Setheril Trade Village

Hello everyone. This is the trade village of Setheril. It is located in a shallow lake with a special kind of tree that actually migrates, thus the village needed to create expandable hanging bridges from tree to tree.

Now I know what you are thinking, but I couldn't find a Mike Schley version of a tropical tree or I would indeed be suggesting that coconuts migrate! :P

But seriously, this is an elven trade town. It is how the elves trade with others. The elves are very secretive and don't like people coming into their actual city, so they created the village of Setheril. It is only operational during the trade season.

Anyway, enjoy

Comments

  • Are those elves raising swallows ? Map looks good to me.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    My favourite building set - Bitmap A Thatched :)

    Great map, Tony.

    The only suggestion I would like to make is that the water texture could do with being scaled up by a factor of about x20 or so. Its being overtly 'redundant' - where the pattern of texture squares is the most noticeable thing about it.

    Otherwise a perfect map :)

    My apologies if the texture itself is too tiny to take that kind of enlargement ;)
  • @JimP: Yep! in the trees themselves! :P Thanks JimP :)

    @Loopysue: Thanks Sue, that slipped my mind and I've been seeing red quite a bit today so I didn't catch it. I think I've got it sorted now though, what do you think?
  • ScottAScottA Surveyor
    Fun map. The only critical comment I have to offer is that the bridges look very rigid and straight for hanging bridges, especially of such length. Because the symbols are solid rectangles it might be tough, but maybe by making the center pieces of the bridges progressively thinner you could suggest sagging in the middle, as hanging rope bridges would naturally do.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    Oh yes, that's much better, Tony

    Full marks :D
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited January 2018
    Really nice! I totally want to visit.

    How do people get there, by boat? Or do they fly?

    You might want to consider adding some drop shadows for the trees (or reflections). Also, another way to depict the arc of the suspended bridges might be to add slightly curved "drop shadows" for them. I notice they don't have any shadows right now.

    Very cool. Is this an actual FR location, or one you made up?
  • @ScottA: Thanks. Unfortunately I tried that method and you are right, because of the stiffness of the symbol set it made everything look very weird so I didn't go with it. I've been trying to find a way to make the bridges look better and I had thought maybe I could use or create a symbol of just a single board and then draw the wires between them that connect them together. then I would be able to make each board progressively smaller as it gets closer to the center of each bridge, and larger as you start to come back up to the sides. But I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle that yet.

    @Loopysue: Thanks Sue :)

    @Dogtag: Thanks Dogtag. You're right, I do need to add drop shadows to the trees. And that is an interesting idea for the bridges. No, this isn't an official Forgotten Realms location, just something I dreamed up with words that sound like the type they used in making the Forgotten Realms. It helps that I also used the Forgotten Unical font as well.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Nicely done, sir.

    And, to clarify for newer mappers who might be reading, when I suggested curved "drop shadows" I meant manually adding shadow polys on their own sheet, since the drop shadow effect will not make a curve from straight entities.
  • edited January 2018
    Thanks Dogtag..oh, I forgot to answer one of your questions. Yes, they get into the village by boat. I just haven't found any good boat symbols that would fit well in top down view of the Mike Schley style.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    edited January 2018
    Isn't it only the trees that are Mike Schley? The thatched cottages are Profantasy.

    Maybe some of the little boats in Bogies Mapping Objects would work? I use them all the time - standard wooden row boats and canoes are among them.

    EDIT: What's more, for some very strange reason sheet effects actually work on Bogies Mapping Objects. I haven't figured out why, when they don't work on any other symbol set, but they do, so you can alter their colours to suit the map.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited January 2018
    Well, some sheet effects don't work on symbols — especially color-related effects — but other sheet effects do work on symbols or they'd never cast any shadows.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    HSL works ok on Bogies Mapping Objects, but I've never managed to persuade any others to respond.
  • edited January 2018
    Well, the trees, the bushes, the water, the compass, the scale bar, and the ground are all Mike Schley's. The walkways are Jonathan Roberts, and the houses are CD3A thatched roof houses.

    Since I got my new computer and had to re-install everything, I wasn't sure I wanted to put up with the differences in licensing when it comes to the CSUAC, Bogies mapping objects, and profantasy's license. So I haven't downloaded anything from the CSUAC or Bogie. I'm also not as partial to the more realistic styles they make. I much prefer things that look more like they were drawn than photographed.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    Ok, but for future reference Bogies Mapping Objects is a separate animal to the CSUAC.

    I still use it ;)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited January 2018
    Posted By: TonnichiwaI'm also not as partial to the more realistic styles they make. I much prefer things that look more like they were drawn than photographed.
    You and me both, brother. It's just a matter of personal taste.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    edited January 2018
    I am more partial to the drawn look myself, but I do think the photorealistic stuff can sometimes be nice too, but that demands way more of the entire map. If you just drop it down in a map, it typically looks bad, but if you properly design your entire map around that style, the results can be quite good.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    e.g. almost anything by Lorelei.
  • @Loopysue: I had forgotten about that. Thanks for reminding me Sue. ;)

    @Dogtag: Right on!

    @Monsen: That's true, but when put side by side, somehow the ones that look drawn always catch my attention long before the ones that look like photographs. I don't dislike the photograph style, it's just not how I see my characters when I'm playing D&D with them. I'm always picturing my characters as if I'm watching Saturday morning cartoons, or a Disney movie or something. So that is what I expect the world to look like too. When it becomes photographic, to me, it just seems to lose a little bit of the magic. I think because the photographic style brings me back to reality.
  • Great little village, Tony! I would also make one and the same suggestion as Dogtag and add a slight drop shadow to the trees and maybe bridges to really give the illusion of hovering over the water

    Posted By: Dogtage.g. almost anything by Lorelei.
    Aw thanks, Dogtag. Honestly? I prefer a good hand drawn map over a photorealistic map, too....trouble is I can't draw for anything and what i'm wanting to include in my maps are hard to come by in hand drawn symbol sets. The size of the Dundjinni Archives and the CSUAC gives me the opportunity to map more precisely to my idea of the map, than any artists symbol sets. Now.....if I can only convince Sue or one of the many talented actual artists to be my personal artist and draw out symbols to my whim...well....then i'd be mapping in hand drawn styles all the time :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    LOL! Thanks Lorelei! :P

    I'm moving more towards hand drawn myself, but I just don't seem to get the time. Everything is always needed yesterday!

    With any luck, though, now that I've set my heart on some shaded mountains I'll be making lots of other symbols by hand to go with them ;)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited January 2018
    Tonnichiwa, where did you place Setheril? I see there's a road to Coranos but I'm not familiar with it. Did you create that too? Then again, I can't claim much more than a working knowledge of the Forgotten Realms.
  • edited January 2018
    @Lorelei: Thanks :) I'm even thinking of adding some deeper water contours.

    @Dogtag: Yeah, Coranos is a created name. I figured it was a small town somewhere in the direction the road goes. Probably near the dale lands in the Cormanthor Forest. Or maybe somewhere up near the town of Silverymoon in the north.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited January 2018
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