The Capital

[Bobzilla]

As with all my attempts this will be slow going but I'll get there

I’ve still been working away on my islands for the RPGBN co-op setting and I’m currently at the point where I’m beginning to describe the capital of the my island nation and I’ve gone as far as broad statements can go without having something drawn up that I can use as a map for the city. I’ve been having a great deal of trouble getting it drawn up at the scale that I want it as my PC just can’t handle the file sizes and the tutorials I’ve been following are all for much smaller scales.

I’ve came to realise though that my original ideas for the city were too grand. I originally had a huge city 2-3 miles across and it would take forever and a day to map that out but the limits placed on me by my computer have actually made me realise that a) my nation could never support a city that size and b) if I cut up the land into blocks my PC can handle it far easier. Yet again I’ll be following a tutorial by Ascension but I’m taking a lot of hints from Coyotemax who put his own slant on the tutorial.

The as yet un-named city is the capital of The Isles. Each island has their own ruling family and the King is drawn from the most powerful family. For many years the seat of government moved around the islands depending on who ruled the roost at that particular moment and this was fine until one year a neighbouring nation declared war and sacked the Kings island and kidnapped him looking for a ransom. The Islanders rose to the challenge and rescued their King but at was at this point that they decided a dedicated stronghold built to withstand any attack was needed.

First phase
Capital situated on a promontory in a bay who’s entrance can easily be defended. The land behind the castle is mostly deep bog preventing all but the most tenacious/foolhardy attacker attempting an overland assault. Keep, barracks, religious, diplomatic and council wards built and surrounded by wooden palisade. Only entrance to the palliated area is via small harbour beside the Keep. Siege weapons hidden at mouth of bay with Signal towers High up on cliff tops.

Second Phase
Wooden palisade upgraded to stone wall and gatehouse built to allow access to the the market and encampment that grew up around castle. Additional larger barracks added at this point and the harbour increased in size to accommodate military ships.

Third Phase
Shipyard built and market harbour built to increase rapid growth of market. Dedicated crafters quarter set up. Wooden palisade built around encampment and some permanent buildings appear within these walls. Mostly inn’s and taverns at first but as the crafters became more settled smiths and other heavy industrial crafts build more permanent premises.

Fourth Phase
Encampment is now 80%+ permanent structures. Land outside of palisades gradually converted to agricultural land. The city is still unable to be self sufficient and has to ship most of it’s food in from other towns and islands.

Fifth Phase – Current.
Market Harbour increased in size and coastal defences upgraded to safeguard the entrance to the city. Land surrounding city can now support the basic needs of the people but all luxury goods and foodstuffs still need to be brought in from outside.

This is going to be time consuming and most likely tedious at times but it is the heart of my small part of the setting and so it needs completing before I move on to the other islands.

[Scorpius]

How tightly packed is the barracks going to be? It seems kinda big comparatively.

Or perhaps this city is much smaller than I think it's going to be. . .

[Bobzilla]

The city is not one that grew up with a civilian population although one did come along afterwards. It was the new seat of government and they weren't going to see it sacked again so they made sure there would be a few troops about.

I should also point out that it is also the centre of the nations navy and as such the training point for all new troops as well as holding the cities Garrison. The barracks within the walls house the King's personal guards

The city is roughly 1 mile across at it's widest point

[Scorpius]

Ok, I can wrap my head around that just fine.

[Coyotemax]

I like the way this is heading. And thanks for the mention
*feels honoured, thank you!*

it'll be interesting to see how the history aspect affects your city.

Actually I was looking a bit closer at the areas in your layout and got to thinking (uh oh)
The keep itself may be a little close to the water, close enough for a naval bombardment of sorts. Myself, i would put the diplomats over there - if someone came in and started bombarding, that area would likely get hit first. This opens the likelihood of involving other nations on your side of the conflict since their ambassadors were the ones attacked first

Of course that may not work as well if the diplomatic envoys came later on in the history, as the keep would be heavily established by then, but I see you have them listed in phase one

[Gandwarf]

The phases/generation thing is a neat idea to flesh out a city. Will have to use that in the future as well.

Can't wait to see the next WIP

[Bobzilla]

This was quickly thrown together over lunch to get a sense of scale. I seem to have got things about right now. I should be looking at 1 pixel is 1 foot I hope which makes teh wider roads about 30 feet wide and the smaller roads 15 feet wide.

I have lots of tweaks to do on the coastline and the roads aren't in their final position but it's nice to see roughly where they will go.

As for how the history will effect the build I'm aiming to draw each section of the city as it's built in the hope that you'll be able to tell that the wooden palisade outside the main stone walls was built at a later date etc. Obviously I wouldn't double up my work by drawing the original wooden palisade around the keep although some sections within the stone walled area might retain the original walls.

I'm also wondering if swapping the poor folk and the middle class folk around is a good idea. Originally I had the poor folk in the low level pop centre but they will probably be working in the market and so would have to travel daily through the barracks which doesn't feel right. If I treat it like The Sims and have the low level pop centre being where the rich folk live then it might work a bit better. Anyway..one of many things to think about.

As I say...quick run through of the tutorial to get things moving and I'll get stuck into the rest as well as the tweaks as and when I can. As a side note the image attached is half the size of the original as I couldn't get it to save as a jpeg otherwise (kept getting scratch disc errors).

[Scorpius]

You could even put in a separate walk, around the barracks if you really wanted to keep people segregated. That would certainly give it a feel of a harsh military town.

How easy is it for people to come and go between the sections?

Can anyone go through the barracks and into the keep, or are we looking at strict inspections, possibly paperwork at each gate/

[Bobzilla]

If your not a citizen of The Isles your not leaving the market/crafting area. If you've not got an invite your not getting into the stone walled section at all no matter your nationality.

The original idea was everything had to go through the barracks to go anywhere but im not sure that would be practical on a day to day basis for the general populous whne it means they need paperwork and checks just to go get their gorceries. I'm thinking linking up the low pop/med pop/crafters section may work around that.

[Scorpius]

I wouldn't but of course its up to you. I'll make my case anyway.

If it's difficult to move through the barracks, than the more desirable place to live is where you currently have the middle pop. Even if it's technically easier for the middle pop to get through the barracks, people are less likely to do whats good for greater efficiency and more likely to shorten their daily walks if they can afford to do so.

Where you have the mid pop now is much closer to their desired daily locations. Even if it started as the poor area of the city it would naturally flip over time unless their was something equally as desirable about the further area of the city.

What I would instead do is put a road between the mid pop area and the barracks, with the wooden palisade on both sides. I'd make it just big enough for a wagon to travel on either side. This would make an excellent position of defense.

I would then probably remove the gate between the barracks and the low pop area completely so that the peasants have to go through the run to get to the barracks and beyond. This makes it a little harder for the militia to be deployed to that area, but it's only the peasants after all.

You could keep the middle gate, in the mid pop section, and simply make the mid pop people move through the run briefly, or go around, to get to the barracks, or if you wanted something more exclusive you could use a little foot bridge, like when you need to cross train tracks.

Theres a lot of suggestion there. Feel free to pick and choose what you like, or ignore it completely. Considering the amount of though I just gave it, I imagine it will end up in one of my designs anyway.