Castle Venatris

[wdmartin]

My soloist PC is rapidly approaching Castle Venatris, home to the ruler of the shadowed land of Undrendal, and currently overrun with werewolves. There's going to be a pretty big battle, so something special was called for. Here's what I've come up with so far:

castle-venatris-small.jpg

This is very much a work in progress. The floor plan is based on that of Castle Warwick, in England, a beautifully preserved castle that was an active military fortification from the (I believe) 11th century through the end of the middle ages, with the bulk of the work done in the 13th century. I've got the walls and terrain in place, plus some shadows, but there is LOTS to be done yet. Todo:

• It needs vegetation (besides grass)
• Most of the furniture is missing
• The shadows are wonky in places, especially where they overlap
• The windows need glass
• There needs to be light coming in the windows
• Fireplaces need firewood, not just ashes (haven't found suitable imagery yet)
• The bailey on the motte needs windows, stairs, and a door.
• I put in an experimental spiral staircase in the north west gate tower, but it's not right. It looks like it's going down, when it needs to go up. I haven't found a really good "up" spiral staircase overlay that can be made to fit in that spot yet.

The scale of this copy is 50px to the 5-foot-square, and 7,000 x 5,000 pixels. But that's considerably reduced. The original is 100px per square, with a total size of 140 by 100 inches (14,000 x 10,000 pixels). I also had to compress it pretty aggressively to get it under the size limit for attachments. This version is 4.47 MB as a 65% quality JPG; the original Photoshop file is a little over 3 GB.

I'm open to any feedback you all might have. Do note, however, that I'm trying not to go TOO crazy with the details. Making a good, finished map is way better than never finishing a perfect one.

[madcowchef]

Wonderful start! Aside from your hit list, the only comment I have is the interior walls could use more contrast against the floor, either from shadows or some other trick of your choosing.

[wdmartin]

Here's an update.. It's not done by any means, but ... progress!

castle-venatris-small.jpg

Changes:

- Added more pathways in the courtyard.

- Added some definition to the edge of those pathways with some white/black brushing. Not entirely sure about this -- I like the effect, but it may be too pronounced. Perhaps I should turn the opacity down a notch?

- Decided it was silly to have tiled stone floors inside the east gatehouse, and made it dirt. Ditto for the west gatehouse.

- Added glass to all the windows.

- Took out the spiral stair overlay in the north gate. Still not sure what to do about this -- I may need to make my own asset, or go with a ladder.

- Spent some more time working on the shadows of the towers. They're still not perfect, but I think I've at least smoothed out the interference at the edges.

- Added door openings in places that previously lacked them, e.g. the bailey, the northeast tower, and the den.

- Added a little more in the way of furnishings. I'm trying to add just enough to suggest the purpose of the room without going overboard. The kitchen does need clutter on the tables, though.

- Cleaned up some ashes that had accidentally gotten on the floor, and added light from fires. Still no actual firewood or fires, though.

- Made a city for the castle to loom over:

city-of-venatris.jpg

This came out tolerably decent, though I now notice that a few of the buildings in the richer district overlap the road a good bit. Err ... maybe they have ornate balconies? Anyway, the castle on the city map is actually the castle itself, with most of the interior assets and underlying grass turned off, merged, and shrunk to a tiny portion of its former size.

Todo:

• Vegetation!
• More furniture!
• Windows still need light
• Fire to supply that light!
• Doors!
• The spiral stairs in the north gate!

Got to get this knocked out ... my player reached Venatris today. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I'll need this castle on our next session.

[wdmartin]

And here's another update.

Castle-venatris-small-rev3.jpg

Changes:

- Made it night and added torches (and lighting) throughout. Windows no longer need light streaming in, because it's night out. I retained the building shadows, because of the moon. Hrm. Maybe the windows still need light after all. Sigh.

- Furnished most of the rooms. The 5 rooms in the SE corner of the main keep still need furnishing, plus the guard rooms.

- Made spiral staircases for the guard towers.

- Made carpets.

- Made coffins. (Castle is owned by a vampire.)

- Made logs-and-fire for fireplaces. Can I be forgiven for using the same set of logs-and-fire for every fire place?

- This version lacks a grid for the grounds. I have that in a separate layer, but it was turned off when I saved this.

- Dining table needs candelabra. Kitchen still needs clutter.

- Still no doors. Thinking of skipping them in Photoshop and putting them in using my VTT instead, so they can be opened/closed on demand.

Still needs Vegetation!
Finish the furniture!
Contemplate whether or not to map the basement, second story, and towers.

My player got to the castle last session, and I had to use it unfinished. But it'll probably be relevant for at least a couple more sessions, so I'm going to finish it. Must remember to post full resolution copy somewhere when I'm done.

Yurgh ... time for bed, I'm wiped out.

[Sereptus]

Honestly really great stuff! I was wondering about the shadows for the towers. Very effective for the day but I think you could probably eliminate them for the night or at least dim them? a bit? Otherwise I think these are great!! Thanks for the upload!

[Jacktannery]

Looks great wdmartin.

[wdmartin]

Hmm, that's a thought. I'd been thinking there was a full moon, so big shadows despite night time. But that may just be my lazy side peeking out. >.>