Twin Falls Island

[DaltonSpence]

It started with a castle (as these things often do) that needed an interesting setting to show it off. It quickly became a project in its own right, that needs to be finished before I can continue designing the castle. Here's the map with some background information.

Twin Falls Island lies in the middle of the Dioscuri River about three miles to the east of the Lesser Divide, a 200 foot tall glacial escarpment that marks the boundry of the Western Lowlands from the Eastern Highlands. Over the millenia, the river has carved a gorge deep into the bedrock, ending at the falls about 200 feet east of the island's western tip. The fast moving Dioscuri has served for centuries as a natural border between the lands to the North and South, with the island providing a convenient trade and invasion route. After the last Great War (about 200 years ago) the nations on both sides of the river decided to promote a lasting peace by making the island largely independent of either government, to be ruled by a local lord with strong family ties on both sides. While legally the island is split between the two nations, in practical terms it serves as neutral territory and considerred a duty-free zone (goods purchased for local consumption are exempt from all customs duties, regardless of the nation of origin). The island's main sources of income are bridge tolls and a portion of all customs duties collected for each nation.

The Twin Falls the island is named for have their own official names (Kastor and Polydeuces) but are most commonly referred to as The North and The South. West of the falls is the 150 foot deep Dioscuri Gorge, home to the Lower Dioscuri Rapids which are not navigable for up to a mile due to currents and rocky debris. Erosion has caused some landslides along the walls of the gorge, narrowing the waterway in places to two-thirds its nominal width. A century ago a minor earthquake caused a temporary 50 foot dam to form about a mile downriver, creating a major flash flood when it finally burst. This led to the building of Twin Falls Castle on the western tip of the island, with a six story tall observation tower at its center to keep a watch down the gorge for further slides.

Seperating the castle from the rest of the island is the Castle Ditch; a nominal moat dug from the North Shore past the front of the castle under the drawbridge to empty over the edge of the island past the South Falls. (The Ditch also feeds the Castle Pond, which is a favorite of local waterfowl and has been stocked with a few fish for the lord's pleasure.) The island is connected to mainland by 200 foot long bridges to the north and south, each capped on both ends by gatehouses for customs inspections, toll collection and access control. The roads are;

EW roads from North to South: North Bank, North Shore, Castle, South Shore and South Bank. Note that North and South Shore Roads connect directly at the east end of Castle Road.
NS roads from West to East: Castle Ditch (connecting North and South Shore roads), South Bridge (running south from North Shore) and North Bridge (running north from South Shore).

I'm planning on adding some houses, a church and an inn (catering to honeymooners perhaps?) to the island, with perhaps a warehouse or two for transhipping goods. Maybe some buildings on the North and South Banks. Any comments or suggestions?

--

Dalton "who won't put a revolving restaurant in the castle tower" Spence

[RobA]

Living just a bit east of you, I have a sneaky suspicion <couch>Goat Island<cough> where your inspiration came from......

-Rob (but revolving restaurants are nice) A>

[Robbie]

Where the heck have you been? hehehe...long time no post!

Anyways...lookin pretty good...though I'm not sure about those whatevers at the ends of the bridges. I'd like to see a higher resolution and the grid subdued a bit.

[DaltonSpence]

The structures at the ends of the bridges are "Gatehouse 1" symbols from ProFantasy's "Source Maps: Castles!" product slightly customized for CC3 (ie. I replaced solid colours with bitmap fills, and may eventually draw up interior plans for the structures). This package is what got me started; my Twin Falls Castle design was largely inspired by the Beaumaris, Castel Del Monte and La Belle Colline plans from that collection. I find it a bit of a challenge drawing a CC3 map using a product designed for CC2; none of the tools, symbol sets or map templates take advantage of sheets or PNG bitmap symbols or fills, so I have to improvise a lot. However, I purchased the Source Maps Bundle containing "SM: Castles!"and its companion products "SM: Temples, Tombs and Catacombs!" and "SM: Cities!" more for their informational and inspirational content than their software tools, so I am very satisfied. (Although I wouldn't say "No" to a CC3 upgrade of the products. )

Below is a slightly higher res version with the map borders removed and the grid subdued as suggested. I even added some labels, although I'll probably replace them with numbered tags and a map legend. Tell me what you think.

--

Dalton "who is thinking of adding a casino" Spence

[RPMiller]

The first thing I would suggest is making the rock that contains the waterfall raised up more. As it looks now, the rock appears to be at the same level and makes me wonder why the water just doesn't flow over it. Probably just apply a bevel to that sheet would work.

[Eru]

Very nice map. I'd love to see just a little character in the water itself, perhaps a few wavy lines and swirls indicating currents and eddies. The toned-down gridlines are also a huge improvement over the first version.

