keithcurtis Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 The City of Tallon This is the project that I have been working on for the last few weeks. It is a map of the campaign city from my Savage Earth setting. Although some of the material was there before, I've more than doubled it with new stuff. It displays side-by-side with a high-resolution map of the city. Everything is hotlinked between map and text. Comments? Criticism? Editorial volunteers? Keith "Now I've GOT to get to work" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Pretty good drawing, although it takes forever to load on dial-up. Lots of detail, though. Any smaller diagrams available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted June 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Good point. I had meant to add in a warning about the file size and figured that the "high resolution" description would tip folks off. Still, ask and ye shall receive. Here is just the city description: http://www.savageearth.net/tallon.html There's a toggle near the top of the page to show or hide the big map. And here is a lower-resolution map: http://www.savageearth.net/tallonmap.html Although this map is now very much out of date, it should suffice. Maybe I should put in a directory page for those with different connection rates to choose? Keith "Mr. Accomodation" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fitz Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Impressive, and handy I'm wondering why you split the map image up? I would have thought it would complicate the image-mapping enormously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted June 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project I split the image map into slices so that I could optimize the slices separately and reduce the download time. Also, the items in the test are linked to pop you to roughly that spot on the map if you click on one of the left-pointing arrows. Basically, there's an anchor at the top-left of each slice. I didn't know another way to link to a specific location in an image. And the image map is not that difficult to create with the Adobe CS package. Keith "Kartografy R Us" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project I can only say "Wow!". That is truly impressive, both in scope of design and in the web page display. I think the only thing I would change is to allow the frame to be resized to get a better picture of the map (by pulling the frame border to the right) and then a good look at the information, by dragging the frame border back to the left. And did I mention "Wow!"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted June 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project That's a good idea. Done. Keith "running out of clever middle names" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Ill voice my usual objection to frames, but other than that the maps are beautiful. Now that Im gaming again, I might well have a city map to commission soon that would look very good in the style of the large map..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Excellent work as always, Keith! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savinien Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project This is looking great! But, I thought Foxes liked berry ale, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Publius Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Beautiful work. I am presently planning a fantasy city project of my own, this one is a little different in that I will be doing individual buildings (exterior outlines of them that is). This however is gorgeous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted June 14, 2005 Report Share Posted June 14, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project That is very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Massively cool. Unfortunately, the penalty for using frames is death by firing squad. Would you like to wear a blindfold? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Dayum!!!!!!! That is an impressive peice of work. Of course, having lived in Fresno, I know how much there is to distract you from your art.... LOL I don't think I've repped you recently..I'll have to see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Frameless version for those with Psych Lims: http://www.savageearth.net/Tallon-Rendered.html#02 EDIT: If I haven't said it already, great work on the map. I especially like the drawing of the city at the top of the text. It's not as useful in a game as a map, but this sort of thing really brings the city to life. More game supplements should have resources like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Good use of lighting - clouds and Photoshop? I'm wondering now if something so clean would work for New Crobuzon The concept of stairs I find odd in a city. It really negates the use of wagons or other forms of non-magical transport. I like the use of metric (I think it should be encouraged everywhere - there is no English Empire anymore) I wonder why Little Tallon is built around the road, and yet you've shown no dwellings on the banks of the river. Anyhow - very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mightybec Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Khaz needs to make a blood splatter big enough to be seen on the map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted June 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Good use of lighting - clouds and Photoshop? I'm wondering now if something so clean would work for New Crobuzon If you mean the textures, they're all done in Illustrator. The concept of stairs I find odd in a city. It really negates the use of wagons or other forms of non-magical transport. It was something I had always wanted on the map, but it wasn't until I did the map for Elweir that I figured out how to show them properly. (Thanks, Allen!) Actually, there is no place that has stairs that cannot be reached by cart by another route. The cart routes on the western hill (which is much steeper) tend to gradually rise while following the contour. (Again, thanks, Allen!) I like the use of metric (I think it should be encouraged everywhere - there is no English Empire anymore) While I agree in principle, Tallon actually uses a horrible mish mosh of measurements. There are 3,200 feet to the klik, for instance. I wonder why Little Tallon is built around the road, and yet you've shown no dwellings on the banks of the river. I had been thinking the banks of the river too steep at this point, but that would make for some interesting hillside architecture. I might add something like that. Anyhow - very nice. Thanks! Keith "Answer for everything" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project This is an awesome map Keith How do you do the textures in Illustrator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project If you mean the textures, they're all done in Illustrator. Kewl. I'm just Photoshop-biased While I agree in principle, Tallon actually uses a horrible mish mosh of measurements. There are 3,200 feet to the klik, for instance. Very true. But the average reader doesn't know game-related cultural references. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project concept of stairs I find odd in a city. It really negates the use of wagons or other forms of non-magical transport. Umm... Feets? Beasts of Burden? Seriously, many cities - even in the modern age - have staircases. San Francisco has many. Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Napier, where my wife comes from also have many. So does Hong Kong - hell, Hong Kong even has *escalators* on some hillsides. There are even a few places in the latter three cities where you can only gain access by stairs - the slopes are simply too steep for many roads, and the houses are built cantilevered out into space or crammed onto whatever flat space is available. They were even more common in medieval cities which were often built on steep places for safety and which had very high population densities. In Harar - a very well preserved medieval city - there are far more street WITH stairs than without. Goods, even today, are moved by porters, donkeys or camels - even though the main road through town has plenty of auto repair shops and motorised traffic. Siena not only has many stairs but also streets that run through tunnels and in a couple of places through or under houses... The lack of wheeled vehicles doesn't mean that much - many cities in medieval or ancient times forbade the use of wheeled or animal-drawn vehicles in daylight hours or even at all, because of the damage caused to roads and buildings and because of the danger they posed if the animal should bolt. I'm reading the Valdorian Age book at the moment which spends lot of time on Elweir, the city setting - Keith mentions the stairs on the map there, but one of the things that struck me when reading it is how little it resembles a medieval city, both in layout and description: it's more like a city from the 17th-19th century (which may be intentional, of course). cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted June 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project This is an awesome map Keith How do you do the textures in Illustrator? If your Illustrator doc is in an RGB color space, there are all manner of effects that can be applie to the vector objects. The urbanized areas was given a specific color, transparency type, and texture with the Texturizer effect. The effects are not as robust as the ones in Photoshop, but they are scaleable and editable. A big plus for an insatiable tinkerer like me. I was thinking however of doing a shadow overlay to indicate elevation. Not sure about that one yet. The file's pretty unwieldy as is. Keith "one more thing" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted June 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Thanks for the stairs retrospective, MarkDoc. I always find your knowledge of history impressively deep and broad. Another thing I'd like to point out that cart roads directly up very steep hills are only practical once you have motorized power. Can you imagine making a little donkey pull a cart up some of the steeper streets in San Francisco? Keith "Stairmasters of the Savage Earth" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project Incredibly well done, Keith. I so wish that I had time for a fantasy game involvement. The level of detail and imagination are superb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted June 15, 2005 Report Share Posted June 15, 2005 Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project I always tend to presume large fantasy cities have magical transport of goods, anyway. Primarily for the "wilderness teaming with random encounters" that occurs so often, and GMs constantly wanting large cities without worrying about feeding the population Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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