Castle Plans

[Turgenev]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Love what you did with the map, Torq. I'll be definately giving that a try. As for windows/slits... that will be on the 2nd level. Ground level was suppose to be just solid walls. At least that was my plan. As for the stairs, to be honest I didn't even think about it. My original idea was they both went up but now I have something to think about. I think I will go with torstan's comment and have B = upstairs and A = downstairs. Thanks again for the links and suggestions.

[Sigurd]

Very nice, classic design. I love maps where I can believe they would actually be built. Fantastic, improbable elements, have their place but believability wins out in the end IMHO. A good design makes me think "Castles like this would exist" - makes presenting them, much, much easier.


I actually prefer Turgenev's version where all the elements have the same treatment. To do the outside without showing kindness to the inside of the tower creates an odd sense of imbalance.

SO, I added a tiny touch to the inside of the tower. A pattern and a complimentary drop shadow - to match the outside.

Torg's mod of Turg's map modded by someone whose name doesn't start with "T"

[Redrobes]

Clockwise going down...



(BTW - nice castle map !)

[RPMiller]

Nice flipped picture.

[Redrobes]

Nice flipped picture.

No really - I kid you not... it seems odd to me but this is as it comes out of the camera.

[NeonKnight]

I did a lot of research on Stairs and whatnot for Castle, and the majority of Stairs were Clockwise as they went down.

The reasons were manyfold, most being that a Defender could be relatively unhampered on their sword arm for swinging (not needing to worry about a wall). For narrow stairs, (like those pictured) the enabled a defender to have a wall to their left, put their shield in front, and then be able to swing to their right towards the centre of the stair, and swing over and above a defender.

Also, the doorways were lower than we would expect. In the past, this lead historians to believe that people were a lot shorter then, but that is actually false. We are actually shorter on averge now then we have been in the past at some times in history. I was at the Smithsonian a few months back and they had silhouettes of men/woman for points in history to show how big the were. Anyways, doorways in Castles were lower for the purpose of defense. A low Doorway forced an attacker to need to 'stoop' to come through, and by stooping their defenses were not as good, and their ability to attack was quite lessened.

Some interesting stuff.

[ravells]

I did a lot of research on Stairs and whatnot for Castle, and the majority of Stairs were Clockwise as they went down.

The reasons were manyfold, most being that a Defender could be relatively unhampered on their sword arm for swinging (not needing to worry about a wall). For narrow stairs, (like those pictured) the enabled a defender to have a wall to their left, put their shield in front, and then be able to swing to their right towards the centre of the stair, and swing over and above a defender.

<snip>

Also, it just occured to me that the width of the steps in a spiral staircase are much smaller towards the axis. So it makes sense the push the attacker towards the axis which gives him less sure footing.

[RPMiller]

No really - I kid you not... it seems odd to me but this is as it comes out of the camera.

Oh, I believed you. I learned long ago for every rule there is an exception.

[Turgenev]

Very nice, classic design. I love maps where I can believe they would actually be built. Fantastic, improbable elements, have their place but believability wins out in the end IMHO. A good design makes me think "Castles like this would exist" - makes presenting them, much, much easier.

My version was based on a real castle - Restormel castle in Cornwall, England. I switched some of the rooms and their sizes but the basic shape is the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restormel_Castle

I actually prefer Turgenev's version where all the elements have the same treatment. To do the outside without showing kindness to the inside of the tower creates an odd sense of imbalance.

SO, I added a tiny touch to the inside of the tower. A pattern and a complimentary drop shadow - to match the outside.

Torg's mod of Turg's map modded by someone whose name doesn't start with "T"

That's pretty cool. I did see one minor thing that didn't work for me (sorry Torq)... that big rock in the moat, while it looks nice, it wouldn't make sense from a strategic p.o.v..

This is a quick post - I can't wait until I get a chance to work in Photoshop tonight.

[ravells]

I was just thinking about something like this (sorry it's very quick and dirty)