Radigast2_Full City.png
Whoops! That was an older version! I've "naturalised" the new city walls, not least because I kind of ran out of things to place on the map . Still sketchy style.
Radigast-added Hightown and Smalltown_Full City.png
This is a city I'm doing for GM Zork. It's set in Oerth, somewhere in the Flaenass, I'll wager, on the banks of a mighty inland lake, at the outlet of meandering marshy river. The city is home to some 40.000 odd souls (and a few soulless monstrosities, I'll wager). I started out the whole thing in photoshop, but switched over to a vector base, since it will make it easier to tidy everything up and around later on. As you can see, the main town structure is still taking shape. Just drawing out all the little buildings is a time-sink par excellence.
Comments on the layout and such welcome, I can't really ask for style comments yet, since this is all still very rough, while I sketch in the city itself.
Radigast2_Full City.png
Whoops! That was an older version! I've "naturalised" the new city walls, not least because I kind of ran out of things to place on the map . Still sketchy style.
Also, note that the labels are just guides for me to use while drawing. They're not final labels or anything.
This is looking superb!!! Love the design, layout, space....everything so far!
Couple of observations.
It seems like there should be either more bridges or more docks. Westreach is almost unreachable, I am guessing with a slow moving river that there are docks on either side that rickety cheap ferries take poor travelers across on. The tower on the point (NW section) needs a dock at the base for the lonely lighthouse keeper to get his supplies too.
The walls are spanning the river along the Shamblestretch area but not in the Wetreach area?
The one little half gatehouse out south of the city? Leper colony? Crotchety old wizard?
Just some ideas that occurred to me as I was thinking, hmmm where could I put this in my world
Excellent map!
BOB
We do not stop playing because we grow old.
We grow old because we stop playing.
www.dragonslayers-society.org
Love it, can't wait to see this finished.
Eh ... the forum swallowed my replies. :S
Good point, I'll add more docks. I keep adding them to areas as I get to them, since the water layer is actually drawn above the terrain, and all the terrains are below the buildings.
The fortified bridge obviously doesn't look like a bridge (at the east end of the map) ... will have to work something out for that.
The escaped gatehouse is slated for deletion ... or maybe I'll convert it into a little ruin
Radigast-south city almost done_Full City.png
There we go, a few new docks and inlets added, south city mostly drawn ... now to go walk the dog and finish off the base layer this evening.
awesome looking map.
Can I ask what programs you're using? The outlines of the walls and the city grid are brilliant!
-G.Pilgrim.
I'm actually using Adobe Illustrator, but you could get the same results using any vector program. Inkscape could do this easy as pie, I'm just more accustomed to Illustrator. All you really want is a vector program that has good layer management.
The only thing I'm doing so far is manually adding basic white shapes with the pen tool with a white fill. The walls are the same path, copied so you have one on top of the other, then I colour the top path a light colour and make the bottom, black path wider. Only thing that makes such a process annoying is a) the time it takes (but I listen to documentaries while I draw, so that's ok) and b) the hand cramps from holding a pen for so long.
Radigast-almost finished with the town grid_Full City.png
Also, I've made separate layers for everything. Obviously the terrain is one layer, with sub-layers for each elevation and the river. Another layer for all the defensive fortifications with separate groups for every set of walls, towers and gates. Then every city quarter has it's own layer. Finally, within every city quarter layer I'm grouping the "gardens" separately from the built up areas. Then there is a separate layer for the "named" buildings, which are going to be tagged in the final legend, so I'll find them more easily.
After the drawing itself will be done, there will be some more layers for grids, wiggly bobs and other thingamajigs too ...