WIP Azuros - City in the Sky

[steelmccoy]

Starting a new campaign, so that means a new map! Haven't posted in a while. I'm going to make this look a little more sketchy and add textures, borders, captions, etc. But here's the basic conceit and layout. It's a floating city ruled by wizards, so a bunch of wizards towers are naturally in order. I used a lot of stuff from game-icons.net as the base for the buildings. It's supposed to be stylized rather than an accurate representation of the city - the scale is off but actually better than I expected. Fantasy city generator was the starting point for the top-down view, with a bunch of modification.

Feedback appreciated!


azuros combo.jpg

### Latest WIP ###

azuros final.jpg

[steelmccoy]

Made some updates. The paper texture is probably just a stand-in for now. Still need to do border, labels, etc. Probably some more brightness adjustments. Going to color the banner.
azurosComboLight.jpg

[Hermit]

I like where this is going and the colors looks great The wizard towers you chose/drew and the floating islands are my favorite part so far.

I know in your original post you said you were going for a "sketchy" look and that has been achieved, but my OCD is upset that all of the beautiful clean lines are gone from the original city layouts haha.

[Bindusara]

Hi
I like the whole concept, except one thing : in lower city, the constrat between blocks and streets is not good, and don't let us see at first glimpse a readable map.

[steelmccoy]

Thanks so much for the feedback! For the issue with the lower city contrast, do you feel it's the color or the rough nature of it? Is it okay in the first WIP but too messy in the second? Or is it just that the gray is too dark so both suffer from the same problem?

Here's a version with some updates:
### Latest WIP ###
azuros combo2.jpg

[Bindusara]

I really think that's coming from the colors : when first seeing it, I had the impression of a massive black stain, and only after a few seconds i could see the roads. And it's worse on your second WIP. I think you could make the buildings brown lighter.

[steelmccoy]

Ok, I did a couple of things. I made the gray a little brighter and went back over the lines to try to make them a little bolder while still being a bit sketchy. Is this better? Not far enough? Thanks again for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

azuros combo2.jpg

[Bindusara]

yes, it's far better!

[steelmccoy]

Thanks!

I'm struggling with the neighborhood labels. I'm really not sold on the white outline. Maybe they need a border instead, but I'm worried about them being too big. I'm planning on doing numbers for points of interest, too. Could do lighter text, with our without a darker BG (darker looks better, I think). Did some quick mock ups. Anyone have thoughts/suggestions?

Screen Shot 2020-04-14 at 1.47.18 PM.png

[Bindusara]

maybe using a legend with only numbers on your map will lighten your map? Or labels outside our map, with fine lines pointing the interstng points?

One of the main point : if you want to make small labels on the map (small font, or thin police), contrast is the key : your map has 2 parts, one dark, one lighter. Try to find the middle between the light and the dark, and you'll be able using the same color in both. Or use 2 colors, one dark the other light, contrasting with the backgound (in your cas, the city blocks)