October 2009 Entry - Siete Torres

[Ascension]

I think the trees are a bit neony as well as the fields in the east. Those central buildings are still quite dark too. That's all I got.

[Immolate]

Thank you Ascension for your handy advise. I hope that I have addressed the issues that you identified.

In the center of Siete Torres, much older than the towers that are the city's namesake, is an ancient cluster of buildings made from a substance called "coquina" or "little shells". It is a substance made from the shells of fragile shellfish that have accumulated over countless years and have formed a stone-like substance. This substance is valuable for two primary reasons: first, it can be found in places where actual stone is uncommon. Second, it is very tough, but because the shells are fragile on a micro scale, any blows damages only the area struck, and not the surrounding walls.

This beehive of clustered buildings is used by the city's inhabitants as a residential area, as the many terraces and patios make it an ideal place to spend leisure time. The streets are too narrow for wagons to pass, so business is difficult to conduct in what the residents call "Old Town".

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[Ascension]

Looks kinda Aztecy...way cool.

[Ramah]

Old town looks really smart but it doesn't exactly fit in with the rest of the town at all. Wouldn't some of the other buildings be constructed from the same stuff if stone is scarce? It just looks kinda placed there.

Was it always your intention to have that district in that style? I notice you went over the original roads you had placed there.

[Gandwarf]

I agree with Ramah. It looks cool, but doesn't really fit in. Are you panicking because of the deadline?

[nolgroth]

I'll just have to reiterate that this is my favorite city map ever. Wow. I love the agricultural areas a lot. If I had any complaints it is that the shields around the perimeter of the beige buildings are obscured. In fact, I think I would pull all of them "above" the rest of the map features. No biggie though.

Again great map. I foresee it winning this month's challenge and rightly so if it does.

[Immolate]

I was concerned about it not "fitting" as well. It wasn't panic as the stone city was a much-more complex concept than putting in something more traditional because of the insanely detailed interaction of shadow. Remember that each different elevation interacts independently with each higher elevation. In the old town, there are ten different elevations interacting--one at zero, ten, thirteen, sixteen, twenty, twenty-three, twenty-six, thirty, thirty-three and thirty-six feet.

Layer 0 interacts with the buildings at layers 10/13/16/20/23/26/30/33/36, so each of those building layers had to be shaded one pixel at a time. Layer 10 interacts with 13/16/20/23/26/30/33/36, and so on. The whole structure was enough to give me a headache, and had to be constructed on another PSD file because it was too much. It was something of a tour de force of my shadow method.

But all of that means nothing if it doesn't fit, and the consensus seems to be that it doesn't. I've put too much work into this map to let that stand, so it's back to the drawing board. I do appreciate your honesty guys. But don't worry, the traditional style is simpler and much quicker than this was.

Here is a demonstration of the shadows layer, which was put together initially at each elevation at 100% black opacity and then merged, the opacity lowered and blurred.

[Gandwarf]

Well, maybe if you have the time you could do an Aztec city in the future
It looks really great, just doesn't blend in too well with this map...

[Gidde]

I don't know. It does look somewhat incongruous, but the backstory explanation is quite plausible. Reading that, I can believe it.

[Immolate]

Thanks again for all of the help on this my friends. It is said that success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. I hope that it is an indicator that this project has been a success that there have been many fathers to it.

This is a release candidate I suppose, although there is still work left to do, the city itself is "finished", inasmuch as I can every be happy with anything. Please if you have a criticism, let me know. Today is the deadline for finishing this and I'm determined not to have to ask for an extension. Besides, my wife wants me to paint the house and I'm kind of thinking that she's been anticipating the end of this challenge as much as I have.

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