an attempt at a city

[ravells]

This thing is HUGE, I'm surprised you're still sane! The addition of negative space makes it look a lot better for me. Couple of questions: What are those little (Pillars?) around the town with a red spiral pattern coming out of them? What resolution are you mapping this at? I love the touch of having little crates on the quays. Absolutely lovely work.

[torstan]

That's really incredible. Great work throughout - but especially that forest texture. That really is beautiful. I love how this is coming along.

My one note so far would be to tone down the water a little. The gradient from white to blue is pretty heavy and distracts from the focus of the piece - the city itself.

As for the roofs - the blue and the yellow are a bit OTT but the others look great.

[LonewandererD]

Thnx guys, I've chosen my roof style, it's going to be alight grey with a very slight blue tinge.

@Ravells - I've really had to turn the resolution down because otherwise it would be too big to post, but my final version will have its res really turned up. I think i posted out it before but those pillars outside the walls are Kaija Stones, pillars enscribed with enchanted Kaija blood when linked together like this create a magickal barrier around the city thats supposed to ward off malevolent spirits, it wont do much against the big gribblies but there are ways of dealing with them too.

@Torstan - I'll look into the water, i havent;t touched it in a while but now that the buildings are there it does look a little bright.

-D-

[Meridius]

LonewandererD, to make your 'poor districts' a bit more filled with negative space, there's a little trick to remember. Cities where usually built with buildings in surrounding an open space. As the city grows, and the inhabitants need more room, they can only expand their houses directly inward. This means the open space in the center of a city block gets smaller, the older a city gets. This also means that usually somewhere near the center of a city-block there's still this little speck of open space. Houses are long, and have their short ends facing the road.

The main implication for your map (or future-maps, since it would be a break in style for this map I guess) is that your city-blocks are a bit on the shallow side. Some blocks can only house two houses with the short end side-by-side.

Also, the red roofs depend on what kind of roofing you use. Thatched roofs are something Medieval like cities want to avoid at a certain point. Medieval cities with thatched roofs are INCREDIBLY dangerous to live in. It's a question of WHEN the city will completely or largely burn down, rather than if. In such cities and towns, pyromaniacs will probably be hanged first instance they get caught. A city with thatched roofs is absolutely going to have a prominent place for it's gallows or other execution methods. It'll also display the bodies of the criminals as a warning.

Secondly, if you use rooftiles, they're probably going to be clay. This means you have only limited colours to choose from. Unfortunately, hues of beige and red feature prominently in the possibilities. I grabbed this list from a random roofing-website, I'm in no way an expert on roofing, but if you aim for something medieval, you probably won't get anything glazed, which rules out A LOT of colours.
* Terracotta --> too much like red.
* Pink --> too much like red.
* Clay Red --> red...
* Forrest Green --> this could do.
* Moss Green --> this could also do.
* Light Beige --> nah, could be interpreted as 'light red' or something, but perhaps.
* Dark Brown --> Maybe.
* Tobacco --> Could be...
* Brown Blend --> blends are rather modern I believe.
* Green Blend --> ditto.
* Tan and Beige Blend --> ditto.
* Burgundy and Tan Blend --> ditto.
* Green and Tan Blend --> ditto.

A final and highly northern European option would be slate, which is mostly black or grey. Another, more unusual option to make it a bit more lively is for cathedrals and other important buildings: copper (or bronze). This usually makes roofs go green.

[Gandwarf]

I missed the latest update. This is turning into a very respectable map indeed
Or what I mean to say: yes, it's freaking huge and it's going to be an amazing sight once it's finished (I am awestruck already). I applaud your efforts.

[ravells]

We will all visit him at the asylum when this is over

[LonewandererD]

Unfortunately the asylum doesn't allow visitors; not after i inspired the inamtes to riot that is. I been busy the last few weeks with moving houses and uni assignment and only got my internet back today so i haven't been able to spend a lot of time on the map, that shall soon be recitified.

@Meridius - Thank you for your suggestions and insight but i unfortunately i've gone abit too far with my buildings to change the common districts now. In this city the "poor" district which is acutally the district of the "casteless" would not be built within city walls, it's acually going to go in the large open are in the north-east of the map. The cities roofs vary from common to upper districts. The common district roofs are made from sturdy wooden beams and wooden tiles which are then painted which is why there is a lot of colour variation in the city right now. The upper district is a little more uniform with the roofs being made from light grey tiles, i don't know what the tiles would be made with. The red roof i'm trying to avoid isn't going to be tiled but again painted wood; commoners avoid the colour red, or atleast a particualr shade of red, becuase it the colour of blood and the realm of blood is the realm of the warrior caste, not the commoner caste.

More updates soon

-D-

[arsheesh]

Wow D! This is looking absolutely amazing! I've been gone for a while but I remember taking an interest in the early versions of your city map. It looks like you've gone through a tremendous amount of work to fine tune the look of the city. I am very impressed. Have some rep.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[mearrin69]

You are QUITE mad, you know? Seriously awesome detail in that map. Nice stuff.
M

[alizarine]

I am seriously becoming a psychology major just so I can try my hand at this ^.^ On the other hand, this map is so overwhelmingly fantastic I doubt any of my own attempts would rate "insane" ^___^ Gorgeous map, and good luck with all those buildings! Just a quick note: the buildings are all outlined and heavy/solid feeling (they look great) but the soft sandy-beaches look along the coast line is, well, soft feeling. I love the city itself, I'm just wondering if maybe the sandy beaches are a bit out of place compared to the city itself. Other than that, brilliant work ^.^

- Alizarine