• The City of Castran by Zong

    Map:


    Created in: Photoshop CS5

    Review
    City maps are two things: Time consuming to make and very difficult to get right. You can't hide behind colours and textures with a city map...if if it's not convincing it will be apparent. This city map by Zong took several years to make. The care and attention to it shows. The spare colour choices make the map more of an accomplishment....this is a beauty with a superb eye for detail: touches like the houses on the main bridge (as was known with bridges of that size in medieval times), the field distribution and shapes, the building to street ratio, the general dispersion, shape variation, block distribution and relative building size all testify to the fact that this is a stunner in the thought that has gone into it. It is very, very hard to get all of these factors right in a city map and Zong has done it.

    Congratulations Zong on your award.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zong
    So this is a first for me, actually finishing a map. I've been working on and off on this for several years now. Some of you might remember seeing my wip thread for it, if you do you might notice that I have flipped the map vertically. This is because I made some geographical changes on my world map and moved some countries around.

    Here is some backstory for you:

    The city of Castran is the capital of the kingdom of Kardoma, It is one of the larger cities in the northern parts of the region of Aergada. The citys roots can be traced back less than a thousand years to the time of the great empire. During this time the great bridge, which today is the most famous landmark of the city, was constructed. It was built as a network of roads to allow the imperial troops easy travel to distant parts of the empire and to help in its conquests of new lands.
    A small village existed on the western side of the river Rimen, after the bridge was finished new development quickly appeared on both sides of the river. And it wasn't long before the city became an important trading hub.


    Map was made with photoshop and the shield was made with inkscape.
    Original threads
    Original thread
    Full size map
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Featured Map: The City of Castran by Zong started by ravells View original post
    Comments 15 Comments
    1. Clercon's Avatar
      Clercon -
      Congratulations to the featured map. it is a very nice city map you have created. Saved it in my inspiration folder.
    1. bartmoss's Avatar
      bartmoss -
      It's an amazing map. Well deserved.
    1. monks's Avatar
      monks -
      Beautiful map, and very clear. Pity we can't see the full size version.
    1. Steel General's Avatar
      Steel General -
      Congratz!!
    1. torstan's Avatar
      torstan -
      Congratulations! It's a stunner - especially since it was made in Inkscape!

      @Monks - you can see the full size version, you just need to follow the link to the original thread.

      Edit - I've added a link to the post directly to the full size map.
    1. Khairn's Avatar
      Khairn -
      Absolutely one of the best city maps I have ever seen. Kudo's !!
    1. Valtharius's Avatar
      Valtharius -
      Beautiful map!!!
    1. Diamond's Avatar
      Diamond -
      Beautiful, clear, well-laid-out, just all around awesome. A well-deserved Feature.
    1. RjBeals's Avatar
      RjBeals -
      Looks like a professional architectural city drawing. Amazing job. This site just oozes with talent!
    1. Zong's Avatar
      Zong -
      Thank you all very much. I feel honoured.
    1. Maldin's Avatar
      Maldin -
      Love the map, Zong! A great piece of work.
      Denis, aka "Maldin"
    1. Zong's Avatar
      Zong -
      Quote Originally Posted by Maldin View Post
      Love the map, Zong! A great piece of work.
      Denis, aka "Maldin"
      Thank you Denis. Your guide to rpg mapmaking is actually what inspired me to start making this map.
    1. cae's Avatar
      cae -
      Epic. Nothing else to say.
    1. Doctor Thantos's Avatar
      Doctor Thantos -
      This is outstanding!

      Is there a map key or something that gives more details on what the various areas and large buildings are?

      Again, I liked this tremendously!
    1. Death_Blinder's Avatar
      Death_Blinder -
      Quote Originally Posted by torstan View Post
      Congratulations! It's a stunner - especially since it was made in Inkscape!

      @Monks - you can see the full size version, you just need to follow the link to the original thread.

      Edit - I've added a link to the post directly to the full size map.
      The full sized map link directs to an older 'unfinished' version of the map. Is there any way to get a larger version of this one?

      This is an excellent piece of work by the way. Simply fantastic.