Let's Make Maps series on YouTube/Twitch.tv

[mearrin69]

Post away. Yours looks better than mine right now! Nice job! Edit: BTW, have some rep from me!

Also, thanks for the Minecraft tip. I'm so derpy at that game...and well confused on Vanilla vs modpack basic functionality at this point!
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[Islacrusez]

It's been a while since I last played Minecraft... almost gave you inventory shortcuts for Factorio!


Right, so I actually went back and scrapped both the road layers and went back to editing the base layer. A few roads disappeared outright, a few new ones sprung up, and numerous courtyards appeared. Even the second bridge disappeared!



Finally found a texture for shrubbery, bringing my total texture site list to 4 (in two days). Then I did the roads in three textures. Dirt underneath, topped by cobble, and all topped by dust. Hasn't come out great, but it's close enough. Dirt also has a slight embossing to it to give the impression of a worn path. Popped the trees back in for this bit, just to see how it all looks. Some edits to the water were made; filling in at the fork in preparation for a slight dock feature, and linking the lake to the river and beyond.

You may also notice a few additional road tweaks that were made to the base layer just before the textures went on.



Finally I've gone for some minor edits to make the whole thing look presentable, adding tree textures and (temporary) drop shadows, house roofs and (temporary) drop shadows, and a water texture with a little bit of satin overlay for depth.



Still to go: Walls need moving, thickening, and generally rebuilding, towers and all. Buildings in general need multiple passes, for flat and not-flat, wood and stone. All the placeholder shadows need to be unplaceholdered, and I think some of these trees could do with a different texture.

[mearrin69]

Man, you don't even need me. That looks pretty awesome.

Edit: Main comment I'd make is that the lake sitting in the middle of your pretty steep hill texture on the right looks improbable. Maybe scoot it to the east and drop the walls and towers to the lower ground on the west. Then you can have a waterfall cascading down to run under the wall and into the town! I've never done a waterfall in this style...I don't think so anyway. More edit: I'd probably just lop off the lake and the little branch at the south on the right...go with the whole horseshoe bend in the river thing.

Next time around I'll go into the water. Yours looks good but the secret to good water is many, many layers. At least in my experience.

[mearrin69]

Where are the river police these days anyway? They need to give the creator of this application a stern talking-to.
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[Islacrusez]

Yeah, the water looks "good enough" but definitely not "good". I'm curious to see how to approach it. The techniques you're showing are completely new to me, as I've never done anything like this.

For the little lake, I was thinking of doing a little waterfall going out of the town, possibly with the lake at the bottom... I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. Partly because there's no actual fixed heights or flow directions on the water, so it's a bit of a Schrödinger's river; flowing in both directions until you actually pick one. I think I wanted one tower on the high ground (ever the strategist), but I might put the rest of the wall on the lower ground to facilitate the water placement. Guess we'll see when I get around to redoing the wall and towers.

Not sure about losing the main fork, as I was thinking that the fork itself would serve as a dock, and the land between the two branches (south of the wall) could be farmland (as it seems to be the only fertile soil in this godforsaken valley and by golly this is starting to sound like a Stronghold map)... I'll have a think, then I'll probably have a go, and then I'll probably pick the one that manages to look good.

And yes the river gen is pretty awful. Most of my time spent generating the town was trying to get a decent river through it. Program really need a few extra options, like force river to start and end off screen, and force river to pass through town.

[mearrin69]

Ah. I see. I didn't notice at first that the blobby lake down there connected to the edge of the map.

Yeah RPGCMG has problems with rivers and roads. I'm not saying I could do better but it's pretty borked. Still, it gives a good foundation for some judicious editing. I've made some maps I'm pretty happy with using it...in particular Brushy, KS and Ruins of Ningan on my gallery. There are a few more in there I did using it as well.

[mearrin69]

I've been a bit swamped so slipped on getting the next episode of this up. I'll try to get it all together and uploaded tonight. 1080p this time.
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[mearrin69]

Took far to long to get to this. Sorry, guys, been a bit hectic my end.

Let's Make Maps - EP03 - Making a fantasy town map! Part Two.


Description below video contains some links for those who are interested.
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[mearrin69]

Part four is now live.

[mearrin69]

New episode just posted. Last time I skipped getting into how to do some wall details. The next two episodes (no, really) should amend that. Hope you guys don't mind this detour on the tutorial!

Let's Make Maps - EP05 - Making realistic(ish) town/castle walls! Part One.