Unnamed port city

[QED42]

Using this random city generator I rolled up a few cities till I got something that caught my fancy to base my next map on. Right now there is no name as naming things is something I'm terrible at.

base.png

That's what I am starting with. I cleared up the actual image the site generated by removing some out lying buildings but generally it's a good base that I'm happy with. So far all I've done is separate out the image into a few layers in gimp while I think about what I want to do with the city. Right now I have layers for walls, buildings, water, ground and streets. I'll probably add another layer for towers to set them apart from the wall.

Things I think the city needs include: A palace or fortress in the walled off region, warehouses round the docks, slums area, temple district, some larger housing for richer types, maybe some government buildings, maybe a harbour master, maybe a lighthouse, maybe a barracks for the city guard, some forested area outside the city.

I might put the forested area to the top right side and leave the open space on the left for a legend.

place holder colours.png

I've just popped in some quick place holder colours to give you an idea of the different layers I have so far.

[QED42]

I've started by generating some "filler" buildings using the mosaic tool. I created three sizes and I will probably keep some districts of each type in the final map so there is some size variation. I've also extended the city wall around what will be the temple district as it looked a little exposed to the elements. The other thing I did was start editing some of the larger filler buildings I plan to keep and turning them into buildings with inner courtyards.

Small filler
small filler.png

Medium filler
medium filler.png

Large filler
large filler.png

In the end I'm not sure there is much difference between the medium and large filler buildings. Once I have the combined buildings layer merged together I'll add further details but for now they are just coloured shapes.

[Azélor]

I prefer the previous buildings. The latter look more like a rock texture.

[Sholari Joe]

I always enjoy a nice port city, and for 95% of games out there, this will be just fine and get people to where they have to fight someone as well as any other.

I did a port city resource a while back for Skyrealms of Jorune, and it is available from DriveThruRPG. GOMO GUIDE: THONEPORT. My approach to fantasy mapping tries to mimic mapping from the real world. In the old world, very few straight lines or clear vision shots several blocks away. Alleys everwhere. Terrain effects the streets (streets tending to be lower for drainage and people walk in mud, houses slightly higher and, without stone from construction or bedrock, will sink into the mud over time. Streets based on neighbors - street of bakers, street of flesh, street of inns, will give you some context for visitors, etc.

Not all ports are on great bodies of water but they tend to be, and river ports tend to be where more than one river meet. Y-branches and ocassional three branches, like Detroit (the three, plus lake access).

One of the questions I ask is Who Uses the River? On Jorune we have three classes of aquatic rases - Acubon (fresh water), Salu (salt water), and Blount - both and less humanoid than the other two (amphibian). We have the native race, real aliens who now call it hime, and humanoid based on humans but either mutated or engineered away from basic human stock. (Hmmm, human stock...)

Who controls a city? Who is not allowed? What is the police force and how corrupt are they? How do local philosophical ideas relfect who can stay in what part of a city? And the question hang some flesh on the bones of a map.

Not all maps are North At Top. Not all are to scale. Not all use the same conventions and it takes a while to even understand how our experience has created a preconception to the idea of what a 'map' is. Colorblind? Low Vision? Invisible inks that other races can see because their eyes work differently? hand drawn or reproduced (and what is the marketing convention for mass produced maps)?

Maps lead to questons that can create a whole world. Here is a world map taken from this planet but visciously tweaked to show the topography of a human/alien shared world. With nasty little kingdoms squabbling over the wrong end of the lollipop they have been forced to accept. (The world is called Kolne (play on 'colony' and new testament Greek), the book is currently titled FEASTS).

landsketch.jpg

[QED42]

I prefer the previous buildings. The latter look more like a rock texture.

Is it the colours, shapes or a combination of the two you think do not work?

[ChickPea]

I always enjoy a nice port city, and for 95% of games out there, this will be just fine and get people to where they have to fight someone as well as any other *snipped*

Hey Sholari Joe, your thoughts and feedback are welcome, but it's bad form to insert your map and discussions about your world-building into someone else's thread. Feel free to start your own thread to share your work and ideas.

[QED42]

I went back to the previous building shapes but with a few changes. Some courtyards added and so on. Then I put in some colours. For the majority of buildings I hope it looks like a variety of stone or tile roofs with one section of brighter colours for the temple district. To be honest I'm not that happy with the choice of colours for the temples so that will likely get changed in the future. The one building inside the walls that I left black is going to be the city guard building but I'm not sure what I'm doing with that yet.

colour1.png

[QED42]

Here is how things are looking now.

textured.png

I've coloured all the buildings, added texture and drop shadow to them which I'm not sure if I'll keep or not. Other additions included some work on the sea, the hint of an island in the corner which I may put a lighthouse on and a palace The walls are now white too along with the palace as I'm thinking of calling this the white city or something along those lines.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments I'd love to hear them.

[QED42]

I think I'm getting close to being finished with this map, the city even has a name now!

lables1.png

If you have any suggestions for improvements or can spot mistakes I've missed please do let me know!