WIP My First City (First Completed!)

ScottA · August 2017

After recent threads here and some great tutorial videos by Crawford on YouTube, I decided to try my hand one more time at doing a city map. I tried twice before and both times quit out of frustration. It was rough starting out, and I probably completely deleted everything 6 to 8 times before I finally had something I liked. And then it just came to life!

So, here it is. Just about finished. I just have to add some more trees and shrubby things and label everything. Otherwise, I'm pretty much done and very happy with how it came out. It's a working farming village and the home base for my 30+ year fantasy RPG group!

Suggestions and criticism are eagerly welcome. Fresh eyes, and all. Plus as my first city map, I may have overlooked something that the more experienced city designers among you may spot.

JimP · August 2017

Well, I don't see anything to criticize.

Lorelei · August 2017

Excellent work on this! I love it! The river is particularly nice

Topdecker · August 2017

Wow, you should be proud of yourself because you really nailed it!

My only suggestion... Take out a few buildings, say 5 of them. Fires happen, some people never part with land, etc. It will break up a bit of the regularity. You could even leave the foundation

I hope that I manage to half as well as you when I finally try to tackle a town.

Tim

Barliman · August 2017

Very nice. I like the wheel and spokes layout.

Gathar · August 2017

I really like what you did here. I have some small suggestions:
- The texture of the road is I believe too "heavy". It is specially an issue for the central plaza, where this makes it difficult to see the market.
- I think the space between the houses in the first layer of the wheel should probably be filled with gardens, shrubberies, even a few trees. Unused space inside of a walled city just seems pretty hard to believe to me
- There is something I don't totally like about he city wall, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe the way it seems quite open when the roads come in (even if I'm not sure how to close it and still show that there is a door that the road can cross). Maybe a small barbican would be interesting? There does not seem to be much way to climb on the wall. Maybe some barracks attached to it would give it more depth?

But once more, these are just details, and I wish I could make such pretty maps!

pvernon · August 2017

Gather; The problem with the wall could be two things, too many towers, and no gates, or the fill looks too large.
Me, I think that the rive is wonderful, but the mill should be closer to the dam or there should be a mill race from the dam to the mill.
Other than that I like it, and as a first city map it's really good.

ScottA · August 2017

Thanks for the input, all. I'm working on putting trees and little ward community vegetable gardens in those blank spots inside the walls, so there isn't just empty space. I like the idea of taking out some houses but leaving foundations! Agree about the central circle and stone road fill. I had it set smaller but then the repeating pattern of the fill was really obvious. I'll have to play with that some more. That fill is one of my favorites, but I may have to give in and make it cobbles or flagstone, which would be lighter in color and maybe not as obvious a pattern. Same for the city wall. I need to do something about gates, I know, and it needs ladders or stairs to access the top. The river and the weir were a lot of work, and originally I had a waterfall, but that meant raised elevation, and I was never happy with the way that looked (the walled portion of the city was originally at the top of a hill). The mill has also been an ongoing struggle, and has changed a dozen times, probably! I did have a mill race at one point and may put one back in.

I also realized this morning that I forgot a very important thing -- the graveyard. That's going in across the river as a walled burial ground (walls to keep scavengers out but more importantly to superstitious farming folk, to keep anything IN!). Also across the river for the lore that the undead cannot cross running water.

Work in progress!

ScottA · August 2017

HEY! I also just realized that a lot of the trees in the forest look like pickle slices you get on fast food burgers!!! LOL!

Shessar · August 2017

I just had to pop my head in to comment on the dam. Perfect, perfect, perfect ... deep pool behind the dam and turbulence after the fall. Did I mention that I think your dam is perfect?

Wonderful map!

Dogtag · August 2017

So, if I understand you Shessar, you're saying it's... pretty dam perfect? *rimshot*

Jensen · August 2017

You should take a beer and enjoy it. Great map, esp. as it is the first one. I like it!

HadrianVI · August 2017

Hi Scott

This is a very beautiful map, with many great features. The dam is awesome, as is the river in general.
However, I too think, that the stone road textures are a bit "heavy". The reason for this I believe is that the texture you use is not really optimized for this size of maps.

ScottA · August 2017

Thanks for more great and useful comments, and thanks so much for the compliments. [blush] Hadrian, I've changed the stone fill in the streets and village circle altogether. This one is just too dark and too repetitive when brought down in scale. I ended up with a cobblestone, which is working out well and brightens the map.

I also got rid of those heavy, clunky cubes on the city wall and replaced them with conical towers, and added a barbican at the front gate and portcullis at all the gates. And I changed the wall fill for the same reason as the streets.

I'll post an updated picture soon.

Thanks again for all the nice comments. My river seems to be a hit! Thanks to Lorelei for the inspiration on that part, as it was her beautiful water elements on her maps that I studied to get the effects and look I wanted there.

