WIP : Port Sol

[Absinth]

Hello fellow cartographers, I'd like to point your attention to my first WIP-thread on these boards of talent and knowledge. Until now, I only posted finished maps, but as I just sat down o create a new map for my homebrew game, I decided to do a WIP-thread. This will allow me to make use of useful advice while still creating the map and it might be a scource of inspiration too.

Okay, on to the map. This will be a mp for an important city in my homebrew world of Angraenor. It's called Port Sol and is a nearly lawless town, run by a council of pirate kings, that divided the quarters of Port Sol between the most powerful captains. It's a haven of trade for all kinds of illegal stuff - drugs, poisons, contrabands and the like.
Port Sol was founded on the southern peninsula of a big, tropical island, that's mostly overgrown with thick rainforests. The port city was built on the ruins of a far older civilization, that was long gone by the time the irst of the ambitious pirates showed up. There's not much known about these people, but they must've been of giant kin or descendants of titans, because the structures that are left over from these ancient times, indicate that they were far taller than humans. The only buildings that are still standing today, are parts of a massive city walls and several temples, dedicated to dark and long forgotten gods of the sea.

I'm creating the map in GIMP. This time, I didn't draw the map by hand as I usually do, because I want to do it entirely in GIMP.

I already did the land using the TLS technique. It is attached as a thumbnail. This will be the base for building up the city.

In the second attachemnt, you can see a sketch-layer that I added to see, where roads, important buildings and the left-overs of the giant wall will be placed.
Now, I have to decide, which step to take first. I'm thinking about doing the roads first, but that's just an idea. There are several things I want to do. First and most important, I want to make sure, that the wall will look gigantic. I don't know how I'll manage it, but time will tell...
I want to use nice looking textures for the roads and building and I already downloaded GV 3 to toy with textures, but I don't really get how this works...
As you can see, this will not only be a WIP in map-making by a clueless newbie, but also a WIP of an idiot trying to figure out, how software works and what really can be done with a disturbingly limited amount of brainmatter... At least, it won't get boring!

I don't know, how fast this map will pogress, as I'm kind of busy at the moment, but I won't back down and will hopefully have a finished map of Port Sol in the Finished Maps-section of the board in a few days or weeks.

[NymTevlyn]

Those walls are huge. You could put entire villages on the top of them.

[Absinth]

Yes, you're right! They're that large, that the citizenz of Port Sol built whole palaces inside the walls! The halls within the walls are sealed since some terrible things happened in the past).
Right now I'm thinking about the right way to make them actually look that way. I guess I'll built a few newer structures on top of them (the keep of an excentric pirate captain, for example).

[Gandwarf]

Interesting backstory to the city. I am interested to see where you are taking this.

[Absinth]

Gandwarf, I'll post more details about the city's story, if there's interest. Usually this develops as the map takes shape.
In the attachement you can see, that I put the walls on the map. I also created the docks and one of the bridges. The bridge looks a little too small, so I guess I'll do it again... I didn't add the sketch-layer to the map for this attachement, so don't be confused.

I don't know what would be the best step to take next. I guess doing the roads and then the buildings would be a good idea. I don't exactly know how to do nice loking roads. Any advice would be appreciated. I want them to look like they were carved into the land, if you know, what I mean...
A little advice on this would be helpful. Why isn't there a Road Police, when you need one?!

Btw, does any of you know of a nice tutorial to learn how to use GV 3?

[Nomadic]

Very nice, though way too many docks, even for a port. If that's part of the local flavor then no problem. Just want to let you know in case you didn't realize it.

[Gandwarf]

I can't help you with the roads, as I use Campaign Cartographer 3. But I think it would be a good idea at this point to lay down some roads, yes.

I agree with Nomadic that there are *many* docks. Not sure if it's too many though... it depends on the amount of ships and traffic. It could be an enormous pirate town. If it's smaller I would recommend fewer docks.

And I am always interested in the backstory.

[Absinth]

Thanks for the comments. I didn't provide a scale yet, but Port Sol will indeed be a very large city. Each pirate captain has his own dock, so having many docks were necessary. But maybe I went a little too far here...
I'll wait and see how the city quarters will turn out and maybe I'll go back and remove some of the piers then.

[Absinth]

Time for another update. I added a light bump map on the wall to give it an aged, jaggy look. In the next step I'll add some more fortification stuff to make it look more wall-like.

I then did the roads. I'm not really pleased with how they turned out, but it could be worse!
The next will be the buildings (the horror!) and vegetation and, after that, stuff like shading and so on. There has to be something done about the sea too. It looks just too flat and solid. I'd like to have an effect of reflected lightning, but I have no clue how to do something like this.

But, seriously, does any of you have the feeling to save time when doing maps entirely in GIMP? I get the feeling, that I would already be done with the map if I'd have drawn it by hand and later reworkd it in GIMP...
It sure looks nicer than anything I could come up with going the old-school route, but man, this s*** takes time...

[Gandwarf]

I think the roads look quite all right.

I am more worried about the docks, their style doesn't really mix well with the other realistic styles you used for the land textures (grass, roads, etc). Everything can still turn out ok, though, once your map gets filled with stuff!