I want to improve this town

[Aval Penworth]

I will be using this town map in my campaign soon but I want to make it "pop" a little more. Any comments would be appreciated. It's a City Designer Pro 2 file, with noise and textures added in photoshop.

[Gandwarf]

Well... I think it's a pretty cool map as it. The layout looks quite ok, with even the suggestion of height worked into the map. I do miss labeling though? I think that would really add to the map. Maybe you could also add some fields or trees outside the city? One thing that I think is a bit weird, there seems to be only one road into the town? A town this large would probably have more visible road connections, probably one on the other side of the river.

By the way, it shows that you drew a large stone texture and then put the buildings on top. I rather prefer placing the individual streets and then houses, it somehow makes for a more realistic map I think. You might want to experiment with that when doing future maps.

[Sigurd]

You could add some variation to the roofs and maybe some light affects


Sigurd

Its a nice map. Very wealthy town to have that many towers\walls and so few buildings.

[Al. I. Cuza]

Yeah, some shading would be nice.

[Daelin]

I think the map looks great as is, but I agree with both poster above. The streets could use a bit of "dirtiness" to them and the roofs could use a bit more definition. My suggestion would be to simply add a dust layer on top of the streets that you draw into with subtle strokes, particularly in the center of the streets where most people walk. Also, you could add a bevel-emboss effect on the rooftops. The current look has a rather "flat" feel to it. I'm not at all familiar with City Designer Pro, so I'm not sure if that is an option, but my first suggestion definitely is.

[Mark Oliva]

it shows that you drew a large stone texture and then put the buildings on top. I rather prefer placing the individual streets and then houses, it somehow makes for a more realistic map I think. You might want to experiment with that when doing future maps.

While I agree with Gandwarf in this particular case, I find that one can get more realistic results if one puts down the buildings first and then makes the roads. That's also how things happened in reality. Buildings grew around roads that were dirt at first, and as the settlement grew, cobblestone was laid on the major thoroughfares.

Gandwarf's point about the single road also is right on the mark. A settlement this size would have had at least two or three roads in and out. In addition, there would have been several smaller "doors" in the wall where farmers could go in and out to their fields.

Finally, the opening in the wall in the southeast is troublesome. Your river does not have a particularly wide scale on the map. A well-walled city like this would not have been left so open to arrows, flaming projectiles and the like. More likely, the wall would have bridged the river, and the waterway itself would have been cut off by a grate, or, if the river is navigable, it would have been protected by a portcullis type gate that could be raised to let river traffic pass in and out of town.

On the very positive side, this is the first CC3 raster map I've seen that managed not to have at least a bit of that generic CC3 look to it. Excellent!

[Aval Penworth]

Finally, the opening in the wall in the southeast is troublesome. Your river does not have a particularly wide scale on the map. A well-walled city like this would not have been left so open to arrows, flaming projectiles and the like. More likely, the wall would have bridged the river, and the waterway itself would have been cut off by a grate, or, if the river is navigable, it would have been protected by a portcullis type gate that could be raised to let river traffic pass in and out of town.

Yeah, right. Thanks. I didn't notice that the river had placed itself on top of the wall. That was unintentional. I had intended the water to flow under the wall and imagined there would be a grate to keep intruders out.

Would the farmers doors be shown on the map?

[Aval Penworth]

I had a little play with the shading and added some grunge. I'll work on some labels tomorrow.

[Al. I. Cuza]

I like the map. It's not pompous and serves it'a purpose.

[Aval Penworth]

I think I am going to call this finished. I printed it to A3 on a colour laser printer and I reckon it came up really well.

Thanks to eveyone for their feedback. I didn't add any trees or buildings outside the walls because I have already established that the lords and governors in this part of the world clear the surrouning area to prevent raiders sneaking up on the towns, and having cover from city archers.

I take your points regarding the roads, but I'm gonna say that the Lord got a sweet deal on paving stones a few years back and went to town.

AP