WIP - quarry town on a river mouth

[torstan]

I think I'm going to go with this as a town that has a quarry, rather than as a quarry that caused a town. Having the keep at the mouth of the river serves a couple of purposes - guards the river mouth, provides equally quick access of the troops to all routes into the valley, and is a good central location for all villagers to retreat to. If it were moved to the cliffs, then the villages have to run all the way to the cliff to get out of harm's way.

The argument for some fortification at the lift/quarry and other sensitive areas at the top of the cliff is a good one. I also want to bump up the height of the land the main keep is on, to justify more strongly the location choice - perhaps an errant spur of rock left behind by the river's meanderings.

[Wingshaw]

I might have left it a bit late to weigh into this argument, but one consideration: does your town need defences at all? Almost every medieval map on these forums is given a wall, but this is not historically realistic. If this town isn't actually facing any threats, it doesn't need a wall. And as for Vellum's idea about the overseer's office - it would be useful to be able to watch the workers from high up, but you also need to be close to the workers to resolve problems. Imagine having to trek all the way up the cliff every time you break a pickaxe handle.

[Vellum]

Hey torstan, can you straighten me out here. Is this a river that empties into a sheltered harbor on a sea coast / inland sea / large lake? reason I was asking is that would this area be susceptible to hurricanes / typhoons / tsunami's? just making me thinking out loud on how this might haphazardly develop, as the quarry would follow veins of ore (what ever they may be) and at some point will fall below sea level and flood or be abandoned? also I may retract the higher fortification issue if the quarry expansion might be outwards instead of down. Oh hell you make a great map, just do what ever

[Green-Pilgrim]

Howdy...

Some functional needs that would have to be somewhere in or around the quarry / town.

1. Worker Housing.
2. Bureaucracy Housing.
3. Worker Market (for the wives of the quarrymen?)
4. Functional Maintenance (Carpenter, Smith, etc.)
5. Worker amenities (Clothier, Leather worker, etc.)
6. Bureaucracy Work Space (tax collector, overseer, wage-paying guy).
7. Defensive Structures (either from humanoids or non-humanoids) to protect the wealth of the quarry, the workers or the bureaucracy (and the silver they're paying the workers).
8. Material Storage (both for cut stone but also for all of the materials imported for the operation of the site).
9. Healthcare (You have to keep your workers healthy if you want them to work. Perhaps a temple if there's going to be clerics and divine healing?)
10. Spiritual health (You have to keep your workers content if you want them to work. This might be a small temple to a local god.
11. Emotional health (you have to keep your workers happy if you want them to work. This might be an Inn / pub / tavern. If workers have money then someone will want to help them spend it.

Just some ideas.

Love to see how this turns out.

-GP

[Green-Pilgrim]

Ya know - we could probably turn out a list of buildings for some kind of 'Sticky' post here. A basic list of what kinds of building could /should exist and then people, who are building or brainstorming, could decide which ones are in their settlement.

Thoughts?
-GP

[Blaidd Drwg]

Is see "farmland" with a question mark. Is this town going to be self-sufficient or rely on trade to get the food it needs? The river valley might be fertile enough, but maybe it's too small to grow enough food for all the workers. Just curious It certainly looks interesting!

[torstan]

Some farms down in the valley - and more food coming in on fishing boats. But I see quite a lot of food coming down the river in the brages that come to pick up the stone.

[darkseed2012]

I would suppose. I did a quick search to try to find out what fuels were around in the middle ages. I could only find that animal fat was used. I think they used a wood fire in ancient lighthouses, but I could be wrong.

The lighthouse might be using wood. You need a large fire and it seems that oil would not work for a long standing fire like that.

[torstan]

Getting back to this. Here's a WIP of the terrain:

Screen Shot 2013-03-11 at 5.23.08 PM.png

[Lyandra]

I really like your way of drawing elevations. I'm looking forward to seeing this finished.