Thread: Tiny, Tiny Keep (SketchUp)

@Gandwarf: And therein lies my problem. I'm not sure where this village is going to be, just yet. I've been playing around with it being closer to the equator (say, like Corpus Christi, TX; the average temp. in Jan. is ~55 degrees). But I feel like the buildings look more temperate...maybe because of the gray coloring and European-style angled roofs? What d'you think?

I am thinking temperate, because of the architecture, texture and style.

A warmer climate would probably mean bigger windows. Still, if protection/defensive value comes first, I would expect the windows on the outside to be very small. The arab forts I have seen for example have a lot of arrow slits as well and not big windows to ventilate the place.

There could be an inner courtyard though and the windows on the inside walls could provide ventilation. But hey, now I am talking about a whole new building

So it all depends on why the building is there. The building has the look of a defensive structure however and not a comfortable home. This is my opinion and it is your creation, so please do whatever you want

Actually, a courtyard sounds interesting. Although breezes would be sparse inside the courtyard, so it'd be less effective for ventilation (but more effective for defense) than large outer windows...a good compromise, though.

Hm. Plus what Sigurd said, about it being a peaceful area with so few residents...I think I might need to completely remake this anyway - a keep is nice, but no good in a very small village unless it also serves a purpose in peacetime. Throwing in a courtyard would be a good way to consolidate a base of power, put the (secular) village ruler's office there, along with all the guards and a small prison, and it's tall enough to be a landmark for people trying to find the guy in charge.

I'm gonna go scurry off to SketchUp and see what I can do with this new idea...thanks, you two!

The middle ages had manors as well as villages.

Why not design a single Manor. There's lots of manor maps for Harn but none of them that I know of are done in sketchup. The other advantage of a Manor is it gives you a different shopping list of buildings to do. Realistically I don't think you'll get away with 60 people but you might get away with 60 households.

A Manor would have

A lords Home - perhaps outbuildings for squires\knights etc...
A Mill
A Smithy
A Dovecote
A church
A reeve's home & perhaps a gaol
Likely a Tithe Barn
A number of houses either built by serfs or, as likely, built for the lord to house 'his' population.


Manor's are more economical in terms of buildings because they have centralized planning. Consequentially they're easier to map.




My guess about the logic of your building is that room #2 was actually built last, as an addition to the low tower. Probably in a time of haste or poverty or it would have been taller. I imagine that given a full budget room 2 would have been a 3 story keep built to reach or exceed the round tower which would have been much slower\expensive to build. If I have an issue with your building, for historic realism, it is that the walls are all the same width and very thin. That's not a great criticism in a fantasy map .


Sigurd

Awesome. I wish I had that much sketchup skill.

This looks like a high-quality render, more than just the standard png export. Is it?

A slightly reimagined keep. Still has thin walls, but arrow-slits instead of windows. Unfortunately because of the size I made it I couldn't fit any good-sized windows inside the courtyard, but I imagine people could leave their doors open to compensate.

The color scheme has been changed, to match the church (I've attached the picture, I'm waiting until after I've furnished it to cut the plan - it's all D&D based, the symbol is for Pelor, god of the sun. I'll probably change this by the time I'm done, so it's a WIP). All the walls are Google SketchUp's "Khaki" stone, and the brownstone visible on the outer edges is a facade added for security - except on the round tower, which has two feet of stone and then fill for the first ten feet, for solidity.

@Sigurd: right now the village idea is that it was started with a single building at a crossroads next to a river ford, and other buildings just sort of accreted on the path as they became necessary. What building it was that started all this I haven't decided, but I know that since then a powerful priest moved in and built (or had someone else build) a pretty impressive church, this defensive/secular center was built, and a small market was added. A lowly nobleman's moved in and is trying to gain control over the village (which is sort of run by the priest, along with a few secular officials that take care of taxes, etc.), so he'll have a small following and his own snazzy estate (which most of the villagers resent) offside. That's...sort of the plan.

This looks like a high-quality render, more than just the standard png export. Is it?

Yes, it's rendered in Kerkythea, which is free, but you have to download both the main program and a SketchUp to Kerkythea exporter to do it.

Kerkythea can be found here, and the exporter: here.

Very nice Novarri.
How did you to the floorplans?

First, I built a staircase of lines - 5 ft. up, then 5 ft. horizontally, then 10 ft. up, 5 ft. horizontally, each step (after the first) going by 10 ft. until it was taller than the building. Then, in Google SketchUp, under the Tools bar, there's a tool called Section Plane; I'd use that, placed on the middle of the horizontal line, to cut and create a section view. Since my floors are 10ft. tall, having the sections cut at the 5, 15, 25 ft. marks cut all the walls, doors, windows etc. in half, making them visible. Then, I switch to Parallel Projection, turn the camera to Standard View > Top, and go into the Window > Styles menu to find something that looks good (I don't remember what I was using originally; I think this latest one is "Brush Strokes on Canvas" and I'm not so fond of it).

Darn... I feel myself getting drawn to Sketchup again. Must resist!