Westport: The Old Harbor WIP (Final Pass)

[Meshon]

Fantastic! I really love ambitiously crowded city maps. I agree with feanaaro that thinner lines for the buildings would probably look better. I would also suggest giving your monochrome areas a little texture, either with mottled colour or even just a very transparent overlay of a bump map or clouds filter (if you're using Photoshop) or something similar. Perhaps also a cobblestone texture for the city areas.

Also I notice that a lot of your back alleys are very straight. This may be one of those foundational changes that's not really worth spending time on, but if it's not a lot of work (depending on how you've built this map) I would suggest making the lines of the back alleys a bit more organic.

Ultimately even if you don't change it one bit from here you've got a great, detailed city map that is going to offer a fantastic place to explore. Nicely done!

cheers,
Meshon

[Scarce]

Also I notice that a lot of your back alleys are very straight. This may be one of those foundational changes that's not really worth spending time on, but if it's not a lot of work (depending on how you've built this map) I would suggest making the lines of the back alleys a bit more organic.

Thanks so much for your kind words. The occasional straightness of some back alleys was an intentional decision that I thought would help emphasize the sprawling randomness of the city streets by giving it places where it's more orderly, perhaps indicative of a very new or very old row of buildings, which clashes with the surroundings. Do you think my next map could benefit from fewer orderly streets?

[Meshon]

Thanks so much for your kind words. The occasional straightness of some back alleys was an intentional decision that I thought would help emphasize the sprawling randomness of the city streets by giving it places where it's more orderly, perhaps indicative of a very new or very old row of buildings, which clashes with the surroundings. Do you think my next map could benefit from fewer orderly streets?

Nope, you did it on purpose, that's good enough for me. I just think of back alleys as being dodgier than the front streets, but it's a valid design decision.

As to the line width: I use Photoshop so this may not work the same in GIMP, but you could try selecting the colour that is the interior of the buildings and then expand that selection by about 1/4 of your line width. Then fill with white and see how it looks. If that explanation isn't working I can try to do it better, just ask. I'm just short on time right now but will have more later!

cheers,
Meshon

[Scarce]

you could try selecting the colour that is the interior of the buildings and then expand that selection by about 1/4 of your line width. Then fill with white and see how it looks.

I think I can see how this might be done with my current layer setup. I'll post results when I try it out.

EDIT: I've implemented the thinner lines on the buildings (though I'm not sure that this method yielded the best results) and I've thrown textures on my water and grass layers.



But, ya know, I'm not sure the textures make it seem objectively better. What do you guys think?

[NedS298]

Looks great

[jgvaughan]

I like the changes. The building lines aren't as bold and as a result not as 'distracting'.