Wolves Fall Castle

[Lyandra]

You are welcome. Well... I have never finished a map in my life so...

[Jacktannery]

Looks good jt. I have a few comments you can ignore if you like.

-Lyandra is not talking about your two-stage shadows, she is highlighting an error to the immediate N and E of the NE tower and E of the E tower.
-your tree in the south of the keep looks as though it is a large area of chemical warfare fallout due to its extremely green oversaturated colour. Maybe darken it to look like the trees in the forest.
-scale issues: there are some scale issues: the hay texture compared to the bales of hay; the battlement crenellations compared to the horses. For example, each individual slate tile on your keep roof is the size of a horse; the planks covering the stables are each about two-hundred-feet long and twenty-feet wide. I'm not sure if you can be bothered to change this - but it creates an illusion whereby the horses look like miniature lego horses set out inside a normal-sized castle.

[jtougas]

Looks good jt. I have a few comments you can ignore if you like.

-Lyandra is not talking about your two-stage shadows, she is highlighting an error to the immediate N and E of the NE tower and E of the E tower.
-your tree in the south of the keep looks as though it is a large area of chemical warfare fallout due to its extremely green oversaturated colour. Maybe darken it to look like the trees in the forest.
-scale issues: there are some scale issues: the hay texture compared to the bales of hay; the battlement crenellations compared to the horses. For example, each individual slate tile on your keep roof is the size of a horse; the planks covering the stables are each about two-hundred-feet long and twenty-feet wide. I'm not sure if you can be bothered to change this - but it creates an illusion whereby the horses look like miniature lego horses set out inside a normal-sized castle.

Ah yes my old enemy strikes again... Damn you SCALE !!!!..... As I usually do I was too busy telling a story and making sure that there were bits of weeds here and some hay there and a box or a tub or a stack of hale bales to "fill it all in" to worry about the size of all these things. The shadows were just plain awful and the whole thing was a bit of a mess. SO in the spirit of "No Map is EVER Finished" I present The Wolves Fall Castle WIP Version 3. I actually took some time to figure out the dimensions of the objects that I am using (not to mention the castle itself) and HOPEFULLY they will all look right to each other. This is the list that I came up with:

Castle 450 feet square
Castle walls 30 feet high
Keep 50 feet high 100 feet wide
Stables 250 feet /2 = 125 feet Long Each
Main Hall 100 Feet x 50 feet
Smithy 75 Feet Long
Horse (Draft) 8 feet long
Horse (War) 7 feet Long
Crate 3 feet square
Barrel 2 feet diameter
Anvil 3 feet
Tree 8 feet across
Quenching tub 4 feet
Keep Roof 60 feet across
Hay Bales 4 feet long X 14" wide
Shingles 1 foot x 2 feet
Smith, Stable roof planks 2 feet wide x 20 feet long

All of this is based on internet research (and some common sense) I have created a grid that will allow me to size all of this correctly (finally) Using the castle wall dimensions of 450 feet as the reference point. This re work will also allow me to build in some new features that I should have included in the first version such as the two extra towers for the barbican. I really want to thank everyone for all the feedback it has been very helpful and with it I hope now to make a better more realistically scaled version.

[Lyandra]

I admire you for your resolve in your constant struggle for perfection. Good luck with your current version! You seem to have thought everything through this time. I'm waiting to see what improvements you have come up with.

[jtougas]

I admire you for your resolve in your constant struggle for perfection. Good luck with your current version! You seem to have thought everything through this time. I'm waiting to see what improvements you have come up with.

Thanks. I strive not for perfection only the silence of the Dwarven engineer in my head saying "Are ye DAFT.... That wall is only 6 inches tall while yer horse is the size of a small city....."

In this update I've provided my "large" grid that I use to make everything fit (and look realistic) as you can see each square of this grid is 50 feet. I chose that so that I could make the castle 500 feet square and make it easier on my self. When I need to build something smaller I just reduce the size of the grid and VOILA... perfectly proportioned items. ( I cannot believe it's taken me this long to figure all of this out) There may very well be some "off-scale" stuff but to be honest it's close enough for me. Here's a quick explanation of the current buildings

1. The Keep- I stuck with my original dimensions for this height wise but I added 50 feet in width to accommodate all the things it's supposed to do. It's now 100 feet wide by 50 feet tall.

2. The Main Hall- This was enlarged as well mostly due to the fact that I had the room and it made sense that the Lord General and his family would need a lot of space.

3. The Stable- As you can see in this version there is only one stable. This is because after doing a little math I came up with this: A typical war horse is 7 feet long ( I only need to know how long the horse is not so much his height) If I make the individual stalls 10 feet long by 5 feet wide that makes each stall 50 square feet. I wanted originally to house 100 horses and with my stables being 250 feet long and 50 feet wide I can do that. (and still leave imaginary room for tool areas and other things you would find in a stable)

4. The Smithy- I decided to make the smithy 100 feet long just to make it easier on myself. I may end up making it narrower as 50 feet maybe seems too big (but I'm not 100% on that)

5. The Smithy & Stable Roofs- I went back and made my own roofing pattern by using individual planks that were between 2 and 3 feet wide by 20-30 feet long. I think this looks a lot better.

As always feedback is requested and appreciated

[jtougas]

A small update. During the work on this I realized that the layout was a bit...boring. So while I should have been adding tiny horses and hale bales and wagons etc, etc, I was building two more "bailey towers" (I found that on the Internet) It adds a little interest to what was just a big square. I fiddled with my ground cover a little too but now it looks like it could benefit from a blur. I also added a wall around the stable. I envision the area that is enclosed by this wall to be a "staging area" where cavalry soldiers can mount and animals can be washed and left to dry in the sun and that sort of thing. Next up: Tiny horses and hale bales and etc etc...... I have left my grid on the image to help with scale..... As always feedback is requested and appreciated

[anomiecoalition]

I really liked the first one you had...but this is shaping up to be so much better. The additions you've already made are an improvement and with your scale adjustment, you'll have a lot more room make it a really interesting fort. I also think this new ground texture is infinitely better...gives it a much drearier look.

[Bogie]

More interesting design. In the first version, the forest bothered me. The trees look nice on the map, but having a forest that close would make the castle vulnerable. Try just a few scattered small trees on this version.

[amberroberts09]

The wall is awesome Looks like real and ancient.

[Lyandra]

This is looking better and better...