October challenge: Bow of Promises (Street) WIP

WeathermanSweden

Location 6 in Dunor City

Why did I choose location 6?

Back when the challenge started there where 20 locations where streets should be mapped. I wanted to map a location with a little more space around the houses and where my passion for wind and weather could come in.

Where do I find location 6 in Dunor?

Location 6 is situated in the western part of Dunor just at the foot of the castle hill. The next parallel street in the west leads up to Dunor Castle. To the south the street of location 6 leads to a marketplace that is connected to the harbour of Dunor where all the sailing and trading ships arrive and depart.

So at least when you arrive by ship - this street is one of the first you will pass on your way further in to town. The street is also one of the streets that you may pass on your way to the harbour - on your way to explore or travel around the world. Maybe you follow rumors that tell of immeasurable treasures or promises to start a new better life somewhere else.

And with this in mind and the aim to establish a connection to wind and weather the name for the street was chosen:

Bow of Promises Street

The picture above shows location 6 with its surrounding and the map below shows the houses that I will focus on: 14 buildings / houses along the street

What mapping style?

Mapping at this scale is somewhere in between cities an dungeons/floorplans. So I chose the Schley style that offers plenty of symbols at both scales.

And this is the actual state of the map:

What do you think? Any suggestions? By the way...this is my first fantasy city map...

Monsen

Nice. Is the place as happy as the color scheme infers, or are there some dark intrigue hiding in the shadows here?

Loopysue

That's a really lovely map, Andre :)

It's a similar idea to the one I had with my own area - to show the street within the area. I think mine will look quite a lot different though. I've decided to use a parchment background for the area and map the houses of my street as detailed House objects using the CD3 roof fills, grass etc - much like you have there with the Schley style.

I think, though, that I will have to revise my rather sketchy idea of what is actually in my street. Your idea is perfect. Maybe I will go for a coven, since I only have 6 houses in an out-of-town place. So where yours looks like a delightful place to visit, nine can be a street to avoid! LOL!

WeathermanSweden

@Monsen Yes, it is ment to be a more peaceful part of the town...but as you say - who knows what is hidden behind the houses in the bushes or the cellars of the houses...

But that is up to the user of the map - that easily can be turned into a "dark-bow" area thanks to the fantastic possibilities with sheet effects. Already by simply turning of the "rainbow-effect" you get a rather neutral map with a slightly cold touch (matching the cities geographical position on Nibirum)

@Loopysue Thank you Sue for your kind words!

For me one of the most difficult things was the decision where to end the map and how much of the environment should be shown. At the same time I felt that the surrounding buildings should not distract to much from the place / street that should be mapped. And most fun was/is testing sheet effects ☺️

Raiko

This is a really nice map Andre.

I liked reading about why you picked the location that you did. I went for one of the locations by the moat as I like having water in my maps (I would have gone for location 1, but Quenten beat me to it ?).

WeathermanSweden

I recently watched Remy's video tutorial about making night version maps of existing day versions. So I gave it a try and ended here:

By now the environment is lit up only by light from inside the houses. I thought about placing some light sources outside but could not find matching symbols for that. There are open fire symbols but placing them near all the houses with thatched roofs seem kind of dangerous...?

Loopysue

Nice work, Andre :)

Whatever you did differently with the smoke at "Mist and Fog" you might want to repeat with all the other chimney smokes.

Raiko

I love the night map. ?

I missed Remy's video this week, I'll have to catch up.

Wyvern

I can hear the complaints of the neighbours already - can't even see the stars at night now for those rich folk with their millions of candles and magic sources spilling waste light everywhere ?

@Loopysue - Since Mist & Fog's an alchemist, the variant smoke colour may be the point there.

Might even be a case for a Sheet with an even stronger light source emanating from that house in one of those "oops" moments?!

WeathermanSweden

@Loopysue - I have now changed the the chimney smokes - thank you for your advice, Sue!

As @Wyvern points out it has to do with coloured symbols - the tend to be somehow self-luminous in the night... ? ...and I did misread your comment: can't even see the stairs at night What stairs? ? Oh - stars, I see...?

Added some more details to the properties - some more things to explore/discover "behind" the houses...

So, I think I have kind of cleaned up my sheets and effects. The only Atlas-incompatibility are my "stripes" but I can post the edge-stripe image as well - it has to be put in the Filter->Images Folder. @Monsen Is that ok Remy?

I will submit the day version "only" - but it contains of course even the night version.

This is how you turn day into night..

BUILDING WALLS:-> Check both Wall Shadow effects

BUILDING OTHER:-> Check RGB Matrix Process -> Change Transparency from 50 to 5

SYMBOLS:-> Uncheck Wall Shadow, Directional -> Check RGB Matrix Process

For all the following LABELS, BACKGROUND HIDE, TEXT HOUSE NAME, TEXT HOUSE USE, MAP BORDER PACK, CARTOUCHE -> Check RGB Matrix Process

@Monsen Where to put this instruction?

Monsen

The instructions can be put in the map description map note. Just provide it to me in a plain text file.

As for the image, yes, I can add that, but you need to change the path. The atlas should work without people tracking down files and copying it to the correct place, you have to change it to use $..\Resources\Bitmaps\WeathermanSweeden\imagename.png

Loopysue

That's better! The smokes looked odd with only one of them glowing :)