CA style development - "Darklands City" (issues for September and December 2021)

Hi Everyone! :)

Welcome to another new style development thread!

This time I will be working on a City style that is intended to be similar to the Darklands overland style in flavour, and to be published as two parts in September and December this year.

So, first off, I would love to know what you would like to see in a city version of this style.

evildmguyDaishoChikaraAleDefenordpkfryeScottARaikokilma.ard.venomLizzy_Maracuja
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Comments

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited June 2021

    Here is the 'basic bones' list of buildings for a standard annual issue city. For 2 issues there will be quite a few more than this in the end, so suggestions for other inclusions are welcome, as well as suggestions about the look of the style.

    • Huts (2)
    • Houses, Rectangular (4)
    • Houses, L-shape (2)
    • Houses, T-shape (2)
    • Houses, X-Shape (2)
    • Special Buildings: Town Hall (1), Temple (1) and Villas (2)
    • Tower, Square
    • Tower, Round
    • Tower, Square with Roof
    • Tower, Round with Roof
    • Bridge, Stone
    • Bridge, Wood
    • Bridge, Rope
    • Town Wall (simple) 20' section
    • City Wall (more elaborate) 20' section
    • City Gate
    • Wooden Pier
    • Well
    • Trees (3)
    • Rock Outcroppings (2)

    This is a combined list of all the suggestions so far:


    Boats

    Statues, with separate pedestals

    Fountains

    Gallows

    Prison

    Blacksmith/foundry/forge

    Inn, small and large

    Barracks - perhaps 2-3 parts, so different combos can be made

    Quarantine station, with lots of guards warding off spiky looking round aliens

    Theatre/opera house

    Stadium / coliseum complete with lions and Christians

    Courthouse

    Market stalls with variable colours

    Uncollected garbage

    Restaurants/taverns

    Ruined buildings

    Funerary monuments and buildings – mausoleums and sepulchral vaults.

    Tombstones and graves

    Monastery for the evil monks of the Order of Unnatural Science

    Access to sewers (sewer caps, grates, dry sells, stone stairs and ramps)

    Windmill

    Watermill

    Sawmill

    Grain silo and mill

    Gardens

    Brewery

    Bits of shops

    Stables/corrals

    Wooden palisades

    Stockades/gibbets/crowcages

    Walls/fences

    Vegetation other than trees

    Dead vegetation

    Different flavours of hut

    Mud, mud with straw

    Street tools with sewage channel down the middle

    Tannery

    Circling crows/vultures/pigeons

    Insect swarms (flies, roaches)

    Flames (for burning buildings or trash)


    Various additions to houses eg awnings, gables, chimneys, extensions, chimney smoke


    evildmguyMapjunkiejmabbottJimPDaishoChikara
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    Will there be a matching style for the house tool so we can use it to draw odd-shaped houses as well as using the random street tool with it?

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    And since you mention a pier, there obviously need to be some ships and small boats available.

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    @Monsen - yes, I should think so (the house tools are Ralf's speciality, but he usually does one or two with a new city style), and yes, I will add boats to the list.

  • Statues, with separate pedestals

    Fountains

    Gallows

    Prison

    Blacksmith

    Inn, small and large

    Barracks - perhaps 2-3 parts, so different combos can be made

    Quarantine station, with lots of guards warding off spiky looking round aliens

    Theatre/opera house (so Phantom of the Opera, a truly dark fantasy musical can be performed, especially given the dark villain Lloyd Webber himself)

    Stadium / colisseum complete with lions and Christians

    Soccer field, given it is a dark fantasy city, and a soccer match crowd must be anyone's nightmare

    Courthouse

    Market stalls with variable colours

    Uncollected garbage - when I was in Athens 18 years ago (my first time), they had a garbage strike lasting 3 weeks - OMG!!)

    Various additions to houses eg awnings, gables, chimneys, extensions.

    Indian restaurants (with snake charmers and naked gurus)

    MacDonalds (of course - a definite dark fantasy horror)


    Some of these are perhaps not to everyone's taste for dark fantasy - ah well.

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    Lovely list. My top pick from that one is the market stalls.

    Loopysue
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    @Quenten - loads of good ideas - thank you :)

    And now I realise it might get really messy if I add all the new ideas to the first comment, so I will let the longer lists like yours stand as they are in the original comment ;)

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited June 2021

    If you want to add lots of stuff to a post without making it messy at first glance, a spoiler tag is a great way of doing things:

    Quenten's list:

    Statues, with separate pedestals

    Fountains

    Gallows

    Prison

    Blacksmith

    Inn, small and large

    Barracks - perhaps 2-3 parts, so different combos can be made

    Quarantine station, with lots of guards warding off spiky looking round aliens

    Theatre/opera house (so Phantom of the Opera, a truly dark fantasy musical can be performed, especially given the dark villain Lloyd Webber himself)

    Stadium / colisseum complete with lions and Christians

    Soccer field, given it is a dark fantasy city, and a soccer match crowd must be anyone's nightmare

    Courthouse

    Market stalls with variable colours

    Uncollected garbage - when I was in Athens 18 years ago (my first time), they had a garbage strike lasting 3 weeks - OMG!!)

    Various additions to houses eg awnings, gables, chimneys, extensions.

    Indian restaurants (with snake charmers and naked gurus)

    MacDonalds (of course - a definite dark fantasy horror)

    LoopysueJimP
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    How did you do that?

  • amerigoVamerigoV Traveler

    And a Starbucks. An evil place like this needs a Starbucks.

    Looking forward to this as I find the overland style eye-catching.

    Given the propensity for volcanos, having an eye towards a town that is on the boarder might give ideas for the style. Ruined versions of buildings for example. Something to show the darklands are creeping into the city (grime, blend of life filled areas with the darker colors).

