# How to graphically create a Town!?



## RiTz21 (Dec 30, 2009)

For my RPG, I am looking for a way to 'create' a town, with buildings. There are various buildings (like churches, Barracks, town halls, fields etc...) that a Player can have, and it would be fun to find a way to 'paste' those building onto a Map to represent the town you'd build.

Is there any 'free' software or game editor that would allow one to 'build' such a town? I am looking to create a Graphics of what buildings are in the town.

Thanks!

RiTz21


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## Dalzig (Dec 30, 2009)

City Creator ?
AutoREALM ?

If you're looking for a free alternative to City Designer 3, I know of none.  Your best bet would probably be to get GIMP, steal some stock pictures, and make maps by hand.


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## RiTz21 (Jan 4, 2010)

How about the "editors" that comes with some games?
Perhaps one of those is free and 'downloadable'?

Some games have awesome Maps - like the Baldur's gate series/NWN...
Any of those editors available just to make a town? That would be cool!

RiTz21


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## DreadPirateMurphy (Jan 4, 2010)

I understand that it used to be possible in the old days to use a piece of graphite to mark paper in such a way that it could be used as a map.  Some vendors even sell it encased in a wood handle with a piece of rubber on the end to allow for corrections.  In my youth, I even had the opportunity to use paper that had been pre-marked with light ink in a grid pattern, such that it could be used to represent scale.

Amazingly, the technology was immune to power outages, and replacement graphite was remarkably cheap compared to ink jet cartridges.  

Sadly, I am undoubtedly showing my age be even mentioning such things.  I guess I'll go churn some butter or spin some thread...


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## the Jester (Jan 4, 2010)

I'm totally going to agree that graph paper and pencil are a great way to go, at least at first. 

Later, I'd add color with colored pencils, highlighters or crayons.


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## weem (Jan 4, 2010)

I recommend some of the other things mentioned already of course - such as drawing it out on graph paper.

But, Google Sketch is a free 3d program you might try (very easy to use). I made the following very quickly...

[edit] Download it here [/edit]








...I grabbed a town map (Barovia) from the wotc gallery and imported it. Then, I created the buildings on top of the ones that were there.

You can also just set down a default grass "floor" and do your own, etc. For example, I made this one pretty quickly as well...







I have also used Illustrator (not free though) - this is a quick example of what you could do by simply drawing some boxes and then using the 3d extrude & bevel tool...


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## Mark (Jan 5, 2010)

Good stuff, Weem!  Thanks! 




DreadPirateMurphy said:


> I guess I'll go churn some butter or spin some thread...





_Now that you've *spun* this one . . ._


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## RiTz21 (Jan 6, 2010)

Thanks for the replies!!

A friend mentioned that the world editor in Age of Empire II could be used to create such town - I re-installed it on my PC to check it out, and it's not bad!

It does not allow you to zoom In/Out of the map you create (an ability I would need to be able to show an overhead view of the whole town). There were many interesting buildings I could use, although I didn't find a Cemetery, which would have been nice to plug near a Church.

Are there any other game editors that would allow building a medieval Town like AoE2? (perhaps something with more graphics, and more recent?)

RiTz21


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## weem (Jan 6, 2010)

Neverwinter Nights 2.

I used to do a lot of modding for that back when it was new. I had a site devoted to it (not up anymore), but here is a screenshot of a roman-like arena I made at the time...












This one was not done by me, but gives you another idea of what's possible...


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## Mark (Jan 6, 2010)

The more I mess around with SketchUp, the more I think this is going to be a very useful program.  There's lots of free tutorials for it, too.  I'm getting the dungeon Tantalus set up in SketchUp and then exporting various snapshots (as jpg, bmp, png) to use in the google wave game I am setting up.  With the new Fighty+ gadget for use in the wave, it should work as a completely customized virtual tabletop.  Still a few kinks to work out yet.

Google SketchUp


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## jaerdaph (Jan 6, 2010)

Mark said:


> The more I mess around with SketchUp, the more I think this is going to be a very useful program.




I installed it about a month ago and I still haven't had the time to really play around.  Too many other distractions, like CC3, GIMP and game books. 

Thanks Weem for posting your SketchUp work - gives me something to aspire to someday.


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## Mark (Jan 6, 2010)

jaerdaph said:


> I installed it about a month ago and I still haven't had the time to really play around.  Too many other distractions, like CC3, GIMP and game books.
> 
> Thanks Weem for posting your SketchUp work - gives me something to aspire to someday.





The first few tutorials get you to where you can do most things but the remaining tutorials show you how to do things with short cuts (working smarter).  It's amazingly simple to use.


