Great Port city of Harlon

[Robulous]

This is the city of Harlon - the biggest city in my world of Helevos, with a huge and multi-ethnic population. It's equivalent late 17th century early-industrial technology. The city is on swampy ground subject to sea-inundation so has a levees and flood defences somewhat like New Orleans.

I'm going for a Victorian map feel, I need to work on a lot of the text labels and somehow pretty it up a bit more if you have any suggestions. I'm working in Photoshop btw.

HARLON-draft1.png

[Ilanthar]

You have already something solid and well balanced. Good choice of colors. I'm not fond of the bevel effect on the waters, it's a little bit strong imho (maybe a more progressive one?). Concerning the labels, it depends of what you need to indicate, I suppose. Right now, it's quite good.

[Diamond]

I'm not fond of that water bevel either; I'd back it off a lot. If you're going for a pseudo-Victorian look, I would suggest ditching the white outer glow around the various district labels too. Maybe use an outer glow of the same color as the predominant color in that area, or even put a little box around each label.

However. AWESOME MAP. Layout is cool, especially that inner lagoon, and it has a semi-planned feel instead of a random organic look, which really helps sell it as a near-modern city map.

[ErnieTheMighty]

Really great Victorian-isque map! I've used your map as a reference for my own in my RPG campaign. Thanks a lot for making this!

[Robulous]

Really great Victorian-isque map! I've used your map as a reference for my own in my RPG campaign. Thanks a lot for making this!

Thanks guys! FYI I was drawing inspiration from the Imperial Gazeteer of India maps (eg this map of Madras), so I might go back to them for some more ideas.

You're right the embossing was a nice try but doesn't quite work.

[Robulous]

Here's a second draft - I've got rid of the coast embossing, and done some tinkering with a frame and aging effects.

HARLON-draft2.png

[Ilanthar]

Very nice improvement! The waters looks very good now.

[- Max -]

Looks good. I'm also not a big fan of the bevel on the buildings. That looks too digital and too modern to convey the victorian. Also if the subtle shade in the middle of the page is supposed to be a folded paper, I would work on teh overall texture more to make it more convinving.

[tainotim]

Very nice. Hoping for a new update soon

Cheers,
Tainotim

[soggymuse]

Wow, man, this map is ambitious! I'm always envious of city mappers. I struggle so hard with my own, I find regional/world mapping much easier. xD Your work blows me away.

I second the suggestion about removing the glow from the text, though, or changing the white to match the pale yellow of the base land. As they are, they stick out like a sore thumb because they don't match the style of the rest of the map. Obviously, you don't want to just use plain black text because it doesn't stand out well on the Madras map, but I would recommend playing with the layer effects to match up with the map better.

I'd also suggest trying out different font styles. My preference is italics for landmarks/watermarks and regular/caps for regions/districts, but you could try different fonts or use letter spacing like on the Madras map to differentiate. Your labels are difficult to parse as they are, in part because they all use the same style. I can't tell at a glance what's a district and what's a landmark so you really have to look to understand what the label is indicating. Like, is Aahas Park just a park or is it also the name of the district surrounding it? And New Harlan and Naval Canal are so similar you can't tell at a glance that one is a village and one is a watermark.

Regarding the building bevel: I'd go with flat buildings like on the Madras map for a more Victorian feel if that's what you're aiming for. I'd change the colour, too, since most of them are currently the same yellow as the base land. Maybe go with the same pink as the Madras map, or a dark red to indicate the tile colour of the roofs?