Cove City (Could use some advice on design)

[anomiecoalition]

Hey all - Couple friends of mine are working on a novel and have asked me to make a city map for them. They've given me some broad strokes, but I get to fill in most of the details of the design.

At the moment, i'm trying to lay out the city walls...its a decaying city with crumbling walls that have not been maintained. So, I was thinking about doing a crumbling outer wall and then a smaller wall around the "old city".

Could use some advice - I'm thinking that the outer wall should in theory include part of the river...but doing so kind of messes up the composition since it gets so close to the border and I wanted to have little settlements outside the city walls. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts one way or the other.

[Wingshaw]

I can never resist commenting on a city map, especially when layout is concerned.

I don't think there's any contradiction in what you're looking at (river + outer settlements).

Example: London in the seventeenth century. The city had an old wall that was no longer really needed for defence (a long period of peace had taken place), and a ditch/moat encircling the wall. The ditch was man-made, and fed by the Thames. There were also many suburbs around the city (the technical name for settlements outside the walls of a city, that still serve as part of the city). What happened is, as the defensive purpose of the walls declined, less effort was made to maintain them, and similarly, the ditch was neglected. People lived on the other side of the ditch, not right up against the wall. They would often use the land in the ditch (the neglected state also meant that it started to fill up, and dry out) as a garbage dump, and also for allotment-style gardens. It was also useful in other ways (for drying wool--London's main export--and for ropemakers, who need a long stretch of open ground). Of course, it is a different story if your moat is a running river, but it shouldn't stop your city from having suburbs.

Also, it may be worth noting how walls decay. It is relatively rare for a city to knock down old walls--that costs money and doesn't really have any advantages. Instead what often happens is people simply take rocks and bricks away for their own construction purposes, slowly causing the wall to collapse, and in the place where it used to stand, new houses get put up (there is very often a road that runs the length of the wall inside, and another outside the wall/ditch--many cities have these two parallel roads to this day).

As for a smaller wall around the old city, it isn't completely unrealistic, but it is unlikely. Small settlements don't need walls--if they are threatened, the townsfolk can gather inside a fortified citadel/castle, and their houses are left to the mercy of the enemy. When a settlement gets too big to make that practical, then a wall is constructed. A second layer of walls, then, would only occur if the city has grown significantly beyond that first level. Looking at your map at the moment, and judging scale from the features included, it doesn't look big enough to warrant two sets of walls (at least, not according to historic urban patterns--your world, your rules).

Looking good, so far.

THW

[anomiecoalition]

Thanks for the insights - they will be really helpful.

Yeah my thought was that since the city was built as a trading hub it would be constructed close to the beach and people would just walk a bit further to the river for fresh water or set up farms near there. It makes sense that originally they would have just had some sort of fort that everyone could gather into during an attack. I'm thinking that later on in their development they built some sort of wall - one that roughly connects the big towers in the mountains. But as trade declined, they weren't able to keep people from pillaging materials or rebuild once it happened - so bits started to crumble...your idea about concentrating the suburbs in those areas makes a lot of sense.

I suppose the next point of business will be to establish some sort of central building/fort with concentrated neighborhoods surrounding it...and then suburbs at the points where the wall has given way.

[Chick]

I'm not exactly crazy about the trunkless floating trees They look like UFOs preparing to land and invade the town

[feanaaro]

There is some issue with scale imho. Looking at the thickness of the walls and the size of the turrets, this looks more like a village than a city or even town. Also, the wharfs seem really skinny (again, in relation to the walls' thickness).

[anomiecoalition]

Thanks for the input - This is my first real attempt at a city map and I suspect that I will have lots of issues with scale as a plug away at it. I reduced the thickness of the walls and the size of the towers in the mountains. I didn't mess with the wharfs yet cause I suspect that I might have to redo them later anyways. I also included a temple in the middle which will be the largest building in the city (not sure if I can make it any bigger without messing up the scale.)

Yeah - the trees looks really silly when you zoom in, but I like the way they look zoomed out (which is how people will view the final product anyway - so not sure i'll make any adjustments there).

[Wingshaw]

I think the rescaling works better, now.

Since this is your first city map, here's my recommended sequence for doing them:
--first, major roads: these should be relatively straight (they can be gently curved), should set up the skeleton of the city, link the city to other towns off-map, link major/crucial sites (eg palace/temple, markets/docks, castle/palace etc.). Typically, where these go through the walls, you will have your main gates, and those are also the places where the suburbs will start.

--second, minor roads: should still be relatively straight. Whereas major roads are the skeleton of the city, minor roads are more like veins: they funnel people from one place to another, and provide shortcut connections between the major roads.

