The Spire

[flocko]

Cool. I'm interested to see this one develop.

[kirkspencer]

This isn't the final. But a) I got impatient and b) I wanted to play with a style while learning a bit more about Gimp. So here's the city in the style of Pyrandon's tutorial. Ugliness is my lack of experience plus translating his PS instructions to GIMP - I shall do better (mwahahaha). ahem.

[kirkspencer]

So now that I've had a good night's sleep, some comments and requests for advice.

Comment one: the final map style will change significantly. There will also be some large changes to what is where on the map.

Request for advice: The switchback trail is going away. BUT, I'd like to have suggestions as to how it should change if I were keeping it because sooner or later I'm going to have to add switchbacks to later maps. I've got this Grand Cliff in the world...

Request for advice: The shadows are rather sharp. In particular there's the problem where overlapping strokes created lines. While I'll try blurring them to soften the edges, is there a (relatively) easy way to prevent the sharp overlap?

Major changes coming after discussing this map with the GM. The switchbacks are going away. We're going to add a, well, a medieval/magic-based cablecar/gondola system from Lowtown to just outside the fortress with a road in parallel. Lowtown is going to change significantly to reflect the 'history'. It's a two-part city. Unwalled southside will be a zone for un-vetted visitors and unapproved immigrants. There will be a mix of shanty-town, markets, and merchants. Within the wall is the admin for immigration, the businesses that have to relate to the sea (fishing and trade), and immigrants who don't want to live uptown. Oh, and the 'forward' military district which also doubles as law enforcement.

Uptown will change and be where everyone else - the majority of the population - lives. I've got pencil work to do on all this before it goes to maps, but that's the broad outline.

I want to thank Pyrandon here for his tutorial guide. While it's not what I want for the final style, it was a great tool for seeing the ground and realizing where changes needed made, and for getting an idea of where I am and where I need to go. And now that I know how it works I could toss a town together in this style in pretty swift fashion and know it would work for story (but not for 'the inn of three ducks is /here/').