November/December 2015 Challenge : Promising Loot in Musfat Spaceport

[Abu Lafia]

Looking good, Abu!
Your cliff buildings look great and I love how they're worked into the cliff face. The gun tower is just epic! Also, I like the new font better than the old one. Not quite sure what it was about the original font. Maybe it was just a bit too cliché? The new one works really well.
Great work so far.

Thanks a lot ChickPea! Drawing theses modern structures is way harder than i thought before (have to second Meshon's words about the long way to go, to actually be able to draw the things i have in mind ), so i'm really glad you like them so far!

I'll second the comment about the cliffs and cliff-wall buildings! You did a great job blending them together, and using the combination of both to give a sense of height to the map.
I'm wondering if, as you're thinking about the oil lake, you've been keeping Saturn's moon Titan in mind?

Thank you Joseph, much appreciated! The shading to come might give more height/depth to the map aswell (i hope so at least ).
I haven't heard about the hydrocarbonic seas on Titan before, but it's really fascinating and have to research more on this.
Originally, i just thought about an interesting (not nessecarily realistic... ) geographic feature for a desert planet, and as mentioned above, a reason for people to settle there. I somehow liked the idea, that they don't even need to drill for the oil, just pump it directly from the lake . Absolutely no idea whether something alike is even possible (given it's not on a "slightly" colder planet/moon like titan).

The cliffs look great Abu.

Thanks John! As written before, i always loved the way you do cliffs on your maps, so they are heavily inspired by your work. But man, i really have to practice a LOT more on them (as on many other things)! I think i should name them "Stevenson Heights" or something like this...

[ChickPea]

"Stevenson Heights"

Haha! Yes! Do it.

[Ilanthar]

Nice! It has a star wars or serenity feeling to it, imho. Curious to see what will come next.

[soggymuse]

This is fantastic, Abu. I love the markings on the landing zone. That's the kind of detail I normally forget to add.

You've unfortunately lost some of the height detailing by moving the cliff, though; in one of the earlier WIPs (this screenshot, I think), the fact that the landing zone was halfway up the cliff was more obvious. Since adding the houses, you've sort of covered that a little bit. I think if you (re)moved the house closest to the northern landing zone, you'd get that detail back.

I'd also be inclined to redraw the section of cliff closest to the refinery again, too. I get why you moved it, but I think it'd look great if part of the refinery itself was also built into/under the cliff. That squarish building at the north-west of the complex, especially, could stand to have a touch of cliff over the top of its northwestern edge, I think.

The gun tower looks great! The piping between the refinery islands does get a bit lost against the oil lake, but maybe you could add some rust or something to all the metal to indicate disuse or lack of maintenance (assuming I've read into the bandit situation correctly). If the bandits are still there, maybe you could add a ship to one of the landing zones, too. You know, just to give yourself more work. >D

For the font... I kind of preferred the original, but it wasn't easily legible. I think the problem was the extra decorative elements. I'd suggest using the new one for labels, and keep the old one for the title just for a bit of extra pizzazz.

[Abu Lafia]

@ Ilanthar: Thank you Ilanthar! Yes, Mos Eisley is the obvious source of inspiration for this spaceport ^^, but i wanted to give it an own , more industrial, flair...

@ soggymuse: Thanks a lot for the feedback! Much appreciated. Yeah, i like the markings too. They were more of a test for now, to see how such things look on the background. I guess i'll add more such details, but priority is on the linework atm. You're right about the heights. In the earlier screenshot i put in a light/shade layer for the half of the northern cliffs as a test, but i took it down for the last update, as i wanted to do the whole shading in one turn. From experience with my other maps i learned, that it's better not to split the shading work up in too many working steps, otherwise it usually doesn't looked very consistent afterwards .
Adding some more cliffs nearby the refinery seems to be a good idea, i also felt like the area is lacking something. Thanks for the hint!
THe whole refinery complex is only sketched /roughly blocked in atm. (as i mentioned my workflow is a bit confused...again :/ ) There is still the whole linework to be added and as you suggested some rust and broken stuff, etc. to make it look really "kaputt". Then the whole complex will stand out more from the background i guess.
To use the first font as the title is a good idea, although i have still some other "sci-fi" fonts to test
I hope to get some more things done today after some days off.
Thanks again!
Cheers,
AL

[J.Edward]

Thanks John! As written before, i always loved the way you do cliffs on your maps, so they are heavily inspired by your work. But man, i really have to practice a LOT more on them (as on many other things)! I think i should name them "Stevenson Heights" or something like this...

Always glad to inspire. So many have and still do inspire me.
I would be honored good sir.
Looking forward to another update.

[soggymuse]

Sorry about that, Abu. I tend to get ahead of myself on my own maps and skitter about from job to job because I get bored doing the same thing for hours on end. (: I think I'm getting ahead of you here, too. xD I just can't wait to see the finished map.

[tainotim]

Great work so far Abu! ��

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Bogie]

I really like how the little buildings work into the different layers of the cliff.

[arsheesh]

Wow, I love the way you two collaborate! This is looking great so far Abu, nice to see your hand-drawn stuff.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh