City of Ironnesse: Where do I go from here?

Well, the forum arrives just in time. I've been working on this city for quite a while, but I'm kind of stuck doing my street layout. It just doesn't look right to me.

http://yrazul.heismann.net/wiki/IronnesseMap

It's one of my world's larger cities. There are no city walls, as the "tech" of my world includes flying sailing ships, which make walls fairly useless now. The white area is actually a drop off to open sky, and there will be docks for the airships there.

The city began as a small noble's fortress that later evolved into a small town, and then the capital city. Much of the city was damaged during a rather large war, then rebuilt. The central square that has the streets radiating from it was built then, and the seven streets are to represent the seven noble houses that rule the island now.

So, any suggestions on street layout and major features are welcome.

thanks,
Chris

Not too shabby. I think you're headed in the right direction mostly, except I don't care too much for that big rectangular road thing in the middle...its either the fact that its rectangular, which doesn't suit wheeled travel very well, or the fact that the roads coming out of it seem somewhat awkwardly placed...I bet if you clean that up a little and/or make it rounded/ovaled it would probably improve the whole street layout really.

Also, the multiple bridge types seems to be a little weird too.

(Total Aside:
If there are flying ships, why are there bridges? Wouldn't there be flying carts and wagons as well? In fact, why are there even roads? I could imagine people just "landing" their wagons/carts/ships right on top of their houses, or mooring them to large posts that stick up from their homes.

If that were the case, the roads would really be more like sidewalks or paths.)

Yes, I agree about the big rectangle (square) in the middle that seems odd. Also, without knowing more about the technology of the setting I couldn't recommend too much regarding the roads. Did they actually "make" the roads, or are they natural paths that have been created over time? If they are more organic, I would say drop the roads, plop down the buildings where they would most likely have been constructed, and then allow the space between them to be the roads.

The "square" will be more obvious once I start putting buildings on. Basically, it's a central plaza that was built as a memorial of sorts when the city was rebuilt after a major war. That's probably not going to be it's final shape - buildings will overlap onto it.

The bridges - thanks - I knew they weren't looking right. I guess I'm going to have to go and draw them all by hand.

The largest of the roads that leads to the citadel is going to have a median down the center with trees.

The city is partially "organic" and partially planned. That is, the city was mostly just paths and such, and buildings built where ever, with roads then later paved between them. During the War of Coins (my worlds major war), the city was bombed/raided/etc, and during the rebuild, somethings were planned around what was still left standing.

As for why there are still roads - Airships are expensive, and are for primarily inter-island travel. Only the very rich would have their own private dock for an airship - every one else travels by foot or cart.

Thanks for the input so far

Chris

That all makes sense and sounds like you have really thought things through.

Regarding the bridges, did you rescale them as you put them in? You may want to keep them at the proper scale so that they look right when placed.

I'll be very interested to watch the city form. Keep up the great work.

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Originally Posted by RPMiller

That all makes sense and sounds like you have really thought things through.

Regarding the bridges, did you rescale them as you put them in? You may want to keep them at the proper scale so that they look right when placed.

I'll be very interested to watch the city form. Keep up the great work.

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Thanks. This whole campaign world has been the most thoroughly thought through campaign I've ever created. I'm trying to learn from the mistakes in my previous worlds.

I did rescale the bridges, trying to cut corners. There just don't seem to be any bridge symbols for the size roads/river I am using. <sigh> I guess I'm going to need to fix that.

I hope to actually have a good portion of the city worked out by next week, as that's when I need it for my next game session.

Chris

And you are drawing everything at real scale? Maybe your road is too big, or you need to create a new "suspension" bridge symbol? I don't know. I don't use those bridge symbols so I'm not sure how big they are supposed to be.

Well, I've done a little bit more on this map. The main network of roads has been established, the bridges have been redone (I decided to go with "dual" bridges for my main boulevards - one bridge for each direction of travel) in "standard" format, and I've begun adding buildings with the Random Streets commands.

http://yrazul.heismann.net/wiki/IronnesseMap


Up next is using the house command to fill in the areas left by the Random Streets command, and make things look a little more uniform.

In case anyone was wondering, I'm using the satellite images of Paris and London available on maps.google.com to help "shape" this city.

Chris

I like the bridges much better, and the 'dual bridges' gives it a unique look. It real be interesting to see how it takes shape as you feel in all the gaps. I'm assuming you'll also be deleting some of the houses for larger buildings and such as well?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kristof65

Well, I've done a little bit more on this map....

Chris

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I like that the area of Well Square actually has a square well. Seriously, though, it looks good. I like how things are coming along. Keep us updated!