City of Kastraal

[Wingshaw]

I'm assuming, like SJS, that each of those small shapes is an individual house. If that assumption is correct, than, I am sorry to say, I think the scale of your city is wildly unrealistic.

Consider: in most parts of the outer wall, you could fit four or five houses alongside each other; the streets are colossal; each temple is worthy of being a wonder of the world at those proportions; and even the ships you have included are marvels of engineering.

Another problem--and this is a real pet peeve of mine--if this city is meant to be reminiscent of any cities that existed before the 19th century, than it would not have free-standing houses as you have depicted. Typically, buildings would be built right up next to each other. It saves space, and saves time and money in construction, and these are all important factors in pre-Industrial urban life.

Sorry if those criticisms seem a bit harsh, but I get the impression you are committed to making this a good map, and if you have a month and a half remaining, you can definitely do it. Most of the groundwork is already there, but a few things could be tweaked or altered to really improve it (or, at least, make it resemble a historic real city more).

THW

[Philtros]

I'm assuming, like SJS, that each of those small shapes is an individual house. If that assumption is correct, than, I am sorry to say, I think the scale of your city is wildly unrealistic.
Consider: in most parts of the outer wall, you could fit four or five houses alongside each other; the streets are colossal; each temple is worthy of being a wonder of the world at those proportions; and even the ships you have included are marvels of engineering.

Alright. This needs to change then.

Another problem--and this is a real pet peeve of mine--if this city is meant to be reminiscent of any cities that existed before the 19th century, than it would not have free-standing houses as you have depicted. Typically, buildings would be built right up next to each other. It saves space, and saves time and money in construction, and these are all important factors in pre-Industrial urban life.

Actually, this is quite delicate... I know it might sound strange (hey... it's a magical city in a fictional universe I created!) but there are sections of the city that are «far more» technologically advanced than others. Furthermore, racism is a rather bit problem inside the city. As such, there are cultures among cultures that not only don't «want» to look like the others, but try as hard as they can to «not» look like the other parts of the city. For example, the «poor humans» are all bunched up in small houses, whereas catfolk prefer to live by the river (southwest), far from the orcs (which are confined to a heavily guarded ghetto). There all have their way of arranging their building, but the vast majority of the people can only afford wood, for their construction, as any other material is rather costly in this part of the land.

There IS an industrial section in the city (northeast, next to the port), and steam is used a lot. Different types of clockwork golems are used in a variety of labor. Gunpowder weapons are manufactured. In the map, since the beginning, it was called «Quartier Industriel» (which means, in english, «Industrial section»). I haven't created it yet, since I don't exactly know, as of yet, how to create it on the map.

This knowledge is unknown to most citizen. Technology is tolerated, but mostly ignored by the mages, as they consider it «inferior» (compared to «magic»).

Sorry if those criticisms seem a bit harsh, but I get the impression you are committed to making this a good map, and if you have a month and a half remaining, you can definitely do it. Most of the groundwork is already there, but a few things could be tweaked or altered to really improve it (or, at least, make it resemble a historic real city more).

THANK YOU TheHoarseWhisperer! These are exactly the kind of comments I am looking for. As I have said earlier, this is the first city map I ever made, so I still have a lot to learn, especially about «scaling» stuff! As you both pointed out!

So here's what I'm going to try:
- Diminish the ships and temples.
- Make each of the individual houses bigger.

And thanks for the encouragements!!
Glad to have some help on the project!

[SJS]

As I have said earlier, this is the first city map I ever made, so I still have a lot to learn, especially about «scaling» stuff! As you both pointed out!

So here's what I'm going to try:
- Diminish the ships and temples.
- Make each of the individual houses bigger.

And thanks for the encouragements!!
Glad to have some help on the project!

I like the way you scaled your fonts

I think in your response to me above you indicated that you would add a scale at the end; one piece of advice I'd give (and I'm no experienced cartographer by any means) is to decide on a scale almost the first thing when planning a map. Scale is embedded in everything, so if the scale needs to change later its usually not a quick fix. You might even next draw the largest feature so you can use that as a guide to the size of everything else.

Here's a specific suggestion which you might take or leave: You could just shrink the size of your temples, but preserve everything else. What I mean is, right now the temples sit on "grounds" that are walled off or moated off from the rest of the city. But the grounds can be huge - the temple may be imposing not only because it is big but also because it is distant - one has to cross a lot of territory to reach them. Once you've shrunk the temples you have even more room to do interesting things on the grounds - gardens, fountains, man-made lakes, guard towers, statues - which might further define the specialness of these regions.