--third, small streets and alleys: once again, keep these relatively straight. Minor roads allow people to move across the city, alleys allow people to move throughout a neighbourhood.

--fourth (part i), general buildings: note, in my opinion, buildings in a medieval city should NEVER be depicted as free-standing dwellings. The reason: this never ever happened. When space is at a premium, people build right up to their neighbours' property. Also, as a place is lived in for a long time, the original buildings get extended, renovated, changed, and so a great deal of variance takes place. This is what gives cities that medieval feel that is so picturesque.

--fourth (part ii), specific sites: whether you do part i or part ii first is up to you. This stage is where you add specific buildings and places to your city: palaces, bathhouses, theatres, customs offices, castles, granaries, barracks, inns, halls, guilds, public parks, markets (indoor and outdoor), monasteries, hospitals, schools etc. Whatever you want to add that is an important part of the town (I think this is a great step for giving a city map individual character: eg. if there's a famous brothel in the city, clearly that says something about the nature of the town). Also, most sites named in the above list don't have to be on their own: again, depending on your image of the town, you could have several temples (most cities in the past had many), multiple markets (eg a fish market, a leather market, a general market, etc.), multiple palaces (eg. that of the ruler of the city, possibly a spare for the ruler of the nation, and the palaces of the various courtiers and aristocrats who live permanently or temporarily in Cove City), and so forth.

--fifth, suburbs: as mentioned before, suburbs tend to follow the major roads out of town.
----Essentially they occur because living in the city can be expensive and difficult, whereas land outside the walls, with less constraints, is likely to be cheaper and less well controlled.
----Also, where roads reach some kind of choke point, like a town gate or bridge, governments like setting up tolls. Historically, this has resulted in many markets starting just outside the town walls: farmers and/or traders arrive with goods to sell, don't want to pay the taxes, and so just sell their wares to people on the road. Over time, this practice leads to people permanently setting up shops outside town gates, to take advantage of those traders, and so a suburb community emerges.
----Lastly with suburbs and gates/choke points, they are also commonly the sites of certain buildings: in medieval Europe, for example, there would often be a church, monastery, almshouse, hospital outside the gates, so that they could try to gain alms from passers-by.

--sixth, finishing touches: those remaining things that you want to include/change. From what you've described previously, this might be a good point to start thinking about how the city has changed since its decline.

--seventh, labels and title.

Hope that advice is helpful. As always, feel free to ignore it entirely, or ask questions. I often get over-involved in city maps.

THW

[nzlemming]

Have you read what they've written so far? How are they keeping you updated? You don't want to put a key location for a plot twist where it's totally impossible (or, at least, impractical) for the narrative to be authentic.

[anomiecoalition]

Been working on this off and on for a while, but here's what I have so far. My goal is to finish it up this week so I can get it printed to give to them as birthday gift.



@ - HorseWhisper - your thoughtful comments were INCREDIBLY helpful - it was basically my bible. Thank you!

@ - Chick - I did actually play around with the trees a bit (feathered them and that took care of the UFO shapes while preserving the general look...i think)

I'm pretty happy with how its shaping up - though I'm still not crazy about the settings on the houses and still have some clean up to do with thier shapes. I'm also wondering if it needs more farm land or if their are too many buildings on the coast. But i'd love to hear any suggestions that could make it better.

[Wingshaw]

Nice one, mate, and you're welcome for the help!

I'd say you should definitely add more farmland. In fact, you could probably fill up that entire area between the river and the city, as well as south of the road, unless there's a good in-world reason not to.

I know what you mean about the buildings, and, frankly, I'd be a hypocrite if I said I like the bevelled look (I've taken a strongly anti-bevel stance lately). I don't know what alternatives to suggest, though, especially if you are wanting to finish soon.

I also think there's a bit of a problem with the jetties. The bevel certainly doesn't enhance them, and the texture looks a bit odd the way the planks don't match the direction of the structures. They are perhaps also a bit anorexic.

As for buildings along the shore, you don't necessarily have too much, but I guess it depends on how you envisage this city functioning day-to-day. If trade is important, than you'd think the port would be humming with activity, they might build a boardwalk, and there could be marketplaces or public areas beside the water; if, on the other hand, the port is mainly just for fishing boats, than a small fish market would be all that is necessary, and you can focus the economic areas closer to the trade routes.

The water texture is nice (all the textures are great, actually). The ripples look really good. However, the place where the sea meets the land is rather abrupt. If I were you, I'd get a soft brush (possibly grungy, for best effect), with low opacity and low flow, and simply paint white around the edges of the water to simulate waves and foam; make it look more 'choppy' near the rocky areas, and smoother at the beach.

Anyway, nice job so far, and I'm glad my advice helped. By the way, I think you've got the scale of the city really well done, so far.

THW