That said, you're not fooling anyone with this "observation tower" story. Who builds a mammoth, uber-defended structure like that just to observe a once-a-century land slide? Given the scale, this beast covers something like 16 times the square footage of the standard square keep from the CC2 symbol set. With around 30,000 square feet - per floor - protected by walls you could have accomodations for hundreds, maybe thousands, of soldiers. Oh yeah, you're planning an invasion of epic proportions no doubt.

I'm watching you.

[RobA]

The first thing I would suggest is making the rock that contains the waterfall raised up more. As it looks now, the rock appears to be at the same level and makes me wonder why the water just doesn't flow over it. Probably just apply a bevel to that sheet would work.

Another possible way to differentiate the downstream side of the falls is to draw in a lot of turbulence and froth.

Here is photo I grepped on the interweb that shows how white large falls get due to all the air being incorporated...



btw- as a completely off reference topic, anyone ever hear of water powered compressed air...? I used to live near ragged chutes when it was a compressor station:
http://www.cobalt.ca/ragged_chutes.htm

-Rob A>

[Robbie]

I figured out what else is bugging me about the map...the land and water fill styles are WAYYY too small and repetitive...switch to a VH style and force the repeat size in the fill style...its way too repetitive as it is. Still lookin good though.

[DaltonSpence]

I've modified the map above rather than post a new version.

That said, you're not fooling anyone with this "observation tower" story. Who builds a mammoth, uber-defended structure like that just to observe a once-a-century land slide? Given the scale, this beast covers something like 16 times the square footage of the standard square keep from the CC2 symbol set. With around 30,000 square feet - per floor - protected by walls you could have accomodations for hundreds, maybe thousands, of soldiers. Oh yeah, you're planning an invasion of epic proportions no doubt.

I don't suppose I could convince you the extra space is just warehouse storage for goods in transit? :wink: Actually, I'm very new to designing castles, so I didn't consider the implications of its size (when I think "castle", I think "BIG"). Since the gatehouses on the bridges (and the river itself) already serve as an outer perimeter, the concentric design I originally considered isn't really needed. I'll change it later.

The first thing I would suggest is making the rock that contains the waterfall raised up more. As it looks now, the rock appears to be at the same level and makes me wonder why the water just doesn't flow over it. Probably just apply a bevel to that sheet would work.

Another possible way to differentiate the downstream side of the falls is to draw in allot of turbulence and froth.

Ironically, the photo you included showed most of the turbulance above the falls. I'm not sure how to draw rapids and shoals with CC3. Any advice here would be appreciated.

I figured out what else is bugging me about the map...the land and water fill styles are WAYYY too small and repetitive...switch to a VH style and force the repeat size in the fill style...its way too repetitive as it is. Still lookin good though.

I switched from Dungeon to Overland scale fills to fix that. The trick will be finding the correct Dungeon scale fills to match the Overland ones for the detail submaps. I'm also experimenting with sheet effects to define the edge of the Gorge. Currently I have a black overlay with an "Edge Fade, Inner" to produce an inner shadow and a white outer Glow to soften the edges. Not quite satisfied yet, but I'll keep working on it. Any ideas?

--

Dalton "who appreciates all of your helpful suggestions" Spence

[Eru]

I've modified the map above rather than post a new version.

That said, you're not fooling anyone with this "observation tower" story. Who builds a mammoth, uber-defended structure like that just to observe a once-a-century land slide? Given the scale, this beast covers something like 16 times the square footage of the standard square keep from the CC2 symbol set. With around 30,000 square feet - per floor - protected by walls you could have accomodations for hundreds, maybe thousands, of soldiers. Oh yeah, you're planning an invasion of epic proportions no doubt.

I don't suppose I could convince you the extra space is just warehouse storage for goods in transit? :wink: Actually, I'm very new to designing castles, so I didn't consider the implications of its size (when I think "castle", I think "BIG"). Since the gatehouses on the bridges (and the river itself) already serve as an outer perimeter, the concentric design I originally considered isn't really needed. I'll change it later.

You know, in a fantasy world there are all sorts of reasons why a castle could be as large as it currently stands. However, if you do want to bring it down a touch, a real simple fix would be to modify the scale from 50 feet per square to 25. That would cut the square footage to 1/4 its current size.

Also, as it stands, your bridges are a full 20 - 30 feet wide, enough for heavy vehicle traffic (wagons or something similar) to be going in both directions at once. If there are hundreds of vehicles crossing the bridge each day in both directions, or the builder was extremely aggressive, that makes sense. However, if you mean for this to be somewhat out of the way, then a reduction in scale could work for you here too by decreasing the bridge width to 10 - 15 feet, limiting vehicle traffic to one direction at a time.

Anyway, modding the scale is always an option, and an incredibly easy one. Just change four little numbers and you're done! =)