Westbar Redux - A Haerlech Study

[Dumont]

Okay, so since I finally found time to touch this map for the first time in ages, I was able to look at it with a fresh set of eyes, and I realized that there are some aspects to this map which are, in my mind, issues that need to be addressed before I can move further with it.

1. The density of the town is incredibly weird, and the layout goes from very dense to bare field in places without a natural reason, such as geography or city walls.
2. The southwest corner of the town is dominated by a giant temple and a group of buildings that make up a campus of sorts (long story), but... there aren't many buildings in the immediate vicinity? Wouldn't the population be more centered around these areas?
3. In the larger scheme of things, this town was designed to be on a river in the middle of a huge plain, but I seem to have forgotten that doesn't mean that everything must strictly be completely flat.

With all that in mind, I just created a new layer and started doodling over the top to try and understand what's bothering me and to attempt to solve it. I've added a bit of a small valley feel to the topography, put the big farm in the northwest up on a rolling hill, and I'm having the extent of the town fading into endless agriculture (which would be appropriate given the history I've created for the town). Still more to do in the southwest area -- i'm considering ditching the campus altogether because it almost feels like having it there demands doubling the size of the proper city collection of buildings to support it.