[Mapping Competition] WIP: Areneae Keep

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Comments

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Two maps for the price of one! :D

    It's good to see some of the older symbols being used.

    Interesting that you use a wall shadow in the dungeon rather than a glow effect to sink the floors - not that there is a right or wrong way of doing it. It just looks a bit strange after I've seen so many dungeon's with dark glows sinking the floors in.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Well, for that map, I haven't tweaked effects yet, they're all using the defaults for now.

    But I've always enjoyed using wall shadows though. It is not really logical from a lighting point of view, but I still like the aesthetics. I'll see what I do for the final version.

    As for realism, don't look to close on the shadows and shades in the perspectives map either. I've used shadows in a lot of places to highlight features, like ruined walls, and things sticking out from the walls below, and I've focused on enhancing the features rather than accuracy, so from a lighting point of view, there are a couple of things in there that contradict each other.
  • edited May 2020
    I just have to say, looking at these maps and reading the discussion about them has taught me a bunch, so thank you all! ;-)

    These are awesome dungeon maps Remy!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    You know me, Remy - I use sheet effects for all kinds of things they were never designed to do :P
  • I'd recommend blurring the outside stone wall of the dungeon a bit. The pattern of the bitmap fill is too repetitive. It needs to be obscured or broken up somehow.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Yea, the outer walls look way to busy the way they look now. Here is a quieter version.
  • Much better! Another issue: interior walls that aren't exposed to external light should probably be defined by a dark glow effect rather than a directional wall shadow. (Dungeon lighting is a whole topic in itself and others have covered it better than I ever could.) Finally the spider webs: just a visual effect to show age and abandonment or actual traps for players to encounter?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    I often like to use wall shadows despite it being kind of illogical, because I feel it better conveys the feeling of a wall. I often use effects more to convey meaning rather than trying to be visually accurate (There are no lights down there at all, so technically it should just be a black square :) ).

    For the webs, I guess that is up to the GM. My players immediately started burning them upon discovering them, and since there was no reason this particular dungeon should be trapped, I just let them do that without any additional consequences.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    How about a glow and a shadow to make it look even more like a wall - there being less light in the corner at the bottom of a wall?

    Otherwise, A beautiful map. I like the webs! No more burning webs, ok?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited May 2020
    If anyone is interested, I did a blog entry about how to create those ruined walls in Perspectives 3. There's even a video there if people prefer that format and can stand hearing me talking for 30 mins.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Brilliant! Thank you very much, Remy :D
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited May 2020
    Going to call this complete now I think. Added glow to the wall, and fixed up the shadows on the symbols to make things a bit more consistent.

    The main rooms in this dungeon are the prison, the tomb, the well room (which also handles the wine stores), the mystic ritual room with the 5 elemental pillars (decide for yourself why there are 5 elements), and the main storage room.
    The basement was originally segregated into different sections, each only available from the stairs of a single tower, but the walls have weakened over time, and they have now crumbled in several places, allowing access to the entire basement, which is helpful, since two of the stairs down have been lost under the collapse towers above.


    I've already implemented the keep into my own campaign and figured I'd keep the creature Lorelei named the keep after the main villain here as well. She has set up her throne room in the old store room (upper right). Her army/minions lives in the ruined keep above, where is also where things like kitchens, barracks and latrines are found.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I think it looks much better again with that dark glow defining the walls :)
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited May 2020
    And since Scott made the wonderful Spider Island in the community atlas a few years ago, why not plop the keep down there. Seems to be a perfect fit.

    image Araneae Keep
    image Araneae Keep Dungeon
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