May/June 2013 Lite Challenge - Floating City of Khuramunz

[Korash]

Would not the brothels, gambling dens and taverns all be served by the same locations, and I would also assume that there would be quite a few of these establishments. I am quite sure that a bunch of pirates might not be the most harmonious group, and that some ship crews would not drink well with crews of some other ships. Prisoner hold would be a def. YES.....Pirates love to ransom important prisoners. I think that the Shipwright might have a dedicated dock for his ship building/repairing.

I am liking this idea, and am waiting for the next WIP

[anomiecoalition]

What pirate city would be complete with a several prisons...I've actually decided that since one of the more lucrative black markets in my campaign world is the slave trade (since its loosely based off Al-Qadim...and there slavery is a big no-no), these smugglers/pirates would certainly be heavily involved...and since they already have them, they are using them to do most of the jobs in the city itself. All of this is to say that I will have 2 or 3 "prison" type buildings to hold those who are being kept for ransom, but I will also have a small slave quarter where less "valuable" slaves are fed, stored, and traded.

@Korash - absolutely right that in a city this small brothels, gambling houses, and taverns would not be separate...instead, this city employs "pleasure palaces" - a pirates one-stop shopping experience. There will be lots of them throughout the city and I'm also going to have little "peace-keeper" barracks spread about.

Also - I think your right that "Ship Wrights" typically have their own dock to build/repair ships. In this case, the docks on the east side of the main entrance serves as sort of a private entrance reserved for the important captains. All those other docks are reserved for repair work. I figured that all of the other ships "park" in the circle surrounding the city and unload their wares through the rope bridges that connect them to the island.

So - started filling in my sketch a bit
Khuramunz Sketch_3.jpg

And - started drafting it out in Photoshop. I decided that since I have a fair amount of free time on my hands over the next few weeks, this would be a good opportunity to try to learn how to make a city map with that program (far more comfortable with CC3 most of the time).

So - any tips, tricks, pointers, criticisms and suggestions about the city layout or photoshop techniques are thoroughly appreciated.

### LATEST WIP ###
Khuramunz.jpg

[Bogie]

The texture of the boards looks out of focus - blurred. Since this would have been built in sections as th town grew, the decking should be more of a patchwork.

[anomiecoalition]

The texture of the boards looks out of focus - blurred. Since this would have been built in sections as th town grew, the decking should be more of a patchwork.

Its like you're reading my mind...Not 100% sold on the hatch i'm using or the way i've used it here...but...

### LATEST WIP ###
Khuramunz.jpg

[Bogie]

Definitely better!

[anomiecoalition]

Played around with the wood planking some more - ended up using this technique to create non-repeating planking pattern. Not sure how I feel about mixing the two when you zoom in, but I think I like it zoomed out. (Thoughts...)

Also took an initial stab at the main building and the docks. Not sure if I should make a break in the wall for the docks. I suppose if I didn't then we would have to assume that there is a door through the wall leading to docks...not sure how I feel about that idea. Alternatively (Option #2), I could cut away the walls a bit in the area immediately around the docks. (Thoughts...)

Khuramunz.jpg

Here's an attempt at Option #2

### LATEST WIP ###
Khuramunz_v2.jpg

[KenG]

This looks great, I prefer the option #1 around the docks. Maybe add some stairs or ladders on the water side of the walls.
KenG

[Bogie]

I prefer option 2, you need room to unload the ships.

Welcome to the Guild KenG

[anomiecoalition]

I decided to go with option 2 - I think it ultimately makes more logical sense and creates a more interesting wall shape

Made some updates over the long weekend. Most notably, I redid the coloring of the planks, added some buildings, redid the walls, and created 3 separate partitions (aside from the captain's quarter in the middle and the slave quarter next to it). 3 roughly equal sized areas where the 3 dominant gangs congregate (one of the gangs is primarily focused on the slave trade, so the slave quarter may be considered theirs as well.)

I tried making my own brushes for the buildings - but, found that once I figured out how to do it, it was actually easier to create each building individually with the path tool and a series of layers for the fill and shading (rather than try to rotate them around and fit them to the size I wanted). So, the process is time consuming but I kinda like how its coming out so far.

### LATEST WIP ###
Khuramunz_v2.jpg

[jtougas]

Looks really good. At this scale the detail of the planking seems a little large but it does impart the right "feel" for this. I would agree with Bogie that something like this might be built in sections and of varying types of wood as the need arose. Maybe you could add some "weathered" sections to contrast with the newer construction. Overall this is a great idea and fabulous execution.