WIP : Port Sol

[Absinth]

Yes, I know that the docks look a little strange at the moment. I hope that it'll look better after I did the buildings, which will be in a similar style at the moment. I'm still looking for a style to combine my "free-hand drawing" (though done with a digital pen) with stuff I can only do in GIMP. I tried the same in my map of Xurmak's Nest. Well, let's see how this one will turn out...

[Absinth]

This is just a quick reply to let everyone know, that this one's still in progress. I didn't touch it for at least two months, as I'm very busy on the job right now. But if anyone got curious about how this will turn out, I'm very sorry for the delay. I hope that I'll finish it soon, as my schedule has cleared up a bit and I'm looking forward to a long weekend with lots of spare time. Yay! I'll fire up da GIMP then...

As you can see, I already added some buildings to it. Well, I guess there's a less time consuming method for doing these, but it's fun too, so I don't mind that it takes that long.
Some of you pointed out, that the docks don't fit with the more realistic looking backgrounds. I hope the addition of the buildings shows, which route I'm aiming for. Please feel free to post feedback, critique, comments and so on!

[Ascension]

I like it a lot but I have a question...what are the gravel patch things? I was thinking that maybe you could blur out the edges to soften the edge but I'm not sure if they are for roads or something.

[Absinth]

I guess you're referring to the areas that look like rubble or...yeah...gravel.
These are the remains of a far older city of giants, that once inhabited this place. The huge walls are the only structures from these days that still exist. I've written more about the story behind the map in my initial post.
I'll add fragments of walls and other ruins into the gravel areas when I'm done finishing the buildings, so that this will hopefully be more recognizable.

[Absinth]

Hello, I'd like to post another update as the work on the map is slowly (but steady as well) progressing. On this one, you can see that I added most of the buildings in their rough shape, did additional roads and squares and a broken wall, that parts the eastern docks from the rest of the city.
Any comments, suggestions, advices and so on would be very helpful on this stage! I'd especially like to hear/read suggestions on adding textures or other structures to make the buildings look better.

The next step will be doing the ruins on the rubble areas, adding some minor stuff here and there (like walls). After that I'll move on to trees and vegetation and then it should near finishing! I hope it doesn't bore you that this one takes that long, but I guess it's better this way than going the usual route of opening up an enthusiastic WIP thread and then never seeing anything finished...

[NeonKnight]

Its a very nice map. The only thing it is missing, is the one thing I see missing far too often in Digital maps. A Scale Bar. How far is it from Here to There? How wide ARE those walls.

I know I see people who make these digital maps, and in the past when I ask "What is the Scale?" I get answers of 10 pixels to the feet/mile/yard, etc. But that sort of scale only works if one downloads the picture then opens in a graphics program, looks at the size of the image, etc. Doesn't work if I print it out on a sheet of paper.

So, please put a scale bar on the map.

Please.

[Absinth]

I totally agree with you, Neon Knight, and I promise, that I'll add a scale bar to the final piece! I usually add stuff like this (along with labels, a frame and so on) when everything else is finished. So, expect to see a scale bar in the final map!

[Alecthar]

So far, so good. I'm curious, though, what are the walls made from? Because the way you've described them so far makes them sound exceedingly large, and yet they are (apparently) cut from one massive, continuous piece of stone.

Your shadowing is a step in the right direction, though you've got some alignment issues there (a cast shadow not attached to a wall, shadows that don't follow the entire wall, etc.) Consider a bump map on the walls that sit upon the walls to distinguish them from the rest of it. You'll probably be able to do away with the gray outline then as well. Give it a nice textural bump map as well.

[Absinth]

Thanks for the advice, Alecthar! You're right about the shadows. The current shadow layers were only done on the fly and I played around with the alignment of the layers to see how it'll look later. I'll probably erase them completely when all the structures are set up and do them all over again. You won't see these mistakes then, as it gives the impression that the buildings are somehow floating...

The wall is indeed huge (as will be seen in the final piece after I add the scale bar NeonKnight requested...)! It was built out of a single large meteor rock, that was just a fragment of a far larger meteor that fell down some thousand years ago and that had a huge impact on how the world we play in looks nowadays. The rock does have certain effects on the population surrounding it, but I haven't given this aspect more thoughts yet. Gladly, I still have some time left until the campaign will turn to Port Sol to figure these things out.

[Absinth]

Oh, I totally forgot to post the update, I intended to post!
I found some free time yesterday to work on the map. I added most of the ruins. I'll probably finish them today and add some structure to the Tower of Screams, which is the largest still standing structure from the days of the giants.
I'll move on to do trees and stuff later. There's still lots of work left on the houses too, but I see lights at the end of the tunnel!