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Thread: Balakovo

  1. #11
    Guild Artisan landorl's Avatar
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    I can't say that I am a fan of the building texture, however I do like the overall layout of the town itself. One other thing that I am not sure that I understand is the river placement. It looks like the town is on a hill, and that the river cuts right through the middle of the hill. It wouldn't be natural for it to do that if there are lowlands all around the hill. On the other hand, if the hill were man made, then it would be fine.

  2. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by landorl View Post
    I can't say that I am a fan of the building texture, however I do like the overall layout of the town itself. One other thing that I am not sure that I understand is the river placement. It looks like the town is on a hill, and that the river cuts right through the middle of the hill. It wouldn't be natural for it to do that if there are lowlands all around the hill. On the other hand, if the hill were man made, then it would be fine.
    Ok the real thing is this: I did my elivations by hand, in doing this I tried to insure that the river was lower than all other terrain by making that the only real black on the map. Well the end result was supose to be near cliff regions around the river (steep banks). It didn't turn out that way and it is somthing I need to work to perfect. You are completely corect that the town is on a hill and the river looks to cut through.

    Heres the Game Master out the but method.

    I could use two methods to describe this phenomena to my players.

    Method1. The river was cut to the town, the Empire wanted to insure they had a town at the cross roads and tried manny times to seetle the area as is. Ultimatly each time fell, and the Legions where forced to either abandon their course of action or find a way to get water to the city. It was a scholar who decided to cut the (not sure what to call it). It took the empire 15 years and hundreds of slaves, manny of which died their bodies lying some where in the sandstone and mud covered bottom. The cut is a testimont to the might of the Empire for even the land itself can not dictate the actions of the children of the Radiance.

    Method2. The area has already been declared riddled with ruins from an ancient civilization. Under the city sits one such ruin undiscovered, the river running down what use to be a broad avenue barried for over a thousand years.

    The first one allows me to perpetuate the story by showing the "Might of the empire" i.e. shear stubborness. The second allows me to intigrate a part of an already mentioned idea into a beggining campaigne. If I put more though I probally could use both.

    Hope this didn't come off too dickish just wanted to explain thank you for the C&C.

  3. #13
    Professional Artist Facebook Connected Coyotemax's Avatar
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    I think the word you want there is Canal.

    And I like the first explanation for the storyline

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  4. #14

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    Ok got back last night but was dead tiered. Did a bit of work on the map today several times (my daughter thought it was a fun game to turn my comp off befor I could save. Finally got somthing here.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Balakovo01.jpg 
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    This is placed here as a reference I went ahead and took of the page curl but otherwise left it as it was.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Balakovo02.jpg 
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ID:	18091

    This is me starting to add the new buildings I have yet to go through and add shadows nor have I played with the images too much to make them look more inline with the map style.

  5. #15
    Professional Artist Djekspek's Avatar
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    looking good shante. to make the river cut through the town maybe you should re-apply some more shade just the north of the river and some highlight to the south. Like you did in a previous version. And maybe add some rock/cliff texture there so it looks more like a deep cut.

  6. #16
    Guild Artisan Juggernaut1981's Avatar
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    If you're going with the "Empire of Stubborn River Movers" option, then I'd suggest that you modify your map a bit to add "the old river"... if the river is within the maps boundaries.

    I like the combination of "stubborn empire" plus "dead empire". It gives you a reason to have all sorts of elaborate ruins because there is a previous empire (e.g. Romans anybody?) who built all sorts of stuff and then collapsed because of [insert cause here or leave it a mystery].
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  7. #17
    Guild Artisan landorl's Avatar
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    The explanation is a good one, and frankly, in a fantasy setting, almost any explanation will work.

    However, what might be an even easier explanation, but still fit within option #1, is to say that they tried to settle the area, but when flood season came, it kept sweeping the city away. Eventually, the empire decided that the only way to keep a settlement here was to build up the land around the crossing. So for many years slaves brought in cart after cart of gravel and dirt to raise the surrounding ground up nearly 12 (or however many) Meters or feet. They simply poured the debris over the existing buildings and ruins, and now there may be some ruins below the settlement that may still be accessible. (think of the city of Acre/Akko among many others that has many ruins under it's streets)

  8. #18

    Wip

    Ok here is some of the changes:

    Did some brush work to bring out the elivation a bit more. (took me several hours and made me think about stealing my wifes Wacom tablet she got for school). Also this is the first test of a rocky texture along the more cliff like bases. I only did the one side due to shadow and light effects gave it a slight perspective.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Balakovo02.jpg 
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  9. #19
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Looks pretty nice. The roads and river look a little dark but I can live with that and you might want to blur some of those lines that are appearing on the terrain. Overall, though, nice job. The forests looks great.
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  10. #20

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    Thanks I think I actualy used one of your tuts for them... With a bit of modification, ofcourse. I need to work on my roads alot, I also did a bit of blinding but I think I'll go back and test out the whole bluring thing (I'm taking it ou mean the lines that become visible close up?). This is still very much a work in progress.

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