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## weem (Jan 6, 2010)

jaerdaph said:


> Thanks Weem for posting your SketchUp work - gives me something to aspire to someday.




No problem - though I did the castle the second time I used it.

Granted, I have SOME 3d background - but really, it is very simple to use, so don't give me too much credit - you will be at that point just as quickly I'm sure, hehe


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## weem (Jan 6, 2010)

One more note of interest...

I was lead to sketchup back in may (2009) thanks to a post here at ENW by Mallachaz when he posted his 3d mockup of Winterhaven (from Keep on the Shadowfell adventure). It turned out very nice and demonstrates again how you can put down a 2d map and build from from it...

http://www.enworld.org/forum/art-ga...54751-d-d-4th-edition-winterhaven-3d-map.html


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## jaerdaph (Jan 6, 2010)

weem said:


> ...I grabbed a town map (Barovia) from the wotc gallery and imported it. Then, I created the buildings on top of the ones that were there.




So SketchUp lets you import an image and rotate it on an axis? That's pretty cool!

Do you think I could make something similar to this (not necessarily an animated GIF) with my Castle of the Mad Archmage maps in SketchUp?


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## Mark (Jan 6, 2010)

jaerdaph said:


> Castle of the Mad Archmage






Jinkies, indeed!


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## weem (Jan 6, 2010)

> So SketchUp lets you import an image and rotate it on an axis? That's pretty cool!
> 
> Do you think I could make something similar to this (not necessarily an animated GIF) with my Castle of the Mad Archmage maps in SketchUp?




Like this?











If so, then yes!

(And it took me 8 minutes including opening programs - and saving screenshots out through photoshop)


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## jaerdaph (Jan 6, 2010)

weem said:


> Like this?
> 
> If so, then yes!
> 
> (And it took me 8 minutes including opening programs - and saving screenshots out through photoshop)




WOW - YES! - Thanks Weem! I'm off to play with SketchUp now. This is awesome!


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## jaerdaph (Jan 6, 2010)

Mark said:


> Jinkies, indeed!




I'm now referring to it as a giga-dungeon.


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## Stormonu (Jan 7, 2010)

This is one I found about a year ago - it seems to be up to v5.4 now.

Roleplaying City Map Generator 5.40 - Other - Other Tools - OnlineDown.com

It's a push-one-button make-a-town.  A screen shot





And I also do them the old-fashioned way (sorta):






and on whiteboard...

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/Stormonu/Amberos/101_0656.jpg


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## RiTz21 (Jan 7, 2010)

Oh I found this nice map of Baldur's Gate, which is exactly what I'd like to be able to make!! How can I make this with some kind of tool?!






RiTz21


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## Mark (Jan 7, 2010)

jaerdaph said:


> I'm now referring to it as a giga-dungeon.





Cause it's just under Tera-?


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## RiTz21 (Jan 7, 2010)

I stumbled upon this demo video of the FarCray2 world editor ... pretty impressive!! I wish it was Medieval based!

RiTz21


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## RiTz21 (Jan 10, 2010)

I noticed a publicity on the side about "Evony" and noted that the graphics were nice... If one could pluck buildings and drop them on an image, it would be perfect!

RiTz21


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## Hejdun (Jan 11, 2010)

Cartographer's Guild is your place for all things mapping.

For instance, I think you can achieve just what you're looking for with the pictures in this thread:

http://forum.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=8095

(You may have to create a free login to download attached files).


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## havard (Jan 14, 2010)

weem said:


> I recommend some of the other things mentioned already of course - such as drawing it out on graph paper.
> 
> But, Google Sketch is a free 3d program you might try (very easy to use). I made the following very quickly...
> 
> [edit] Download it here [/edit]




Thank you so much for mentioning this program. I think this is what I have been looking for for years 

Havard


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## weem (Jan 14, 2010)

havard said:


> Thank you so much for mentioning this program. I think this is what I have been looking for for years
> 
> Havard




Hey, no problem 

Feel free to drop in some screens of what you have in the works!


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## jaerdaph (Jan 14, 2010)

Add me to the "addicted to SketchUp" list.  It really is very intuitive and easy to get up and running. Those Google video tutorials are a great resource - short and sweet. 

Now that I know how to create my own Materials from image files to use with the Paint Bucket tool, I want to start working on building some 3D dungeon tiles and mapping out some of my 2D stuff. I'll be sharing that project in the Art Gallery sub-forum eventually. 

Here's some very basic models I whipped up on the first day I used the progam:


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