November/December 2015 Challenge : Promising Loot in Musfat Spaceport

[Abu Lafia]

Hello everybody,
I'm really excited to post my first wip for a normal challenge here, and even more so, because i was commisioned by Meshon with a great concept for a map. As he wrote already in this month's challenge thread, we were thinking of collaborating a bit more, and working together on a general theme for both commisions.
So, some days ago i got an incoming transmission:

Salazar, you old scoundrel! How've you been? I know we didn't part on the best of terms, but I'm willing to forgive and forget. Listen, I'm wondering if you still have that map. Where we saw it. Not that I'm planning to go get the loot for myself or anything, I just wanted to look at the map again.

It was that old space port, what was it called again? Way out in the dunes near that oasis, pretty broken down place, like it was built over top of some ancient alien ruins or something. Almost like a small town, except nobody lived there. Aside from those bandits who set up their camp there. I wonder if they're still around, or if someone else kicked them out. Lots of narrow streets and dead ends, kind of a maze, hard to find your way in without a map, right? I remember there were landing bays, three I think? But I don't remember how to get to the one where the ship was. I know there was a pretty good view from the gunnery tower but that didn't help much on the ground. Automated weapon systems to shoot down anyone who tried to come in by air and lots of strange machines scattered around. Some of those were traps I think. Be sure and mark those down for me. Not that I'd ever dream of going after that cargo myself...

Take care of yourself you old pirate, and don't go chasing after any valuable cargo by yourself, you hear?

Here we go:
### Latest WIP ###


I started doing a nice Background parchment first. I thought about doing the map on a more modern/sci-fi type of "canvas", but i wanted to have a bit of a "treasure-map flair", so i went with it to start things off. Besides stylistic doubts, the background parchment came in handy, as i used the textures on it as inspiration and rough guidelines for the shape of the terrain. I imagined the spaceport in a desert valley bordered by an oil lake. The oil lake was an idea, that came up while thinking about the reason for building a spaceport in a desert region /on a desert planet in the first place (well, interstellar travel is somewhat "post-oil", but i think it could be of some use in the future nonetheless... ).
With that at hand (we'll see what Meshon thinks about this idea...), there had to be a refinery complex too. So i blocked in some rough outlines for the major locations.

Landing zones:These are the defining locations of the map. Two of them are built into the cliffs, where the hangars are dug in. These are platforms, constructed above the town's buidings. They where connected by a bridge, to shortcut the way through the maze-like medina below. Nowadays it is mainly destroyed. The third one will be be on the ground in between the houses. This will be the "central" location of the map, as it is connected to the map Meshon is doing. So the location isn't entirely fixed for now. Nearby the landing zones i'll add the mentioned automated anti-aircraft systems. Maybe i'll place some of them on roofs in the neighbouhood of the landing zones, and some on top of the cliffs.
Gun tower:The one mentioned, with a good view on the whole area.
The old refinery complex: The area at the lakeside should be covered with silos, pipelines, refinery buildings and other "industrial" stuff .
Gouvernor's Palace: I added this building to have another major location and "point of interest". I thought the mentioned group of bandits could have established their camp there. Haven't fully fleshed this building out now, but it'll be sitting on top of a hill and is more of a well defended fortress.

Between these locations, there will be many nested(?)/interlaced(?) buildings (mostly flat-roofed) forming a maze-like system of narrow alleys and streets. I played around a bit with a texture i used for the buildings on my Kharoun map, but i'd like to make the buildings hand-drawn. I also thought about generating a random maze with one of the many free maze generators around, and use it as a base for this. I just started to make some of them, to get an idea of how they could look like.

For the coloring, i just used grey tones with the layer set to overlay/multiply. I liked the result, and will keep it for now.

The font is just a test of one of my freshly downloaded sci-fi fonts. Not really good to read, but i think i'll stick at least with the color.

Well, that's it for a start. I'll discuss some further aspects, like the old alien ruins, questions regarding the scale, etc. in my next post.
Comments, critique, suggestions (especially from my fellow space pirate...) are, as always, very welcome!

Cheers,
AL

[snodsy]

Looks like your well on your way, nothing really to add, love the parchment for a space map, you worked it in nicely. Great start, nice story and explanation.

[Abu Lafia]

Thank you snodsy, i'm glad you like it so far. Don't hesitate to point out anything if you can spare the time, since your suggestions and comments are always very helpful to me (even if not directed to my own work) and ofc greatly appreciated!

I did some linework on the cliffs in the north. I tested different things, but in the end i went with a style i practised a bit the last weeks and which is obviously inspired by J. Edwards fantastic work. I also tried out how light and shading will look like on the background, to get a better feeling for the map.

[Meshon]

Okay, this is already about 100x more epic than I'd imagined. It's looking really good! I really like the elements you've got in play here and it's already developing beyond expectations. Thanks for leading off, and so stylishly too. Looks like a great place to hide a spaceship…

cheers
Meshon

[ChickPea]

This is going to be awesome! That close-up section of the cliffs looks amazing.

[Warlin]

Really nice. Nothing to add, only the pleasure to see it develop.

[Abu Lafia]

Thanks a lot guys, i'm very happy you like it so far! Especially the fact that my fellow old crew member himself seems to be pleased with my own additions to the place...

So, after some days off, i threw myself again into this map:
### Latest WIP ###


As you can see i made some changes:
- I decided to scale up the refinery complex, as it seemed a bit too small compared to the rest and too cramped where it was.
- While doing the cliffs i changed the direction of the northern ones, to give the refinery a bit more breathing room . Not sure about the overall composition now, but that's what came out in the process...
-I added some houses built into the cliffs (since doing the cliff-town on my Tarkir map, i fell in love with these kind of buildings ) They are a bit smaller than the houses i sketched in on my first post, but i think the scale is better now compared to the refinery. It means there are way more houses to draw now ... yay!
- Halfway through the southern cliffs, i added the gun tower (I told myself to try this time a nicely structured workflow, but i can't help it, i'm too erratic doing maps ). I'm actually pretty happy with the result for now. Have to wait and see how it looks with lights ans shades.
- I tried out another "sci-fi" font for this upload

Cheers,
AL

Edit: I have absolutely no idea how this white square smuggled itself into the image...just pretend it isn't there!

[ChickPea]

Looking good, Abu!

Your cliff buildings look great and I love how they're worked into the cliff face. The gun tower is just epic! Also, I like the new font better than the old one. Not quite sure what it was about the original font. Maybe it was just a bit too cliché? The new one works really well.

Great work so far.

[jshoer]

I'll second the comment about the cliffs and cliff-wall buildings! You did a great job blending them together, and using the combination of both to give a sense of height to the map.

I'm wondering if, as you're thinking about the oil lake, you've been keeping Saturn's moon Titan in mind?

[J.Edward]

The cliffs look great Abu.