvernonpvernon Betatester 🖼️ 34 images Traveler
    A thought, some of your buildings are taller that the normal, I would put them on a second sheet "tall buildings" so you can add a longer shadow. I think doing that now at the beginning would make less work latter.
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