Thread: More cities (City Designer 3)

Originally Posted by meleeguy

Good stuff! I'm going to have to stick a few of these in my kids game - if that is ok with you.

Zoutland seems like it should have some big burial mounds.

No, I don't mind, as long as you don't exploit them commercially or throw them all over the internet

Burial mounds... hmm, that's something new for me. But it makes sense. I saw another map with a cemetery. I will try something like that in the future. Still mostly working on hills. I need a good hill to do Noordhaven, a town I am itching to get mapped.

Yup, just private games. Thanks.

The lake map would be all the sweeter with some more detail around the lake. Small boats, and a band of trees around it, unless it is a tailings lake.

I'd like to see a few more ppi if possible. I was thinking how these would be good for miniatures battles projected on a tabletop. I'm going to buy a projecter for that if possible sometime in the next 6 months.

Impressive output. You did these all last year and are just messing with our minds right?

Originally Posted by meleeguy

Yup, just private games. Thanks.

The lake map would be all the sweeter with some more detail around the lake. Small boats, and a band of trees around it, unless it is a tailings lake.

I'd like to see a few more ppi if possible. I was thinking how these would be good for miniatures battles projected on a tabletop. I'm going to buy a projecter for that if possible sometime in the next 6 months.

Impressive output. You did these all last year and are just messing with our minds right?

Heh, I never made these maps to be used in games, so that explains the lower ppi in some of the maps

I'll see if I can add some stuff to the lake map. I will even remove the name if you want. For me boats and more trees are useless (I am mapping a fantasy world for some novels I am writing and in that world most of the trees have been cut down - wood is now a valuable commodity).

I have always wanted to map cities, but didn't have the right software to do it (I'm lazy and didn't want to do it all myself in for example Photoshop). City Designer 2 was not to my taste and now that City Designer 3 has been released I have mapped almost every day for like 4 hours. So that's a lot of output with software like this.

My productivity will go down soon as I am working on an encyplodedia in a private Wiki. So I'm adding lots of texts, these maps and other stuff I have created to help me keep track of my world.

So, something like this? I can increase the resolution.

It's hard to make maps for gaming... I like more empty maps and it still looks empty

That's somewhat amusing to read, for my favorite map in the thread so far is "Sirilion" - which is rather filled with symbols.

All of your maps, although some more than others, have interesting layouts that to me feed my gamer mind, perhaps similarly to your stated purposes (your writing). Close examination is like looking at a "Where's Waldo" effect, except in terms of "Wow, some thought went into this." Throw down some miniatures and you're defending the city against the orc army. Here are the breaches and escalades are underway here here and here.



Other really good maps have these characteristics.

Originally Posted by meleeguy

That's somewhat amusing to read, for my favorite map in the thread so far is "Sirilion" - which is rather filled with symbols.

Ok, I must admit that's a bit amusing. But Sirilion is the largest city in my world, I couldn't just slap some houses down and call it a day, like I did with Zilvertop

Sirilion kinda made me scared to do other large cities, however... so I am sticking with some smaller towns for now.

For my... eh, thirteenth map I continued practicing making hills. I think I am starting to get them right.

The map depicts Duisterpunt (Point Darkness) a town located outside the Valley. With no passes nearby and violent snowstorms plaguing the surrounding langs it's quite isolated. It's the reason why the inhabitants went there in the first place.

As I said earlier the wizards didn't like religion and they committed genocide on believers for hundreds of years. Over the years some managed to flee to this isolated region. The monastery in the north of town was one of the first buildings and as the town continued to grow a small wall was added to ward off any bandits who were stupid enough to blunder into the regio.

The wizards knew were the last believers where hiding, but they were always too busy fighting each other. Over the years their priorities shifted and some monks dared enter the Valley again. Eventually they were even hired by some rulers als scribes or contract negotiators. We can thank them for most of the written history of this world.

There's not much farming going on in Duisterpunt, as the land surrounding Duisterpunt is covered in snow almost the entire year. There's some trade with Groenwoud happening, mostly to import foodstuffs.

Duisterpunt is built near some ancient ruins, located on a hill nearby. The monks have studied the ruins extensively.

I think you need to soften and lighten the shadow at the base of your hills, there should be a smoother transition from the base of the hill to ground level beneath it. It almost makes your hills appear to "float" above your ground plain.

I used to have the same problem myself, the transition between hill and ground is critical to making the hill part of the land, not above it.

GP

Originally Posted by Gamerprinter

I think you need to soften and lighten the shadow at the base of your hills, there should be a smoother transition from the base of the hill to ground level beneath it. It almost makes your hills appear to "float" above your ground plain.

I used to have the same problem myself, the transition between hill and ground is critical to making the hill part of the land, not above it.

GP

Great tip, thanks! Something more like this then? I can soften them even more, but then the hills start to really fade away.