The City of Esrye (3d topdown map)

[rpglandmaps]

Hi all

Didn't notice that this WIP section existed unitl i looked at submiting a finished map.

so lets start from begining, i needed a City for the end game section of my roleplay campaign and thus it had to have a few things
1. be at the edge of a river that creates a boarder between two lands
2. have limited access routes (marshland)
3. show layers of history that match the back and current story of the game

so here is the first sketch concpet drawings of what the city should look and feel like

20190929_164800.jpg

and here is a finished view

The Town of Esrye y0629 x0503.png

right the clever amongst you will have noticed its 3d. let me explain

I do roleplay games and have a ceiling mounted projector that allows me to put anything i want onto the game table, so i draw areas of land (for the game) and view them in top down mode that allows me to pan around see the few videos i have done on youtube if you want to see more https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCND..._as=subscriber

Now as this map is sort of 99% done, i will back track abit in a few more posts latter, as have to sort game table out now

Many thanks

[rpglandmaps]

So the next stage was to sort out whats where. The base map was exported from MFCG and imported into autocad so i could add notes on trades, ages of wards, and prep plots for exporting

Esrye WIP 001.JPG

i also added a master grid, the double wall i wanted along the map street lines, the outlines of the marshlands, river and contours of the land to guide me as i worked on this large project.

trade wise we have iron from the west, meat from the great plans to the west, and thus associated tanners, basket weaving from the marsh reeds.

[rpglandmaps]

onto the main stucture of the castle wall, this has to show a few things related to age in the same.

1. the inner wall will be added to the foundations of a older wall, work done by the current ruler who took the caslte not to long ago, hence only inner wall and keep will show newer fancy stone work
2. the gate to the west will be blocked up and the bridges over the river torn down along with the trade route, it was from them that the current king took the caslte from.
3. the outer wall is older in style, and design. and older stone
4. there will be a newer huried wall along the edge of the river to keep out the old owners

so designs drawn up for all stages and placed into the model with the terrian lofted to match crude contour hieghts, this allows me to check the ground views have the right perspective, and how parts will look in plan mode

Attachment 119875

i also placed some buildings into scene to test textures and adjust the stone to the right hue to match local stone

Attachment 119876

[rpglandmaps]

the last two images didnt seem to upload. so i will try agian
Attachment 119885

and

Attachment 119886

[rpglandmaps]

it was about this time that i decided that i needed to write code tools to help with building placement, and thus wrote a random, theme based building placement tool that took my models and placed them along the edge of the streets, then i would either hit random again, or adjust by hand where needed..

The Town of Esrye y0500 x0500.png

and the long slog started of doing each block.
The Town of Esrye y0544 x0600.png

also adding backyard walls, various trade features (like fish pond, tanners pits etc

The Town of Esrye y0123 x0671.png

again some done with random tools, but then checked and adjusted by human (me)

but things started moving along faster, if some what still slow and mind bendingly

[rpglandmaps]

this started to produce some nice views of streets,
The Town of Esrye y0264 x0595.png

next came trees, and water reeds, the trees are satndard ones, but with a few tweeks to make them visable at a distance, and work in top down mode
The Town of Esrye y0024 x0412.png

but this started to show week points in the pan and orbit veiwing code, which was main reason for scaling up, to see what worked and what didn't so a dip back into camera lerping .

I hope you are enjoying reading the process and following me

[rpglandmaps]

by now i was probably anoying everyone on discord with screen prints of back yards and streets ..so i would randomly when gone mad draw up key features. for example this is the keep

20200109_014543.jpg

and here is finished (apart from ground works) the keep

The Town of Esrye y0814 x0317.png

i hope by now you can see the layers of time, esp here. A old hall that had a wall placed around it, that was adapted a few times.

Many thanks

[rpglandmaps]

so onward to each back yard one by one, adding trades, started by panning around to look for buildings that look like pubs, and spaced evenly, and brewerys, but the end was in site

The Town of Esrye y0291 x0617.png

I think i could go around in cirlcles adding more and more detail, but the engine was starting to bog a bit with objects, not enough to kill it, but enough to make me keep objects to a min as needed, i prefer to add enough detail to sugest whats there and leave rest to me to describe as part of the game.

The Town of Esrye y0468 x0502.png

but finaly DONE

The Town of Esrye y0072 x0408.png

[- JO -]

As I already told you : it's an insane work you did there, but I sure would like to play a D&D game with your installation. That must be so immersive !!!
The city looks just amazing, and your players are the luckiest players !
Congratulations for this amazing job !

[rpglandmaps]

As I already told you : it's an insane work you did there, but I sure would like to play a D&D game with your installation. That must be so immersive !!!
The city looks just amazing, and your players are the luckiest players !
Congratulations for this amazing job !

Thanks.. they do enjoy it, and it really helps set the scene. now i need to slice it up for my few patreons..