    Loopysue[Deleted User]
  • Some ruined buildings are a great idea. Also a monastery where evil monks of the Order of Unnatural Science abide.

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    @Loopysue I just picked spoiler warning from the paragraph formatting options.

    LoopysueTheschabiWeathermanSweden
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    Thanks Remy :)

    I will maybe do that when the thread gets a bit longer and combine all the suggestions in one spoiler.

  • I'd love to see funerary monuments and buildings, such as mausoleums and sepulchral vaults. Even tombstone and grave overlays to create your own cemeteries. I think they are thematically appropriate for ths style. Also, accesses to underground structures (sewer caps and grates, dry wells, stone stairs and ramps, and so).

    Good luck with your hard work!

    Loopysue[Deleted User]JimP
  • evildmguyevildmguy Newcomer

    First of all, love this idea!

    Second, I really like the idea of more specialized buildings. Quenten's list is a great base for all sets. (I would love it if past sets got some if they don't have them already.) Other ideas are outdoor entertainment stages, amphitheater, windmill, watermill, gardens, tavern, distillery/brewery, and maybe multi part things for shops so I can make my own?

    Third, I really want to stress his ruins! I think there are only a few sets that have ruined buildings and I would love to have ruins in every set made! That might be asking too much for past ones but at least going forward. Of course, I have no idea on the effort it takes.

    Thanks!

    Jon

    aka evildmguy

    aka edg

    MonsenLoopysue[Deleted User]JimP
  • edited June 2021

    I like the gallows, sewer access, and the funerary item suggestions

    I would also suggest stables, wooden palisades (the sort that stab outward) and maybe additional punitive items like stock(ade)s or gibbets.

    LoopysueJimP
  • Wonderful Idea, I love styles that fit well with other styles.

    Most of what I would love to see is has already been mentioned (Marekt Stalls for the win!)


    What I would like to see:

    smaller Walls/Fences (maybe more of a drawingtool thing, that a symbol)

    some vegetation other than trees

    dead vegetation.

    LoopysueMapjunkieevildmguy[Deleted User]
  • I hope the huts come in different flavours, i.e. thatched, shingles and so on.

    I've done two maps (well doing the 2nd) with the overland style, it looks really good...

    Loopysue
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    This is going well! Thank you all for your contributions. I have been surprised by some of the suggestions, but that was the whole point of the thread ;)

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    I've always found that the way to start a new style is to get the textures right. With this style the colours are more or less already dictated by the fact that they must be similar to the overland style. That just leaves me with the task of getting the actual texture correct.

    Here is a first shot at the 4 grass textures. Those are Bitmap A buildings for a sense of scale. The Darklands ones will be nowhere near as clean and well maintained. The grass is probably long grass, but then - who is going to mow the grass in a Darklands City?


    [Deleted User]TheschabijmabbottDaniel Pereda De Pablo
  • As an addition to house extras, what about some outside stairs to upper stories, as is common in Mediterranean cities. Great for unwanted guests and quick getaways.

  • Here’s my list in no particular order:

    stables/corrals

    mud, mud with straw

    street tools with sewage channel down the middle

    pillory/stocks

    crow cages/gibbets

    tannery

    chimney smoke

    foundry/forge

    circling crows/vultures/pigeons

    insect swarms (flies, roaches)

    flames (for burning buildings or trash)

    sawmill

    grain silo and mill

    watermill

    (I’m sure I can think of more to add later)

    Loopysue
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    Thanks Daisho :)

    If you think of more, be sure to add them as a new comment or I might not see them.

    DaishoChikaraJimP
  • thehawkthehawk Surveyor
    edited June 2021
    Quenten said:

    Some ruined buildings are a great idea. Also a monastery where evil monks of the Order of Unnatural Science abide.

    How dark is your idea of Dark? That this was originally called 'grimdark', that's what my mind keeps going back to for your Darklands. The most heart-wrending life-sucking soul-breaking places I have ever been are where there are blocks upon city blocks of ruined, blasted, shattered buildings. And the one place that nearly pristine but was far more eerie, because we arrived after almost all the people had fled and become refugees, but before the 'advancing hordes' did.

    Because as the guy says.. War.. War.. Never changes.
    DaishoChikara
  • If you can get Discovery's Science channel, that have a program called 'What on Earth ?' that shows abandoned and/or ruined areas throughout the world. They start with a satellite photo, then try to come up with an explanation of what it is. Sometimes they send people into the area where it is located for a ground level view. Another one they broadcast is 'Mysteries of the Abandoned' which isn't the same locations, most of the time.

  • Excellent!

    Thanks, Sue, for expanding on this beautiful style.

    My List which I hope I can add to as time goes on:

    'better' Hill making drawing tool. I don't know how to describe this properly, but the ones we have now are hit or miss. This may simply be due to the hassles I'm having with the program lately, but I'm getting all sorts of strange artifacts whenever a lighted bevel is used. Sorry, not doing tech support here, already got a ticket in. So, a 'better' Hill tool, please :)


    more to come

    thanks

    Cal

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    This isn't an expansion of the overland style, but a new city style on the same theme, so I'm not sure if you are talking about overland hills or city hills.

    If you mean hills like the ones you can draw in SS5 (city scale top view hills), then that is the only way to do them easily. Most other techniques are a lot more complicated.

  • @Calibre Have you put a Pink copy of the hill with lighted bevel on a sheet underneath the hill one. It should have no effects, and this will get rid of acne. Unfortunately, as you zoom in or out, the lighted bevel changes - I get over this by putting a 'lid' on the hill on a sheet above the bevel hill. or else a separate bevelled sheet. I do find that bevelled hills just don't really work for city maps.

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