The Spire

[madcowchef]

Which view you want to use is closely related to how you are going to use the map. If you want to get a feel for the city, the oblique views are more aesthetic and have a lot more character to them typically, but are hard to plot peoples actual movements through and one of the harder ones to execute. If its intended as a map for tracking the actual movement of characters through the streets top down is much better. For anything with a lot of height in top view the magic comes from the shadows. Do them well and you won't have any trouble indicating height. The straight on view has a lot of the same benefits/drawbacks as the oblique but isn't either as sleek looking nor as hard to accomplish. That's my thoughts on the matter, don't know if they help you at all.

[kirkspencer]

Thank you, madcowchef. That's just what I needed to see to make things 'click'. For the first one, a top-down look. I may do an oblique after I see what I've really got.

So here's my initial palette for the city of Paridon on the Spire. Just a countour map which will (probably) go away when I'm done.