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Thread: First town map

  1. #1
    Guild Applicant
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    Post First town map

    So this is really my first foray into making actual town layouts so I thought some criticism would be nice. I'm fairly proud considering it's the first town I've actually made. I should have used another color besides green for the lodging marker though. The buildings are just basic shapes because I didn't really want to get too detailed right now.
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  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Very solid, good stuff. The more you do the more you learn...not just about laying out a town but also the software. You're well on your way so keep it up
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
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  3. #3
    Guild Artisan Facebook Connected Rythal's Avatar
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    good stuff. I'm curios as to why you can see the roads beneath the trees, that would be a good fix to make.

    looks really good; I still havent really had the nerve to post any of my feeble attempts at city maps really

  4. #4
    Guild Artisan Aval Penworth's Avatar
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    Hi! This map looks quite okay for an early attempt.

    The first thing I noticed was the wall. Very square. Not too many towns would have completely square walls.

    Next would be your tower placement. I'm no expert but I'd have thought that the best place for towers would be at the corners. That gives the defenders a better view of attackers. And probably adds to the structural integrity of the walls. The southern wall seems particularly vulnerable to enemies.

    A lot of folks round here will tell you that buildings should be crammed together more. Personally I like the idea of spacious fantasy towns, even if they are not represented in the history of our world.

    Cheers.
    Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go..

  5. #5

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    I would think about terrain above all else here... there's a river, or perhaps a stream, that runs through two sides of the city, so why would the city designers favor absolute north-south orientation over building a city that aligns to the river? That is to say, if I designed this city, I'd rotate the walls about 30° clockwise so as to have the rive run across the city through opposite walls, rather than through adjacent walls.

    Second: Odds are Harlond began not as the County Seat, but simply as a small community along the river, perhaps it even began as a farming community, with pastures on one side and fields and orchards on the other. Because of the spacing of such communities, it's certainly possible a number of those old farms are still around somewhere outside the walls, even if the ones nearest the area chosen for the city were torn down when the walls and city were raised. Assuming this to be medieval or renaissance fantasy, most cities did not simply choose a location -- a castle or manor was established by a king or lesser noble and the city grew around that, or a convenient bay was established as a place for boats to dock and deal with cargo, so people settled in that area for the money the sailors brought in, as well as for the protection of sailors. In some cases, a good spot was found to establish a farm, then the next year, another family or two might move in, and so on until a farming village or town was established.

    Locations are important, not arbitrary, and orientation will often relate to the geography of the area instead of trying to force north and south.

    I personally have no problem with spacious towns or cramped towns, or even towns that combine the two attributes in different sections, but something should be said for some level of authenticity -- a walled city is likely to have streets wherever that aren't buildings or greenery, so drawing in street borders is a bit unnecessary unless you use them as alignment for all of the buildings, and right now, these buildings don't appear to be especially oriented to the streets, at least where you have strange angles.

    Lastly, the walls really need to have better positioned towers. My personal advice is that wherever there's a corner, there ought to be a tower, and any gate to the city should have at least reinforced stops for guard posts, even if not a full tower. Between those points positioning is a personal preference, but I'd recommend going midway between the corner and gate, and if you still need more, midway between each pair formed by adding the first midpoint. Alternately, though, I'd use a tower on each side of the river, to reinforce the strength of the wall where the river passes through.

  6. #6
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Not bad at all done, especially for your first attempt.

    The only thing that really stuck out to me is the the trees were at time beneath the roads and buildings.
    Easy enough to fix though, keep up the good work.
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

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