an attempt at a city

[Caliginis]

I like where you are heading although your houses seem a little bit too similar to me. I think it would look better if you could get a bit more variation into them.

[LonewandererD]

There will be some variation added to the buildings, but not until much later, I'm just trying to get all the houses down right now. The problem is that there will be so many houses that adding variation to them would take forever, if i do a smaller map (town sized and under) then there will be a lot more variation.

-D-

[LonewandererD]

At first i thought that the map was too small, but grinding my way throguh it now i ask myself why i made it so large . Anyway, I've complete the second district, it's just to the east of the main residential area and is called the "Greens District" because it has proportioanlly more gardens and trees than the residential area and most of the cities foodstuffs can be bought here.

There are four special areas here, two large buildings, a field and a market. This market is for the trading of foodstuffs and most goods made in the city, the other market handles trade and labour contracts and carries goods from outside the city or higher price goods like silk. The large building on the left side of the district is the "Te Tan al Solak", or the House of Spirits, the cities equivelant of a temple. The other large building is the "Te Tan al Tenehal", the House of the Body, a medical clinic for the masses. The field is the "Huba Dnuk" field, a place where ball games are played.

Also included is a map showing all of the work i've done so far. Next I'm jumping further east to the industrial district but before i do that i have some thoughts i need opinions. I added some coloured lines on the roofs of the special buildings, these are signs. They work on the larger buildings but I'm thinking of putting them on some of the residential buildings to signify general stores and the like and to break up the sea of brown. I put some on the building in the Central Island District, the question is do they work, what do you guys think? Also, what colour should the house roofs of the higher classes be? There going to be tiled, like the special buildings, and i was thinking of a light grey so as not to contrast too much with the common houses too much but still stand out; but i've also done some experiments with a rich brown colour. Which should I used?

I've done half of the housing but i fear i will go made before the end of the other half. Now, if you'd excuse me, i need to sit in the corner and cackle maniacally.

-D-

[Najmir]

m8, you are an animal, that is some tedious work there. Hope you dont loose your marbles before you get to the end!

It is looking great. Trees are looking much better too.

I am not sure if I agree with Cal or not. By keeping the same style for the housing en masse you are communicating the idea of an ordered and planned city.Class distinction might be limited also as a result a result of levels of education I think you mentioned in your early posts. Graphically If I zoom in and focus on one plain area funnily enough it does look plain. However, I think that it is the plain that brings out the finer details that you have meticulously added and also emphasises the structures and areas of importance.

Anyways enough rambling time for some zzzs

Naj

[Ascension]

If you want to give your roofs some variation, create a new layer and put a pattern or some color on the layer. Then ctrl+click on the houses layer, Select - Inverse, then hit the delete key and deselect...this removes the color/pattern from the streets and land, etc. Then use the eraser on certain sections and finally mess around with the blend mode of the layer. This way you can add some "cloud-based grunge", "pattern-based noise or lines", or set up different classes to have different color roofs. Myself I use one of the default colored patterns in PS, called nebula I think, max out the scale and then reduce the opacity so that it isn't so vivid and a multiply or hard light or color blend mode. By the way, looks fantastic, but I'm biased of course.

[Jaxilon]

I think it's looking great. I don't think I'm ready to attempt this as I figure I would go cross eyed pretty fast

Keep up the good work!

[Gandwarf]

Wow... this is starting to look insanely good! I can appreciate the work you have put into this. This city is a monster
The roofs might need some more variety, as at the moment the city looks more like a military camp (very orderly, but that might also be the effect you are going after). Maybe some red slate roofs for the higher classes. Anyway, very, very cool! Hope you are able to finish it.

[LonewandererD]

Thnx for the kinmd words guys

I am going for some variation in the houses and Ascension pretty muched nailed the idea i'm working with, i just want to get all of the common and industrial houses down first. So do not fear, variety is on the agenda.

@Gandwarf - I'm avoiding using the colours red, it always struck me as bing a colour used in European cities and I'm trying to avoid that. Also local customs forbids living under a red roof, the Dal believe that the bloddy colour attracts malevolent spirits. Only one house in the city is going to be red and that is the house of the cities executioner and only because it has been properly protected by charms and spirirt barriers.

-D-

[LonewandererD]

Okay, i've added some variation to the roofs done once again by following the words of the mighty Ascension, the nebula overlay worked great man . Below is the before and after of the effect, i think it worked out well but it's my map and so i'm a little biased.

On a side note, I'm trying to come up with a look for my castle but can't decide on a theme. I've taken the Ursula K. Le Guin approach to fantasy by creating a culture that resembles some parts of other cultures but cannot be directly linked with a preexisting culture. For the Dal I've got kind of a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Native American and Celtic cultures but only two of these cultures really have castles and if i did my castles like them people would be very quick in making a connection. SO i was thinking of making a generic looking castle, large stone rectangles with battlements and a few roofs that are sort of like oriental roofs but with a tribal sense. I don't know how this castle should be laid out, so i'm asking, what are the key parts of a castle that i should have in my castle? So far I onlky have the main keep and a few outlying barracks.

Also, i've noticed that the maximum size of files to be uploaded has changed, what is the new maximum size for jpeg files.

-D-

[Ascension]

Here's a quick link. I have some more detailed drawings in my library but I have to find the right book and scan it first...if you need it that is. It has many more parts.