Shoveled pathways from a cottage door to a common roadway.
Sometimes a strong constant wind won't let snow accumulate in certain places like in the wind shadow of buildings and large trees or the lee side of peaked roofs. A tool to leave some areas exposed would be helpful.
I think shovelled pathways may be more in the realm of dungeon scale, but I do have a sheet and tool for drawing hills that could be duplicated (both the sheet and the tool) and adjusted to draw smaller drifts.
The cart tracks look a little more like car tracks to my eye currently, although magical carts requiring no animals to pull them would produce something similar. And if reduced in size considerably, they would work for sledge or ski tracks.
For animal-pulled vehicles though, there should be prints - or more simply for this style, perhaps, simply a muddied/shadow pock-marked region - between the outer tracks.
Sleigh tracks might have a central runner track as well as the two outer ones (actually at the centre-front of the sleigh, but that's not very relevant to the look of the tracks), just to complicate things still further!
Oh, and some suitable carts and sleighs would be nice to have as well. ⛷️
More trees and scrubs with no leaves covered in snow and frost and some Pine/Spruce trees with snow. We also need an igloo or two for those far north ice pack adventures
@akbdeck - I plan on doing a wintery version of the Darklands City connecting hedge and wall symbols. I might not have time to do separate scrub symbols, but I'll see how it goes. Igloos are a new idea. Not sure how to do those at this scale, but I'll have a think about that one.
I'm not really convinced that doing a light snow and snow blanket version of each house is necessary. Put side by side they don't really look that much different.
Actually they do look different. The ones on the left show the roof texture where the ones on the right don't show the roof texture but show snow texture. There is a difference. The difference is the left set shows/represents a light snowfall or melt off later in the season and the right set shows a much heavier snow cover either after a heavy snow or during the middle of the season. The circle on each to me shows the same assumption even though the left circle is ice, it could easily be dirt with a light snow covering using sheet effects showing either a light snow or melt off starting in high traffic areas, where the right is more packed snow from people walking over it in a high traffic area. Using both styles of houses will give people more choices. If you were working on this set in the summer instead of now, I most likely would not have brought up the two sets. Right now the right set is representative of where I live and and the left set was represented back in October or again in March or April.
Yes to most people there is only slight difference between the two styles of houses but from someone that lives in the stuff for at least half the year there is big difference between the two styles. I hope you do choose to keep both but understand if you choose to only include the left set when released.
By the way Sue thank you for listening to us and giving us the ability to offer input on your winter style.
I think I will have to make a choice on this, or there will be little time to do much else than snowy buildings, even though I would like to do things like sleighs, snowy hedges and walls, snowy fields, and so on.
Just a thought but more snowy stuff for day and night could be this years bonus content or could be released as monthly content down the road if you need more time to add the extra stuff or the second set of houses.
I agree there is a difference. The ones without texture match the ground better in the sense that it shows there is a lot of snow. On the other hand, the one where you can see roof details indicates less snow or that the snow has melted/slid down.
I prefer the one with the texture, just because I think it looks nicer than just a blob of snow.
I think this is one of those boundaries where the accuracy meets symbolism. To blanket the roof in snow would be accurate, but it would also be more difficult to tell the difference between a house and a particularly square rock covered in snow.
I think I will rewind back to the previous version - the one with the straighter edge but keep at least a bit of the detail to make it obviously a house.
There are things to be said for both options (plus of course, you can't assume everyone will wish to map somewhere where the snow falls in late autumn/early winter, thickens and only starts to thaw around the start of spring - i.e. the randomness of what happens in British winters!), and both are obviously buildings. However, the one with less snow cover has a bit more character to it, which would definitely support the idea you mentioned in your most recent post Sue.
I will say the bottom-right one, the one that is most bottom, looks a little unnatural to me. When you add floors up going from the ground it seems like you'd create an awful lot of work in supports and roof-coverage if you did it in that manner.
I think if you have time to cut the top-most piece to look kind of like how you did above the windows it would look a little better. Kind of like the left-piece on the image below - though I realize this turns everything into the same floor.
The non-snow house in the second row could also benefit from this I think but it doesn't look quite as weird to me. If there's no time for that, I still think the majority of them look really good!
Ground and first floor rooftops. There are no large built in shadows involved, though, because that would look weird if the building was turned around into the sun.
There's a one level house roof in the tiled set...
@Wyvern I sat here for nearly a minute trying to work out where pentagonal igloos came into the equation, and then suddenly realised you were talking about the separate dormer window symbols I pasted into the area where I'm laying out all the symbols I've done so far! LOL! I'm not surprised you weren't sure about them. I didn't even know I'd drawn any igloos...
But... I can eventually - when I've sorted out the conversion of the existing buildings.
