City design tools

[MT_Juicer]

I have been working on an idea for a city near the western end of the Old Kingdom River. I have a pretty clear vision for what I want the city to have, places, characters, etc. What I am struggling with is a way to organize/lay out that city in a map for a useful form. Does anyone have suggestions for good tools for city creation?

[kiralon]

https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

[Hotrod]

https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

Dude, holy crap. That is amazing.

[kiralon]

Truly, I wish I had that 20 years ago
It has some good integration with some other programs as well that are worth trying.
Its what I populated your maps with , if you could talk to the guy and get that going with your digital maps you are working on would be entirely awesome. Zoom into a city and tada, its there.
I would happily pay money, and I now use a projector with your maps as well, and being able to zoom in would be truly grande.

[Hotrod]

It's remarkable. I was just playing with it for a few minutes throwing a couple of textures, shadows, and some filters. It makes me want to try my hand at an urban map, something I've barely ever touched.

The Fantasy World generator is pretty amazing, too.

[kiralon]

There are plenty of cities out there that haven't been mapped, that would be great to have a map for.
cough shadowfall cough

[MT_Juicer]

I think the random generator is great, but not what I'm looking for. What I'm looking for would have a more robust modification option besides the warping. At this point I would settle for some good advice on building an urban setting.

[Hotrod]

I think the random generator is great, but not what I'm looking for. What I'm looking for would have a more robust modification option besides the warping. At this point I would settle for some good advice on building an urban setting.

Good quality city maps I've seen generally include the following steps/elements:

1. A logical location. Settlements require a water source and viable routes in and out. Most are built around or near rivers, streams, and/or bodies of water.

2. A general layout for the open areas. This usually includes one or more central plazas, major roads that usually intersect at those plazas, and branching roads.

3. Major planned buildings such as castles, palaces, major religious buildings, bridges, docks, et cetera. These are usually placed next to plazas and major road intersections. These buildings tend to be large with distinctive and often symmetric shapes.

4. City walls (optional). These should work around the city in a somewhat irregular path (no circles/rectangles).

5. Zones and buildings that fill in the boundaries of the city. In general, the buildings in nicer areas are distinct polygons sized and shaped to fit within well-defined roads. Slums have smaller buildings with twisting alleys and roads.

6. Outside-the-wall buildings. Some of these may be nicer, such as stables/inns and guardhouses along the approaches to the city. However, most cities with walls will have their cruddiest slums built right up against the walls, especially around the gates.

7. Textures. Each type of element in the map should have its own textures that reflect its nature and materials. For example, residential houses might have clay or thatched roofs, castles are made of stone, major roads could be paved, minor roads might be dirt, and fields outside the town are likely to have crops or pasture for livestock. Water looks better with some reflective play, and coasts look more convincing with some cresting waves.

8. 3D effects. Rooftops need contours and shading, and houses of various heights must cast their shadows appropriately on other houses and the ground around them.

9. Map elements: gridlines, a scale, label system, a compass rose, and a legend are usually good to include, depending on the scope and content of the map.

10. Thematic and Artistic elements: A frame, stylized map elements, flourishes, and descriptions can go a long way towards evoking the key themes of the settlement.

[Hotrod]

There are plenty of cities out there that haven't been mapped, that would be great to have a map for.
cough shadowfall cough

City maps are a problem in Palladium Fantasy for a variety of reasons. To begin with, many of the cities described are enormous. Mapping out all the buildings for a city of 25,000 or so would be a huge project. Mapping a city with half a million inhabitants just isn't practical. Even if it was mapped, the file size would be absurd, and most people wouldn't use more than a tiny part of the map.

A more practical option might be to provide an overall map of the major zones of the city and a couple of zoomed-in areas of particular interest to GMs and players.

[rpetras]

I've recently taken to using the above mentioned map generator as my go-to city designer, but prior to that, I was simply using Visio, Gimp or other shape generation software.

It is very easy to build out a few rectangles, squares and circles and make a simple town area, then cut/paste to build out a district. Throw in a few odd shaped buildings for guard houses, castles, mage guilds and temples and you are good to go.

I could create a large custom city in about 30 mins using that method.