Reply With QuoteIt's actually not inconceivable, if the river was flowing down, that a lake would form on the cliff behind the dam, regardless of the waterfall. But for that to happen, the river would be forking and that is problematic.
Hangtown
Here's a map I did a year or more ago for a game designer, for something that never got off the ground.
It was three maps that showed the growth of a small outpost into a village.
Hangtown_Level-1.jpg
And then a few years later.
Hangtown_Level-2.jpg
And then the final map, a few more years later.
Hangtown_Level-3.jpg
I didn't agree with lake up on the cliff, and the waterfall and the dam, as the lake would have formed a the base of the cliff, but that's what the client wanted and required for his idea.
It's actually not inconceivable, if the river was flowing down, that a lake would form on the cliff behind the dam, regardless of the waterfall. But for that to happen, the river would be forking and that is problematic.
Right. Again, all you can do is explain to the client, but in the end, it's their choice.Originally Posted by afters
I find it pretty easy to reverse the cliffs visually and then river actually reads pretty normal. The only problem is the ripple at the bottom of the cliff which looks weird when you make it the top. Either way though, the volume of the river looks far too significant for a dam made of wooden pilings and an uncontrolled very small sluice.
It's nice to see the progression of the town. The visual history just adds that depth to allow you to construct more interesting narratives in your head. It also makes me curious about the unfinished wall as it is specifically not a ruin but is also apparently abandoned so soon after being started.
Yeah, the fork is pretty problematic, otherwise I think it would be fine.
But I can understand that's what the client wanted or needed, so it's
not the fault of the cartographer.
I really like your buildings, the more complex ones, in particular,
are neat. They'd have to be for a very specific purpose to look like
that, but I'm assuming they are.
The fields, unfortunately, seem to stand out from the rest of the
map because they are not blended in to the landscape. I'm not a big
fan of the "tape" pattern look anyway. Also, The gate in the bottom
corner makes no sense, not sure if that was something required by
the author. I see where it runs into the side of the hill, but why
would you have a gate with no wall. Is the hill unsurmountable?
The best maps are the ones we like the most after looking at the longest.
Everything you see was required by the game designer. For example, the gate doesn't make sense out of context, but within the narrative of the town's history, they are trying to build a wall around it, to give it added protection, as it grows and more money flows through. He decided that's where they started, as most traffic come from that direction and people often take boats back down, using the river for ease and speed. The main export of the town is silver. To the north, off of the map are the silver mines.
He felt they would start with the gate and towers, because they could provide a place to watch the road and surrounding area. But the building of the wall stalled and so from the second to third map, doesn't change.
On the first map, you can see the there are small wooden squares, platforms, that served as the first watch posts. There's several scattered about. There's a lot bandit activity and trappers and hunters, so they like to know what's coming in advanced.
As for the river forking, in my mind, it comes back together off the map.
I actually don't mind the forked river at all. It could just be a big island in a river. My home town actually looks something like that.
Nice work. I also know several places where real rivers fork in unusual ways. It may not be typical, but it can happen.
It is crappy when you put all this time, effort, and talent into a project and then it goes nowhere.
Thanks for sharing, hopefully now some people can use it for their games.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
Meh, I got paid. It's not the best situation, but I work for money, so in the end, that's my goal. I can use the work to showcase my talent, and there's also no way of knowing that even if it does go somewhere, that it will be successful. Yes, it's still better to have your stuff out there, because NOT having it out there means there's no chance of a home run.
But all that is often out of my hands. The game designer may still do something with it.
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