@JulianDracos Yes - eventually, though not yet. I've some work to do to get to where I'm inventing new stuff. There is quite a lot of maths involved this time, and I've never been very good at that. For example, it took 3 days to work out the map file for the dormer windows (below). This little graphic, which isn't even visible in the map, but which controls the way the dormer window is lit, is made up of over 20 blended layers of red and blue - all in the name of getting a smooth transition between the dormer window and the rooftop.
Well, having settled on a design for the thatched cottages, I now have to decide how to do the tiled cottages.
Where the thatched cottages had a handy herringbone decoration I could use to add interest to the buildings, the tiled ones have nothing other than the tiles. I've already tried using something from the tile texture and it just looked a mess, so I'm wondering now if the lumpy snow look will be enough. The part building at the top of this shot is one of the thatched buildings, while the one at the bottom is a prototype tiled house. It's a bit scruffy around the edges and the chimney hasn't been cut out of the map file so it's too bright, but I do those things when I've finished the design.
The question here is one of the required amount of detail. Does it have enough to make it interesting?
Based on the sample pics of the darkland style, it seems that your tile roofs use color to create something that looks like tile instead of just flat color with lines like many of the old style packs. If that is the case, then the problem seems to be that if you add snow, you do not get that underlying color. So you do not get a sense of any texture.
The only thing I could suggest is less snow. Make it seem as though the snow was melted or fallen down from the top. In that case, we can see some of the tile in the center or around the chimney, but the rest has snow.
Yes, that would be one way of doing it, but what about the mismatch between the thatch houses being fully covered and the tile ones being less covered?
I would expect that. While I haven't lived in either one, it seems to me that the tile wouldn't hold onto the snow as well as the thatched roof. I could be wrong though.
I agree it is a mismatch. But I suppose it is would you rather have it look more interesting or match? I do not have a huge preference. I like the thatch and if I owned this style would likely stick with it ;)
I have never lived in a place with thatched roofs. I have lived in places with snow. The snow builds up on the eaves and then sort of builds up from there. The roofs are usually very steep with the goal of the snow falling off. If it falls too quickly or is too wet, you have to get a ladder and use a broom to knock the snow off to keep the roof from collapsing because not enough of it falls off.
Comments
I think shovelled pathways may be more in the realm of dungeon scale, but I do have a sheet and tool for drawing hills that could be duplicated (both the sheet and the tool) and adjusted to draw smaller drifts.
The cart tracks look a little more like car tracks to my eye currently, although magical carts requiring no animals to pull them would produce something similar. And if reduced in size considerably, they would work for sledge or ski tracks.
For animal-pulled vehicles though, there should be prints - or more simply for this style, perhaps, simply a muddied/shadow pock-marked region - between the outer tracks.
Sleigh tracks might have a central runner track as well as the two outer ones (actually at the centre-front of the sleigh, but that's not very relevant to the look of the tracks), just to complicate things still further!
Oh, and some suitable carts and sleighs would be nice to have as well. ⛷️
Sleighs are already on the list ;)
The tracks are just lines with sheet effects on them, so it should be fairly easy to modify.
More trees and scrubs with no leaves covered in snow and frost and some Pine/Spruce trees with snow. We also need an igloo or two for those far north ice pack adventures
How about tree stumps? the Christmas-trees had to be cut down after all ^^
@akbdeck - I plan on doing a wintery version of the Darklands City connecting hedge and wall symbols. I might not have time to do separate scrub symbols, but I'll see how it goes. Igloos are a new idea. Not sure how to do those at this scale, but I'll have a think about that one.
@Fersus - maybe...
Small round domes with short entrance.
Oh yes - I did some in Spectrum Overland a while back. I'm just not sure how to do them at city scale, which is a lot more detailed than that.
I'm not really convinced that doing a light snow and snow blanket version of each house is necessary. Put side by side they don't really look that much different.
What do you think?
Yeah, I'd settle on one or the other, I think.
Actually they do look different. The ones on the left show the roof texture where the ones on the right don't show the roof texture but show snow texture. There is a difference. The difference is the left set shows/represents a light snowfall or melt off later in the season and the right set shows a much heavier snow cover either after a heavy snow or during the middle of the season. The circle on each to me shows the same assumption even though the left circle is ice, it could easily be dirt with a light snow covering using sheet effects showing either a light snow or melt off starting in high traffic areas, where the right is more packed snow from people walking over it in a high traffic area. Using both styles of houses will give people more choices. If you were working on this set in the summer instead of now, I most likely would not have brought up the two sets. Right now the right set is representative of where I live and and the left set was represented back in October or again in March or April.
Yes to most people there is only slight difference between the two styles of houses but from someone that lives in the stuff for at least half the year there is big difference between the two styles. I hope you do choose to keep both but understand if you choose to only include the left set when released.
By the way Sue thank you for listening to us and giving us the ability to offer input on your winter style.
I think I will have to make a choice on this, or there will be little time to do much else than snowy buildings, even though I would like to do things like sleighs, snowy hedges and walls, snowy fields, and so on.