ScottA · August 2017

Okay, so after taking into consideration all the great feedback, here's the (basically) finished product! I may go back in and deal with the pickle slice trees at some point! LOL! And there's still all the labeling to do. But the map, itself, I believe is done. It was a great learning experience, and I;m sure my next city won't take me as long now that I have one under my belt and I've picked up a bunch of tricks.

Anyway, thanks, again, for the replies.

Barliman · August 2017

I think the plaza and roads look much better.

ScottA · August 2017

Yes, Barliman. As much as I love that original fill it was just too dark for my roads. The cobbles look so much better.

Dogtag · August 2017

This looks really good, especially with the new fill. One question, are the buildings/tents in the plaza on a sheet with effects? For example, I don't see any shadows. Also, the symbols are still a little difficult to see (though that may change with shadows), so you might consider adding a very slight glow as well.

As everyone else has mentioned, this is a really good map and an even more amazing first run at a city. The new versions of the walls, especially, look great. And the river and dam/waterfall are fantastic! Nicely done. *doffs cap

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
~Dogtag

ScottA · August 2017

Thanks so much, Dogtag!!! Yes, everything (well, just about) has some effect or other. I'll look at the buildings and symbols and adjust the opacity of the shadows. Most symbols/buildings/trees also have a glow, but I can adjust that, too. The public market in the city center is tough to make out. Part of that is probably just the size of the items, but a better glow will help them to pop more. I'm not that concerned about the tombstones in the church graveyard as they are way too small to really make out too clearly at this size, but I wanted to put them in. I agree that the renovated wall is so much better, and that is thanks to the helpful comments of the folks here, just as the river was inspired by Lorelei's beautiful river/water techniques! Nice to have so much helpful feedback and inspiration.

I think I may just have to start participating in the Community Atlas project now that I'm confortable and a little more experienced with city, overland and building mapping. Have been holding out until I felt up to it, but I think I might be ready to swim with the big fishes! lol!

Loopysue · August 2017

That's a beautiful city you've got yourself there, Scott

Only one suggestion. The shadows on the city walls are stronger/longer than the shadow on the towers. You might want to consider making the tower shadows the same as the wall shadows, but a little bit longer?

ScottA · August 2017

Glow and shadow effects adjusted and I changed out a bunch of the pickle slice trees!!!

Lorelei · August 2017

The wall looks much better - its easier differentiate from the roads, now. Love it. Also, glad my water technique helped

pvernon · August 2017

I like it as well. The walls are really a lot better. I notice that there are 5 houses in the row on the south east side of the suburb that don't appear to have a shadow. Are they on the wrong sheet or is it just a trick of the rendering?
I just noticed that the docks seem to have too strong of a shadow. Docks tend to be rather low lying.
Of course you can look at something like this and change minutia for ever.

ScottA · August 2017

I noticed that row of houses without shadow, too. They are on the right sheet. I'm thinking maybe the sheet with the cleared forest on it is over it, hiding the shadows. I meant to check that. Oh, yeah, the docks look like they are ten feet up in the air! lol! They may be on the buildings sheet. I'll move them or put them on their own and lower that shadow. You are right, you can tinker with minutia forever, and I tend to be pretty obsessive/compulsive. It's nice having other eyes to share things they notice, though. This is part of a much bigger project that will eventually see print, so I want to make it as right as possible.

The public market still isn't as clear as I'd like, but I've decided that that's because of the cobble background the tables and stalls are sitting on. If they were on a solid background I think they would be much clearer. I can't increase the symbol glow much more without making everything into little black blobs! Guess that's one I'm going to have to live with or take out some small houses and move it to a grassy square somewhere.

Dungeon Master Gaz · September 2017

Fantastic map, ScottA. It looks gorgeous, and each evolution of it has it' own feel and style, as well as getting better as you go. it's almost like a time-lapse of the city growing - without growing - if you see what I mean?

DMG

ScottA · September 2017

Thanks, DMG. Here's the finished product, sans text labels.

Loopysue · September 2017

You've made a fine job of it, Scott, and should be really proud of yourself

LadieStorm · September 2017

This is absolutely beautiful!!! I love.the colors.and the textures. Your.river is gorgeous... It looks similar to Shessar's technique, but I do see the subtle difference...

Sorry, I digress...just stunning!

trechriron · September 2017

Watching the evolution of this map is inspiring!

Really good work - professional quality stuff here!

ScottA · September 2017

Thanks for the kind comments. It's funny you should mention the colors, LadieStorm, as that was something that got mentioned about another map I posted. I tend to use a lot of earthy, autumnal colors.

And looking back through this thread it is interesting to see the progression. It is like a city evolving or aging.

HadrianVI · September 2017

Hi Scott

The map looks really beautiful. You've done an amazing job on this one, especially with the dam and the city walls. The only thing I would change is once again the texture of the streets, because they looked better in the previous version. The fill is scaled a bit too small in the newer version, which makes it look repetitive and it adds a certain nervousnes to the picture.

BTW: I love the burnt down houses. I just discovered them. Amazing.

Cheers

Hadrian

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WIP My First City (First Completed!)

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