Stormhaven

[jtougas]

Nice to see a corner of Oerth mapped. I think you misspelled Fharlanghn in #10, but it could be the font.

Thanks !! And your right I misspelled his name.. doh..

[ravells]

Looks great, jt! Just one suggestion: Your main roads look like they've sliced through bordering buildings - you might want to rebuild them with the black stroke that's missing and a less obvious 'slice through' effect!

best

Ravs

[jtougas]

Looks great, jt! Just one suggestion: Your main roads look like they've sliced through bordering buildings - you might want to rebuild them with the black stroke that's missing and a less obvious 'slice through' effect!

best

Ravs

Thanks Rav. Another case of looking too long at something and not seeing it. I think I fixed the problem. I actually "burned down" a bunch of buildings as after re-reading my notes I realized that Stormhaven wasn't quite as crowded as I portrayed in the map. I added a outer-glow to the buildings to give them a bit of definition I also fixed my typo's and added a scale.

[Ascension]

My only quibble is that you have a lot of dead space (that ocean). There's no need to see a repeated pattern that much, no matter how much you like it. Plus I can see the seams. The focus is supposed to be on the town. Take that key and lay it out sideways instead of vertical or move it off to the right or left of the town. Also, you have some cut off shadows so you might want to put shadows in after you erase building shapes.

[jtougas]

My only quibble is that you have a lot of dead space (that ocean). There's no need to see a repeated pattern that much, no matter how much you like it. Plus I can see the seams. The focus is supposed to be on the town. Take that key and lay it out sideways instead of vertical or move it off to the right or left of the town. Also, you have some cut off shadows so you might want to put shadows in after you erase building shapes.

After some consideration and realizing that Ascension was right..(surprise surprise) I reworked this map. I stretched the key along the top to hide the vast expanse of ocean that I had there. As Ascension said this is a map of Stormhaven. I also added a different texture to the ground layer to get rid of the seams. As always feedback is requested and appreciated.. Thanks!!
*EDIT* Ugh.. That border is horrible..add that to the list..

[Ascension]

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Here's what I'd do now. Take the compass, make it black and move it directly down from where it is now and put it in the ocean...then move it to the right a little bit. Take the crest and move it to the right and try to increase the contrast a bit making it more black and less gray. Take your title and move it over as well. Make "Stormhaven" big and the other stuff smaller - possibly use a simpler font as well, but not like Comic Sans or anything too simple. Now you have much more space for all the key entries and we'll be able to read them.

The new sand pattern for the streets is ok but if you combined it with the old blocks pattern it might be nice - set the sand layer on top and either change the blend mode or reduce opacity or both. Your docks look pretty good so if you can get that kind of detail into the roofs then we're talking much better. That will require a lot of time, though. Put a copy of your wood planks on a layer. Duplicate that layer and keep the original layer safe. Now position the wood planks on a roof, put one edge in the middle of the roof. If you can stretch the wood then stretch it out to cover the edge otherwise you might have to enlarge the wood planks. Now duplicate this layer and move it so that the two edges meet in the middle. Make one side darker with a color overlay. When done merge these layers and trim to fit the house shape. Now do this for every house. As you can see this can be very time consuming and it's one of the many things that make city-builders go crazy. To break up the monotony I use some other patterns for my roofs like shingles, tiles, slate, terra cotta, stone, and marble.

Use at your own risk

[jtougas]

I've decided that I'm going to follow Ascension's advice about the roofs and have started the process. I can see this is going to take some time.. As far as the map key goes I like it the way it is. (plus it was a ton of work to get all that lined up..)

Small progress on the roofs..

[ravells]

Ah yes... it is time:

[Ascension]

Heh heh Good one.

[jtougas]

Oh how lovely..are there cookies?....