Just a thought but more snowy stuff for day and night could be this years bonus content or could be released as monthly content down the road if you need more time to add the extra stuff or the second set of houses.
Maybe. It all depends on how much demand there is for a part 2.
And - I need someone to clone me so I can get all this stuff done! LOL
I agree there is a difference. The ones without texture match the ground better in the sense that it shows there is a lot of snow. On the other hand, the one where you can see roof details indicates less snow or that the snow has melted/slid down.
I prefer the one with the texture, just because I think it looks nicer than just a blob of snow.
Something more interesting to look at - yes.
I think this is one of those boundaries where the accuracy meets symbolism. To blanket the roof in snow would be accurate, but it would also be more difficult to tell the difference between a house and a particularly square rock covered in snow.
I think I will rewind back to the previous version - the one with the straighter edge but keep at least a bit of the detail to make it obviously a house.
There are things to be said for both options (plus of course, you can't assume everyone will wish to map somewhere where the snow falls in late autumn/early winter, thickens and only starts to thaw around the start of spring - i.e. the randomness of what happens in British winters!), and both are obviously buildings. However, the one with less snow cover has a bit more character to it, which would definitely support the idea you mentioned in your most recent post Sue.
Here's another try :)
Click the image to see it larger.
A little more progress - a few more houses converted from DC to WV
I will say the bottom-right one, the one that is most bottom, looks a little unnatural to me. When you add floors up going from the ground it seems like you'd create an awful lot of work in supports and roof-coverage if you did it in that manner.
I think if you have time to cut the top-most piece to look kind of like how you did above the windows it would look a little better. Kind of like the left-piece on the image below - though I realize this turns everything into the same floor.
The non-snow house in the second row could also benefit from this I think but it doesn't look quite as weird to me. If there's no time for that, I still think the majority of them look really good!
Split levels are involved ;)
Ground and first floor rooftops. There are no large built in shadows involved, though, because that would look weird if the building was turned around into the sun.
There's a one level house roof in the tiled set...
Snowy roofs looking good now; perhaps not so "realistic" in the strict sense, but we already discussed that above, and they do look the part to me.
Not so sure about the pentagonal igloos (and yes I know they're actually the detached add-on dormers window roofs!) 😉
[Although they would actually work quite nicely as sheds/small huts partly buried in snow drifts too, more seriously.]
Yes, we need igloos.
@Wyvern I sat here for nearly a minute trying to work out where pentagonal igloos came into the equation, and then suddenly realised you were talking about the separate dormer window symbols I pasted into the area where I'm laying out all the symbols I've done so far! LOL! I'm not surprised you weren't sure about them. I didn't even know I'd drawn any igloos...
But... I can eventually - when I've sorted out the conversion of the existing buildings.
@JulianDracos Yes - eventually, though not yet. I've some work to do to get to where I'm inventing new stuff. There is quite a lot of maths involved this time, and I've never been very good at that. For example, it took 3 days to work out the map file for the dormer windows (below). This little graphic, which isn't even visible in the map, but which controls the way the dormer window is lit, is made up of over 20 blended layers of red and blue - all in the name of getting a smooth transition between the dormer window and the rooftop.
Well, having settled on a design for the thatched cottages, I now have to decide how to do the tiled cottages.
Where the thatched cottages had a handy herringbone decoration I could use to add interest to the buildings, the tiled ones have nothing other than the tiles. I've already tried using something from the tile texture and it just looked a mess, so I'm wondering now if the lumpy snow look will be enough. The part building at the top of this shot is one of the thatched buildings, while the one at the bottom is a prototype tiled house. It's a bit scruffy around the edges and the chimney hasn't been cut out of the map file so it's too bright, but I do those things when I've finished the design.
The question here is one of the required amount of detail. Does it have enough to make it interesting?
Based on the sample pics of the darkland style, it seems that your tile roofs use color to create something that looks like tile instead of just flat color with lines like many of the old style packs. If that is the case, then the problem seems to be that if you add snow, you do not get that underlying color. So you do not get a sense of any texture.
The only thing I could suggest is less snow. Make it seem as though the snow was melted or fallen down from the top. In that case, we can see some of the tile in the center or around the chimney, but the rest has snow.
Yes, that would be one way of doing it, but what about the mismatch between the thatch houses being fully covered and the tile ones being less covered?
I would expect that. While I haven't lived in either one, it seems to me that the tile wouldn't hold onto the snow as well as the thatched roof. I could be wrong though.
I agree it is a mismatch. But I suppose it is would you rather have it look more interesting or match? I do not have a huge preference. I like the thatch and if I owned this style would likely stick with it ;)
I have never lived in a place with thatched roofs. I have lived in places with snow. The snow builds up on the eaves and then sort of builds up from there. The roofs are usually very steep with the goal of the snow falling off. If it falls too quickly or is too wet, you have to get a ladder and use a broom to knock the snow off to keep the roof from collapsing because not enough of it falls off.