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Thread: [WIP] Newtown

  1. #11
    Guild Expert Wingshaw's Avatar
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    That's a nice looking map. The only thing that looks wrong to me are the roads out of town. You would normally see them heading off in different directions, like the spokes of a spider web. You've got it so there are actually only two roads to this city, the N one and the SW one, and that's very unrealistic. Remember, suppose you are travelling from some northern town to this city. You'll want to arrive as soon as possible. You reach that cluster of houses at the intersection, and then you have to make a long detour left or right to get to the gates. Wouldn't it be easier if the road just went straight on, and crossed the wall in the middle of the NNE section? And what if your arriving from the SE? Hope this criticism is constructive and not too harsh, but I think you have too few roads into the city, and the ones you have are unnecessarily indirect.

    By the way, the issue I raised before, about the docks being less likely to be upriver of your bridges: this is a world where boats can fit under the bridges is fair enough; that's your call. The same thing applies with the boats as the roads, though. Ships/boats will want the shortest possible journey, and they are being forced to travel that little bit further. As for keeping the docks safe: just one tower along the river there would probably be able to keep them safe. With the setup you've given them, the docks would be virtually impregnable, even if you removed the castle entirely.

    Those things aside, this is a nice looking map and a well-designed town.

  2. #12
    Guild Apprentice MeFanch's Avatar
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    Yeah, there were actually a couple of small towns to the east that act as docks, but don't quite fit in the main city view. Hopefully it'll be a little clearer in this one. I forgot to add the road to one of them (doh!) until I read your comments, and went back and had a look again. The roads, I could probably have more - though there are 4 gates to the city and with the land shaped the way it is (hard to tell when just zoomed in on the city), which is why I had the roads splitting up and going the way they did. Maybe it makes a little more sense now? (Or maybe not) So hopefully the dock location's aren't as bad (though very, very protected) and the roads make a little more sense.

    Hopefully this looks fairly decent for my RPG group. Only 730px wide, so I may end up going back and enlarging the text some. I like that width because it seems to work best for the obsidian portal wiki pages.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Newtown 730.png 
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    And larger, not scaled to 730 version:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Newtown large2.gif 
Views:	107 
Size:	1.60 MB 
ID:	56878
    Last edited by MeFanch; 08-15-2013 at 01:00 AM.

  3. #13
    Guild Apprentice MeFanch's Avatar
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    I'm a tool. Someday I'll learn "ATD". Got to work, looked at the map again and noticed I had issues with numbers 7-12... due to size. Hopefully this one's a little better.
    Any last minute critiques? Does the green work on the boarder? Maybe the city sections a thicker red boarder or some stripes?

    (Newtown, though I want it to look nice is mainly practice for the capital - Albium. Slowly working my way through the world - Political Continental Map Reliquum, Kingdom
    of Leogria, now City map.. Eventually I'll have a good bit of source material for my campaign's players)

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Newtown2.gif 
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ID:	56897

  4. #14
    Guild Expert rdanhenry's Avatar
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    Actually, given that the city is meant to serve as a key defensive point and the previous city was razed, curving roads around might be the best choice. It is inconvenient to travelers, but that include invaders. Given the choice between a long way round on the roads or heading across country, they would be slowed down, giving defenders more time to react and to launch missiles/spells at incoming foes. This may be especially useful if the enemy is employing large equipment, such as siege towers. You wouldn't do it for most cities, but if you expect fairly frequent and serious attacks, send the farmers, merchants, and pilgrims round the long way.

  5. #15

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    Looking great so far MeFanch, really dig the muted colors.

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh

  6. #16
    Community Leader Bogie's Avatar
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    Great start. My advice is, make the building shapes believable.

  7. #17
    Guild Apprentice MeFanch's Avatar
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    Bogie,

    I'm not sure I understand what you mean by more believable shapes, as I'm trying to go more for a representative map of blocks (though larger blocks, not even showing alleys); as the map size is going to be relatively small (730px wide). I hope that makes some sense, I feel there are probably better words to use - but being a base novice, I'm unfamiliar with them.

    I was hoping for something along the lines of this Boston map, but with some style changes (color, etc): http://images.statemaster.com/images...oston_1842.jpg

  8. #18
    Community Leader Bogie's Avatar
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    Some city maps have houses, and groups of houses, that are all strange irregular shapes. It is much easier to build a rectangle than a star. I am not saying that buildings never have irregular shapes, but the majority of small to medium size buildings are basic shapes. At least, that is my 2 cents.

  9. #19
    Guild Master Falconius's Avatar
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    I don't see any weird looking buildings on this map and the layout of the blocks look fine. What are you talking about?

  10. #20
    Guild Apprentice MeFanch's Avatar
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    I think I understand what you're saying. - While it may not apply to this map due to scale, in general make sure that the buildings fit logical structure types if your map shows them. Mostly rectangular (though not all identical), and maybe a few "odd" shapes for spice for specific buildings which would probably be owned by wealthy, and thus able to afford the time and monetary commitment to do so.

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