Dragonbox: Feedback on City Map

[Dragonbox Studio]

Hello!

We are a little creative studio working on our own fantasy world, which means, we need to draw some maps to illustrate the world. We are building a lot of material and we thought that we could use some good advice and feedback from this great community of experts. So, here you have one of our city maps! Will you help us to improve? What is missing in the city? What things you don´t like and how could we correct them? Any idea to make it look better? Where can we find elements to add to the map?

Thank you very much in advance for all your help and feedback!



Map background:
An old city which has been not in a battle for centuries, and has been growing faster than the walls were adapted. It's famous for a hugh market situated out of the city walls. Noble and rich families of course built a little luxury family in the upper and oldest part of the city, where government is located. Has an important port that receives shipts from many places.

[arsheesh]

Not a bad looking map D.B. Studio. Colors and textures both look nice. Since you asked, here are a couple of suggestions for improving the current map:

• Add a cast shadow to the wall - took keep the continuity with the house cast shadows;
• Use the same color scheme for both oceans and rivers - right now the color contrast between the two looks funny;

And here's a couple things I would suggest doing in subsequent maps:

• Try adding a bit more variation in your house shape designs beyound just squares and rectangles;
• Also, try distinguising important buildings somehow (e.g. making them larger, distinctly shaped or a different color).

But overall nice work.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Wired]

Looking pretty good there, IMO. One thing you might consider is running an artistic filter over those rock textures. Right now they don't mix that well with the otherwsie painterly look of the houses et al.

[Dragonbox Studio]

Thank you for the comments!

• Add a cast shadow to the wall - took keep the continuity with the house cast shadows;
• Use the same color scheme for both oceans and rivers - right now the color contrast between the two looks funny;

And here's a couple things I would suggest doing in subsequent maps:

• Try adding a bit more variation in your house shape designs beyound just squares and rectangles;
• Also, try distinguising important buildings somehow (e.g. making them larger, distinctly shaped or a different color).

Ah, I didn´t realize about the walls. Seems that I forgot them somehow haha But I'll correct it, thank you!
About the river and sea, probably you are right, I'll play a bit with the colors.

House shaping and important buildings... I think the same, but I have to confess that didn´t manage to face this two important points successfully! My limited mind cant create more shapes hahaha. No question about how to make some look "special". I'll keep working on this point, yes.

Looking pretty good there, IMO. One thing you might consider is running an artistic filter over those rock textures. Right now they don't mix that well with the otherwsie painterly look of the houses et al.

Yes, somehow the rocks never seemed "right" to me. Not the color/texture, nor the shape, if I am honest. Tried to make the old town in the safe part of the little mountain, but to create a realistic mountain where one can put a castle is not so easy! I'll try to integrate them better with the rest.

[Larb]

For some reason the map image doesn't show for me.

[Steel General]

Not sure what application you're using, but Ascension made a nice set of photoshop brushes with various shapes that are quite useful for buildings. Have to look for them though I don't recall where they are.

Oh and your map is looking good so far.

[jpstod]

Nice Map
Rather large for my Tastes but I like it.
I tend to agree the rock formations seem rather harsh.
As for the river I like the blue but I think it would look a bit better without as much white in it...As it is now I think it represents a very shallow river or a very fast river not Navigateable